By: Olivia Smith
Going into college you are under the impression that you will learn everything you need for your career in a classroom, that is not the case. I am going into my senior year at Ohio State University, majoring in Communications, minoring in Business and an Elida native. At OSU it is not mandatory for you to participate in an internship, but “recommended” which means you should but we won’t give you any direction on where to get one and what to expect out of an internship. After looking up local companies that take communication interns, I found NOW Marketing Group. As soon as I read more about the company I knew that this is where I wanted my first internship to be.
Before starting at NOW I was a little nervous of what I was going to be working on or how the other employees would react to a new intern. All I knew about employee and intern relationships came from movies and I was not the best at getting coffee. All the stereotypes of interns was quickly wiped away, after meeting the Brand Managers, they were always willing to help and let you be yourself. I was able to work with the Brand Managers to manage social media platforms, create social posts, images, videos and blogs, with total creative control! Move over movie interns no busy work for us, we even have a game room!
During my internship I was able to attend the Social Media Week Lima Conference, this showed me all the options of how to focus my career. At this conference I was able to network with other individuals from not only around the area but also around the country. We learned to Press the Damn Button, Own your Knowledge, and #BuildRelationships. Not only did this conference introduce me to different influencers, I was able to see my colleagues personalities outside of the office. At this conference, I felt truly unified with the full-time staff, I was able to express my personality to all team members and grow a true relationship with them. P.S. Do not challenge a co-worker to a bow and arrow contest!
With my 3 months coming to an end I have learned that social media accounts are for more than filtered selfies and dog pictures, going to work is fun when you work with awesome people and if you are yourself you won’t have to worry about fitting in. Thank you to Jessika and the NOW team for giving me the real-life experience that I can carry on throughout my career!
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