A Seat at the Table: How Leadership Transforms an Internship

Expectations VS. Reality

When people talk about internships, they always make the same stereotypical and condescending comments.

How much coffee have you gotten for your boss?

I’m sure all you do is busy work.

Have fun watching someone else work on meaningful projects all summer. 

Even though POWER was already ahead of the curve on the coffee-runner front (since grabbing coffee isn’t exactly an available task over Google Meet and Slack), I expected to encounter some extent of this myself.

Despite being told in interviews that POWER Marketing's internship program is hands-on and focused on growth, I knew better than to take that to heart. Honestly, how many times does a job bend the truth a bit to get someone on board?

But, I was blown away in just the first few weeks as I found myself collaborating with leadership, contributing ideas that actually pushed clients forward, and realizing that these people who were leading me were truly as invested in my success as I was. The most important thing I learned this summer was not about Meta or Google Analytics, but rather, it was that with the right environment, you truly do get what you give. 

What Do YOU Want?

Shortly after that initial company-wide meeting came my first check-in with Director of Marketing Strategy & Advertising, Marissa. I was immediately greeted with not just respect, but a feeling that I was actually on equal footing with her. While part of this may have come from her natural personality, it was locked in with her attitude and her clear intentions.

Instead of being lectured about the company’s importance or the hierarchy of the leadership, Marissa asked, point blank, “What are you hoping to get out of this summer?” She dug deep with me, questioning me on my main interest points, what industries I wanted to dip my toes in, and what skills I hoped to learn by the end of my internship. 

I was then met with a task list chock-full of the exact goals I reflected in our meeting. Client audits, creative tasks, Meta and Google explorations, everything in alignment with our conversation. Seeing my task tracker filled with what my interests, I felt a sense of value in myself at this company.

I wasn’t just being expected to complete menial tasks and boring jobs that nobody above me wanted to do. I was taken in as a valuable player on the POWER team. My strengths were immediately taken into consideration and my weaknesses addressed and developed upon. This was about investing in me as a future professional, not just benefiting from the tasks I could crank out over one summer.

Leaders That Invest

Looking back, that first check in set the tone for my entire experience. The investment and consideration that I received from Marissa wasn’t luck or an exception, but the standard across the board. This became glaringly obvious when I had the opportunity to work directly with Colton Hower, CEO and Founder of POWER Marketing Company. 

I noticed, in what had to be only my second or third week here, that a “collaboration” task with Colton had hit my tracker.

Right, I thought. Collaboration.

Because in my mind a collaboration with the CEO could really only go as far as him giving me a task and checking back in once it was done. I figured that this was more of a "give the intern a task but have the CEO check her work in case she really messes this one up" assignment rather than a true collaboration. 

I pinged Colton on Slack, ready to tackle whatever was thrown at me with the same force that I tackled every task, regardless of who I completed it for. What I was met with was a 3 minute long voice memo consisting of his goals for the project (a deep dive into billboard opportunities for POWER ads in Pittsburgh), a company to begin my research with, an emphasis that I should keep him updated on my thoughts and questions, and a very clear warning that I should expect to receive MANY more of these voice memos to come. 

I continued on with this task, compiling a document of available space, prices, areas that would yield the best ROI, and essentially a slightly organized word vomit of my thoughts. Colton responded immediately about how I had “gotten [his] wheels turning”. He then challenged me to dig deeper, giving me guidance on how to really dive into the project.

Not only that, but he continued to encourage my ideas on this topic, and met me with his own ideas and updates. He gave me the voice I was hoping for this summer, allowing me to truly experience a high level member of the team that was actually open to not just hear my ideas, but marinate in them and implement them. Having someone at that level spend time developing ideas and brainstorming with me, instead of just delegating and disappearing, completely flipped my previous expectations, confirming that Marissa was not the only example of this on the POWER Marketing team.

Colton kept with his promise (or warning) of more voice memos, as I have now received one for every task I have completed for or with him this summer. 

The Little Things

We, as interns, have a few reports to make each month for a client’s performance to identify areas of success, or need for improvement. On our first round of these, I logged on to my tracker, once again, and found a note on that assignment to send over our finished reports to Rocco, COO.

I honestly found that a bit odd, thinking similarly to my project with Colton, that doesn't the COO have better, more important things to worry about?

Nonetheless, I moved forward as usual, completing my report and sending it over to Rocco (not without a few hiccups and technical difficulties of course). I was honestly just glad that I had troubleshooted my way out of an opportunity to paint myself as the non-tech-efficient intern, and was glad to get that report out of my hands and into the hands of someone a bit more familiar.

Much to my dismay, I received a reply email from Rocco. Short and sweet, he said that I should not be sending these to him, but rather to a different team member instead. 

Now, a normal person would just read the email and brushed it off. But, with my perfectionist tendencies, and a slight anxiety that leads me to check my tasks a concerning amount, I did not brush it off. Instead, I hit Rocco with a polite little nudge of an email that mentioned this small error in our task trackers. He replied back with a kind messaging noting that I was right and thanking me.

I can’t say it was HORRIBLE to hear that I was right, but I had definitely entered into a classic spiral of concern that I had just marked myself for death in Rocco’s eyes.  

I went about my week with a devil on my shoulder convincing me that my stubbornness had probably just cost me my chance at a return offer, despite Rocco’s completely normal response. We went into the week’s team meeting, with the normal agenda of shout-outs, POWER wins, and some client updates. I had mildly calmed down at this point but was still a bit worried, until I heard my name during the shout outs.

Lo and behold, Rocco was shouting me out. It wasn’t for a good job on a task or an early submission of something. It was for calling him out on that mistake I had worried so much about mentioning. It took me refusing to ignore one small thing that enforced the ownership that POWER is all about. For Rocco, it wasn’t about always being right. It was about taking accountability and pushing the boundaries of corporate communication. At POWER, communication truly is a two way street.

Even if this doesn’t seem like a key point of praise, it solidified my passion and reignited my confidence at POWER, just as all of these small moments with leadership did.

This summer truly showed me that your ability to contribute is not just dependent on you, but on the effort and investment your leaders put into you.