New Experience in a Familiar Environment
Hello, fellow advertising owls! And anyone else who might be stumbling across this post. My name is Mariesa Cozza, and this semester I had the pleasure of completing a marketing internship with the Utica Comets AHL and Utica City FC. Luckily for me, there were plenty of familiar faces, as I actually spent a great deal of time working for the company as an office assistant starting in highschool.
Although the company and the office weren’t new to me, the marketing department was. I was able to learn all about how each part of the department functions and how they collaborate with other teams to make the operation run smoothly, as well as get hands-on experience working on exciting sports marketing projects, mainly focusing on creative strategy and a bit on events/brand activations.
Although I didn’t have any prior experience with brand activation, my experience this semester has made me realize that I’m very passionate about it, and would love to find a career on this path. Some of my favorite parts of my experience involved planning and assisting at events held by the company to promote brand awareness within the community. One of my favorites was working on the Comets’ annual season ticket pick-up party, where fans can come to meet players and coaches, take pictures with our mascot, and have fun spending time with their families and each other.
In between working on exciting projects, I also got the opportunity to further nurture the wonderful connections I’ve made at the company, as well as form new ones within the marketing department. The company culture is top notch, and it was really great to work somewhere that you can tell every employee is not only appreciated, but made aware of it. This internship definitely solidified for me the importance of working for a company whose culture aligns with your personal values, and I’ll be keeping this in the forefront of my mind as I begin my job search.
This experience has for sure exceeded my expectations. Being that this is a company I had previously worked for, I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t learn enough, but I think it actually had the opposite effect. I feel as though my familiarity with the office and certain processes made it easier to dive right into learning new skills within my department. Additionally, already being acquainted with various employees made it much easier to speak up in meetings and play a truly active role in the projects I got to work on.
My overall experience was a great one, and I’m extremely grateful to have been given so many wonderful opportunities to be a part of something truly great within the sports industry. This company has treated me exceptionally well over the years and this internship experience was certainly no exception.
