THE LONG-AWAITED INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
By: Yonas Berhane, Project Management Intern, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness
How overwhelmingly exciting must it be to find yourself in New York City, one of the most well-known cities in the world, getting your first taste of a life of true independence and tremendous responsibility. That is what I thought to myself in the beginning of June looking outside of the fire escape in my new Brooklyn apartment. Ever since I began my pursuit of marketing three years ago at Arizona State University, I was curious to know what it was like working at an advertising agency. Fortunately, Publicis Health took me in and gave me the opportunity to experience being a Project Manager for Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness. What I’ve learned in my time at SSW is priceless and I will carry it with me throughout my career.
As a Project Management Intern, I’ve been able to see so many departments in action, all of which demonstrating an incredible workflow and massive attention to detail. I finally had a chance to see the input of work that goes on behind the scenes in advertising after only seeing the output and final results in real life in the form of advertisements on billboards, TV commercials, and print and digital ads.
Meeting people from every department and getting to know what they do and also why they do it has helped me navigate my career goals and understand what my strengths and weaknesses are. The friendships I’ve created here have made coming into the office everyday truly exhilarating.
My manager, Catherine McTiernan, quickly became a mentor to me and showed me how to be a reliable Project Manager. The internship program manager, Lori DePace, made networking and learning opportunities so accessible to us.
I can firmly say that through soaking up all the knowledge I could from company leaders and my fellow colleagues, I now have more clarity about my career and confidence to grow in this industry. I cannot imagine there being a better internship program than the program I experienced in “one of the most well-known cities” at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness.
