Today is my 5th day at my summer internship at Mullen in Boston and I can tell you already that this is going to be an incredible experience. From the start I knew I was surrounded by the best in the business. During orientation on Monday we got a brief lowdown of who Mullen really is and what this summer could entail. They were sure to mention that they had about 1,400 applicants which were then narrowed down to 350 candidates and from there 37 of us were selected to work at Mullen this summer. I’ve never felt so honored in my life to have made it through such a giant applicant pool.
After our short orientation we were “picked up” by our supervisors. I feel very lucky to have such a great supervisor. Right off the bat I definitely felt that she was ready to trust me and over the past few days I’ve already been able to prove myself a confident intern that is both knowledgeable and ready to dive into anything. Overall I feel Mullen has a giant appreciation for their interns. This positive attitude towards interns has made me feel very included. It has give me a comfort that encourages me to contribute thoughts and ideas.
Additionally, I am really enjoying the company of the other interns. Even though I don’t have the privilege to work with any of them really on a day-to-day basis, I have enjoyed spending my lunch and some time after hours with them. I was surprised how diverse our group is. There are interns from all over the country representing 35 different college/universities. Since many of the interns are not from here, (like myself), it really give me the opportunity to make friends since we are all kinda in the same boat.
Lastly, Boston has been proving to be quite a wonderful setting for this experience. Though it is no New York City, I’ve enjoyed my past few days here and I’m looking forward to exploring more.
Summer Insight Series Take Aways:
So each week we have a “lunch and learn” event with someone from the agency and all the interns where we have the opportunity to learn more about the area of advertising, the people who work at Mullen and their experience of working in advertising and at Mullen.
This week we had a session with Michael Bourne, SVP Group Account Director, PR/SI. Each intern was responsible for sending him a tweet containing a question we had about him, what he does and his role at Mullen. With these questions, he created a Prezi that answered a bunch of them with different multimedia examples and stories. Here are my 4 take-aways from this session:
1. “5 billion people may hate you”
Not everyone is always gonna like you and that may totally be out of your control. It is the way that you handle that and move forward is what defines your success in the long run.
2. “We need everyone to think we’re ice cream”
Today, anything can be a medium for advertising. The better you disguise advertising and make it less or a disruption the more people will engage and enjoy receiving it.
3. “Identity is the story you tell yourself about yourself”
Advertisers must be story tellers. It is human nature, from the time we are little to tell stories. Our identity is a compilation of the stories we tell ourselves about our selves. Example: “I am a 21-year-old IMC student from New Jersey that loves theater and traveling.”
4. “Successful people have intelligence, energy and integrity”
It is not enough to just be smart or have energy but to move forward in life and in your career you must maintain a stable level of integrity to climb higher and higher.
Marissa Osowsky 