Senior Thesis Introduction
I wanted to choose a senior thesis project that would help build my portfolio specifically for what I want to do after I graduate college. While this seems like a straightforward idea, it turned out to be difficult because I’m not exactly sure what I want to do after school.
One of the first things we did in our class was map out two versions of our 5 year plans. One map would be a plan for what our life would look like if we continued on our current path and did what we were expected to do by our friends and families. The other would be a plan for if the first plan and all the skills we would be using were completely wiped off the table, and we had no financial constraints.
My first plan was easy to map out. I had a digital marketing internship at Panasonic over the summer, as well as other marketing internships from my sophomore and junior years. I’m qualified to apply for entry level media planning and media buying positions. My first 5 year plan was to apply for a full time jobs around New York, New Jersey, or Philly and to work until I pay off my debt. After that I would be free to make a career change or start my own business using the skills I learn from my first job.
My second plan was a lot more fun to write. I grew up in a family of musicians and have been playing/writing music since I was in middle school. I started recording and mixing songs when I was in high school and currently have a recording setup in my room at school. My 5 year plan for this scenario would be to get a flexible part time job at a recording studio and spend the majority of my time writing, recording, and playing shows.
Although both plans are radically different, they both use skills and technology that we use in the IMM department. I tried to outline a project that use both my digital marketing/advertising experience as well as my audio engineering/songwriting experience.
My senior thesis project is writing and recording an album, as well as managing a digital advertising campaign around it. If execute this project well, I would be able to follow either of my 5 years plans. It gives me two projects that I really want to add to my resume.
At my internship at Panasonic, I created a lot of media recommendations, media plans, and campaign performance reports. Unfortunately, because these all contained private business information I am not able to show them publicly to potential employers. At the end of next semester I will have all 3 of these reports and will be able to show the skills I learned at Panasonic without giving away private information.
The other deliverable would be the album itself. This has been a personal goal of mine for a long time, and I know it will keep me highly motivated throughout the semester. Other things I could also make for this project are videos and other promotional materials.
Overall, I’m very excited to continue working on this project. This semester I’ve almost finished writing the album and have recorded some demos. I will record the full songs during winter break and next semester will be dedicated to the marketing side of the project. I’m very excited to create the finished product and promote it to the best of my ability!
