I Am Capable, And So Are You

Hi! My name is Rylie Yeager, and for the past two months, I have had the pleasure of interning with the Paid Search Team at Harmelin Media. If you had told me in the early months of the spring semester that I’d land not one, but two internships for the summer, I probably would have laughed in your face. Coming into the adult world and learning to navigate professional industries can be a scary process riddled with imposter syndrome and self-doubt. I spent much of March and April convinced that my efforts applying to company after company were useless. While I have learned a wealth of knowledge throughout my time at Harmelin and am so excited for the things I will continue to learn, I think this experience has taught me more than anything that I am far more capable than I tell myself.

I’ve always found myself drawn to visuals, so naturally I assumed that meant I was cut out for the creative side of advertising, for something like graphic design or art direction. Even in my Digital Media and Advertising class with my amazing Professor Alison Ebbecke, who introduced me to Harmelin Media, I was overwhelmed by the technical and logistical aspects of the industry. Hearing terms like big data and programmatic media buying made it seem like this concentration may not be a path I was built for – until I decided it was time to challenge myself, and make myself uncomfortable by learning things that intimidate me. I wasn’t nervous for my internship with the Search Engine Marketing team because of the kindness and willingness of employees to teach in Harmelin’s program. My managers have been great teachers who are always willing to take the time out of their day to explain a concept for me in depth or show me how to use different industry tools.

Much to my surprise, during my first day of orientation on Search Engine Marketing, I found that I was already familiar with a lot of the concepts (thanks Professor Ebbecke!) and was eager to dive in on projects. Since then, I’ve worked on building the ad copy of a paid search ad, keyword research, search query reports, and learned the inner-workings of Google Ads through campaign optimization and strategy. I’m really proud of myself for the work that I’ve done thus far, and I don’t say that often. To those looking into starting their first internship, my corny but truthful advice is to believe in yourself and recognize your capabilities. Everyone starts as a college undergrad with no resume experience, even the CEOs of behemoth ad agencies in New York and surgeons at the most prestigious hospitals. We all start somewhere, and it’s important to go into any experience knowing your own value. I’ve learned that I am more than capable of pursuing this side of the advertising industry, and would love to continue to further my knowledge in more technical concentrations. After I soak up all the information I can about paid search, I hope to learn about search engine optimization and social media marketing through Harmelin’s cross-intern experience, in which we get to shadow other departments in the business (Harmelin is awesome!). Overall, I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn at such a great company with great people and great talent.