My Internship Experience

More than two weeks ago I started a digital marketing internship at Zurn Industries, a plumbing manufacturing company headquarter in Milwaukee, WI. The summer after my freshman year I was fortunate enough to get a marketing internship at Miller Electric, a welding equipment manufacturer in Appleton, WI. But, my interest in pursuing a career in marketing started my senior year of high school as I participated in a student marketing internship through a local marketing firm. After spending my senior year and a summer working full time, and a school year working both remotely and in the office part time, I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. From learning how to weld to understanding social media strategies for large companies, each internship has taught me really valuable information that has helped me grow both personally and professionally. 

For starters, the dual credit internship at Willems Marketing allowed me to spend two hours during the school day working on real world projects in group settings. One of my favorite projects was creating a logo for the Connecting Care Clinic using Adobe Illustrator, which I even received a Certificate of Recognition for from the Appleton Area School District. I also had the opportunity to partner with a videographer to produce a video for the AASD highlighting notable staff members. This project taught me the interview process along with video editing skills. Towards the end of the school year, I had the opportunity to lead a project called LAUNCH. LAUNCH is a career based learning luncheon for high school juniors and seniors. Throughout my own high school experience, LAUNCH was just an idea, but I was able to be apart of the brainstorming, recruiting, and executing of the first annual event. By working alongside Huzzard ,a technology solutions company, and other local businesses, we organized an event filled with tours, networking, and descriptions of possible career paths in almost every area. 

Because of the connections I made through Willems Marketing, I was fortunate enough to receive an internship offer the summer after my freshman year as a Marketing Intern at Miller Electric. Even after living in Appleton my whole life, I was unaware of how big and well-known this company was in the welding industry until I began my work. Over the summer I worked full time under the welding education and workforce development segment. Most of my projects were more analytical and involved a lot of spreadsheets, but I also got to continue some creative work as well. When I started in May, things were well underway for the first annual Instructor Conference, which was a three day seminar for over 90 welding instructors from across the U.S. to learn more about industry news and techniques for their classrooms. This was one of my main projects and involved a wide variety of tasks including ordering and assembling safety packs, creating informational documents, handling registration and timekeeping during the event, and organizing signage. I also was exposed to a lot of technical information as I created specification sheets and e-learning modules for different products. My supervisor noticed that I enjoyed writing through my involvement with Her Campus, and had me write multiple articles for the company newsletter. Throughout the school year I continued working remotely from school and became an Admin for OpenBook, the online learning management system for welding instructors. Along with approving or denying pending accounts in OpenBook, I designed different flyers for events and scholarships throughout the year. My experience at Miller Electric was my first exposure to a professional environment, and I really enjoyed everyone I worked with and the projects I got to work on, but working remotely became relatively difficult and I later decided that I wanted to stay in Milwaukee for the summer.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to start working at Zurn as a Digital Marketing Intern in Milwaukee, WI where I will be continuing to work over the summer full time. I am so excited for this next chapter as I will be working more with social media and email marketing. After being exposed to creative and analytical aspects of marketing, I am really interested in possible following a career path in digital marketing. Regardless of what kind of career you are hoping to pursue, it’s so important to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. I never thought that I would enjoy working in manufacturing, but after almost a year of working in the welding and plumbing industries, I have been pleasantly surprised with my job responsibilities. Take advantage of opportunities to make new connections and get involved. If it weren’t for my internship at Willems Marketing, I never would have got the experience at Miller Electric which led me to Zurn. Also, being an active member in organizations on campus like Her Campus really allowed me to continue doing the things I love while creating a writing portfolio that my supervisor acknowledged. Whether you’re a senior or a freshman, an engineering or business major, the possibilities for your future are limitless, and it’s up to you to take advantage of your experiences.