Why J.O.?We’ve all heard intern horror stories — endless coffee runs, filing, no real-industry experiences, and more that make students shy away from conventional internships.
My summer internship experience with J.O. was anything but conventional. The one — and only — occasion where I found myself helping grab lunch for our team, I told my boss that it was truly the only time I had felt like an intern this summer.
I was nervous at first starting the internship. Working at a full–service branding, advertising, public relations, and marketing agency seemed like a very intimidating task. I only had met the founder and president, Jennifer Henderson, one time during a virtual guest speaker segment in my advertising class. The diversity of clients and services intrigued me and I applied for a position on a whim shortly after her talk.
Little did I know how much hands–on work I would get to experience. I was thrown into an advertising shoot for one of our biggest clients on my first day, and got the opportunity to be an extra in the shoot. Despite not knowing anything about the mechanics of shooting an ad campaign, I dove in with the team and received a behind-the-scenes education of what it takes to execute a creative campaign. An incredible opportunity! Looking back, I will say that day was one of my all–time favorites.
Throughout the summer, I experienced what it was like to work on all aspects of a full–service marketing agency: I worked with our creative team to execute content for in-house and client use; I helped decide the best methods for spreading clients– campaign awareness messages; I even got to publish my content for our J.O. website, which gave me a creative outlet to expand my writing, SEO and branding capabilities.
The best part of this internship was I never felt like I was an intern. I was included in meetings, asked for my input and perspective, and trusted with work that would advance J.O.’s goals in serving our clients through purpose, precision and performance.
Overall, it was an experience that grew me as a professional and a person. I learned what I value in a work environment and a team, and will keep the skills and lessons learned with me throughout my career.
Cheers,
J.O.
—Brooke Hanshaw, Not Just An Intern
