HOW ONE CLASS LED ME TO PUBLICIS HEALTH
By Ashton Rath, Account Management Intern, Publicis Health
College is a time to step out of your comfort zone and learn more about yourself, a time to take classes to learn about the history of pop music or molecular biology. No matter where you may attend school, you are given the opportunity to take a wide range of classes that broaden your horizon and help you find your area of interest. In my three years at the University of Georgia, I have taken various courses that have opened many doors to new experiences and opportunities. These classes helped me pick a major in advertising, and paved the way to finding a special area of interest in healthcare tailored to fit into my major.
Spring 2021 was a semester of getting back to campus and walking the mountainous hills that created my one-of-a-kind university. Every Tuesday I was excited to enter into the classroom and learn about account services in my Advertising Communication Management course. Each week I was given the chance to learn from a well-rounded and experienced professor about agency life and how roles were differentiated. Although we touched on a range of roles and responsibilities that are included in the campaign lifecycle, a great deal of time was spent discussing account roles. Specifically, what good account management looked like, how to effectively communicate with clients and your team, how to manage multiple tasks at once, and how to work efficiently with all team members. Each week I was more intrigued by account management and realized that my attention to detail and time management could help me break into this area of advertising that had sparked my interest.
Not only did this course teach me about the basics of account management, such as setting objectives and integrating the promotion mix, but it taught me how to measure the effectiveness of a campaign and how project and account management differed. It went into great detail on qualities of a great account manager and how you can break into this field. I knew right then and there that account management was not only something I was interested in and excited by, but it was something I was confident I could perform well in. Now that I had learned what account management was on paper, it was time to transfer this knowledge into real life experience.
My search for a summer internship in account management began. I knew I wanted to immerse myself in a full-service agency to gain valuable hands-on experience, but it was up to me to find a role that would combine my interest in healthcare into my passion for advertising. As the end of March approached, I found myself at a virtual career fair where I was given the opportunity to speak one-on-one with an employee who was a previous intern at Publicis Health. Immediately after our ten-minute discussion, I was on the Publicis Health website searching for more information about account management roles and when applications opened.
Now it’s July, and I am able to say I work at Digitas Health as an account management intern. As the summer program begins to come to its end, I can proudly say that I have been given the chance to fully immerse myself into account management with real world experience, all thanks to one class. That one class I took last semester helped me to find my niche and area of interest, while learning more about myself and narrowing my search within advertising. I’m grateful to my professors and account management class that led me to Publicis Health, and for the experiences I’ve had during my time here that will continue to help me grow along my professional journey.
