By Amanda Plavner, Summer Marketing Intern

Being a marketing intern at Markitects has taught me an incredible amount and I have no idea how to repay them. I have enjoyed every moment of this internship and will remember certain moments with the employees at Markitects as well as with different clients. There was never a dull moment and I am very thankful for that. Accepting a summer intern is a bit of a hassle for companies, especially depending on the intern’s personality. While I never missed a day or said no to any assignments, I am sure that at times I was not the most helpful and was just in the way.

This was the first summer that I really stepped out of my comfort zone. I have held other jobs and internships, but for the fifteen summers prior, I have spent the full summer at Arrowhead Day Camp. I began my journey as a camper, made it to the highest girls bunk, became a Junior Counselor, and eventually made it to the coveted Head Counselor position for my final summer. While a day camp is not considered a marketing powerhouse, I did do a lot of event planning and learned many other skills that I have brought to this internship and will carry with me into my future. Not knowing what a summer was like without my special camp, after saying farewell, I was very nervous to enter the Markitects world. Little did I know, Markitects would become its own kind of home and family in my heart.

The exposure that I have had since my first day here is incredible. Coming from the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business as a Marketing major, I did not have any specific public relations knowledge. Marketing is housed in the business school, while public relations is not considered business, but rather a track in Communications. Markitects has taught me all that I know about press releases and Google Alerts, while also enhancing my marketing knowledge.

Markitects has allowed me to see marketing in the real world – a classroom just does not compare. Doing a lot of market research, I have honed my skills to make me a better researcher in the future. I am truly an expert email address finder now and researching competitors is just not as scary anymore. From prospecting to writing content for websites, I feel like I have experienced a plethora of marketing tasks. I was even able to help with some of the creative content for mail campaigns while creating slogans for different mailings. Marketing includes so many different things and here, I feel I was exposed to it all. Many other companies would not have been able to show me as much as Markitects has made visible for me.

While I was able to contribute to many projects, my favorites include a lot of the creative work as well as analytics that I played a role in. Since I was little, I have always had a strong passion for data. Working with websites and social media have allowed me to use Google Analytics, which has encouraged my strong data desire even more. Many people would think spreadsheets of numbers are boring, but to me, it was like a dream come true. I also enjoyed browsing iStock photos, which I was never told about in school. In my final week, I even attended a photo shoot, which was probably one of the biggest highlights of my internship. Watching the photos and the content come together was like magic to my eyes. Since I had worked on a lot of biographies for the people in the pictures and felt as though I knew them, the experience was even more fascinating.

I have come a long way since my first few days at Markitects when I got lost trying to find the post office, which is about a block away from the office. I have also mastered the skill of getting coffee, even in torrential downpour. While everyone jokes that these are intern tasks, these skills are a foundation for my future. An internship teaches you more than what is just expected and applicable to your major or field. All students should participate in an internship if they are able to as there is just so much to learn; each person and company have their own story to tell.

Some skills that I have learned and expanded on while at Markitects:

• Phone, email, in person communications
• General business rules and norms
• Market research (master LinkedIn searcher)
• Website content
• Excel Spreadsheets
• Social media marketing
• Writing blogs
• Choosing and purchasing promotional material
• Data analytics

Overall, I am so thankful for everything that I have learned at Markitects. I have met so many people and learned about many different companies, for which I am also thankful. I only wish the best for all that I have interacted with during my time as a marketing intern at Markitects. Thank you, Markitects.