One Cazey Summer

One Cazey Summer

We love interns, and last week we sent our summer intern Casey off in a blaze of glory. Before she went back to college life, we made her write us a tale of her adventures in the creative industry. Want to know what it’s like? Read her guest post below.

The end of summer means it’s time to head back to school, but thanks to an amazing internship at MadisonMott, I will be returning to my final year of college with a lot of new marketing knowledge and experience. The best way to describe my experience would be rewarding. It would be hard to find an internship at a better agency with such a great environment and crew. Not only did I get to learn about the unique world of marketing and advertising in a setting surrounded by talented and imaginative individuals, but I also got to have fun doing it.

I rarely knew what to expect when I walked into the office everyday. There was always something new to be learned. There were days we’d require an extra shot of espresso, but for the coffee enthusiasts here at MadisonMott, that is not a problem. Some days I would be tasked with a project that takes a couple of days to complete, or I’d go to an onsite photo shoot, and other days I paid my intern dues one Staples run at a time.

My first week was a little nerve-wracking because it was all so new, and yet I loved every second of it. It helped having such a great crew (which included a few furry friends) to welcome me. I started out with the simple task of proofreading content for a soon-to-be-launched website, and worked my way up to making edits and additions to the site. It was a great way to become familiar with the client’s products and see how the agency pulls pieces together to work toward a finished product.

A few weeks after starting my internship, I was asked to help with search engine optimization (SEO) for a client’s website. This project was one of the more daunting, although interesting, things I’ve taken on. SEO can be incredibly important, so I was eager to learn something that I knew I would use in my future career. Trying to figure out which keywords would help a site appear higher in the search results list is not as simple as it sounds. But, after learning about the different parts of a site that affect search engine results, the job was actually pretty gratifying.

Another task I liked working on was social media advertising. I have learned to write posts for clients that are engaging and get people excited about a product, instead of just being brushed off as another piece junk on their news feeds. There are so many other things I learned about too, like how to budget a post, when to schedule it so that it reaches the most people, and the different types of advertisements that can be created.

I’ve had to do things like quality assurance that requires hours of looking at the same site to make sure that it works in every browser (not the most stimulating job, but hey, someone has do it). I also had to run errands (more like scavenger hunts sometimes) to pick up things needed in the office or props for social media posts.

This list of skills I learned is long, and includes learning how to create a creative brief, along with project management skills like note-taking in meetings, then using the notes to create tasks for other team members. I also learned some important technical skills like using WordPress, and critical thinking skills for some projects like categorizing the elements of a website being developed. I learned what wireframing is and got to participate in the information architecture process. My job also included some simpler, although equally important, tasks like purchasing stock photos and logging expenses.

Every day I came in, I looked forward to learning about all of the services an agency provides, as well as the different roles that each team member plays in the success of the agency. Sitting in a classroom learning about marketing theories and principles is very different from getting the hands-on experience of working at an agency. I loved being able to work on real projects for actual clients, not just hypothetical ones created by the mind of a textbook author. I feel confident leaving, knowing the MadisonMott team has taught me a great deal of valuable marketing skills that I will take with me when I enter the working world next year.

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We miss you, Casey!