Life Lessons and Fond Farewells from a Departing Intern

Tomorrow I will make my final trek of the season down the windy mountain that is Main Street in Burlington, Vermont. I will arrive at Marketing Partners, and work the final day of my internship with the team there before saying my goodbyes and hiking back up our local Everest. The semester-long apprenticeship has left me with much more than just stronger calf muscles. It has confirmed a sneaking suspicion of mine that the world of PR and Marketing is where I would like to spend a great deal of my time and energy.

It’s hard to say exactly what it is that has completely captured me about the job. I enjoy the always-changing list of assignments that make every day a complete and utter mystery until it’s over. I enjoy the lack of one right answer to many of the problems I encounter, and the freedom I have to explore my own solutions. And I enjoy leaving the office each day feeling just a little bit better about the work I’d done, as one can only feel when they are continually learning and improving themselves. But none of these alone explains why I know that I have stumbled upon something special. Everyday that I work I find myself getting out of bed just a little bit easier than the days that I don’t. It’s those small, easy to miss hints that suggest I truly care about what I’m doing.

Working with Marketing Partners has also taught me a list of life skills that can help any aspiring intern looking to dip their toes into the working world.

This Isn’t Your Father’s Marketing

Or your mother’s, or great-aunt’s, or anyone who wasn’t born in the last decade. With the rise of Web 2.0, media is now a social experience. Networking with the masses has never been easier, and this puts PR and Marketing into new areas that seem unfamiliar… because they are. The image of Don Draper draining Scotch and cigars behind a Mahogany desk may still be found if you search hard enough, but you better believe there’s also a MacBook on that desk, running Constant Contact and ten browser tabs of Hootsuite taking nibbles from fifteen different social networks.

What’s so important about this image is that we are living in a hyper-advancing period of time, and yet we still manage to keep our feet below us and our heads pointed forward. The way to accomplish this is to realize that even when everything seems to change and distort, the big things never will. PR and Marketing may seem different than they were a generation ago, but they are still fundamentally about the people. Although you may be reaching these people through different sources like social media, being talented at the job can still largely be traced to skills at working with others and knowledge of what others really want. I can’t imagine either of these concepts would have been foreign generations ago, and they won’t be foreign to generations ahead of us.

A wonderfully dire warning many enjoy giving to college hopefuls is that none of the top jobs ten years from now exist today. That may be true, but I can guarantee that the skills needed for them do.

The Difference Between Deadlines and Water Coolers

There are two distinct work environments that I have come to expect from my time at Marketing Partners. The first is the Deadline. This consists of the office in an organized state of determination akin to Olympic games, in which every sentence has a purpose and every hand is gripping a coffee cup. The second environment is the Water Cooler, after the deadline has been hit with gusto and everyone finds themselves a little lighter in their seat. Conversation turns more casual and less deliberate. In our open office setting, this can occur while we work at our desks, and does not require an actual water cooler (which we do have, as evident from my habitual mid-morning cup of tea.)

Both of these environments serve wonderful and essential purposes, and could not exist without the other. The Deadline allows us to deliver what we’ve promised to the client. It is also spectacular to watch. I can say without bias or motive that everyone who works for Marketing Partners is one of the best at what they do, whether that be PR, Graphic Design, Product Managing, or Web Development. Whenever I see the team working away, I am reminded of the old comic books I used to read. In those, like in our office, everyone has their special skill that merges with other to create an unwavering force. I believe the Deadline brings out the super hero in everyone.

The Water Cooler is equally essential. It is when everyone learns the most about each other on a personal level. It is also when casual conversation on work can lead to less casual breakthroughs. I was told early on that one ear should be open at all times. Listening to the banter during casual moments is when I learned the majority of what each person’s job entailed, what recent updates were going on with each client, and what joys or frustrations my coworkers were currently experiencing. This cathartic release allows everyone to work at their optimal level of efficiency when duty calls.

What is equally important is the ability to tell the difference between the two environments and how to act accordingly. When headphones are on, so is a deadline.

PR Isn’t Brain Surgery But It’s Just as Stressful

No one is going to die if that press release is sent late. And yet PR executives have the sixth most stressful job in America, according a recently published article by Forbes. Keep in mind that Military Personnel, Military General, and Firefighters lock down the first three spots.

When I told my coworkers that I was looking to pursue a job in Public Relations, the quick, unintentional and simultaneous laugh they gave before they said “good luck” may have been a little unnerving. While working with continuous deadlines for continuous clients is no doubt a stressful endeavor, I will try to keep reminding myself that no one is going to die. And even when time seems to not be on my side, I can still pause for a few seconds, take a couple of deep breaths, and then continue the heart attack that I absolutely adore.

A Final Thought

To conclude, I had a wonderful semester interning with Marketing Partners. Through the skills I was taught, projects I worked on, and people I met, I was able to experience a real office setting and gain perspective that a college classroom will never deliver.

Internships, as Marketing Partners and thousands of other businesses offer, allow for learning to not solely be defined as staring at a lecturer for an hour and a half. For many students like myself, practical and real-world learning is the motivator they need to keep themselves passionate. To everyone reading this who has grown weary of the college lecture learning style, I urge you to look for an internship. Whether it is in PR or pottery, find what you are passionate about and start doing it. Do not let your education be limited to scheduled classes. It is too easy and too unsatisfying.

To apply for Marketing Partners’ Internship program, visit http://www.marketing-partners.com/internships. They do absolutely fantastic work and I could not have chosen a better internship.

Thank you to everyone at Marketing Partners for encouraging my growth, supporting my endeavors, and making me feel welcome every single day.