Furthering My Future Career

My first day working as an intern for CITY was a day to remember because of the new experiences I encountered throughout the day. This was my first internship, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. At the beginning of the day, I felt a combination of excitement and typical first day nerves. I entered in the front doors to the main office where Nicole O’Brien, the human resources manager, greeted me. She began the orientation by going over all the policies, procedures, and paperwork. Shortly after, she gave me a tour of CITY and everything it has to offer. My favorite part of the tour was viewing the large production area because I got to see how the whole production runs and look at all the machinery and equipment. Throughout the tour, I got to meet all the office workers along with some of the maintenance and production team members. Next, I was brought back to the marketing office, also known as The Shark Tank, where I got to meet the rest of the Marketing Department. I was excited for what the first day would bring.

Before I dig deep into my CITY internship experience, I would like to give you some background about myself. My name is Natalie Rudrud. I am currently a student at Upper Iowa University. I will graduate with my Bachelor’s in marketing this upcoming spring, and I plan to begin my Masters in Business Administration in the fall of 2020. I am also the goalkeeper on Upper Iowa soccer team. I was introduced to marketing when I took my first business class in community college, which was the marketing principles course. This class was a turning point for me. I knew that marketing was what I wanted to study. Marketing is something I am very passionate about. I enjoy all parts of marketing from interacting with customers to creating marketing content. Marketing gives me the opportunity to get creative and try new things. Now that you know a little about my background, lets jump back to the first day of my internship.

To start off my first day, the marketing team went over my goals for the internship and discussed what I would like to learn during my time here. As a new intern, I felt that I needed to enter the job knowing how to do everything which was an unrealistic expectation, especially for an intern. After discussing my goals and what I wanted to learn, I felt a large weight lift off my shoulders. I knew that this internship was going to be a good opportunity to learn and get valuable experience. The purpose of the goals was for the marketing team to know what I wanted to achieve throughout the internship, and they used the goals to plan out my internship to help me reach these goals.

Lexie Exline, the marketing coordinator, started off my first day by showing me some of my daily job duties. Some of these duties included the employee uniform program, new customer onboarding packets, and scheduling CITY’s social media posts. She also gave me an overview of all the computer programs, software, and websites CITY uses on a daily basis. While we were on the computer, Lexie showed me my intern email. I got to write an introductory email, which was sent to all of CITY’s managers and individuals of high authority. Within a few minutes, I had already received several responses back. All of the employees at CITY are highly supportive of new interns, and it really shows! The warm welcomes and greetings made me smile, and I felt beyond welcomed. CITY feels like family. I get to collaborate with everyone, and I have gotten to meet some amazing people.

One of my favorite projects I have done so far is owning and managing the CITY social media marketing posts for Instagram. Social media posting is fun overall, and I enjoy seeing my work on display on the different social media pages. For my very first social media post, I was given training on how to use the camera equipment. After I learned the basics, I was sent off to go take pictures around the plant which was a great experience. I liked the freedom of going out on my own to try something I have not done before. It was fun taking photos of the employees doing different jobs. There is always a ton of action within the production area, and it is the perfect area for taking photos. After completing my first photo adventure, I imported my work onto the computer and got to use Adobe Photoshop to create my first social media photo. Next, Lexie introduced me to Buffer,

the website we use to schedule our social media posts. I was very interested in using this site because it speeds up the social media marketing process and is relatively easy to use. The next step was to write my own caption and hash tags to go along with my photo. Caption writing was the most difficult part because it required a lot of brainstorming. To make the caption writing process easier, I looked at past social media work for some inspiration. I would also incorporate some of my own thoughts and ideas into the captions to make my content unique and original while promoting CITY’s core values. I sent my final content to be approved, and my work was posted later that day. It was a great feeling seeing my first official post up on Instagram. I felt a sense of accomplishment, and I learned new things along the way. I would consider it my first true “interaction” with CITY’s audience.

I will be receiving a college credit for this internship but that was not my real reason for doing this internship. My main reasoning for interning at CITY was to gain real world experience in marketing. My advisor recommended this internship to me because she knew I was eagerly searching to find an internship this year. When I heard about the opportunity, I was very interested and quickly started the application process. I am thankful that I was offered the position and got to go forward with this amazing opportunity. I think my past efforts in school, athletics, and extracurriculars, as well as my passion for marketing, have helped me land this internship. If I were hiring an intern, I would want to hire a driven individual with a positive outlook and an interest in learning. I strongly believe professional experience is essential to succeeding in any career field because you learn your strengths and weaknesses, better understand your field, and develop professional mannerisms. I have been at CITY about one month, and I have learned a significant amount in this short time frame. The skills I have learned will help me in my future career and throughout life overall. I know what to expect when entering a marketing career. I understand marketing more overall, and I have gotten to experience working in a professional environment. My hopes are that I can complete the internship with a new mindset compared to when I started in August. I have already seen growth in my marketing and professional skills in these first few weeks. To name a few, I have seen growth in my ability to communicate professionally, advertise on social media, and design graphics. My internship experience has been a positive one so far, and I cannot wait to see what project I will work on next.