I am interning this summer at Thrive Collective, a non profit organization that partners with urban public schools to bring the arts and mentoring back into these schools. My role as the Communication and Marketing Intern is to help manage Thrive Collective’s vision for their brand and creatively develop content for print, social and multimedia campaigns. For this role I had to be able to navigate through photoshop , illustrator and in design. My skill sets also include time management, marketing strategy, social media and conceptual design.

I was able to get my internship with Thrive Collective through a past Professor. I  worked with my Professor as his Research Assistant and through working and observing what Thrive was doing within the schools I applied for their Summer Internship program. I sent in my resume and a cover letter and I was emailed to come in for an in person interview. I felt more free to speak about myself and my experiences compared to the other over the phone interviews. I was hired on the spot and I began the following week.

I had my one on one interview with the Co Founder of Thrive Collective, Jeremy. I came in five minutes before my scheduled interview time. He was interviewing another young lady for an internship position. I was told to have a sit to the side but due to the fact the office was opened space I was able to hear their conversation. When it was my turn to sit down with Jeremy we spoke for one hour. He asked about my design skills and how would I be able to execute it to his organization. I was asked many questions about certain things on their website. A test to see if I checked their website before the interview. He asked for my social media platforms which surprised me. I was told that jobs presently ask for your social media but to me I felt it was an invasion of my privacy so I declined. As someone who is interested in branding I know I have to start branding myself so I did open new social media platforms presenting myself as a professional graphic designer. I did not mention pay and neither did he. I believe its to late to bring it up now so I will take this as a learning lesson for the future but I have happy for my future referral and the experience.