Learning to Find Comfort in Uncertainty
Hello! My name is A.J. Burton, I’m a Senior Advertising: Art Direction student entering my final semester at Temple. During my fall semester, I had the pleasure of interning with Cajam Marketing, a full-service advertising and marketing operation out of New Jersey. As I approach the end of my time with Cajam, I couldn’t be more pleased with the relevant experience and new opportunities working with this company has brought me!
Starting at Cajam back in August, I was nervous about working on proper design projects for real clients. I’ve been doing graphic design and studying art direction now for years now, but working on real projects that would see the light of day was a whole new animal. Despite my nerves, the transition into working with Cajam was seamless, thanks to my dedicated team members. Kathy, Carole, and Christine called with me on my first day, and explained absolutely everything including how projects are assigned, managed, and completed for client review. Additionally, they explained to me the ins and outs of the company, and how everyone plays their role to ensure success and timeliness. This did wonders for my nerves going into my first day, I appreciated that each of these very busy people took the time to make sure I was properly acclimated.
Over my three months at Cajam, I worked on a myriad of projects that have strengthened my design and advertising skill set. I’ve worked on multiple print campaigns, which provided new experience in designing for physical media. Mainly print catalogues and advertising signage. I’ve worked on digital design, creating newsletters and website ads of all shapes and sizes, and video ads. This design experience has been invaluable, allowing me to strengthen my skill set across Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and Premiere and get a sense of what clients are looking for in terms of brand image and consistency across various advertising media. UX design has also been quite fun, redesigning Cajam’s own website, and improving client’s websites and online presence. Additionally, a large part of my time at Cajam has been spent conducting research. Seeking out new advertising opportunities for clients, analyzing the positioning of competition, and optimizing existing campaigns. I wasn’t expecting to complete research going into the internship, but I’m glad I was able to gain the experience and learn how to analyze the landscape that advertising campaigns exist in.
Overall, I’m really happy with my experience interning at Cajam Marketing. No matter if I continue working with them, or seek employment at another agency, I believe the experience I gained will last my whole career. I feel much less intimidated about working in the advertising industry, having to make clients’ dreams a reality. I understand now that it’s okay to not know, it’s okay to ask questions, and it’s okay to feel anxious about new opportunities. As long as you have people in an organization who are willing to train and uplift new employees, success can be achieved. While I really enjoyed completing graphic and print design work, as my initial internship specified. I have a new found interest in advertising research, it’s a detail oriented task that I find quite enjoyable. I’m excited to see where the future takes me after graduation, thank you, Cajam, for providing me with a great first start in the industry!
