4 Things I Learned At Group Two

Hey everyone! I’m Lenny Benfante, a senior Advertising major on the Art Direction Track, and I’ve been a Social Media Intern at Group Two Advertising since August. Group Two provides full service marketing to homebuilders all across the country. Since this agency only works with one type of client, I was curious to see how the agency runs on a day-to-day basis. Here are 4 things I have learned while working at a small agency:

1. Don’t be fooled by the “departments”

• At Group Two, there are four departments, which are social media, creative, account management, and digital. This does not mean that each department works only within its respective department title. As a Social Media Intern, I was tasked with many different jobs. I created and posted content to client’s social media pages, I sat in on phone calls with real clients, I made sure each client was not going over their monthly budget, and I worked with creative to come up with some engaging content. There is not one specific job that one person does, which is great because the job never gets boring or repetitive!

2. Clients can be your friends

• I always had concerns that clients would be hard to manage. This was just all in my head! Listening in on phone calls with real clients made me realize that they are everyday people with families. My coworkers talk to their clients like friends. They talk about what is happening in their personal lives before talking about business. Since Group Two is a small agency, they get to know each and every one of their clients on a personal level.

3.  Never be scared to ask questions

• When I first started, I thought that asking a lot of questions would make me look like I was stupid and unprofessional. This is literally the worst thing you can do. Internships are designed to ask questions and to gain as much knowledge as possible. Also, when you are dealing with real, paying clients, you should never do something without knowing for sure if you are doing it right. Because, that is when clients get mad!

4. Work doesn’t always have to feel like work

• Since Group Two is a very small agency, I got to know everyone in the office. We would get lunch together, they would ask me about my plans for the weekend, and we would share many laughs throughout the day. I did not dread coming to this internship since the other employees felt like my friends. Yes, there were times where we had to focus on our work. But, I never once felt stressed. This made me hopeful for my future job. As long as you have good coworkers with whom you can connect, your job will feel less like a job and more like a fun activity.

Now that I am graduating in a couple of weeks, I find myself reflecting on all of my experiences over the past four years and what I liked and disliked. This internship taught me a lot about what I want in a future job. I learned that it is not the end of the world if you don’t get your dream job right out of college. Working at an agency that isn’t in your specific field of interest can help you realize what type of work in which you are interested. Try new things even if you aren’t sure about them. You might like it, or you might hate it. But that’s the only way to figure out exactly what you want to do!