As I sat crisscrossed in my bed, I watched as my laptop’s clock switched from 12:04 to 12:05 a.m.
Great, there goes getting my eight hours of sleep. It was the night before my first internship and I was flooded with a mixture of excitement and utter panic.
I had just finished my junior year at Liberty University and other than a few tag-along events with my school’s radio station; I had zero “real-life” experience. My mind raced with the usual first day questions as I made my way to the door. Was I overdressed – or worse yet, underdressed? Had I overlooked any crucial emails? Would I experience some sort of Anne-Hathaway-Devil-Wears-Prada nightmare?
As I walked through the door, my mind was instantly put at ease.
I was immediately greeted by Lauren, the public relations, social media and event specialist; Kelli (also known as K2), the public relations, social media and events coordinator; and Kelly, the public relations and digital communications director. They would be my team for the next three months. While I worked the closest with them, the rest of Altitude made no hesitation in accepting me and adding me as part of the overall team, as well.
Generally, when people hear “internship” they think of being bored out of their minds and running around aimlessly picking up coffees and ordering lunches and other errands that no one else wants – or has time – to do.
This, however, was not the case at Altitude. After a few introductory meetings on my first day, it was full speed ahead from there. Each day, Lauren and K2 had a production schedule set up for me that included a broad range of tasks, giving me the full, on-the-job learning experience.
My three months at Altitude proved to be the most beneficial and rewarding experience of my life to date.
My days began to fill up with writing tweets, LinkedIn posts and Facebook posts; managing all the social media accounts; researching events, awards, and new social media tools; composing press releases; posting content to websites; and sitting in on internal and external meetings with clients.
On top of learning the ins and outs of PR and social media, I was mesmerized by the amount of teamwork and dedication that goes into running Altitude smoothly. Each individual plays a unique role in the marketing process, but they magically fit together like a puzzle to truly become an integrated marketing agency.
My three months at Altitude proved to be the most beneficial and rewarding experience of my life to date.
I was taught how to push myself to the fullest potential while thinking outside the box and using my greatest creative capacity. I even touched up on those always-dreaded public speaking skills having to present to the full Altitude team during the company’s weekly tradition of Monday lunch and learns.
As I sat in on client meetings and phone calls and watched my team brainstorm, strategize and pitch ideas to editors, I realized that these are the experiences I wouldn’t get in the classroom. Lauren and K2 were always there asking if I had any questions or what I wished to learn more of, and then took the time to sit down and thoroughly explain how something works and the reasoning behind it.
I will be forever grateful for the Altitude team and the opportunities that they gave me. Through expanding my B2B marketing knowledge, putting up with my seemingly endless questions, pushing and encouraging me to work outside my comfort zone, entertaining me with their humorous stories, showing me how to come together as a group to produce a final outcome, and most of all for the relationships that I made along the way, my experience at Altitude will be something I will always take with me.
