The Life of a Beginner Ad girl.

How I begin my internship experience and best practices from a beginner alike!

Advertising was not always my first choice career path. Growing up I thought I wanted to be many different things: a fashion designer, a doctor, a veterinarian, but I soon came to find out that none of those compared to my passion for social media. My time at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication has steered me in the direction of creative advertising and has taught me so much. Although the academic knowledge that has been provided to me will aid me greatly throughout my career, nothing can compare to the internship experience I have had during my senior year.

Throughout the course of my senior year, I have been interning at City Food Tours Philadelphia. City Food Tours is a Philadelphia food tour company that uses walking tours to share the joy of the city’s unique food culture. As a locally owned and operated tour organization, all of the restaurants visited on the trips have been hand-selected by people who know and love the city inside and out. This love for Philadelphia is what drove me toward this company. I started my internship at City Food Tours thanks to a classmate’s recommendation. I went through interviews with members of the company and eventually was selected for the position. I was extremely excited because the role presented was extremely social media focussed. Throughout my senior year and currently, I aid the City Food Tours team in managing their Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and blog channels.

Working with social media has been both challenging and exciting. City Food Tours has been a particularly fun experience due to the opportunities to taste and explore so many yummy foods. My responsibilities as a City Food Tours social media intern include collaborating on monthly content calendars, finding/ suggesting food content, brainstorming blog ideas, implementing posts into the Hootsuite planner platform, as well as many other things! This position has not only taught me a great deal about the advertising industry but has also ignited a fire within me. This internship has shown me that social media is where my passion for advertising lies. As far as industry knowledge goes, CFT has taught me the ins and outs of social media marketing through experimental content ideas. With direction, I have been able to implement my own campaign ideas as well as contribute to hands-on posting. The ability to have gained hands-on experience is priceless.

So out of all of this, what advice can I give as a beginning ad girl? Work hard, but strive for an internship that ignites your passion. Nothing made me more excited to start my career in advertising than the internships I have had. They helped show me how creative, fun, and unique the advertising world is. One other piece of advice I want to give is to search for an internship that offers hands-on real experience. Nobody wants to be the intern running for coffee, we all want to be immersed in knowledge and experience. Being hands-on also allows you to form relationships with the people you are learning from. Building a solid network is a crucial portion of being successful in the advertising industry, so keep this in mind. People often say “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but I say an internship is worth a thousand more. The internship is experience is worth more than you know!