While a Communication Studies major may seem like a logical foundation for the broad field I am interested in pursuing a career in, I've found through my internship that "real-world" work encompasses tasks requiring knowledge in a wider variety of aspects than my university courses are preparing me for.
My Communications prerequisite courses have provided me with a background in what constitutes "communications" and into analytic and research methods. However, I've utilized none of those skills in my internship. Instead, I've found that Excel/other Microsoft programs, presentation skills, and attention to detail/re-checking have been the most vital tools of a stand-out ad salesperson, and they are skills I want to improve on. Since I decided on my major late, and still have a lot of catching up to do, I do not have room in my schedule for "extra" classes that will develop the skills I am now seeing as crucial to being a professional.
I feel like I've learned more in this internship than I ever could have in a classroom. My most recent project was creating a presentation for a major food advertiser in Food Network Magazine, compiling ads from the top food advertisers in our magazine and analyzing what makes them successful. In school, we learn that every sentence, every paragraph, should have an argument. My supervisor for this project, a sales executive, emphasized the same thing, but for a presentation: every slide should make a point, relate to the other slides, and convey an overall "thesis," the point of the presentation. The feedback I received after each draft I sent my supervisor taught me new lessons on how to put together a "real-world" presentation. I'm grateful for the opportunities my boss and other sales execs have given me to work on real-world projects for major clients.
I completely agree with everything you say in this post! Although I'm not a Marketing major at Michigan, I'm working for two Marketing employees and am learning so much. It's definitely so beneficial to have experience, because it's so much information that may not be taught in the classroom!
ReplyDeleteI noticed that too with my internship. Your school work becomes a lot less useful than you think. If only UofM had a course on basic Excel because I am also doing a lot of that too. A lot of the stuff you learn though in an internship can help prepare you for the field of communications!
ReplyDeleteWow sounds like you had a great time at your internship! It's so cool you see the connection between what you are doing now to what you learned in school!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Comm major, so I don't know if any of the upper-level classes teach those skills that you learned at your internship. But I do think it's a problem that at Michigan you can only major in "Communications," and not something more specific, like print/online journalism.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! In my marketing internship, I was constantly using Excel and other industry-specific software that I could not have learned in a classroom!
ReplyDelete