by Virginia Ficker
During the summer following my sophomore year at James Madison University, I participated in an internship with the marketing department at a Lifecare Retirement Community (my dad is the vice president) in Southwest Florida. I met with the assistant vice president of marketing in January and she offered me the opportunity to work as an intern with the community’s television station, monthly magazine, and special events that take place over the course of summer months, all under the umbrella of “marketing.”
The internship widened my scope of ideas for careers after college. I am an English and writing major and had always thought I would do something in the writing field. I did not have a clear understanding of all the opportunities there might be, and had assumed I would have to write for a newspaper or write novels. It never occurred to me that proficiency in writing would afford a plethora of opportunities in many fields, including business.
What is more, I had never considered a career in marketing. However, that summer taught me that the skills I had acquired in English courses were valuable in the corporate world. What was especially fun—and revealing—for me was writing for the community magazine. The time I had spent taking writing classes had equipped me well, and I wrote dozens of creative and fresh articles for the magazine, interesting features on residents and their lives before retirement.
When the internship ended, my boss told me enthusiastically that if I ever wanted to come back, I would have a job waiting for me. Those words gave me new confidence in myself and my ability to achieve great things in the real world post-college.
I returned to the Lifecare Retirement Community for a second summer position, but this time as “marketing assistant,” rather than as an intern. My responsibilities as the assistant were similar to those I had had as an intern, with one major change: my boss put me in charge of writing a comprehensive internship program for a group of five college students who were coming for the summer to fulfill a requirement for a business degree from Florida Gulf Coast University.
On the first day as the marketing assistant, when my boss told me what I would be doing, I was stunned and intimidated. I was confident in my capability to handle my responsibilities writing scripts and filming segments for the television station and writing stories for the magazine; I didn’t know if I had it in me to take responsibility of “boss” for the interns who, in some cases, were older than I!
I got straight to work, drawing up plans and preparing my co-workers to host these five students for the summer. A week later, I stood in front of five college women and prepared them for a summer of fun and valuable experience. The internship program that I created was based on my own experiences of the summer before. I took the things that I had learned, specific experiences that had taught me how to work within the magazine, event planning, and television station, and found ways to teach the same things to my interns.
It was difficult to find work for five students because I had shouldered the responsibilities the previous summer by myself. However, I soon found ways to use the skills and time of the interns to accomplish bigger goals for the company—more stories, more pictures, more television segments, and more elaborate events. The marketing department thrived with the input of these five incredible interns.
At the end of the summer, one of my most unenthusiastic interns told me that she had been surprised by how much fun she had as an intern and how much valuable experience she had gained. I gained fresh confidence in myself as a leader.
When I consider what I had gained that summer, I realize that I had, for the first time, learned how to manage people. The biggest challenge, I realize, was learning to trust myself and my knowledge of the business enough to lead others. Once I had gained that confidence I was able to lead with faith in myself. Furthermore, my boss told me that when I finished school I could come back to work for the company in her department full time—there would always be a job waiting for me.
The summers I spent in the marketing department at this Lifecare community were some of the most rewarding months of my life. Aside from the exceptional training I received in magazine writing and production, television production, and event planning, I learned to believe in myself as a leader and an instructor. I realized that I am truly ready to enter the world and the work force with tenacity.
Now that I am getting ready to graduate in May 2008, and am searching for jobs, I feel confident submitting my resume to a variety of companies. I know that when I describe the two summers I spent in this marketing department show potential employers that I have gained valuable insight from working in the world of big business. Even though my “major” reads English, I have more far-reaching skills than only literature.