Q&A with New York intern Matthew Shannon

Q&A with New York intern Matthew Shannon

We recently sat down with Matthew Shannon, a rising senior at Marist College, to learn more about his time interning with Infinite Global. Matt was an intern during the spring academic semester and stayed on as a remote summer intern. He provides some thoughts on what he has learned working with the company and his experience interning during the pandemic.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Matt Shannon and I am a rising senior at Marist College. I am a communications major with concentrations in public relations and advertising, and a minor in data science and analytics. At school, I am a member of the band and am also the president of our chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, the National Honorary Band Fraternity.

What drew you to Infinite Global’s internship program?

I had a class with Infinite Global Vice President Steven Andersen this past fall where he would use the work he does on a day-to-day basis as real world examples in the classroom and brought in multiple people from the company to talk about their experiences. Immediately, I noticed the passion that each person had about the work they were doing at Infinite Global and I knew I wanted to be a part of that culture.

How did you become interested in PR?

I did not expect to go into public relations until I started taking classes and realized that it was something that I had a passion for. I went into college as a sports communications major, but quickly realized it was not something I was interested in doing long-term and began exploring other areas of communications by taking classes in various disciplines. The public relations field was much more accommodating to my skill set and interests, and my time exploring different fields, such as journalism, has proved helpful in my transition to public relations.

What has it been like interning remotely during the pandemic?

The one thing I miss the most is being able to interact with people in person. Getting to go into the office in the morning and seeing familiar faces was always something to look forward to. With that being said, one of the advantages of working at a company with multiple offices is that the transition to working remotely was pretty smooth. I was already used to working with people in different locations, so that element was not incredibly challenging.

What has been your favorite part about interning with Infinite Global so far?

It has been really rewarding to have so many people at the company reach out to me and go out of their way to make sure that I was comfortable. That encouragement and the responsibility I have been granted has given me the opportunity to learn and grow.

How do you see this internship helping you as you develop in your career?

Many of the internship opportunities in public relations that I have heard about have been working on very specific skills or not working on career related skills at all. What has been really rewarding about working here is that I have gotten the opportunity to work on a variety of career-related skills. During my time here, I have been able to work on media lists, pitching, awards and editorial calendar tracking, and many other different projects that have allowed me to develop a versatile skill set. Within a few months, I feel like my growth in the work I’m able to do and my career readiness has taken a huge leap forward.