First Week

I was SO nervous walking into the first day of my internship this week. Luckily, I loved my first few days. I am working alongside Sara, a sales assistant at Food Network Magazine. She manages a team of four sales reps who are constantly pitching Food Network Magazine to advertisers.

My office was similar and different than what I expected. The main Food Network Magazine offices are in NYC, but since I am based in Chicago, I’m working at with a sales team located at the Chicago Hearst Magazines office. We share an office space with magazines like Cosmo, Seventeen, Marie Claire, and Harpers Baazar,

The job is definitely more corporate and less creative than I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way. I am so thankful for my boss Sara, who has quickly taken me under her wing and taught me so much in just 3 days. She took me around the office the first day and introduced me to a lot of girls (there aren’t a whole lot of guys at Hearst-Sara said there’s 2 men in the Men’s Health department and that’s pretty much it) that represented a bunch of different magazines. Everyone was so friendly and didn’t seem too much older than me, which gives me hope that this is a growing and upward moving field.

Thus far, I’ve learned so much, from how the reps keep track of client presence in magazines they consider their “competition,” to what it takes to build and maintain relationships with clients and agencies. I’ve even begun a presentation about current Food Network stars that sales reps will use in pitches!

More pictures to come, but for now here’s some of the stacks of magazines that are EVERYWHERE, personalized, foodie gifts sent to clients on their birthdays, and an example of what the magazine looks like once we tag the ads in our sales region.