Jean Carlos Pichardo's ePortfolio

During my internship, I’ve met with many different individuals who I can say is a mentor for me. My supervisor has no experience in the creative field but has the skills of management and decision making. He has shown me how to manage multiple projects and the decision making on what items, clients and projects need more focus than others.

Another person I’ve met is the director of creative development. She has helped me understand content management for the Oculus Beer Garden. It was helpful to organize what content is needed and when to post it.

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Based on what I’ve done in my internship, I feel my experience and skills have improved each day. I noticed the amount of work and effect I put into my design, not for the company but to refine my design process. An example can be the amount of revisions I created for the menu boards. I wanted the design to be attractive to the guests and appeal to them to buy more products.

Another factor in my growth was my understanding and skills in negotiation in a new job. As I worked throughout my internship, a manager from the marketing department caught eye on me from one of the meetings with the Oculus Beer Garden. She approached me through email and a brief zoom meeting of what the job position offers. After a few other interviews and negotiations, they offered me the full-time position.

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As mention before, my supervisor is the general manager of the company located within the stadium. He is tasked with multiple projects and rely on others to complete the task. There is the warehouse, maintenance, concession, IT , and many other departments under his title. He gives out tasks and goals to be completed before the stadium is open to the public. This has taught me the ability to manage multiple projects and teams from other departments.

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In the Beer Garden, I learned two sets of skills while managing their social media content. One being able to manage content release and brand sponsorship. As I take photos of the location and their products, I have to focus on publishing or relating the images back to the sponsor. So I threw hints of the brand in the background or close ups of their products.

Lastly, I have to learn and understand how to create and use a content calendar. The head director of the creative team has mentored me on how a content calendar works. After a few meetings and trials, I was able to focus my shots based on what was listed for the day. The calendar was a big help on what type of content needs to be posted on specific days and the captions for those posts.

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Throughout my internship, I learned many reliable skills and understanding to better perform my graphic design in real life scenarios. The first is researching and knowing the policy and rules of food information needed on a menu board. There was some debate of keeping or removing the calories counts, but we agreed to keep it. The calories count was an issue with the design, but I was able to manage a balance of information and design for the menu.

Another is knowing the system that will be hosting the design. The company purchased a new system to display the menu boards on the monitors. They needed me to learn and know how it works and how to fix any issues. The new program within it allows us to publish images of the menu through wireless connection. So it has the flexibility to be updated at home if need be.

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The culture of my workplace within the stadium as an intern is a blend of many things based on the scenario. Weeks before the stadium was opened to the public, the workspace was very relaxed and casual with their attire and how they work. You can come in a casual dress shirt or top with a pair of blue jeans with sneakers. For workspace, I have my own cubicle with a computer and other supplies to maintain my assignments. My hours vary and are flexible with my supervisor. The usual hours start from seven or nine in the morning and leave from three to six in the evening. 

Once the stadium was opened, the workflow has changed. The attire changed to formal dress shirts and slacks while for me I wore the same attire alongside my supervisor jacket. During the event, I don’t usually stay within my cubicle all day. I stay up on the floors making sure the monitors have no troubleshoot and the pricing of the items are correct. So I carry around my personal laptop with a HDMI cable and tv remote. My hours also change based on what game it is from day versus night games, but it’s a consistent flow of 10  to 12 hours for the event.

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For my internship, I was employed by my general manager. He created a career with this company for over 13 years. I’ve been a personality working with them since April 2017 as a concession office supervisor. They provide internships for those interested in sports management, finance, merchandise, human resource, and more.

I formally email him for a meeting to discuss a possible position as a graphic intern within the company in their baseball stadium. He kindly agreed to provide me an internship and was my internship supervisor. There was no interview needed, but it took about 2 weeks for approval from headquarters to be allowed due to the cancellation of internship during the pandemic. Thankfully, everything was approved, and we were able to proceed with my internship before the stadium opens to the public.

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