Interning at Sterling Jewelers

by Sydney Baltrusaitis

After spending more than three months at Sterling Jewelers Inc, I have learned valuable skills from hands-on experience. Part of my job as a market research intern is to monitor social media mentions made about Kay, Jared and competitors of the two. Prior to my internship, I was uncertain how brands create content for social media channels, and time and effort behind it.

A valuable learning experience for me was assisting in the content development for Jared. I was able to give suggestions and recommendations along with provide additional content. Before the content was scheduled for posting, the draft was seen by a variety of people and was revised multiple times. I was able to assist during this process and noted valuable feedback from our social media agency.

During my time spent interning at Sterling, a commercial that was later seen as controversial by some was being aired. Based on social media mentions that came through a monitoring tool, all sentiment was recorded. Following, all the decisions made were based on research, regardless of the negativity that may be surrounding a topic at the time. I found this experience important, because it shows that every decision should have validity.

I was able to develop a voice for Kay and Jared on social media channels. In addition, understanding the tone of a comment as positive, negative or neutral has been beneficial during research projects. The skills learned at Sterling will be able to help me in the future.

As my internship is coming to a close, I am able to identify that I want to go into corporate public relations. Prior to my internship, I was unsure what culture was the best fit for my personality.

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