Stepping Out of my Comfort Zone with MayoSeitz Media 

Being an undergrad who is getting ready to graduate is probably one of the most exciting, yet intensely scary, times of your life. The advertising major, one that is so flexible and can be applied to an endless amount of career paths, can be overwhelming to a student trying to figure out exactly which path is the one she wants to take. 

Hi, my name is Devon Mercado. Am I the person who I just described? Yes. Although I think many of my peers can relate to my exact situation. This spring semester, I am interning for MayoSeitz Media, a small media agency based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. The biggest thing I’ve learned in these past three months –  take advantage of opportunities that allow you to gain exposure in many areas.

This is my third internship of my college career and it has by far been the most rewarding. As a Media Intern, the agency’s goal was to allow me to gain experience working with every team. From day one, MayoSeitz was extremely welcoming and took the time to introduce me to every single person in the company and to learn more about what their job entailed. Being a young intern and not knowing much about the field, it definitely calms your nerves when you work with great people who make you feel like you are really a part of the team.

I mainly shadow and assist the media planners. My concentration is in brand strategy and research so I really didn’t know much about media planning prior to my internship. It involves a lot of hard work, organization, and dedication to clients. All of the media planners are so intelligent and it is fascinating to see how they build intricate media plans from scratch.

From this experience, I learned that media planning may not be something that I see myself doing long-term. However, I have developed an interest in digital ad operations. Every week, I train with the manager of the ad ops team and I found every lesson to be so interesting. Ad ops consists of managing, tracking, and optimizing digital paid ad campaigns. The cool thing about ad ops is that you get to see media plans all the way through because you are activating them. The other great thing about it is that everything is going more and more digital, so this career is pretty solid when it comes to the future.

Overall, I highly recommend interning for a media agency if you are a curious student who wants to gain some well-rounded knowledge. It is really valuable to experience first-hand how an agency functions and to learn why every team is necessary to make it successful. Not only was I able to witness internal functions, I was also able to meet with vendors and to sit in on client meetings. All of these opportunities opened my eyes to every side of the industry and how they integrate. 

I am so grateful for this experience for three main reasons. First, I have learned so much about agency life and the advertising industry. Second, I have grown so much professionally. Last but not least, I met some really great people. My coworkers have become people I consider friends. The owners of the company, Ray Mayo and Jon Seitz, have been nothing but kind and continue to root for my success. All in all, take that chance and challenge yourself because you never know the advantages it may bring or where it may lead you.