Employer
Rauland, a division of AMETEK, Inc.
Internship Title
Social Media Marketing Intern
What were your duties?
I pitched content to post on the company's Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles by finding relevant industry articles to post about and discuss the company's solutions. I also performed competitive analyses on other companies' websites and social media accounts. Other than that, I had random assignments like creating a blog post for an upcoming product launch event and analyzing event attendance trends and forecasting expected attendance rates for this year's event. The longest-term project I had other than managing the social media was researching SEO (search engine optimization) opportunities for the website, pitching the adjustments to the VP of Communications and Online Programs Specialists, and then editing the website to fit those adjustments.
What did you most enjoy about your internship?
My favorite thing about the internship was how incredibly friendly and sociable the other employees were. The other interns and I were treated with such respect and it was overall a really comfortable, collaborative, and fun environment to be a part of. In terms of material work that I enjoyed, I learned EVERYTHING about search engine optimization just from being given the open-ended task of "improving the SEO of the website". Because it was such a broad task on something that I new literally nothing about previously, I had to research the topic top-to-bottom, have a complete understanding of it, present it to higher-ups so I could explain it to them, and then apply the adjustments.
What was the most difficult aspect of the internship?
The company I worked for was a B2B (business-to-business) manufacturing company that produced school and hospital communications systems. This meant that the content that was industry-relevant wasn't the easiest to find, especially because I was advised to stay away from topics like school lockdowns, which is a prominent feature of one of the product lines.
How did your experience at ILLINOIS and in the College of Media prepare you for your internship?
I think that the best experience I had at Illinois that prepared me for the internship was my work with the Social Media Team at The Daily Illini, it taught me about the importance of creating enticing, clickable posts and how to use analytics to schedule posts.
How has your internship prepared you for a career?
I think the most important aspect of an internship, besides learning the ins and outs of the industry and relevant skills, is establishing what you do and don't like in a workplace. This can be as small as discovering what size company you thrive in, to as significant as realizing you don't work well in a specific realm of advertising. After working with Rauland, upon graduation I'll know exactly what type of company will be a good fit.
What recommendations do you have for other students about doing an internship?
During your internship remain open-minded as to your responsibilities, don't be afraid to ask questions, meet people (especially other interns!), write thank you cards to your bosses at the end of the summer, and remain connected on LinkedIn.