Internship Info (#1)

I am a graphic design intern at the Professional Development Center (PDC) in the New York College City of Technology. PDC is located in the welcome center on the main campus. The size of the company is quite small, and it is a public company. PDC’s primary business is to help college students be better to prepare for the workforce. They offer mock interviews, career development, and they help build and or revise students’ resumes and cover letters. On Tuesday, February 4th,2020 PDC will have student orientation. The members in PDC will tell students all about what PDC is, and their mission when it comes to helping students find their dream job.

…

My Interview Process(#2)

My role within PDC is a graphic design intern, and the name of my supervisor is Bradley Burford. I came to select this internship by asking students that I was in class with from the fall semester what internship they were taking, and one of them told me that they were are an intern at PDC. I told her what was her duties and she told me that she makes flyers for upcoming events, and for companies that want to visit City Tech. It sounded interesting, so I told her what was the email of her supervisor, which was Bradley, and I sent him an email introducing myself, a link to my portfolio, and whether or not was he looking for a graphic design intern for the Spring semester.

Towards the end of the semester, he sent me an email telling me that he was looking for a graphic design intern, and he gave me the option to have an in-person interview a couple of days before the holidays, or after the holidays. I choose to have an in-person interview before the holidays.

On the day of the interview, I was nervous yet excited and a little tired. There was not much of a wait because I was the only person there. Mr.Burford showed work from previous students that interned at PDC, and he told me that my designs need to cater to students based on their majors/ area of concentration. Some questions that he asked me during the interview was technical questions such as do I know how to use photoshop and Indesign, and do I know how to take pictures. I said yes to all of those questions before he could even finish. As for the job offer, he told me at the end of the interview, while he showed me where I will be working at, was I interested in working at PDC, and I told him yes. As a result, he told me to send him an email with the days and times that I will be available.

…

A Typical Workday (#3)

The attire of the company is formal, so I have to come to work wearing a dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes. As for the workstation, I work in a cubicle, or I can choose to work in the conference room, If no one is in there. However, I tend to work in my cubicle because I feel more involved with the people, then when I work in the conference room.

My typical workday goes as follows. I arrive at my internship site at 2 PM because I work beforehand. While I am there, I go over my emails, and I have a meeting with the Academic Internship Manager within PDC. She tells me what events PDC is having and she tells me what should go on the flyers. So, I go back to my cubicle and I sketch a few ideas for the posters and I start designing it in InDesign. Making the flyers usually takes a couple of days to finalize because we go through multiple rounds of revisions until we are satisfied with the final product. However, the days in which I am not making flyers for upcoming PDC events. I film student testimonials by providing them questions that they can answer regarding their time being a participant in PDC, and once that is done. I edit it by using Premiere Pro. Once the video is approved by the Academic Internship Manager, I will upload the video to PDC’s dropbox.

…

My Internship Responsibilities (#4)

At my internship site, I am doing duties that pertain to my major which includes making flyers for upcoming events, and I film and edit student testimonials. A typical day goes as follows on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I arrive at my workplace at 2 PM because I work beforehand. Once I arrive at my site, I check a couple of emails organize it based on its importance. Once that’s done, then I have a meeting with the Academic Internship Manager about upcoming events and guidelines on how the flyer should look and the information (body copy) that needs to go on the flyers. Once the meeting is done, I go back to my desk and I sketch a couple of thumbnails for the flyer. The finalize flyers take a couple of days to complete because I and the Academic Internship Manager go through a couple of revisions until we are satisfied with it.

…

The Process to Collaborative Projects (#5)

A collaborative project that I worked on during my internship was filming the first student testimonial. During the pre-production phase, I work alongside one of the coordinators and the Academic Internship Manager to formulate questions that the student answered regarding their experience within the Professional Development Center.

During the post-production phase, I was in charge of editing, and incorporating both graphics, and music into the video. Once the first wave of the post-production was done, I had to show it to the Academic Internship Manager, and she told me additional information to put into the video. After I incorporated her feedback, we took another look at the video and finalized the video.

…

My Job Performance(#6)

My performance on the job is excellent. One specific project that I worked on was to create a flyer for a branding event for PDC. My supervisor told me that she wanted the flyer to be bold and colorful. So, I sketched a couple of thumbnails in my notebook that had a bold look to it. I designed 2 different versions. One that is bold and colorful, like the image below, and another one that had more of a sophisticated aesthetic to it. My supervisor and the people that work within PDC decided to choose this flyer to send to the student because of its colorful and bold aesthetic that will cause the students to have an interest in the workshop series.

…

Personal Branding and Networking Webinar (#7)

I participated in a webinar with Professor Garrastegui and Nakita Pope on Webex. In this webinar, Ms. Pope talked about her experience as a brand strategist and a graphic designer within her company, “Branding Chicks”. Also, in the webinar, she talked about Networking, and how much she hates it because she believes that people go to these networking events trying to market themselves to everybody in the room. She began to say that when she goes to these networking events, she would rather talk to one person in the room that she can connect to instead of talking to a million people in a room and forget their name and what they do the next day. She also provided tips for introverted people that go to networking events. She mentioned that its best to bring a friend with you that is an extrovert because they will scout out people and will introduce you to them.

For the Q&A part of the webinar, I asked her a question regarding negotiating with clients that thinks that your services are too expensive. She explained to me that don’t try to sell yourself short to please the client and if you price a client with a price point that you and the client is comfortable with then that is a sign that your pricing is too low for the services that you are providing. She said a good sign that shows that you are pricing your services the right way is when you feel a little uneasy when sending the client the invoice. Also, she said that if your client trying to persuade you for a lower price then that is not the type of client that you want to work with.

…

How To Generate More Business Webinar (#8)

I found a webinar that Fiverr had this past week regarding SEO and making your website appear within the first page of Google. Some tips that the guest speaker, Salim Holder told us was that page titles need to be more descriptive, so that when potential clients type in something within the search engine. The first thing that shows up is a specific page within your website.

Salim began to explain analytic tools such as Google Analytics and Google Keywords. Both of these tools will allow people to improve their performance on Google. With Google Keywords, it will allow the person that is building their website to look for keywords, and how well it performs in Google. As for Google Analytics, it tracks traffic onto the person’s website by identifying demographics, specific regions that visit the website, and their age group.

Salim talked about High-Value Content. High-Value Content allows the company to identify their target audience,  what opportunity they are providing, and what is their service that will provide benefits to their target audience.

Overall, this webinar was very insightful, and for people that participated in this webinar. Fiverr offered a discount for Salim Holder’s course for Digital Marketing Fundamentals. So, I purchased it and I am looking forward to using the tips in his course to excel in my freelance services.

…

Ideas for Presentation (#9)

• Collaboration
• Branding
• Deadlines
• Putting Pride aside/receiving feedback

…

Blue Exhibition at Nassau Museum (#10)

The painting above is by Christopher Winter and its titled, The Huxley Guide to Switzerland. This image depicts two people flying over water with their eyes close. One of them is wearing a button-up shirt with short pants, and the other person is wearing a dress. It looks as if they are sleeping or in some sort of trance because their eyes are close while they are flying over the water. I think is painting depicts both the masculine and feminine aspects of a guy because the person in the painting looks like it’s the same person. Also, I think this painting shows that a guy can’t be both feminine or masculine, they have to choose either be feminine or masculine, because the two people are flying side by side, instead of coming together as one.

…

App Review (#11)

An app that I love to use regarding scheduling posts on social media is Later. This is a new app that is created for business and brands that relies on posting consistent content on their social media platforms.  I started using this app during the Summer of 2019, and I have to say that this app is so handy because it gets rid of the stress of remembering to try to create a post at a specific time. If you post consistently on Instagram, then I suggest that you download this app.

The app has different pricing plans. With the free plans, it only allows you to schedule a total of 30 posts for the month, and you can upload unlimited media in Later’s dashboard before you put it in its calendar to schedule the post.  However, the only downside of having the free plans vs the paid plans is that with the free plan you can schedule photos, but you cannot schedule video posts, and multi-photo posts.