AU's Job and Internship Fair

After a seemingly harmless but daunting reminder of my looming future in the Internship Meeting at 7:00, I ran home after my 8:55 block to shower, change, print resume's and head over the AU's Job and Internship Fair.

I got there barely after it started at 1:00pm and it was already full of well-dressed students bustling about. I took the pamphlet of information and looked through any potential employers. Sadly I didn't seem many that sparked my interest, the Job and Internship Fair was mostly full of Politics, Policy, Educational jobs etc. not one PR or Advertising Agency, and low on Public Communication job areas.

As mentioned during the meeting, I forced myself to go to three booths and meet three new people. Most the the companies (Discovery Communication, Casey's Tree, and Living Social) didn't want paper resumes, but wanted my information to add to a mailing lists. I have already received emails from all of them thanking me for my time and interest.

It was crazy busy and exciting. Students politely formed lines in front of companies they wanted to talk to, and every employer was extremely patient and enthusiastic.

My favorite group there was Living Social. They stood out - the were colorful, young, dressed in jeans, handing out neon sunglasses and pong balls (they know there target audience). The girl I talked to, Amanda, was an AU alum and completely in love with her job. It was refreshing to here of the causal atmosphere that encouraged creativity with headquarters all over the US. I will definitely keep them in mind next semester.

Overall, I would rate my experience a success. I was able to test out my social skills and pass out a resume. It certainly won't be the last time I go to a Job and Internship Fair. Practice makes perfect.

Riot Act is going extremely well! I'm finished up week 4 today and besides the rain, I am enjoying everything about it. But more on that later.

Weeks 1 & 2

Starting an internship is always terrifying. They obviously like you enough to hire you, but they haven't actually worked with you for longer then an hour.

My internship started at 11:00am (what to you expect at a Comedy Theater?) and the dress was "casual". The dreaded word casual with no standard definition besides don't show up to work in your bathing suit. For these instances, I always dress to impress, at least a little. I showed up at Riot Act at 10:45am in black jeans and pretty top.

My first day was a whirl. I met the staff, the incredibly small and hard working staff, that have basically moved into this wonderful location to get it off the ground. I got the official tour, learned the basics of the website, and became the proud owner of a Riot Act t-shirt.

I began by created gifts packages for media outlets, hotels, local businesses. This included basic information about Riot Act and Buy 1 Get 1 Free VIP Passes to any show. I then stationed myself outside of Riot Act armed with more VIP Passes trying to entice passerby's to stop for a moment to learn about the new business in the neighborhood.

What I love about the team at Riot Act is they believe that good customer service leads to customer loyalty. They are not about gimmicks, all we have to do is get them in the door and the Comedy Theater should do the rest. There is lots of face-to-face interactions, lots of personal phone calls, and of course thousands of emails, but they always make time for anyone who has a question.

I ended my first day at a Concierge Welcome Back Party at a hotel, where we passed out more VIP Passes and told all the local residents to come check us out.

My second day they put me behind a computer to address all the charity donation requests we were getting. Riot Act gave me complete freedom to write a response letter, draft a gift certificate request, or organize what/where we were donating for tax purposes. Awesome? Oh yes.

My second week was full of rain and rainy day questions. Between marketing for the upcoming show, I was filled with hot coco and coffee. One of the greatest perks of interning at Riot Act is getting to see the shows on the weekends. On of their goals is to become more social media based, and part of that vision is to have live Tweets during a show. Something I am completely qualified to do and happy to do so. Watch comedy and Tweet? The world of marketing is truly amazing.

First two weeks have been a success, I'm sure the rest of the semester won't disappoint.