Past, Present, and Future: An Intern's Journey Through POWER

PRIOR TO POWER

My name is Nick Simpson, a rising junior at The Ohio State University, where I am working towards my bachelors in Marketing. Although I wasn’t exposed to the world of  marketing and business in high school, the intersection between my interests in psychology and business led to an innate interest in the marketing world. I spent the fall and spring semesters of college taking courses within my major, learning some of the ins and outs of marketing, as well as applying around for different summer internships.

After applying and looking at multiple internships, there was one that caught my eye in particular. That summer internship program at POWER Marketing Company, a seemingly small, remote, full service digital marketing agency based out of Pittsburgh, seemed to offer something no one else did. After multiple rounds of interviews and talking back and forth to the leadership team, I was offered a position as a part of their internship cohort, a group of 12 interns, all coming from various parts of the country. Although a little nervous about undergoing my first opportunity with a professional company, I could not have been more excited about getting the chance to get hands-on experience, wearing a multitude of different hats, in the digital marketing sphere.

DIVING RIGHT IN

Initially starting with the essential onboarding into the POWER culture, I learned all about the company as a whole, service offerings ranging from SEO to content creation to backend website development, what made the company tick, and what created the culture of POWER that I was going to spend the next 12 weeks living within. From the very beginning, weekly training translated into real client based tasks, throwing us right into tangible work that I feel made an impact with the numerous clients I was assigned to (my babies) for the summer. 

Although still new to many of the tasks I was given, such as social media content creation, Meta and Google ad efforts, alongside a plethora of others, I did not feel rushed into things at all. The weekly trainings run by various members of the leadership team, namely Marissa Pritts, Zoe Frantz, and Colton Hower, were carefully planned and very well developed, allowing for the loads of information to be easily processed and implemented into various assignments in real-time. I better learned what it was like to succeed with a client, what it was like to fall just a little short, and what it was like to work simultaneously towards numerous goals. 

A fantastic example of this would be working on my content calendars for my three clients, Symanski Landscaping, Way Maker Insurance , and Static Solutions. Prior to beginning my internship at POWER, I had essentially no experience developing professional content for anyone, let alone three established brands across different industries. However, POWER, confident in their teaching methods and in me, allowed for me to develop the content that would be put on the social pages of real clients. It wasn’t easy, and some things took multiple tries, but through communications with parts of the leadership team and rewatching the training we had, I was able to create something that I was proud of, and happy to share with the world and with my clients.

THE POWER DIFFERENCE

One major difference I have found working for POWER, compared to any other job I had held before, was the attitude held towards the work being done. Here at POWER, transparency in both wins and defeats is a major component of maintaining a thriving work community. Wins are rewarded through positive affirmations and shoutouts within our team meeting, and short-comings are meant to serve as a learning opportunity and for growth, not a reason for shame or disappointment. This attitude towards the various obstacles that we may face within marketing makes me think back to one of my favorite series, The Lord of The Rings, particularly The Two Towers. In this book, Gandalf says “The burned hand teaches best. After that, advice about fire goes to the heart”.

I think this quote perfectly encompasses the experience I have had with POWER so far, being allowed the freedom to try out new things within the tasks that I am assigned. Although a lot of the time, things may come without friction, there are moments when  my hand will slip into the fire, and become burned on something that may have not worked out. However, instead of giving up and succumbing to the flames, with the help of the leadership team, the rest of the interns, and our training, I am able to learn from the flames and stay away from them. My failures and shortcomings make me stronger and more dependable, allowing myself to grow in the process.

WHATS NEXT

This past month working with POWER Marketing Company has been critical for giving me the experience I require to continue to grow and learn within the digital marketing space, as well as learning how to better work within a corporate environment and in a remote office space. Before my start here, I had hardly any real life experience working within digital marketing and with real clients. As I look towards the future of working with POWER and beyond, I can only think of the continued growth that the remaining training, presentations, and the hands-on work with my numerous clients will bestow onto me.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent alongside my fellow interns whether it be within our weekly meetings, observing their work, or through the more hands-on work we have done on presentations. Furthermore, I can’t express enough my gratitude towards the leadership for their ease of communication, one on one meetings, their training, and just general conversation I've experienced within each and every workday.

I look forward to my remaining time with POWER, and can't wait to continue to grow and learn in so many places.