A New Creative Approach
Hi, my name is Alex Cervino! I’m a junior Advertising major at Temple University with concentrations in Brand Strategy & Research and Art Direction. This semester, I’m the Social Media Marketing Intern at Xavier Creative House (XCH).
XCH is a creative-based healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing agency. XCH specializes in a variety of different areas including, but not limited to Brand Strategy, Creative Development, Digital Marketing, Project Management, and Event Marketing.
At XCH, I create and schedule social media content for one of their clients: a business professional contact center that specializes in healthcare, banking, insurance, and more. I also occasionally create content for XCH’s Instagram and LinkedIn accounts.
This internship experience has taught me a lot about real-world agency experience. I’ve been able to sit in on Creative Services team meetings where I get to listen and contribute to current projects. Being able to get this kind of experience has been very valuable in my academic and professional journeys. I really appreciate being able to use my Art Direction knowledge from classes in my internship and, vice versa, being able to apply experience from my internship in assignments and projects in classes. One specific thing that I’ve learned during my time at XCH is how to research current industry and social media trends to build a strategy that strengthens and increases current engagement metrics. This is not something easily learned without experience, and for that I am grateful for XCH.
Although XCH follows a fully-remote business model, I’ve still been able to communicate and connect with a lot of employees in the company. XCH’s company culture is focused on support and empowerment, and it really shows. I’ve met so many kind and helpful people, and I’ve learned a lot from everyone. What I appreciate the most about my time so far is that I really feel like part of the company. I’m not given busy work or work that my supervisors don’t want to do like you might expect with an internship. I feel valued and like an important part of XCH’s operations, and that is more than I could’ve asked for.
Trying to get an internship as a college student is a very stressful process. When I was doing my internship search, I tried to focus on factors that were non-negotiable for me, such as paid vs. unpaid, remote vs. in-person, full-time vs. part-time, etc. Once I pinpointed the factors that were most important to me, I used these to search for specific internships. Although you may not be able to find a perfect fit at first, it’s important to remember that you will have many more experiences in the future. It’s imperative to give something a try because you never know what you can get out of it. I was very lucky and XCH provided everything that was important to me, but I was willing to sacrifice one aspect if it meant being able to get an internship.
The biggest piece of advice I can give is that companies hiring interns want to teach you and they want you to learn. You may not have lots of experience, but that’s OK! If you find the right fit for you, that’s all that matter. The rest will follow suit.
