Communications Intern

We’ve designed our paid internship program to give you a meaningful sense of life at a strategy and design company. That means contributing to active projects, participating on a dedicated and diverse team, and receiving training and mentorship to get you started in your career.

The Communication Intern is a thinker and storyteller and will be part of our Reputation Team. The Reputation Team is responsible for crafting a positive image of SYLVAIN across external channels,  ultimately reaching new talent and new clients. This person will work in support of our Partner of Strategy and Reputation and our Editorial Lead.. They should have deep curiosity about culture and society, specifically within the brand strategy, innovation, and design spaces, and writing, research, storytelling, social media, and project management skills. They should be just as comfortable with tactical tinkering (e.g., gathering analytics, writing copy, editing video clips) as they are with big picture thinking (e.g., identifying cultural trends, developing thought leadership topic ideas). 

In addition to learning by doing, we offer a rich curriculum of learning sessions, workshares, and 1:1 mentorship. You’ll also be invited to our ‘misfit’ kind of fun (team events, game nights, coffee chats, etc.) while soaking up all that an in-person office experience has to offer.

PROGRAM DETAILS

• When: June 1 - August 7 (10 Weeks) 
• Where: New York City. Working from our office 3 days per week (Tuesday through Thursday), with the option to work in-person or remotely on Mondays and Fridays.
• Compensation: While designed primarily as a hands-on learning experience, this is a paid internship at $20/hr.

CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS

We’re looking for candidates who demonstrate high potential to do the kind of work we do at SYLVAIN. We are not looking for people who have necessarily mastered these skills. Rather we’re looking for folks with big imaginations, an ability to make surprising connections, and a hunger to learn. Folks who are natural problem-solvers, with a passion for work that matters, eager to work across categories and challenges, bringing ideas to life with clarity, emotion, and integrity.

Importantly, we’re looking for folks who have a desire to improve across these areas over the course of their internship.

Requirements:

• Interest in PR, marketing, journalism, writing, and/or social media
• Strong writing and editing skills
• Experience managing and creating for social media platforms (including Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube)
• Awareness of cultural, business, and industry trends
• Ideal qualities:Experience reading, writing, and/or editing newsletters
• Knowledge of and/or experience with traditional PR processes (e.g.,building press lists, writing press releases, conducting press outreach)
• Experience with and interest in B2B PR/marketing and/or new business development
• Experience with tools like Mailchimp, Google Slides, Keynote, Canva, Figma, CapCut, and Google Analytics
• Culturally engaged
• Versatile
• Effective and efficient
• Technical and detail oriented
• Curious
• Proactive problem solver
• Committed to craft
• Emotionally intelligent
• Confident and humble

INTERNSHIP APPLICATION PROCESS

Timing

There are 4 stages to our candidate selection process.

• By Feb 2: Apply through our career page and share your interest in SYLVAIN
• Feb 13-20: Complete a communication case assignment to show us how you think
• Feb 17: Selected candidates will be invited to join an optional, but highly recommended virtual information session to meet us, learn more about the internship, and learn about the case assignment
• March 2-3: Final round candidates will be invited for an interview to get to know you
• Mar 6: Receive our decision over email

While we wish we could promise personalized follow-ups—we receive a high volume of applications and competition is stiff—however we do our best to offer some form of feedback if you don’t proceed to the next round to ensure this experience also serves you.

What to expect

We understand applying to internships takes considerable time and effort. Thank you for dedicating the time.

Applicants asked to complete the assignment stage of the process, will be given 1 week to complete a case assignment.

TYPICAL INTERN ACTIVITIES 

• Social Media Management: Planning, writing copy for, gathering assets for, and posting on SYLVAIN’s social media channels (including Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn).
• Newsletter Management: Planning, writing for, and editing SYLVAIN’s bi-monthly newsletter, Progress Report.
• Analytics Management: Gathering metrics across key channels (websites, newsletters, and socials) and reporting insights on a regular cadence.
• Cultural + Industry Research: Finding, surfacing, and organizing interesting links, articles, research reports, Tiktoks, and beyond, in order to help stimulate the team and drive thought leadership development.
• Press Research + Outreach: Seeking out new places for us to show up in the world, including events/conferences, podcasts, publications, and awards competitions. Researching editors and journalists we should connect with.

ABOUT SYLVAIN 

SYLVAIN is a strategy and design company that makes new human and business value for the Now, Novel, and Next. Dissatisfied with the status quo, we collect unorthodox perspectives and uncommon ways of framing the future. By seeking better answers, and pushing for more purpose, we’re solving the most consequential business challenges of our time—always inspiring, inciting, and provoking progress. 

Founded in
 2010, SYLVAIN is a member of kyu Collective, a group of independently-led companies that share a similar mission. We have offices in New York City, Richmond, VA, Los Angeles, CA, and Amsterdam, NL.

Learn more about us at our website, or follow us on Instagram. And check out more of our thinking on our weekly newsletter: Progress Report, and our podcast: Critical Nonsense.

DIVERSITY AT SYLVAIN

SYLVAIN is committed to building and sustaining a culture that celebrates our diversity and is rooted in community. We recognize that the collective sum of individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, innovation, self-expression, and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and company’s achievement.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, race, ethnicity, disability, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, natural origin, religion, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique. Lending such an array of qualities to our work ensures a human-centered approach to our way of doing things and treatment of each other.

A note on AI-generated responses: We’re not opposed to the use of AI tools–they’re a part of how many people learn and create. But, what matters most to us, is your unique perspective, curiosity, and judgment. Responses that feel generic or heavily generated are unlikely to stand out. So please know that we’d rather read something specific, imperfect, or surprising than something technically ‘correct’ but impersonal.