![]() By Latisha Ellison When you land an internship you expect several, basic things to happen: you will improve and refine your skill set, you will expand your knowledge and you will be challenged with new and exciting opportunities. Something I didn’t expect to learn was that even though you may be the intern, you shouldn’t act like one. From the moment I walked in the door at my summer internship, I felt like a part of the team. Yes, I was the intern, but I didn’t necessarily feel like the intern. I remember the first time my supervisor told a client, “I’m here with my coworker, Latisha,” and how important it made me feel. It was a small thing, but it made a huge impact on the way I continued to look at my role and the manner in which I conducted myself. Now, I may have just gotten really lucky to work at an amazing agency with great coworkers, but I think the three takeaways I learned can be used in any setting: Don’t downplay your role I remember saying to my friend, “Whatever, I’m just the intern,” and immediately wanting to slap myself because I was not “just the intern,” and neither are you. Interns are an important part of the team and we should acknowledge that. The work we do as interns is work that someone else would have to be doing if we weren’t there, so it is a big help to the supervisor. Sure, you might get stuck stuffing envelopes or transferring files one day, but someone has to do it, and that someone might be you. The company wouldn’t have an intern if it didn’t have work that needed to be done. You are valuable, and your work is valued and appreciated. Work like an entry-level employee People always tell you that you should treat your internship like a three to four month long job interview-- and they’re right. Show up to work with a smile on your face, ready to do your best work. Every assignment you turn in should be a reflection of your time and energy spent working on it. Show your supervisor you care about the work you’re doing and are applying her critiques with each new assignment. Take the initiative to ask those who might be on tight deadlines if they could use your help. When you work hard and show you care, people will notice. Use your voice and be yourself Like I said, treat your internship like a three to four month long job interview for not only yourself, but for the company too. Talk to your coworkers and ask questions to really understand what it means to work at your company and where it is headed. Speak up in team meetings when you don’t understand something or have an idea to share, it shows you care about understanding the company and its vision for the future. Most importantly, be yourself. Let your team know who you are and build relationships with those around you. Sure, they can be great connections down the road, but they could also become good friends. Ask those questions and build those relationships to help determine if this is somewhere you would want to be after graduation. Internships are crucial to your professional development and it’s very important to complete at least one before graduation. Show up, speak up, work hard and show your team that you are more than “just the intern.”
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![]() By Audra Gormley We see it everywhere. Brands are all over social media. It has become a key element in the success of companies’ branding, advertising, marketing and sales functions. As society increasingly embraces the use of social media as an important business channel, many more Business-to-Business (B2B) companies are jumping on board. I had an internship opportunity this summer with a global industrial/engineering based B2B company as a Social Media Intern. I was tasked with doing social media platform audits, building out its Instagram channel, and researching social media for business best practices. After a whole summer working on the company’s profiles, I picked up some important lessons that I thought were important for my own personal profiles and thought I would share these more broadly. Use these business tested best practices to boost your personal profile.
Bonus Tip: Just be sure that you are active on all of the social platforms that fit into your life or career. Example: If you are a photographer, it is probably a good idea to be promoting your work on channels like Instagram or Flickr. There are always new things to learn about how to better your personal profiles. Creating an identity for ourselves online, in this digitally driven world, is vital to promoting our abilities, talents and skills. So maybe it’s time to reevaluate how you use your profiles using well tested practices from business. ![]() By Taylor Pierce Becoming a Victoria’s Secret PINK Campus Representative for Kent State is easily one of the best things to happen to me during my college years. I served as one of two Campus Reps for the 2016-2017 school year, and will continue to serve as one for this upcoming year. I am thrilled and so grateful for this experience, because it is truly unlike any other. Victoria’s Secret PINK is a company that I’ve loved my entire life, and somewhere I could see myself working after graduation. Getting to be a PINK Campus Rep has been a dream come true, and has allowed me to learn about the brand in a whole new way. Being a rep allowed me to see how much work it takes to promote a new trend on campus and how much passion and creativity goes into everything the brand does. I have had so much fun hosting events, creating social media posts and engaging with girls on campus. This year I’m planning even more fun and new PINK ideas with my amazing new co-rep, Samantha Arslanian. Samantha and I just attended the Victoria’s Secret PINK Brand Certification training in Columbus, Ohio last week and it truly was a dream. We got to attend a PINK Festival equipt with a ferris wheel, bounce house, ice cream and hair and face paint stands. Not to mention we all received PINK gift cards to shop the beautiful Easton store and snag the latest PINK styles. Oh and PINK model Zuri Tibby was there to hang out and take photos with. Totally casual. On the second day of training we learned everything we need to know to be the best PINK Reps ever. I really valued this training, and found it very rewarding. It was great to hear from different PINK employees along with former PINK reps and interns. I always feel so inspired leaving this training, and valued beyond belief. That night we attended our very own PINK graduation, and shopped the PINK bus to score even more exclusives. Everything about brand certification felt like a dream. Samantha and I will be recruiting a Campus Team this fall and will be looking for girls that are passionate about PINK to help us plan events and execute fun activities all school year long. We will post all about this on our social handles for those who are interested! We are really eager and ready for the school year to start and are already planning fun ways to get Kent girls excited about the brand. We plan to have a super creative new way to get girls excited about PINK during Welcome Weekend, so be on the lookout for some cool surprises from us on campus. We are so happy to rep PINK this year and we can’t wait to be back on campus. You can stay updated on everything PINK by following us on social media. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat through the username ‘KentStatePINK’ to make sure you don’t miss out on all the fun events during the 2017-2018 school year.
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