Intern Learning Lunches at Tag Strategies
I think one of my favorite concepts in the world is free food; you have to eat to live, right? Well as an Account Services intern at Tag Strategies this semester, every Wednesday for the past 2-3 weeks I’ve been getting just that, but with an added bonus…I get to learn while I eat! This is what Tag Strategies calls an Intern Learning lunch. Participants include myself, the creative intern, as well as an employee in a particular capability in the agency. So far, I’ve gotten the opportunity to hear from, and ask questions to employees in Business Operations, Creative, Account Services, and New Business.
A day in the life of a Tag Strategies Account Services intern for the past couple of Wednesdays has consisted of a lot of learning pertaining to these areas in the agency. The meetings are set up on my and the creative intern’s Google calendars, Tag Strategies’ preferred site for communicating with one another and sharing documents. The lunches happen at 1:00pm every Wednesday in Tag Strategies’ conference room, which you can’t miss because of the huge gold fish on the wall. Before each meeting, being the Account Services intern that I am, I serve as the liaison between the participants in the meeting and the restaurant we order food from, and order lunch using the company card. No complaints here, because it’s always a new learning and food experience.
My first Intern Learning lunch was with Tara Nerone in Business Operations. Ms. Nerone gave the interns an overview of how everything is regulated throughout the agency. From how clients are billed, to how employees log time under different projects, to budgets and costs, Ms. Nerone covered it all. If you know me, you know that I ask a lot of questions because I am an extremely curious individual who always wants to know and learn more. This was no different during my meeting with Ms. Nerone. I asked Ms. Nerone where Tag Strategies sees itself, or where it wants to be in the future. She revealed that Tag Strategies would find success through the company they keep and through key individuals. This means only hiring the best, which is why they have such an extensive interview process for potential employees.
Our next Intern Learning lunch was with the creative team. This is actually my track in advertising at Temple, so I was very interested in hearing from them. This was mostly a question-based lunch because both the creative intern and I had a pretty clear knowledge of what creative does. We asked the usual “how did you get to where you are now” question because at this point in our young professional lives, we all want to know what others did to land the job they have, and to know how we can do the same. The creative team at Tag Strategies is fairly young compared to some of the professionals I have met in the industry. After talking to the creative team, I realized a difference in the two, younger and older professionals. If you ask older professionals if the position they have now is where they saw themselves, they all say no and explain how they graduated with a degree in literature (or something) and are now in creative advertising. But if you ask younger professionals, they immediately respond with “yes” and tell you the art school or creative major they pursued in college. Just an interesting observation for all of you readers!
Well, to avoid making your eyes tired with all of this reading, I will stop here for the Intern Learning lunches. I will leave off by telling you that no matter what area of the agency I was learning about, it always resulted in discussion about life, the path in which it takes, and the hard work required getting to where you want to be in your career. As young professionals, internships are EXTREMELY important in order to gain real world experience and knowledge first hand. My path in life has lead me to my second internship at Tag Strategies, branding agency in Philadelphia, and I am more than excited to find the endless opportunities that await me when my time here is done.
