Why an Internship Was Exactly What I Needed

University flew by. It was easily four of the best years of my life. I met a lot of people, learned a lot of things (inside and outside of the classroom), and uncovered some of my passions as an individual, such as photography, beach bonfires, marketing communications, and eating pizza after 2:00 a.m.

All that being said, one thing I didn’t fully figure out is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Sure, I like marketing communications. I mean, I loved the 150-minute class once a week where we learned about creative briefs, and got the opportunity to work with actual clients that gave us feedback. That was great.

However, attending a class once a week and going to work nine to five every day are two very different commitment levels. That being said, I found it nearly impossible to know if I would thrive in a marketing communications career just like I did in my classes.

After some extensive job searching, countless interviews, and a few resume facelifts, I got an opportunity to work at Aragona Agency for a five-month internship. I was stoked for two reasons, firstly I would finally get to apply my expensive university accumulated knowledge to the real world, and secondly I could see the light at the end of tunnel. The latter meaning if I didn’t like agency life I knew how long I had to stick it out for, and then I could confidently say: “Been there, done that, not for me!”

My internship taught me a lot of different things right from the beginning, such as how to build my lifestyle around a nine to five schedule and to cherish weekends a little more than I did in my student days. It also allowed me to get to know the Aragona team, which was very beneficial for me as I got to see what the typical work culture was around the office and decide if it fits the environment I want to come to work in everyday.

Aragona gave me a wide variety of work to complete in almost all areas of their agency services so that I could figure out which areas I really liked working in and which were not my forte. This made coming in to work every day exciting and unpredictable, which kept me interested in the work I was doing. It also allowed me to really understand all the moving parts of an agency and how they have to come together to be successful.

Internships may not pay as much as a full-time job, but they are a perfect transition role for any new graduate who is not 100 percent sure of what they want to do. They give you a taste of the real world without the long-term commitment of a career.

Internships can also lead to full time jobs! After my 5-month internship was completed, I was lucky enough to be offered a full-time account coordinator role with Aragona. I would’ve never considered taking an offer like this if I hadn’t gotten to intern at the company first because those five months allowed me to finally figure out that the agency life was the right fit for me!

If you're interested in who we are and what we do, feel free to look at our blog on exactly what integrated marketing is. 

Aragona Agency is an end-to-end integrated marketing agency. Feel free to contact us or stop by and say hi!