After nearly three months, my internship at The Hoffman Agency has come to an end. It’s been a program full of challenges, excitement and new experiences, and now as I look back, I can reflect on all the different lessons I have learned.
Here are four in particular:
1. Even though all the accounts I was on were B2B tech, B2B tech encompasses a lot.
The three accounts I worked on covered governance, higher education and the printing industry.
What did they all have in common? They all fit into the B2B tech industry that Hoffman usually works within.
Prior to my internship at Hoffman, I hadn’t realized that I would learn about so many industries within just technology.
2. Prioritizing can be a test of individual judgement.
The internship program at Hoffman was the first time I have ever worked full time at an agency, so it was also the first time I worked on multiple accounts full time.
There were plenty of times when I was assigned three different tasks on three different accounts with a similar deadline. In the beginning, I wouldn’t know which assignment to complete first. However, as time passed, I began to discover small ways to decide what to prioritize.
3. Some days can seem busier than others, but there’s always something to do.
Some mornings, I would make my to-do list, and it would be a full sheet of notebook paper. Other mornings, it was maybe half of one.
Even on days like the latter, there was still so much to be done for accounts.
When there isn’t a direct assignment, there is always research to be done, targets to be added to media lists and questions to be asked. Working at an agency is a team effort, and part of the goal is to help the team.
4. It will take a bit to understand clients, but it will happen.
Especially in industries like B2B tech, clients and what they do can be so complex and difficult to understand at first.
When I started, I was worried that I wouldn’t end up having any sort of strong understanding of what seemed like so much information. However, with time and work, I was able to get a strong grasp on my accounts and what all these new words meant. It just took some extra effort.
Starting at Hoffman was pretty intimidating, but with the four above lessons and so many others, I know I’ve gained information and skills that I can continue to use moving forward.
