Name: Talia Weiner
Type of Project: Internship
- Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
Over the 2018 summer, I was offered an internship as an Account Management Intern at the reputable powerhouse known as Young & Rubicam in New York City. During the ten-week program, I presented new business pitch and advertising campaign to senior management including David Sable, Global CEO, researched and developed advertising campaign strategy for the creation of print, digital, out-of-home, and social media ads, and developed corporate presentation give-a-ways in accordance with given budget. I also worked directly with the Dell Technologies Account team where got the opportunity to analyze competitive advertising data using the Competitrack database for media technology clients and develop and produce weekly PowerPoint summary on competitor strategies and industry involvement.
- What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
After shadowing in this department for one day, I was offered a spot to stay and continue on with the rest of the interns in this prestigious internship program. Each of these interns were hand selected out of thousands of applicants from around the country and were also either going into their senior year of college or had already graduated. The thought of this was quite intimidating being that I was only going into my junior year of college and this program never usually hired people my age. After making the obvious decision of accepting the offer and taking the internship for the rest of the summer, my entire mindset shifted from being a camp counselor to a young professional in a real-world business setting.
This unexpected experience allowed me to grow as an individual and exposed me to knowledge and information about the industry before I even learned about it here at Ohio State. This internship was the first time in my entire life, that some of the basic material and concepts that I learned in class came to life and were utilized in an advertising setting. Now almost a year later, so much of the information being taught in the courses I am taking such as consumer behavior, marketing research, and social psychology, is so familiar to me and not my friends. This is because of my internship. The internship taught me how to be a better public speaker, enhanced my time-management skills, and strengthened my communication skills among my group members for our end-of-the-summer project that we presented to the Global CEO of the company.
- What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
At the start of the summer, I had no idea how many new people I would meet, as well as, how much of an impact those people would have on my life and my overall internship experience. This internship gave me the opportunity to build my own individualized network of people and other resources as I took on the challenge of this internship program on my own. I was able to connect on both the professional and casual levels with people who I saw as my mentors, as well as, my peers and colleagues. These relationships are still very prevalent in my life and I do keep in touch with my intern group since we meshed and became very close-knit throughout the summer. I kept in contact with my mentor every day during the summer and it was extremely easy to talk and relate to her because she was young and approachable. This relationship was extremely important to me because my mentor exposed me to so many opportunities around the office that transformed my experience and made a huge advertising agency so much smaller.
Another key aspect of this internship that led to my personal transformation was being extremely independent and having to commute to and from New York City five days a week for the entire summer. Doing this made me even more independent than I already am and it also made me feel like a much more responsible young adult. I learned my way around the subway and train systems, learned how to navigate parts of New York City and get from place to place to meet my family and friends after a long day at work. I learned to provide for myself and even though I was always so tired at the end of the day, I always looked forward to getting up the next morning to see what my internship had in-store.
When I look back at my internship and the opportunities that it provided me with, I know that I have so much more experience than so many of my peers. I was also exposed to so much information that I have been able to apply to my course work, my homework assignments, my group projects, and my daily conversations. Being able to relate work from my internship into my life in college proves that I already love my future career and that there are endless opportunities for me in the near future.
- Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
With so much new exposure, I know I can see myself quickly maturing and having to seriously consider career paths and my lifestyle in general. As I am presented with issues such as paying for food, cost of transportation, and more, I will continue to realize that life events might not always come with as much ease as I wish they always did. But, this experience along with many others I hope to have in the future has and will allow me to expand my horizons and prove to myself that I have the ability to provide for myself and be completely independent while working in the real business world and competitive marketing and advertising industry.