The first time I stepped into the Bust Out office, I had just barely sat down before Jeff started briefing me and the other interns on the latest project: the team would be sending a 3D-printed model truck… into space. Talk about redefining product launch. “It’s for a client that wanted to ‘go big’,” Jeff explained, adding an afterthought, “Sometimes Bust Out ends up doing work that isn’t, well, exactly software development.” I laughed it off, missing the true gravity of that statement, and I think it went over the other interns’ heads too. To be fair, it was only 9:05AM on the first day of our summer internship together. We had no idea what we were in for and how unpredictable and explosive this summer would be.
One of my first tasks that starting week was, believe it or not, unrelated to software development (Jeff keeps his promises!). I was put pretty far outside my comfort zone as I struggled to design Facebook ads for a payment management software called Pearl. Even though I had churned out dozens of flyers for my campus job and had a proven writing ability through my American Studies major, I had no clue about leveraging design and messaging to actually sell something. Luckily, co-interns Erin and Taneeya were right by my side. Making up the intern trifecta, the three of us are pretty different, and in the best way. We realized this early on — that first week — as I leaned on them for help in crafting a brilliant ad campaign.
Erin, a Marketing major at Carlson School of Management, has the natural eye for matching ad copy with the perfect image. I thought her first design she showed me, which she had put together in under five minutes, was genius — ‘ease your mind with simple payments’ overlaying a woman doing yoga for our health industry target. And Taneeya, given her knack for puns and Macalester quirk, came up with a true gem of a jingle. ‘Payments testing your patience? Now focus on your patients,’ as I’m chuckling even now. In just this first week, I was glad to have had Erin and Taneeya, pushing me through challenging moments where I perceived in myself a lack of business and marketing experience. We’ve learned a lot from one another, and about the importance of a diverse team in the unpredictable, multidiscipline environment of the tech startup world.
Alongside driving social media marketing campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google across all sorts of products, we interns have done everything from A to Z in our time at Bust Out. Literally, I could go through the alphabet and list an experience for every letter. A: Accelerating field market research by walking into over fifty businesses with the goal of leaving with a lead. B: Business partnerships, to include sizing market opportunity, crafting pitch decks, and building integration strategies. C: Como Zoo visit, where we took a look at some hardware issues with kiosk apps in the polar bear exhibit. D: Developing websites… okay, I’ll stop! Joking aside, words alone cannot express the true breadth and depth of experiences we’ve had this summer. Through the thick and thin of the past ten weeks, we have gotten the chance to apply our strengths in real industries, take risks in new situations, and gain a better understanding of our own individual ambitions and greater goals. Personally, I never thought I’d be any good at business consulting or building financial models, but here I am out on the other side. Sounds like a not-so-bummer summer, right?
Of course, I wouldn’t be telling the full story if I didn’t mention the amazing coworkers/mentors the other interns and I have had here at Bust Out. And this is nothing but the truth: the people we’ve worked with this summer are, honestly, inspirations.
Mana, founder of Sittereco (a babysitting app) and primary point person for the internship program, has been an invaluable resource for feedback in the Bust Out environment, as well as for career and life advice. With her years of experience in business strategy at General Mills and energetic spirit for entrepreneurship, Mana has taught us the imperative skills of thinking analytically, unapologetically, and through a risk-taking lens as women in the tech industry. At the same time, we can spend an entire car ride with her arguing over who sings what line in summer jam “Despacito.” Mana’s definitely got a silly side, and we admire her ability to lighten up the mood while still remaining practical and productive.
Jeff, wearer of multiple hats in the company, is often found jumping from office meeting to client visit to (hopefully not a telemarketer) phone call faster than you could ever imagine — yet he always makes time to introduce the interns to new projects and tell the funniest stories. As a true advocate for the interns, Jeff makes it a point to expose us to client work and meetings and get us involved on the product development side of things too. We’re incredibly thankful for his open-mindedness and faith in the interns to dream and do big.
Shout to Jamie, Kristen, Paul, Tom, and the rest of the team, too, for helping out whenever we needed anything at all!
It’s quite the bittersweet moment, as we college kids only have two days left in the internship and we’ll be going our separate ways soon. Jeff likes to joke that “the interns will drop out of college soon and come to work for Bust Out.” Haha. Not exactly, but we sure hope that one day we’ll all cross paths again. This summer’s been too good to forget. Thanks for the memories, Bust Out!
Kha
