As the semester winds down, school comes to a close, and graduation is in sight, I can hardly believe my eight-month internship with Altitude Marketing is coming to an end. It feels like yesterday I walked in the door for my first day … and now I’m leaving with more experience and insight than I could have asked for.
If you had told me I’d be attending trade shows along with presidents and CEOs of Altitude’s clients, creating marketing plans to be implemented in real life, or writing press releases that were distributed all over the Internet, I never would have believed you. How many people can say that they’ve accomplished that within such a short amount of time, or even at all during an internship? Most of my friends spent their internships filing papers, running errands and making coffee. While I definitely had some of those moments, I also got the chance to participate in real projects that had a real impact.
My internship has familiarized me with a wide range of marketing strategies. From press releases, to learning about SEO and the inner workings of websites on WordPress, my toolbox is much fuller than it was when I started and I can move on confident in my abilities.
Just one of my projects – that I was responsible for owning – was managing the social media for the Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Show. I wasn’t just “helping” out. I was given the opportunity to write numerous press releases, distribute them and learn the ins and outs of what goes into such a huge event. From having free range to come up with social media content and by working with a team to learn what messaging worked, what didn’t, and receiving feedback on why certain posts might not make sense, I began to understand the client, what it needed and what its goals were. I also was given the opportunity to interact with the account management team to gain a further understanding of the big picture. It wasn’t just about the show, I learned.
In addition, I’ve become more familiar with a wide range of marketing strategies. From press releases, to learning about SEO and the inner workings of websites on WordPress, my toolbox is much fuller than it was when I started and I can move on confident in my abilities.
Altitude has taught me how to look at things from a big picture to the nuts and bolts and everything in between when working with a client’s PR and marketing strategies.
As I move on to graduation, I leave Altitude with an experience that preps me for the real world, and the confidence I need to succeed post grad. I’ve landed a position in Nordstrom’s management program, a company I’ve always dreamed of working for but never expected to actually happen. Because of this I can safely say I’m excited for what the future brings and my goal of working in corporate fashion are in sight.
I can’t thank Andrew, Stan, Gwen, Kelly, Jaime, Fred, Jeremy, Justin, Adam, Liesel, and Brent enough for giving me this amazing opportunity to learn from people who have so much talent and expertise in what they do.
