This week, The New York Times reported on companies that are helping to spread a little optimism with their advertising…if not for a rebounding economy than certainly for the value and life enhancing qualities of their products. These companies are prime examples of recession advertising best practices - use your message to move mountains.

Burger King

Denny’s

Crate & Barrel

By the start of my senior year of college, I had a fairly solid resume. I interned for two summers in New York City with global firms and also for a Manhattan-based company during the academic year.

Oddly, I was unsatisfied with my previous internships, and my friends failed to understand my position saying, “Don’t you have enough experience already bro!” They knew I had landed key internships, but what they didn’t know is I had yet to find the right one.

Luckily on Aug. 11, I interviewed at Talk Inc. and stumbled upon exactly what I was looking for. This branding and communications agency provided me with an opportunity to practice a skill my previous employers neglected to teach—writing. Talk has afforded me the opportunity to draft press releases, pitches, and publish blogs, whereas my previous positions only enhanced my Xerox brand product knowledge.

Although my friends may not agree, there is value in working for a smaller agency. By the end of my internships at Giorgio Armani and Ogilvy PR, I had little to show. Conversely, in only one month at Talk I have generated multiple pieces for my portfolio. In reality, Talk Inc. might seem like a quiet firm with fewer employees and clients than my previous employers, yet I am confident it will speak the loudest during my interviews with prospective employers.

Pink – it’s my new obsession. Pink - it’s not even a question. This past Thursday, I found myself in one of life’s most well known awkward situations, the first day of a new job. Like most people new at a workplace, my goal was to remain busy at all times. Usually I enjoy these types of situations, but it must have been the complete lack of sleep from the previous night that completely stole the wind from my sails.

After a quick introduction, I started out by doing the online PR tutorial at prquickstart.org; I don’t think I’ve read something so closely since I took the SAT. For the remainder of the day, I had no real assigned tasks so it gave me the chance to get a good understanding of what a blog should look like, and how I have a lot to learn about the topic. It is so wonderful that the previous interns have the writing abilities of a digital Hemingway; it sets the bar pretty high for my own blogs.

That’s about it, four extremely nerve racking hours of my life stuffed in to one little paragraph floating around the Internet. Maybe I’m missing something, what about meeting all the smiling faces around the office, the occasional visit by a little, fluffy, wet-nosed friend? What about the fact that I will be getting invaluable experience in my chosen field? I guess the first day was not all bad, it seems getting through it is just the right of passage for something so rewarding.

For those of you who are faithful followers of my interning adventures, you might recall my first diaries entry about the awkwardness of “first days” at a new job. Well that was more than two months ago and now, in two days, I will be experiencing my second least favorite day: my last. It’s hard to believe that my time at Talk PR has flown by so fast, but don’t worry about me folks because I’m just getting started. In August I will begin my last semester of college and December I will graduate, maybe not with honors, but with a priceless knowledge of journalism and mass communication that will go with me as I search for my place in the advertising industry.

With the end of this internship, and soon my college career, the one thing that stays the same is change. Change isn’t always easy but it comes often, especially in college. I’ve had two internships and three part-time jobs in the past three years and I’ll be adding one more to each list in the fall. It seems like there will always be a new interview to prepare for, a new boss to meet or a new last day of work. But change can be a good thing and throughout each experience I have gained knowledge and skills that prepare me for what is to come.

Talk PR has taught me a lot since my first day here back in May. I’ve learned how to write a blog – don’t be too wordy and keep the audience in mind. My memory of AP style has been refreshed as I attempted, and sometimes succeeded, in writing news releases. I’ve also realized that unexpected skills can make a big impression on people, such as my ability to reorganize the few parts of the Talk PR office that can be considered out of order. Overall, I have had a great experience within these pink walls and I will miss it. Yet whenever I walk into my next interview or my next internship, I will be a little more confident knowing that Talk PR has helped prepare me for this, and I’ll be just fine.

Every career advisor in the country encourages young college students to get internships in order to gain real workplace experience and build their network of references all the while staying positive and enthusiastic even though they’re not getting paid. Give me a break. What students want to hear is “an internship will get you a high paying job right after college.” However, even well qualified, intelligent college graduates with more than one internship get turned down for jobs every day because of the declining economy and the rise in capable candidates. So while internships may not be the ticket to complete career success, I’m going to break down the ways that they can be helpful to a naive, confused college student.

Internships improve the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. As a college student I’m sure you can read, but PerezHilton.com and People magazine do not qualify as thought-provoking literature. At an internship you are expected to be in the know about your industry, so you learn to read the most relevant publications. This knowledge can improve your understanding of your job and the company you work for.

Then there’s writing. While college might prepare you to write an amazing essay on poetic style, it doesn’t prepare you at all for letter or email etiquette and the grammar and spelling lessons are few and far between. Communication is extremely important no matter where you work and even if you’re sending a short email, it must be professional, to the point and contain absolutely no spelling errors.

Finally, when I say that internships teach you arithmetic, I don’t mean that you’ll be forced to figure out quadratic equations. Instead, it will teach you to think on your toes. Whether its figuring out expense reports, rambling off answers to math problems your boss doesn’t have time to figure out or calculating the coffee beans to water ratio, you’ll be forced to tap into those basic math skills that you left back in the fourth grade.

The three Rs may seem elementary to you now, but these skills will be respected by potential employers and useful even if you decide to change your major or prospective career. So the moral of the story is completing an internship is a good idea. It might not guarantee you a job after college and you might not necessarily like it, but you’ll learn at lot about an industry you’re interested in and maybe even a little about yourself. So give an internship a shot because it could be one of the best career decisions you’ll ever make.