A Unique Background, But a Perfect Fit

By: Bess Magnuson, Media Planning Intern

Bess Magnuson

Walking into our first day, I was an overwhelming mix of excited and nervous: new people, a new environment and, an entirely new type of job. Unlike many of the other Media Interns, I am not attending a large Midwestern school and I’m not majoring in Advertising, Marketing, Media, or anything of the sort. 

Rather, I am an Environmental Economics major at Colgate University, a small liberal arts school in central New York (and yes, the state-not the city). 

The media industry has always interested me and I was so happy to score such an amazing internship at Starcom. 

I became increasingly nervous as I heard everyone introduce themselves stating their majors. Almost all of the fellow intern’s majors were well connected with our future internship. I just kept thinking, the other interns have spent their entire academic career learning about the different facets behind this industry, while I have been drawing way to many graphs and writing (now useless) computer statistical analyses programs. 

However, once I got situated in my role, I learned Starcom encourages all of their associates to learn everything from the start, no matter their background. 

My supervisors, and other members of my team, quickly reassured me that even though they studied some of these topics in school, they originally had to start from square one and were just as overwhelmed as I felt. 

Starcom’s Flight School program trains all their associates, no matter their media level, about the specific components of Starcom, giving everyone the same learning base. They also review media terms and media math in the classes for associates.  While interns don’t attend Flight School courses, we do attend Media Modules, where we learn about several different topics.  

Because of these programs, Starcom is able to bring in talent with all different types of backgrounds, broadening their intelligent capital. Thus, Starcom is known for the associate training program and is revered by all their competitors in the industry. 

Now that we are approaching the final weeks of the internship, I’ve come to realize that while my major is different than everyone else’s, Colgate has provided me analytical skills that prepare me for jobs of all sorts.

I am so fortunate to be interning here, and I am learning about so many different areas of the business, which is exactly what I was looking for. 

So, if I were to give any piece of advice coming out of this experience, I would remind future interns, who have similar background to me, not to be discouraged and rely on the skills that you’ve been taught rather than the subjects. Starcom provides all the tools and assistance that you would ever need and it’s a great place to intern if you want to get to know the industry.