21 Nov More Than Just a Marketing Internship

The semester is ending and that means so is my marketing internship. My name is Audi Castaneda.

Can I say I fell in love with my internship? Because I did. I have yet to work in an environment that has allowed for me to grow as a person, and as a young professional. This is the first job or internship, where I was not an assistant. Grabbing coffee or filing paper work was not the usual. Instead I spent time learning what to expect in my future career. I definitely learned a lot over these past few months.

Over the past 8 years of attending two different universities, I can only list a few professors who took the time to teach what it would mean to be a young professional within our major. Not saying that I received a terrible education, because I didn’t, but we could have been prepared a little better.

Since August of 2016 I have been working with Kim Beechner at Embark Marketing. This is a company Kim started while getting her Undergraduate degree from University of Incarnate Word. I feel it’s been a blessing to be able to learn and work beside Kim. The opportunity allowed me to improve my writing skills, and learn what would be expected from me as a professional within the communications and marketing field.

I would arrive at the millennial-style office three days a week for about 5 hours each day. There, I would write, crack a couple of jokes, consume a Gilmore Girl amount of coffee & sometimes (if he let me) play with the cat Salem. I was responsible for posting content on various social media platforms for multiple accounts. I also learned about SEO and how to use it and website development. My favorite part was working on live news segments and performing analytical research. 

My “classroom” didn’t just stay within the walls of the office. I was able to attend and experience webinars and marketing mixers provided by the American Marketing Association, and the Public Relations Society of America. These events allowed me the opportunity to network with other professionals in various fields and learn from experts about the newest trends in marketing and communications.

AMA San Antonio Networking Mixer at Mezcaleria Mixtli in San Antonio, Texas

It also helped that we would make work fun from time to time…like this video celebrating National Pickle Day with Jameson Pickle back shots.

I will be leaving this experience with more confidence in myself, and my ability to grow in this field. That is something that over the past 8 years of schooling and other internship work, I was unable to gain. This is not just a post of what my internship was like over the past four months, but more a post about about how working in this environment helps solidify my confidence that this is what I am meant to do.