What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" It’s a question we’re asked from the time we begin kindergarten until we graduate college. As a child, my answer to this question changed many times and at different points in my life included a rockstar, a writer, a school counselor, a fashion magazine editor, a geneticist, and a variety of other career choices. I am now heading into my final year at Indiana University and will graduate with a degree in marketing. While the question is usually phrased more like, “What do you want to do with your degree?” I have somewhat struggled over the past few years to find what I really want to be when I “grow up.” My ideas of possible career choices have changed as many times during my college career as they did when I was an imaginative young elementary school student.
Marketing is a word that can be hard to define, and that’s because it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and companies. There are a variety of career paths I can take come May of next year, and that has been a little overwhelming when making future plans. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to intern at Villing & Company this summer, and my experience here has provided me with the insight and guidance I needed to feel confident about my path after graduation.
During my time here at Villing, I have mainly worked on the McDonald’s account. I was astounded to hear on my first day that I would be helping with projects for over 80 McDonald’s in Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan. Each day has been different from all the others, and things never seemed boring or repetitive. I was always excited to come into the office to see what clients we would be meeting with or what promotions we needed to get ready for. This internship has shown me how an agency really works and has given me a good first look at agency-client relationships.
While I have learned a lot from all of the projects I have completed at Villing this summer, I have especially enjoyed working with social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook. It is one thing to have a social media presence, but it’s another to actually know what you’re doing. Villing really analyzes its strategy to make sure that their efforts are bettering their clients’ businesses and allowing them to interact with the public in a positive, productive manner. How many interns can say that they tweeted from a McDonald’s account or wrote copy for a McDonald’s Facebook page?
I am so grateful to everyone who helped shape my experience at Villing and who taught me so much about agency life. Thanks to this internship, I can now answer questions about my “grown up” career path with much more knowledge and confidence.
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