Reflecting on my internship experience
Today marks my last day at Agrilyst and I wanted to share a bit on what makes this company so special to me.
As a recent graduate, I wanted to better understand the professional workplace and expectations that come with it. Since I studied Agricultural Economics at Chungbuk National University I was thrilled for the opportunity to work at Agrilyst and I definitely got the experience I was looking for.
Agrilyst helps growers manage and optimize their operations to make them more efficient and productive. Throughout the duration of my internship I worked on a variety projects tied to this overall goal. And, I got to manage our entire social media presence, building it from the ground up! Here are a few things that I learned over the last 7 months:
Marketing is not as simple as I thought.
There are many aspects to marketing and it can be incredibly complex. During my internship I managed our social media dashboard. Each social media channel required a different approach in order to be effective so I needed to come up with different strategies to communicate the same message. For example, when launching a new feature I would have to consider the different types of people following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I had to use that knowledge to consider what message would fit on each of them and how that message could increase our reach.
It’s important to listen to your audience.
You can develop a great relationship with people, even if it’s not in-person by listening to them. When I first took over communication on social media I didn’t get much engagement. There was a lot of trial and error. I was always thinking about what our growers’ interests were and trying to pick things up from what they were responding to. After a while I finally started to get a real connection with them.
Teamwork is beyond vital.
My internship made me realize how important teamwork is. I had to coordinate with other teams before posting on social media to get their input and I always had better results with them than without them.
Core values are important.
Agrilyst respects people and believes that diversity is beneficial. It isn’t just a saying to them, they really embrace diversity and focus on respect for the individual. As a non-native English speaker, it especially meant a lot to me. I was always treated professionally, without any prejudice, and the team was very supportive.
I was very fortunate to be an intern here. While the internship was challenging, I had a great supervisor and a great team. They have a relentless passion for this mission.
Agrilyst provided me a meaningful phase in my life to grow myself professionally and to learn about the agriculture industry. I believe that the knowledge and skills acquired through this internship broadened my vision and it leaves my excited for my future!
Interested in an internship with Agrilyst? Send us an email telling us about your interest and we’ll followup. Check out www.agrilyst.com for more about our mission.
