Forever a Student
Hi, everyone! My name is Deraj Pugh and I am a senior Advertising student with a concentration in Account Management. I’m currently an Influencer Marketing intern at HSN.
I learned a lot and had plenty of opportunities to improve my skills in communication, time management, multi-tasking, and organization. I also learned the importance of networking and building relationships. All of these skills are very important and transferrable to almost any role in any industry.
Something that really stood out to me as well was how different influencer marketing programs can be from company to company and in different industries. Over the summer I was a Social Media and Influencer Marketing intern at Mattel. A major difference between Mattel and HSN is that HSN is D2C, whereas Mattel is not. This makes a big difference in that Mattel focused their efforts more on brand awareness since customers buy from their retail partners like Target, Walmart, and Amazon. HSN, on the other hand, focuses a lot of their influencer marketing efforts on sales. In addition, we send influencers the product we want them to promote. Other aspects like outreach, negotiating rates, and contracts are pretty similar.
This will have been my fourth internship. My first internship was last summer as a Social Media Marketing intern at a small beauty brand. Then I interned with QVC on the Performance Marketing department during Spring 2021, and as mentioned earlier with Mattel during the Summer. I bring up these experiences because I knew I was sure I wanted to work on the brand side of the industry and in Influencer Marketing. However, as time has gone on, I’ve discovered that I want to get agency experience. I even changed my concentration from Brand Strategy and Research to Account Management because I feel it is more aligned with my career goals. I’d also love to get experience in the tech industry at some point as well in a non-tech role. Next semester, I’m getting that new experience by working in Affiliate Marketing and at an agency.
All in all, I’m learning that we never have everything figured out. We shouldn’t put pressure on ourselves to know everything and it’s okay to change our minds. We will forever be a student both academically and personally in life in general. It’s important to be open to new opportunities, new paths, and new destinations. We never what doors may open just by being receptive to change and growth.
Hi Deraj!
I loved reading about your role as an Influencer Marketing Intern at HSN and also loved hearing about your other job experiences previously. I also find it very impressive that you have already had 4 internship experiences, all within your industry. I can relate to you in some ways because I also am yearning for an Agency role after graduation this fall, and have been looking at possible career moves to shift there. Lastly, I love the way you closed out your blog post and couldn’t agree more. As we get older we begin to realize we never will have it all figured out, and need to keep riding the wave. I found your thoughts extremely insightful and optimistic for all of the newly incoming professionals to read, thank you for sharing!
Hi Deraj,
I loved hearing about your experience as an Influencer Marketing Intern! We all have social media and see what it looks like from the receiving end, but your insight from the business side of things is really interesting. I feel like sometimes social media can be seen as something based in hobby, but it truly has has become a medium for business transactions which is really cool to see it develop.
I also like how you touched on the idea that it is okay to be unsure of what we want and where we see ourselves. As a senior, I have struggled a lot with figuring out where I want to be in the future and feeling like I have to know my entire plan the second I graduate. I think the idea that we are forever students is so important because not knowing means we have the opportunity to experience, learn, and conquer any sector of our lives (whether that be professionally or personally). It sounds like you already have a lot of experience working with multiple different companies so you can begin to learn what you like and what you don’t like. Here’s to more learning about the professional world and, in turn, learning more about ourselves!
Hi Deraj!
I really enjoyed reading your post. HSN seems like a fun company to intern for. It is also cool you have had different experiences with the world of Marketing through other internships as well. You most definitely have had some great takeaways from your many internships. With this experience, it is great that it has to shown you where you really thrive in the industry. That is the magic of internships! I really liked reading about your experiences thus far, and how your path has lied up to now. You have built some great skills you can carry with you to any future job. Good luck with where ever your path may lead you to next!