Student Internship Experiences

Katie Morse, B.S., Business Management '06
Concentration: Marketing
Company: Bronto, Durham NC

Q. Why did you pursue an internship? And why did you accept the one you did?

A. Working was not a choice for me, as my parents do not pay for my living expenses or tuition. For me, and for many of my fellow students, working while studying is a necessity, not a choice.

Q. What were you looking for, and how did you go about getting a 'match'?
A. I was looking for a job that would build upon my previous skills, but also provide new experiences and responsibilities. I started looking on ePack, and luckily found a selection of internships on there. I actually accepted another internship before applying for Bronto, and I really applied just because the internship was too good to give up. I had worked at a PR agency while studying abroad, and Bronto's product provided a solution for one of my main tasks while at the PR agency - sending out press releases, client updates, and general email marketing. I had experience in NOT using an email marketing solution, and was very interested in working for a company that produced the solution – I saw a direct benefit.

Q. How did you prepare yourself to start working for the company? Or what did you [or the company] do to help you get 'oriented'?

A. I read every section of the company website, and signed up for a free 30-day trial of the software to prepare for working at Bronto. I basically used the software to operate a very small-scale email marketing campaign, just to two of my other email accounts. I played around with formatting, with tracking options, and even created my own template with my very basic HTML knowledge. Once I started working at Bronto, I had the usual orientation, as well as conversations with coworkers in different departments (sales, engineering, finance). One of my training objectives was to eat lunch with different Bronto employees, which I still am working on (we go out to eat a lot!).

Q. What are you doing for the company?

A. I am responsible for analyzing our marketing campaigns. This ranges from analyzing pay-per-click, banner campaigns, PR campaigns, viral marketing, and other miscellaneous campaigns. I also copyedit marketing materials occasionally, though we do have a part-time writer who is responsible for most of our written communications.

Q. Are you seeing any benefits to yourself now, as a student? Is this experience helping you focus your career plans, understand the reason being your coursework, reinforcing what you're learning in class, etc.?
A. Yes. I find that material in my classes is reinforced, and that I have a better understanding of much of the material - due in part to seeing direct benefit from its application in my working life. I also find that I have more confidence in professional and academic situations, due in part to my work experience and interaction with executives, and also due in part to my active participation in Alpha Kappa Psi.

Q. Anything else you'd like to say to your fellow students about internships.

A. I think that whether or not a student NEEDS to work, they should. It may just be for five hours a week, but real-world experience is VITAL when you reach your senior year and are looking for jobs. Many companies also offer full-time jobs after graduation, though this is far from a standard practice that one should come to expect (don't expect it).

Whether internships pay or do not pay, they are useful to have. I would encourage other undergraduates to start as soon as possible – my first internship was in my sophomore year. I feel that my three years of work experience in my field of study, as well as one year international of experience has made me more marketable. Having worked in a professional setting has helped me learn to communicate and act professionally, plus I have gained real-world skills, knowledge, and abilities.

Her supervisor, Jon Norris, added the following comments:

We are a rapidly growing start-up company. As a result, we tend to have a very heavy workload but may not have the manpower to get everything done. We've found that we can meet our resource needs and ultimately gain valuable team members by hiring highly talented students.  At this point, 5 of our 23 employees are interns, and we're currently interviewing for a sixth internship. Of our other interns, one is majoring in computer science, one is a double major in communications and multidisciplinary studies focusing on multimedia and graphic design. The other two are from UNC, one in Information science and the other in the English masters program.