Hi! It’s My First Day Y’all!

By: Sara McGee, Media Buying Intern

Sara McGee

Coming all the way from The University of Texas in Austin, I have to say I was nervous about starting off this internship in the big city of Chicago. Though I don’t own a horse and Austin isn’t particularly small, I was worried about being the stereotypical southern girl in the windy city. Much like my first day of Elementary school or my first class in college, my first day at Starcom was a nerve-wracking, exciting beginning to an unmatchable experience thus far. My day started with a fellow intern on our 1-mile walk to work. Walking north up State Street from our dorm, University Center, we could see the Leo Burnett building towering over many of its neighboring structures and exuding so much importance that I filled with anticipation of the day to come. 

Our first stop of the day was at an intern orientation on the 9^th floor where we joined the 36 other interns in excited chatter. The orientation introduced us to the rather confusing breakdown of Publicis Groupe, a tour of the building, and most importantly, which teams we were all assigned to for the summer. 

I was put on the Bank of America sports team, who primarily deals with planning and negotiating network and cable sports spots, a stressful job given the NFL lockout possibilities currently taking place. Once the presentation wrapped up, we all anxiously waited for a member of our new team to pick us up. 

Though we all joked about the possibility of being the “unwanted intern” who was never retrieved by their team, I was one of the last interns waiting and breathed a small sigh of relief when Grant, an Associate Director on the Bank team came to grab me. 

I was given a tour of the “Bank” area (floor 10) and introduced to the team I would be working with for the summer. 

Ironically enough, the sports team consists of one guy and three women. 

Let’s just say I was happy to discover that a lack of sports knowledge wouldn’t be a problem, as I can barely name five Cubs players! I was introduced to the remainder of the sports team in addition to the majority of my floor. Remembering names is not my strong suit so the day was quite a blur. 

Because it was my first day, I ended up shadowing the sports team for the majority of the time to better understand what they all do on a daily basis. Seeing them pull together buy summaries and specs for large corporations, such as ESPN, was exhilarating and made me realize just how large of a company Starcom is. My team was great about showing me how to use different software and introducing me to new media language and documents. Colleen and Emily (better known as Nugget and Kuech) showed me the ropes since they are both Media Associates and know what it’s like as a new-hire. 

Nugget, a 4’11” sports team hire, taught me about EMPS/FMPS and the daily tasks of a Media Associate. 

Colleen "Nugget"

Kuech, or Emily Kuechenmeister, explained the different media tools used by the team and what the client expects out of us. 

Emily "Kuech"

My supervisor Leah, whose Chicago accent I can hear from across the office, made me feel so welcome to the company and gave me a tour of every single floor I would ever find myself on, including where the intern computer lab and office Star Bar were located (both extremely important rooms). I was also shown the 5^th floor office supply room, where you can pick up any type of office material you could ever want, including nice pens, staplers, rulers, tape, highlighters, and a hole punch. 

Leah, "Supervisor"

Meeting my team and seeing the building was just the beginning of me falling head over heels for Starcom.

After I met upwards of twenty people and got made fun of for saying “y’all” multiple times (a Southern habit I just can’t break), I was led around the office to see where everything took place. Most of the floors are set up the same with open cubicles in a confusing maze-like fashion that took me a week and a half to master. There’s also two large conference rooms called North and South where client meetings, status calls, or vendor presentations take place. 

And, most importantly in my opinion, there’s a kitchen/bev station that has FREE pop, cereal, and an array of coffee on every single floor. I’m not even embarrassed to say the initial trip to the bev station was one of the highlights of my first day, though I now have a rather large coffee addiction and feel as if I’m in the restroom far too much in one day…

Bev Station

All in all my first day was a whirlwind of learning the business, going to vendor meetings, listening in on a status call to the client, and taking in the Starcom working style.

After the day was over, I didn’t know what to expect for the remainder of my summer, only that I would love every second of it.