Marketing Intern Faces Unexpected Challenges During Summer

Name: Humna Saad

Year: Junior

Major: Economics and Political Science

Minor: Asian Studies

CFS Class: Business Field Studies

Employer: Novel Coworking

Before stepping into my internship, I had no idea what to expect in terms of the work I’ll be doing, how my supervisor would be and how my relationship with my co-interns would develop. This summer I worked as a ‘marketing’ intern, but I quickly realized the reality of the situation and how my role was not marketing but more sales-oriented. Instead of cold emailing and cold calling,  I thought I would be creating blog posts, designing posters, and ads that would allow me to learn some marketing skills, but that was not the case. Of course, I do not mind doing tedious tasks, as a lot of companies make their interns do so.  But when you do the same thing for ten weeks every single day, it gets very monotonous and does not allow any creativity. What I did achieve, however, was a great bond with my supervisor who was very understanding and helpful with any questions I had. The only other contact I had with other employees was through emails, which did not allow me to grow my network as much as I hoped to. But I leave the company with a great relationship with my co-interns and supervisor that has developed over the past weeks.  Sometimes your internship does not go the way you expect it to, but it depends on the individual as to how much you make out of it.