InternshipRatings.com

Anonymous's Rating for "Cone Communications"

My internship provided me with real world experience:

Agree

My internship met the job description I signed up for:

Disagree

My internship involved a lot of grunt work:

Disagree

My boss positively influenced my internship:

Neutral

I felt comfortable in my work environment:

Disagree

There was an established internship program at my company:

Yes

My internship was great for networking:

No

My hours were fair and flexible:

Yes

I received a salary / compensation:

No

I received college credit:

Yes

I received a letter of recommendation:

Yes

Comments

Negative:

I wasn't exactly thirlled about my internship at Cone, mainly because of the work environment. To me it seemed like people at Cone are very good at making you feel like a part of the team when it comes to the work, but not so much when it comes to socializing or allowing for opportunities to network. For example, because of the amount of work involved for the two accounts I worked on, I ended up working a lot of overtime, which I didn't mind per se because in a team environment you do what you need to do in order for the group to meet its deadlines. However, it really annoyed me when I came to the office one day just to find out that no one in my entire department was there. After a while I found out that they all apparently were out on some all-day fun in the park kind of thing. The fact that they didn't invite me to the team/dept. event really annoyed me because if I could be a part of the team every other day, taking on a lot of the work, then why was I not team member in this instance as well? The fact that they didn't even tell me that they were not going to be in the office made the whole thing even more insulting. Something like that would never have happened at any of the other 7 interships I've had. And this was sort of the mentality the whole time at Cone.

Other things that were frustrating was that I was told during the interview process that I was going to work on a certain type of accounts and issues. This agreement was the whole reason for why I even accepted the internship at Cone (over some other ones that I'd been offered). However, when it came down to it, my work didn't involve anything of what we had previously talked about. I understand that it can be hard to predict the types of accounts that will be in the workings a couple of months a head of time, but don't make promises that you can't keep. However, on a more positive note, even though I was frustrated over not having the opportunity to learn what I had come to Cone to learn, I did work on at least one account gave me a different but still pretty good experience in terms of the work.

Other things that annoyed me in terms of the work were not getting the credit you deserved. Several times I wrote drafts on various reports, strategies etc. that someone else on the team was responsible for. Once the thing was finalized, the person responsible for it got all of the credit even if she or he only made minor changes to what I had written, like for example adding a sentence or changing the format from a powerpoint to a word doc (keeping all the content the same).

It was also irritating that you had to receive college credit for your internship at Cone. I think it should definitely be optional, because in some cases, like for me, you really don't need the credit and thus being forced to register the credit means that either you don't take another academic class that you been wanting to take or you pay extra for college credits that you don't need.

I was also disappointed over how little opportunity there was for networking at Cone. At the beginning of the summer I told my mentor that networking was one of my goals. She said right away that she wasn't sure what I meant by networking and she didn't think that there would be much opportunity for that. She wasn't definitely right!

At the end of the summer, I was offered to keep working on one of my accounts for another month or two. This extension would have been on a close to full-time basis but I would still have maintained my intern/volunteer status and thus received no compensation. After having spent the whole summer being irritated over the working environment at Cone and not getting paid, I couldn't wait to get out of there. I happily declined the offer.

Positive:

Even though it may sound like it, not everything was bad at Cone. Working there, I definitely got a great insight into the workings of a PR/Communications firm. I got great exposure to the field of cause branding (even though that was not what I came to Cone for), and I also got great experience in working directly with clients and participating in clients meetins, calls, etc. If the working environment had just been better, I probably would have loved my internship with Cone. Now I just look back at it as a fairly good experience in terms of the work as wll as a good experience in learning what type of environments you thrive in and in which ones you don't.

One other positive thing about Cone is that I was later able to use my mentor as a reference, and I'm almost certain that she gave me a great recommendation that helped me getting the fulltime job I currently have.

Report Abuse