Should I Be Here? - The Art of Interning
“You should be in marketing,” a friend of mine once said. I never gave that statement much thought back in the day. Not until my junior year of college that is. The concept of marketing and advertising was foreign to me; it was something I have always participated in as merely a consumer, never a practitioner. Until the day my friend asked me what type of car he should buy. I had persuaded him to purchase a particular car by applying the simple concept of supply and demand, and he was intrigued. He ended up purchasing the car and was very satisfied, hence the comment he made.
Trying to find your vocational interest is no simple task. It is not just desire, but through action in which we can achieve our goal. You will never know what a fruit or certain food tastes like until you take a bite and then you decide for yourself – is it delicious? If so, then keep eating.
They say it’s a dark and scary world out there and of little hope for one to be able to obtain the career they want. I suppose times have changed, and from my own experience, most college students I spoke to don’t know where they will be after graduation due to various reasons. I was quite shocked and made a conclusion – the college degree is no longer a golden ticket to obtaining a post higher education career.
But there’s a secret weapon, and to no surprise, it’s experience. Most people may think of experience as simply “do” and “show.” While that is not false in any way, I believe that experience is to find out whether you’re taking the right stairs to achieving your dreams or whether you’re in the right level or not.
And I desire experience.
I came to know the world of marketing and advertising when I took an advertising course at Bethel College. As a class, we visited Villing & Company, and here, I witnessed the end result of some of the agency’s work, and it was love at first sight. Creativity has always been my passion, and communication and media arts as my field of study made the concept of marketing and advertising a very appealing career to pursue. I desired to create my own secret weapon in the form of experience so I joined the agency as an intern in January.
Quickly, I found out that this is an intriguing field. It also gave me hope to someday utilize my critical thinking and passion for producing appealing campaigns that are both strategic and creative, especially for businesses that have kept this area alive. I have always been passionate about empowering the community, and what better way than to do it than through the profession I have come to enjoy.
During my time here at the agency, I have witnessed how the structure of an agency works and how the contribution from each individual comes to fruition to create effective campaigns. I also truly felt like I was part of the team and constantly gained knowledge from my everyday tasks which included business prospect research, data collection, assisting with creative work, attending PR events and participating in various other works.
Going back to the fruit and food analogy, the experience I received as an intern at Villing & Company is essentially my first bite at this brand new world I am embracing. I desire to succeed, but I know that I can’t reach my goal without taking action, and this is a part of that. The agency staff are among the most professional people I have seen, and they have inspired me to continue to prefect my professionalism, work hard and further develop my sense of creativity.
Should I be here? I don’t know, but that was my answer five months ago. Ask me now, and because of what I have experienced through my internship, I will say, “Yes.” After all, now that I have learned to always seek out opportunities and take action – and saw what came out of that initiative – it will surely assist me in someday working for a company that takes the same kind of initiative to produce the best work possible for its clients. Villing & Company will always have my thanks for that inspiration.
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