Here’s what they don’t teach you in school.
Leaving sophomore year at Temple University with only one semester’s worth of Advertising courses under my belt, you can imagine how nervous I was getting while getting ready to click “Accept” on the Google Invite to the “Meet the DAY Vision team” event sent to me at the beginning of summer.
My eagerness to discover what it was like getting real world experience in an agency combatted my nerves and I enthusiastically waited for the DAY to arrive. With a newly declared concentration in both Brand Strategy & Research and Account Management, I had a million and one ideas racing through my mind as to what I might want to make my future career in. The truth is, no matter how many “Day in the Life of a Digital Marketer” YouTube videos you watch, you’re not much closer to your answer. There’s no way to truly know what you’re walking in on, right?
My version of “A Day in the Life of a Digital Marketer”.
My position during this internship was to assist as a digital content creator for the agency and our clients.
This meant that I was responsible for assisting in the management of multiple social media accounts, curating blogs and newsletters, taking photos when needed, planning marketing campaigns with the team, and also working on content and copywriting for our clients’ websites. Each day was different (and exciting!) which is something I loved so much about it.
Our typical week starts by having a team meeting to discuss what our priorities were for the week. After that meeting I have a list of tasks that are priority – whether that was scheduling social media posts for the next week/month, writing my next blog for a client, checking and answering social engagements for an account, etc. The exciting part, though, is the fact that new tasks to work on undoubtedly popped up throughout the day. It could be anything from doing industry research on how to smoothly and successfully implement a delivery system into a locally owned farmers market to creating a strategy for a new clothing apparel line. I loved the spontaneity!
At a creative advertising agency, don’t work with just one brand/company but instead have the ability to focus on many different clients in a variety of verticals. Because of this, I’ve been able to learn so much about not only marketing, but also about the world! Who would have known I would have come out of this internship knowing so much about the senior living, farmers markets, optical labs, charter schools, aviation, and cyber security industries?! I could play a killer game of trivia after just one month at this agency!
In advertising it’s okay to be “THAT guy”
One of the key takeaways that I learned in my time at DAY Vision is to stay curious and question EVERYTHING, always.
Whether you’re proofing a soon-to-launch website, formulating a new campaign idea, or completing industry research on your client’s competition, you should be trying to find the motive behind everything that happens and by doing so, you have the ability to see things from an entirely new perspective.
I learned this lesson from the CEO of DAY Vision, Danny. Before beginning any assignment, he recommended we do our research – take time to click around sites and be an investigator. He told us that this is how you find solutions to problems that people may not have even thought existed to be begin with.
Whether you are taking an internship for the first time or in an advanced position, I suggest you apply this advice to your life. I entered this internship every single day so genuinely excited to learn and discover each new element of the job. I learned that if you are ready to ask “why?” and explore each topic, you will push boundaries and get even more out of the internship experience than you would have thought possible.
It’s great to be optimistic, but it’s also important to be critical when viewing your own/your clients work. You will never grow if you don’t decide to question absolutely everything! I was taught to be “that” person who asks many questions in order to add some value to the team. Don’t sit idly by, even if you feel like you lack the experience! That’s how you learn, grow, and begin to see new opportunities appear.
Time works differently in the real world.
I love my school and the education I am receiving, but I have to admit, there’s no way to experience what the marketing industry is really like until you’re knee deep in assignments.
Time works a little differently in the agency setting. In the time that a professor would give you to complete one assignment, you are finishing up your seventeenth assignment in the field. Where a professor would expect you to mull over a question asked at the end of class and bring a well-thought out response the next day, you have less than 15 seconds to produce the same quality answer in a conference. School has done an abundant amount in preparing me for my internship, but there’s really nothing like working in an environment like DAY Vision.
Looking back on this summer, I can honestly say that my time spent at DAY Vision has been the most beneficial experience of my entire professional and educational career.
Not only am I certain that my skills have grown as a digital marketer, but I have seen an extreme amount of personal growth as well. This growth stems from the fact that as an intern here, I was given real tasks, real clients, and real deadlines. On day one of the internship I was given an assignment to complete that by the end of the day was already published and live on a website. DAY Vision doesn’t just let you watch the behind the scenes of an agency. They give you real responsibilities and put their trust in and respect into your work.
The piece of DAY Vision that I will carry with me most of all though is the kindness and creativity that I saw in each member of the team.
In the beginning of the internship process I was on a phone call with DAY Vision’s Senior Designer, Sarah Karess, when she asked me what I wanted to learn or get out of the experience. This was not just a formality in the slightest. Ever since I walked in the door on my first day at DAY Vision my creative comfort zone has been pushed, my knowledge has expanded, and every aspect of what I mentioned on our phone call has been taught to me. The way they took my interests into consideration showed me how much they genuinely care about seeing their interns succeed.
I can confidently say that as I return to school I have a whole new perspective on the digital sphere and what working in the industry truly looks like. I feel more prepared than ever to take on my last two years at Temple University and bring the skills that I learned at DAY Vision along with me to the classroom and into my future.
-Written by Jessette Long
Temple University Future Class of 2021