Meetings at Scoutmob

          One of my favorite parts of my Scoutmob Internship has been my ability to sit in on meetings, because I feel that they truly teach me how the company works and everything that goes on behind the scenes. Last week, I found the all-company meeting and Christmas meeting to be particularly interesting.

            There is an all-company meeting about every three weeks. During last weeks meeting, a member from each team (local and Shoppe) discussed positives and negatives of the past few weeks. For the local team, they discussed how it has been the 3^rd best month since the company was launched. This is great because there were no huge deals that did much better than the others, meaning that the local side of the company is becoming steady and sustainable. On the Shoppe side, they discussed the launch of Blake Lively’s new shopping site, which is very similar to Scoutmob. They talked about what they did and did not like about the products, appearance, ect., and what they can take away from it. After the meeting, there was a breakfast for lunch potluck!

            I also attended a Christmas meeting in which the employees discussed Christmas 2013. The meeting was at 5pm – 6pm on Friday, and in order to get employees a little more interested, my boss, Jarod, made Christmas themed drinks and brought in gingerbread cookies. During the meeting, Jarod shared many statistics regarding the holidays and Shoppe. I found it to be extremely interesting that the season accounts for 30-40% of the company’s revenue, and about 80% of the customers are first time users. There was also a lot of discussion on customer service, which they feel needs to be improved. It becomes very hectic during the holiday season, and being prepared is very important. This meeting was to discuss last year’s holiday season; there will be another meeting to discuss plans for this holiday season.

            I learned a lot from these meetings, and I really enjoyed hearing from employees that I don’t normally work with on a daily basis!

Madrid Internship Post #5

Hi everyone, 
Because I was working with media design and production, which I had learned to use outside of the classroom, I didn’t use any technical skills that I gained from my undergraduate education. However, the social and management skills that I had developed this past year proved to be very helpful during my internship. When I’m in a lecture hall with almost a hundred people, it can sometimes feel intimidating to ask a question. Becoming accustomed to asking a professor to clarify a concept or assignment without fear of being embarrassed gave me more confidence in communicating at my office. Though sometimes there was a language barrier, I knew that my coworkers appreciated that I was trying to practice my Spanish and were patient with me when I didn’t understand all of their explanations. With deadlines constantly coming up in college, I became used to working under pressure. I had to finish a video project my last week there while they were moving offices. By the time I was finished, my computer was the only one left in the office that needed to be packed and moved out. Having the pressure of finishing a project before all the equipment was taken down stressed me out, but I was able to work through it. I didn’t expect my last few days there to be so hectic, but I approached each day as a regular day at the office for me to get my work done and evenutally I created a video that everyone at the organization seemed to enjoy!

Hannah

week 4

In my first weeks here I was intimidated by all the successful people surrounding me. It seemed as if everybody was in medical school or were world renown physicians or researchers. Now that intimidating is still there, but I have realized that I am working for these world renown scientists. I no longer feel out of place. I feel comfortable talking and asking questions to all my fellow coworkers and have come to enjoy this environment. I think that UMASS Medical School has done a fantastic job of including all the interns in events. We receive events to countless seminars, discussions, luncheons, and meetings. They truly want us to experience the school to its fullest. Additionally they set up a meeting with the chancellor for all the interns, which I think was extremely beneficial in making us feel welcome and part of the community. All in all I believe all of my preconceived conclusions were a result of a nervous first year intern, who was thrown into a large and successful environment.

Week 5

Going into college, my writing skills were subpar at best. Because of this, I decided to apply to the Lloyd Hall Scholars program my freshman year. A friend of mine did this previously, and told me it helped her with her writing a lot. She was right. I really felt like I learned how to write my freshman year of college, not perfectly, but definitely much improved. Everything I learned in my writing classes through the Lloyd Hall Scholars program was put into action during this internship. Surprisingly, I was often given assignments that involved writing or editing different things for Barr-Harris. For example, not only did I edit grant applications that are really important to Barr-Harris due to the fact that they are a non-profit organization, but I also was asked to write out certain parts of their grant applications. Additionally, I helped write up reports on their art therapy program: why the children were taken out of class for art therapy, why it was beneficial, and the positive outcomes it had on these children. Furthermore, although I only took some 200-level Psychology classes, I most definitely put the knowledge from those classes towards my internship. Knowing the basic information of Psychology—developmental specifically—was helpful in meetings as well as just talking with my boss or other coworkers. Overall, the University of Michigan is a prestigious school and requires students to be responsible, conscientious, and hardworking. All of these traits that I practice at school have helped me tremendously throughout this internship.

Tennis Tournament at Atlanta Magazine

For the past two weeks at Atlanta Magazine, I have spent my time working at an event with my co-intern, Jessica. In Atlanta from July19th - July 27th, BB&T hosted the Atlanta Open Tennis Tournament. Atlanta Magazine had a tent set up in which they gave out free magazines and 2 year subscriptions at a very low cost (the lowest they have ever offerred). In the most recent issue of Atlanta Magazine, there is a two-page advertisement for BB&T and the Atlanta Open. My understanding is that in exchange for this advertisement in the magazine, the event gives Atlanta Magazine a booth for the event.

I learned a lot of information from customers on Atlanta Magazine and magazines in general while standing at the booth. First, Jessica and I had trouble getting customers to come over to the booth in the first place. I found that it would help to give something out at the booth other than magazines in order to attract customers. Many did not want to carry magazines around with them at the tournament, and we did not have any other free "stuff" to offer. The table next to us was handing out candy and chapstick, and as a result they were much busier than we were. If people come to the booth to get our free stuff, I can then tell them about the subscription. Next, the paying process was an issue and turned many customers away from our great deal. The only way that they could pay was by writing a check or writing their credit card information down on a sheet of paper that we provided. We definitely lost a lot of customers to this process - many do not carry checks with them and many were very concerned about safety when we asked them to write their credit card information down. Lastly, I learned about the current magazine trend. Even though many complimented the magazine and said that they really enjoy reading it, many were not interested in subscribing and said that they are in the process of cancelling most of their magazine subscriptions. While it is definitely disappointing to hear that magazines truly are going "out of style," it's interesting to know the current trend and what will and will not sell.

Working at the tournament was definitely a nice break from the typical office work I have been doing, but it was also excruciatingly hot outside! Even though we only sold a few subscriptions, Randy was very appreciative that Jessica and I were able to work the event.

Looking Back On My Internship at Make-A-Wish Michigan!

If I had to give an overall sweeping statement on how much U of M has prepared me for my internship, I would say, no, not at all. Of course, the work ethic and problem solving skills that I have developed as a result of U of M has been helpful this summer at Make-a-Wish, but I can safely say that coursework from the past two years at U of M never came up during my internship. Psychology doesn’t have much to do with fundraising or development work.

However, looking back on my internship, I have found that fundraising and development work is exciting and stimulating and it is something I can picture myself doing in the future! No two days are the same and you never know what kind of fires you will have to put out, which is good because I get bored easily J  I have realized that people who do development work in the non-profit sector must be very resourceful! Often there isn’t a whole lot to work with, but you have to do your best to make fundraising events worthwhile if you want your donors to be generous and keep coming back.

If I had to choose one thing to do differently in my internship, it would be to sit down with my supervisor at least once a week to talk about how everything was going and discuss my goals and just to chat. I definitely got to work on a lot of different things, but I would’ve liked to have had some sort of project that was completely my responsibility so that I could take more ownership over my work rather than feeling like I was just assisting my supervisor the whole time.

Overall, it has been a great summer at Make-A-Wish! I have met a lot of inspiring and hardworking people and I hope the last few weeks don't go by too quickly. I'm going to be sad when it's over.

Week 5: Looking Back/Overall Insight

Now, as I approach the end of my internship, I have taken the time to reflect on my experience thus far. Throughout my time at Entertainment Tonight I have gained vast amounts of knowledge about the industry. The employees at ET have gone out of their way to make sure that I get the most out of the internship. For example, I have learned how to navigate the systems that are crucial to producing the show. I have gone on 4 different field shoots including Tammy press junket, the ESPYS, Sex Tape premiere, and The Hundred-Foot Journey press junket in addition to various interviews on the lot. Through these interactive shoots I have had a hands-on experience in regard to the world of producing and directing. 

With that being said, so far everything has run pretty smoothly. One situation that I did not expect to encounter was when a producer I had been helping out parted ways with ET. Although this was an uncomfortable situation for everyone at the office, I am able to maintain good relations with the former producer.