The World’s Greatest Marketing Internship
I really, really, really wanted this internship. I vividly remember my roommate and I hovering over our laptops late one evening as we discussed how I was going to land the first marketing internship offered by the most respected agency in Utah; Struck. In my eyes, Struck was similar to the hottest girl in high school that everyone wanted to date, so I knew when applying to this internship I was probably looking at some steep competition. Scrambling through every junk drawer in my apartment, I struggled to find something to creatively present in my application that would say, “Hey, I’m as cool as you are and I won’t disappoint… trust me.” A byproduct of spending the past decade as a professional skier means that I own more ski goggles than I do silverware in my home, so I customized a pair of Struck branded ski goggles to symbolize that I not only share the same ”vision,” but overall mission of putting forth “Greater Than” efforts in life. The result was slightly cheesy, undoubtedly creative, but most importantly it got me noticed.
Reflecting six months later, I can proudly say after staying up one night piecing together a pair of goggles that it more than paid off. My internship with Struck was far beyond anything I could’ve predicted; let alone from any internship. Why was this experience more impactful than the past three years of my college education? Who do I pay credit to for providing a crash course on agency life and in my opinion essentially a kickoff to my professional career? How do you possibly make an internship successful when you are essentially gambling on a generation of Millennials?
Well, I did my best to try and answer these questions both for others and myself in hopes of sharing the key ingredients to the ideal internship. Hopefully by identifying the most critical aspects to the success of my experience here at Struck can be replicated or adopted by future internship programs or brave souls that are about to dive into an internship of their own. So, here are my five take-away’s to creating a successful internship experience.
1.) Trust your gut.
This expression made no-sense to me until this internship. Trust your gut instinct? In all honesty, my gut instinct typically encourages me to eat chocolate and seek out Mexican food, but this internship allowed me to realize the true definition of this saying.
Making sure your prospect internship is a natural fit is a hit or miss, exactly why doing your homework is crucial. When I was first researching more about the internal culture at Struck, my gut intuition suddenly shifted from thoughts of milk chocolate to an inert desire to meeting every individual at Struck. The more I learned about the complimentary team of power-ranger like individuals that composed Struck, the more I wanted to earn my colors and join the team. Medium posts that broke down the un-relatable walls of the corporate world to detective work on LinkedIn, there were many signs that supported my gut intuition that this is where I belonged.
2.) The Balance of going above and beyond.
Don’t be the employee that reorganizes the office’s entire fridge, but if you can do something you feel comfortable and will truly benefit the people around you, do it.
This is where I developed a little bit of confidence early in my internship and felt I could present value, but also express my gratitude for the opportunity. The fact that I had so much freedom with my internship was extremely helpful and felt like I was able to blow out of the gate sprinting like a horse at the Kentucky Derby. Subtleties such as improving a calendar system or consistently asking yourself what more you can do can open doors to creating a fruitful experience as an intern for both sides of the spectrum.
3. A BIG MASSIVE SPONGE
The amount of information you learn from an internship is undoubtedly overwhelming. My experience was essentially a crash course on agency life and at first I thought if I blinked I would miss something. Fast, detailed, chaotic but organized, learning the system and process in any firm takes time, but with life as an employee is short lived by an intern. The best way to hit the ground running is to listen intently and to treat your notebook like Clint Eastwood would treat Dirty Harry, strapped to your hip and ready for action.
4. Make friends.
Interns are supposed to make mistakes, ask questions, so they can learn to get up and try again. When you genuinely enjoy the people you surround yourself with everyday magic happens. This is probably a huge aspect to why Struck is essentially the definition of economies of scale. Lean, mean, collaborative and high energy, which equates to producing the best advertising in the state of Utah and arguably the entire western United States. Skateboards rolling around the office, music playing, snacks being shared and smiles extended across rows of desks. I truly credit my unforgettable experience to an invincible pair of welcoming arms that accepted and supported my internship experience from every employee at Struck.
5. Find your Pauline.
Pauline Ploquin is the current CRO of Struck and in many ways the glue of Struck as an agency. Her career in marketing brought her to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Olympic games which might I add was the only profitable games in history. Those same Olympics captured my young mind as a twelve year old fueling my professional ski career from that point forward. Fifteen years later the woman who indirectly inspired my professional athletic career and reason for me being in Utah for the U.S. Ski Team happened to be my direct boss for my internship. Destiny? Coincidence? I’d like to think of it as exactly what you should expect out of an internship, the perfect connection. When I discovered who Pauline was, the small existing feelings of doubt were washed away in an instant, but more importantly the relationship that aspired from her mentorship was the single most important ingredient to a prosperous internship. This balance of motivation between the need to impress my mentor and myself was the top-grade motor oil that fueled me past every challenge I was presented with. Most things make sense in life, like how Pauline is a master of communication developing new business for Struck, she is the glue between the seams, connecting everyone around her in life and connecting me to my future career. Find your Pauline and the rest falls into place.
Walking my resume into Struck was the best decision I made in college and I hope these ingredients find their way into the mental positioning of the next brave prospect that looks towards finding direction in their next chapter in life. Struck is an agency unlike any other and exactly why my internship worked so well. I wasn’t a typical intern and nor was I seeking a typical internship experience. These principles presented are broad but with the right environment, people and mission, an internship can make the difference when faced with what the question of what chapter in life to open up and start reading next.
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