Pennebaker, Outcomes 3 and 1

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In my first four hours at the Pennebaker marketing firm, I already feel as if I've been welcomed. When I went in on Monday April 10th, they set me up with a desk and an account to their Google. Immediately I felt as if I was part of the team. Around half an hour later I sat in on a meeting between the head of the company, two of the people in their creative division, and the head of a company in Florida that deals in kidnapping insurance. The next time I went (Wednesday April 12) they had me getting down to more work. I helped to enter locations and offices into a website that Pennebaker is building for one of their clients. At first glance, Pennebaker is already interesting. Their offices are bright and the layout of the office is easy to maneuver. There are personal touches from employees wherever you look and even the slightest contact with one of said employees elicits a smile. Everyone is willing to help you and talk to you. If I didn't know I was in high school I would've thought that I worked there. The employees are friendly and the administration is highly approachable. I really do believe that I will grow as a person during this internship. Looking back on the process of actually acquiring the internship, I feel like it changed a lot of things for me. I learned how to put my CV together in a way that would be appealing to the guy I now work with. That’s been something that really taught me that I had areas to grow. My thought process was something like: “Oh, man, I can have all the people skills I want but if I don’t have the tools to get my people skills to the people I need to talk to I’m not going anywhere.” I had to start with several drafts of my CV going back and forth between Dr. Quillin while he talked with Mr. Byrd (the guy I work with). This in itself was quite the challenge but having the knowledge of how to put together a CV has helped me enormously (most notably in my college application process). Once my CV made it through to Mr. Byrd, I went and had my first real interview ever with him. I had to dress myself up, make sure I knew how to speak to him, and in general prepare myself to show why I should be an intern at Pennebaker. The interview went quite well (I remember a great conversation about how my interests in economics and psychology intersect at marketing). This internship acquisition process gave me lots of experience: I was able to demonstrate how to initiate and plan a fieldwork experience through my contact with Dr. Quillin and Mr. Byrd as well as controlling my schedule and planning the interview, identify my strengths and develop areas for growth through realizing that I need to back up my people skills with contact and connection skills, write a CV, and conduct a professional interview.

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