Tasting Success: An Intern’s Journey is a look back at the stages of acquiring an internship and incurring the first taste of success.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(1/12) Last May, before the spring semester came to an end, my biggest concern was securing an internship in writing for the summer.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(2/12) Where should I intern, I thought. First mission was to find a company whose values aligned with mine and one that would challenge me.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(3/12)I searched on @indeed and found over 50 internships for writing.I found an internship at a creative agency in the financial services.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(4/12) I said, what the heck and applied for the internship knowing I had no prior financial literacy but was gladly willing to learn.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(5/12) I had 2 rounds of interview and got the internship as a Strategy and Writing intern at HNW Inc. in the summer of 2015.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(6/12) To my surprise, I was able to work on strategic campaigns for key players in the financial sector. I was finally apart of something!
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(7/12) I was given a chance! I was given major tasks like managing the social feed for the company,as well as strategy + a intern project.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(8/12) The intern project was one of the biggest challenges I faced bc it required me to think outside of the norms. pic.twitter.com/62lTpOMCtl
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(9/12) We had to create a marketing campaign for a niche audience. This was the moment for me to shine!
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(10/12)It made me become a critical and strategic thinker. It made me want to go above and beyond. For the 1st time I wanted to be a CEO!
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(11/12)I want to call the shots! I want to work on a team with not only intelligent indv but creatives. And I want to be able to write.
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
Bonus! First shoutout #Bingo pic.twitter.com/u633uDient
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
(12/12) Not only did I write-I grew as an indv. I saw myself in a role that I've never ever imagined. Now I have tasted it and I crave it!
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
Tasting Success: An Intern's Journey is never fulfilled without a cup of joe. pic.twitter.com/zG79kIZsbJ
— Jodieann Stephenson (@JodieannStephen) February 18, 2016
Reflection
The first project of the semester was so much fun! I enjoyed the project immensely. The Twitter project afforded me a chance to craft and participate in a non fiction storytelling via the platform and incorporate multimedia. I loved every bit of it! As I look back, one of the hardest moment I struggled with was deciding on a subject to discuss, there were so many important stories that I wanted to share. In the end, I decided to talk about attaining a summer internship in a field that was unfamiliar to me and talk about the struggles and triumphs that it comes with and how I discovered myself in the long run. I really enjoyed sharing my story because many of my classmates are dealing with similar issues and I hope to be a resource for them. After completing the project I realized that I had social media strategy to share my story nor did I have any target audience. But I do think that I was successful in delivering my story because I received user engagement on Twitter from my classmates, Professor Ellis, as well as the social media manager of Indeed— which was really cool! I used a few hashtags and was expecting an increase in my impressions but I was unsuccessful. My task for this semester is to build a following on my professional Twitter page where I can interact with industry leaders, connect with unique socialites and network network network!
Analytics
For the Twitter project I went back and forth on whether or not I should use my already established account or create a new account, in the end I ended up creating a new Twitter account. Looking back, I believe if I had used my previous account with my 200 plus followers I would have had a much stronger user engagement apart from my classmates and would have received a surge in impressions. This was a fun exercise because building a Twitter persona from scratch is not easy. This may seem like a daunting task but I am completely ready for a challenge.
