This blog post was written by our account services intern, John-Michael Hellman.
I have worked in a number of industries doing a wide variety of things. To name a few, I have bussed tables at a restaurant, moved for a moving company, drove a shuttle bus for a hotel, served as a camp counselor, and been an assistant at a financial advisory firm. As junior year rapidly came to a close, it was time to put everything I’d learned about advertising since I got to college as a wide-eyed freshman, to use.
Going into the internship with HMH, I truly had no idea what to expect. After two weeks, I have a good feel for what HMH wants their interns to do and not do.
What I thought I would do as an intern
- Make frequent coffee/lunch runs for other employees.
- Work on Excel spreadsheets.
- Scan things and do monotonous e-filing.
- Drive documents to/from clients.
- Answer the phone.
What I am actually doing as an intern
- Proofing RFP responses.
- Creating/editing a copy document that will be used for a client’s website.
- Sitting in on meetings with clients, client status meetings, and strategy meetings.
- Singing people the happy birthday song in meetings.
- Learning how to properly use Outlook.
- Using Excel for budget reconciliation spreadsheets.
- Playing with corgis.
- Helping Denise with brand briefs.
- A ton of research for the ongoing “intern project.”