The Diary of an Intern: Hallie Richie

 

As my spring semester of my senior year began to roll around, I was struggling to decide between making the transition to a part-time student and working an internship or taking it easy for my last semester. I applied to internships with little motivation, but was thrilled to get an interview with Altitude Marketing.

The minute I walked into the Altitude office, I immediately knew my sit-back-and-relax plans were out the door. I was greeted by a heated employee debate about which was better — Wawa and Sheetz — and an open, collaborative work environment. (Oh, and I won’t leave you with a cliff-hanger … Wawa obviously won the superiority debate.)

When I learned I got the job, I was thrilled. And I happily gave up daydreams of being a slacking senior.

My first-day jitters were all too real. As I walked in, I was nervous and shaky, however, as soon I stepped through the door, I was greeted with smiles and introductions by every single person in the office. The public relations, social media and events team – Kelly, Lauren, Kelli (a/k/a “K2”) and Lindsey – were a continual support system for me throughout the entirety of the internship and serve as examples of strong professionals focused on the success of their clients.

Thanks to Altitude, I now have a much larger marketing toolbox and I will bring it with me wherever I go.

Each day got a little easier and I was welcomed into the office community thanks to inclusion in client meetings, professional development opportunities and presentations and internal debriefs. The Altitude work environment is a fun and dynamic group of individuals who work together as a well-oiled marketing machine singularly and collectively focused on delighting their clients.

My short time at Altitude provided more hands-on learning in one semester than I have received in the entirety of my education.

The stigma of the typical intern gets tossed out the door as soon as you walk in. I did real work for real clients and was treated as an equal in the office. Yes, my work was edited and sometimes there was more red type on the page than black, but it is an incredibly rewarding process to see your work from the beginning to the end of the process, including the results it generates once it’s published.

In addition to the day-to-day work of writing press releases, social media posts and assisting the public relations team with other ad hoc work, I was given the opportunity to conduct a semester-long research project to redefine Altitude’s best practices for Twitter.

This allowed me to do marketing research that will directly impact the work Altitude does – at least until Twitter changes its game again. It also provided the opportunity to work on and hone my public speaking skills and field questions from the team, which required me to think critically and anticipate the types of questions they may have related to their work.

I will be forever grateful for the experience I had at Altitude. The amount of knowledge I’ve gained is hard to verbalize, however, I’m leaving with an increased understanding of social media best practices, ability to adjust my writing for different clients and social platforms and so much more. Thanks to Altitude, I now have a much larger marketing toolbox and I will bring it with me wherever I go.

— By Hallie Richie, Altitude’s Spring 2018 intern from Muhlenberg College.