How I get a full time offer two months before my graduation

(The front door of Brownstein Group)

Have Internships before graduating will help you get a job right away.

I received a full-time offer from FreemanXP, a worldwide experiential marketing agency with over 90 years history, as a Creative Strategist two months before my graduation. I will share how my internship experiences helped me get a full-time job right away in this blog post.

My name is Xiaoye”Spark” Xu. I study Advertising with double concentrations on Account Management and Research & Strategy. This semester, I interned at Brownstein Group as a Brand Strategy Intern.

1.Start your internship as early as possible. I started my first internship in the summer of my freshmen year at a consulting company, the work you do when you start early might not necessarily be essential to the company, but it is a great way to get your foot in the door and have a taste of the professional life.

(Homegrown, Nationally Known)

2. Go work for big brands. A big brand like Brownstein will give you a bigger stage and bigger client on which to work. They also have better resources. As the beginner in the industry, a bigger stage will broaden your vision and help you develop a better sense of the structure of the company. It doesn’t matter which department in which you will be working, it is about learning the whole company. If possible, go to big cities, I am currently participating a week-long Bootcamp at R/GA New York, which has clients like Nike and Samsung, the experience I received in here are completely different with Philly agencies. You will meet the best marketing professionals from all over the world. At the first two years of your career, you will have seen what a world class agency is like, which is very helpful for you to plan your career.

3. Try things. Don’t stay in the same position at all your internships, try different titles and responsibilities. It will save your time to figure out what do you want to do and what is working for you. Your dream job may not be the best fit for you, and the job you didn’t quite understand may be the one to fit you the best. I had a lot of passion for big data until I finished my first internship at the consulting company and realized that I don’t want to sit on the desk talking to numbers 24/7. The sooner you learn all the responsibilities form your internship, the sooner you will find what you love. So, I also did a Strategy extern at Tierney and AM intern at LevLane. I realized that I like strategy the best, so later on, I applied internships in strategy departments. That also helped me to select the company I want to work for, because each company has a focus, if you are big on strategy but when to a company doesn’t have strategy department would be a bummer for you.

4. Choose classes that go along with your internship.  While I am in Brownstein, I am also taking NSAC (National Student Advertising Competition) and Account Planning. That helps with building your skills form real work. The work you are doing at your company probably requires the skills you are learning right now in your class.  When I am taking Advertising Sales, I was also the Advertising Manager at the Temple News, what I do at my job is excatly what I was learning in class.

5. Find someone in the company that can inspire you and help you. I met Mr. Brownstein at his company and learned a lot from this entrepreneur.  Networking is the key to every internship, this is a people business, never burn a bridge, be nice to everyone. You can be smart in every way you want but don’t be rude to others. No matter if they are your manager or coworker, they are all your connections in the future.

(An observation research for an Education client)

6. Be a sponge, participate in everything. My internship was originally only on Monday and Wednesday, but I volunteered to work on Friday because the longer I stay in the office, more people will notice me. I don’t mind staying late at work and always ask others if they need to help.  You also need to be ready if they say yes, so you can do A-level work to surprise them.

Having internships is not the only way to succeeed in this industry, but it will save your time on finding your career path so plan ahead, and be a doer.

I am happy to answer any questions you have, you can find me on Linkedin.com/in/sparkxu, or contact me via my email: sparkxu.work@gmail.com

Thank you!