“Elevating” My Career
Hello! My name is Nicole LaPilusa, I am a senior and will be graduating this August from the Klein College of Media and Communication with my degree in Advertising with a concentration in Account Planning. For the past six weeks I have been interning at a company called Elevate Healthcare, read the story about my experience below!
As my time at Temple drew to a close and I neared my last spring semester, I knew it was time to start looking for an internship that would fulfill the Klein requirement that would allow me to earn my degree, in my case, in August 2019. I had heard tales from my peers along the way about their respective internship experiences, some had to make copies all day, others had to pretend to be busy while waiting for the clock to tick to 5pm. I didn’t have any idea what my experience would be like, although I hoped it would be something useful for my entrance into the advertising workforce.
Luckily for me, my internship came naturally, it seemed to waltz into my life gracefully, like it was meant to be. During my spring semester, I took a class called Pharmaceutical Advertising. The class was taught by a brilliant and very charismatic professor, Donald Phillips. Before coming to Temple to work in academia, Professor Phillips was a huge player in the pharmaceutical advertising space, his experience knew no bounds. Because of this factor, Professor Phillips had people he previously worked with, as well as Klein students that went on to work in Pharma, speak to the class. The list of guest speakers included two ladies from a company called Elevate Healthcare.
The two women that came to speak, Erin and Lisa, had both been previously employed by Professor Phillips and still kept in touch. Erin and Lisa gave a presentation to the class about the company, what they do and why they do it. I found myself leaning in, listening closer, reacting and feeling intrigued. I raised my hand to make comments or ask questions and when they would answer, it would lead into a conversation that was so comfortable it felt it was just us three chatting, not in a classroom full of 30 people.
During one of my hand raises, I explained how I had been burned in the past with internships, getting trapped into pyramid sales schemes advertised on sites like Glassdoor. This was when Lisa asked me in front of the class if I was still looking for an internship. Bells went off in my head, thinking about the requirement I needed to fulfill. I answered yes and she told me to stick around after so we could talk about it. To make a long story short, I ended up getting a very expensive Uber from Temple to Blue Bell Pennsylvania for my interview (I knew it would be worth it), I nailed it the interview, and one day later was offered the position. I was absolutely ecstatic and super proud of myself.
That leads me to today, the night before the last day of my internship. Tomorrow, I will be doing a pitch to the whole company, including the founders, about a Gastrointestinal drug I have been researching. I am excited and a bit nervous, although I do enjoy presenting. My experience at Elevate has been an amazing one, I have been able to work alongside professional, talented, kind and motivated people, most of which being women which is super inspiring to me. There is something so different and special about going from learning about advertising and life in an agency in a classroom setting in comparison with living it firsthand. It is something that I think is so important for students pursuing a career in any industry. The experience actually was like what I imagined it to be in the weeks leading up to my starting. Being an intern, at least for me, is like being a sponge of sorts. I made sure I listened well and soaked up as much information as I could, even the small details.
One of the big takeaways that I have learned from my experience at Elevate is that precise work, and attention to detail makes all the difference, it shows care and thought. One of my tasks each week was to create a newsletter for the company that would be sent out via email. My supervisor asked me to send it to her first before I had the go ahead to send it out to everyone. Each time I sent the newsletter to her, mind you I have done about five at this point, she always has a formatting correction no matter how many times I check or compare it to my previous weeks email. She will catch the smallest detail, whether that be an extra space here or one letter randomly bolded their, her attention to the small things is exquisite, which is why she is such a great account lead. She has taught me that precision and an eye for detail will set you apart from everyone else, and from this, your work will shine.
To conclude, I would like to note that I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with an amazing company such as Elevate. If any of you out there are reading this looking for inspiration to apply somewhere, take this as your sign. I am sad to be leaving (not sad about the 1 hr 45 min drive I won’t be doing anymore), however I am moving on to a new chapter that my experience at Elevate has helped me acquire. Thanks for reading!
