From Classroom to Taproom: What I Learned During My Internship at Evil Genius Beer

My name is Owen Haldeman and this semester I interned as a Marketing Specialist at Evil Genius Brewery in Fishtown. I’ve learned many different things during my time here and feel that it has been very beneficial in my professional development. When I first started I was very nervous as this was my first internship and I did not really know what to expect, but as I’ve worked here longer I grow more and more comfortable. Everyone there has been extremely helpful and welcoming to me and have allowed me to learn through experience.

One thing I’ve learned a lot of is customer service and outreach, as I did a lot of emailing including responding to peoples questions, fulfilling donation requests, and helping to address issues such as packaging errors. These skills will be beneficial in any future career opportunity. Another aspect that was covered during my time here was how to work different marketing tools, such as Mailchimp and Sprout. These digital marketing platforms allowed us to connect with our patrons online and facilitated a multitude of advertising campaigns for the brewery.

I also helped plan and participated in many big events here at the taproom, such as the Eagles Super Bowl and parade watch party, March Madness, and multiple block parties. During these block parties, I took off my marketing hat and got behind the bar pouring beers.

Overall, this experience has been completely wonderful and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, including the busy parts. I’ve learned a lot about advertising campaigns and digital marketing, as well as reaching customers in real world scenarios. It was definitely very interesting for me to apply the things that I’ve learned in my classes to the real life situations that arose at Evil Genius. Not only have I gained technical skills that will help me later in my career, but I’ve also gained the confidence in myself to continue growing in the advertising industry.