Summer 2015 Internship: Cone Communications

Nicolas Vener
7/16/15

Internships provide the opportunity for college students to take their

classroom knowledge and apply what they have learned to a real-world setting. This
summer I used the skills that I acquired over the past three years of college while
working at a corporate public relations and marketing agency. My internship at Cone
Communications provided the opportunity for me to learn about public relations in a
real world setting. Some of the areas I was able to experience include crisis
communication, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and brand communication.
Cone Communications is a public relations and marketing agency located on
Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Cones key values include passion,
integrity, teamwork, intellectual curiosity and a commitment to excellence. All of
their values are conveyed through their work ethic and creativity. According to
Cones global network organization, Omnicom Group, Cone is known for igniting
brands with high-impact strategies and programs based in deep insights, unique
subject matter expertise, and innovation. Focusing on key areas such as consumer
product media relations, social media, cause branding and marketing, corporate
responsibility, nonprofit marketing, corporate communications and crisis
prevention/management the agency is positioned to help clients achieve both
business and societal outcomes.
Cones mission statement closely resembles their agency values. As quoted
on their website, we are driven to achieve the unexpected. Where others see
barriers we see possibilities. Acting with integrity and courage, we impact the world
through bold ideas. Cones areas of expertise include six departments consisting of
Brand Marketing, Corporate Social Responsibility, Nonprofit Marketing, Cause
Marketing, Corporate Communications and Crisis Preventions & Management.

As an intern a Corporate Communications Intern, I had one mentor as my

supervisor in addition to the various staff members that I worked with on outside
projects. My mentor was an Assistant Account Executive that edited all of my work,
including some of my emails before I sent them to the Cone team. Her cubical in
the office was conveniently located across from mine therefore it was fairly easy to
ask any questions while I was working. Throughout my time at Cone, my mentor set
up individual meetings with various staff members so they could explain the
important concepts and strategies of their role at the agency. I found these
meetings to be crucial in the learning process because not only did I learn about the
different aspects of an agency, but I had the opportunity to meet and learn from
multiple industry leaders. I found these meetings to be extremely helpful with
developing a relationship among the different departments of the agency.
Over the course of my internship, I have achieved multiple accomplishments
while experiencing both challenges and surprises. One accomplishment in
particular that I developed this summer relates to time management. Cone
Communications is located in downtown Boston, therefore when I commute into the
city I am on a strict time schedule. I have strengthened my time management skills
while planning out my day based on which trains I am required to take. Planning has
become crucial in my internship process. Another one of my achievements in time
management relates to working in the office at Cone. I receive multiple projects
simultaneously, all of which have different deadlines. As I receive these projects, I
created a schedule with reminders to reinforce that my time was spent accordingly.
In addition to accomplishments, while working at Cone, I have also
experienced challenges. I found that commuting to and from the city is a very
draining process. I noticed that certain hours of the workday were especially more

exhausting than others. I used strategies to make the process less strenuous. One
adjustment that I made while working consisted of certain routines to ensure that I
remained productive. I would take an hour for lunch to leave the office and walk
around, then later in the afternoon, I would walk to Starbucks to break up the day.
Leaving the office allowed time to clear my head which I found to improve my
productivity later in the day.
Another key challenge that I experienced while interning involved the
feedback on my work. When I first received corrections for my work, I was
concerned as to how much was edited. I worried that the work I was completing was
not up to the expected standards. My mentor explained that most work is corrected
several times before it is sent for final feedback. I was surprised at the number of
times a project is changed before it is actually viewed for final corrections. Many
staff members reviewed my work before it was sent to a client. My mentor also
explained that when she started at Cone, most of her work was sent back with edits
and revised several times before being sent.
In addition to the short-term tasks, there were also long-term projects that
required my time. I found some projects challenging because they consisted of
research. After spending many hours on a project, the researching the process
became very mundane. I noticed that most projects I was tasked with required
many hours of research. Some of my biggest research projects included searching
for media contacts from certain publications for the Cone team to pitch stories.
There were hundreds of media publications that required specific media contacts
that could only be found through a selective search. All media contacts required
detailed notes, explaining the topics each contact has covered to determine if they
are a proper source to pitch a story. Then I built a master media list so the team

could find each contact organized into an excel file. Although I found this process
exhausting, it was a crucial task for the agency.
Some of the surprises that I have experienced while working at my internship
occurred while working alongside the Cone staff and the other interns in the office. I
noticed that the staff is extremely friendly and willing to help in any way possible. I
assumed that at a large and fast paced agency the staff would be too busy to help,
however that was not the case. I was also surprised that I was one of the only
undergraduate interns working at Cone. There were twelve interns in the office and
only three other students were an undergraduate. The rest of the interns were in
graduate school. The other more experienced interns were very helpful with
providing advice for looking at graduate schools, and what they found worked and
did not work. I plan on attending graduate school in the future; therefore I found
their advice to be more than helpful.
Overall I feel that my internship this summer was very effective. Based on the
fact that my time at Cone was for course credit, the agency has a major focus on
teaching interns as much as possible to make the experience worthwhile. I had the
chance to see how a public relations agency works from the inside and had the
opportunity to learn about how each role contributes to the big picture. The Cone
team scheduled intern workshops so we could understand key points that Cone
looks for when hiring job candidates. I would recommend an internship at Cone
Communications for anyone interested in the industry. I have learned many new
concepts and strategies about the various aspects of an agency. There are
opportunities to learn from multiple high profile clients, however because most of
the work is classified or exclusive, there are only so many tasks an intern is allowed

to contribute. Understandably, most of the true public relations and marketing tasks
are only handled by the Cone team and the interns are only allowed to observe.
One aspect I feel that I have learned as a result of this internship relates to
my career in the PR industry. I learned about various aspects of the CSR (corporate
social responsibility) department. I really enjoyed learning about how corporations
plan to formulate sustainability plans in order to become more environmentally
conscious. Now that I am learning about corporate sustainability, I may want to
pursue a career in that direction. I feel that I have grown in multiple areas during
this internship. A large fast pasted, corporate environment was outside of my
comfort zone before I started at Cone. Now I feel I can further explore a career in
corporate public relations and marketing.