My time as the Marketing Communications intern at Venture Outdoors is winding down, and it has offered wonderful insight into a possible career path.
To be completely honest, I don't think my classes at Michigan prepared me for this internship. My background in Psychology and Sustainability helped keep me interested in my work, but I never sat at my desk and directly applied my coursework to my job. I never sent created/sent out surveys to customers, and I never helped to make the office more sustainable (except for recycling my plastic forks from lunch).
However, the work ethic that I have developed at UofM has helped me tremendously. My time at Michigan has taught me to Google-search until my eyes start to water, make spreadsheets and analyze data like a monster, and how to write content that's persuasive yet succinct. I used all of these skills in my internship, whether it was researching potential clients or putting together marketing materials.
"Teamwork" is often emphasized in UofM coursework. Surprisingly, my experience from working on a student team has not transferred to my internship. Actually, it was the exact opposite. This internship taught me how to make independent decisions and how to trust my gut. I now feel like I have a good balance of knowing how to work with a team and knowing how to work by myself.
Hi Isabelle! I'm glad that even if you weren't able to apply specific skills from classes at U of M, you were still able to apply over-arching skills. You'll be more prepared now for what will come in the future with the skills you were able to improve over the course of your internship. Best of luck!
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