Summer Internship Recap

Hi everyone. My name is Michael Sortwell and this is my first blog as an intern for RTCRM’s Dii department. Don’t get too excited… it’s also my last since this is my last day. Still, I couldn’t let David have all the fun so I decided to jump in and spend my last few hours here reliving my summer experiences. I can honestly say that my internship at RTC has been more exciting and rewarding than I ever expected it to be. I guess I should start from the beginning.

I came in at the beginning of the summer and got the standard first day tour of the office… except it wasn’t quite what I expected. Featured items on the tour were a pool table and where to go when you need your Nintendo Wii fix. I was confused to see people walking around in jeans and t-shirts and began to wonder if RTC observed casual Mondays. You could definitely say I was caught off guard.

The next day, I settled into my cubicle and quickly got my first assignment. David came over to my desk and told me we’d be doing some research on blogs to help identify the mindset of one of our client’s target consumer. I was excited. I was worried that I’d be stuck making photo copies all summer and here I was on my first day researching consumer mindsets. My excitement was slightly dampened when I found out our client was a pharmaceutical company, and that I was going to spend the rest of the day reading blog posts from patients describing some of their more appetite killing symptoms. Regardless of the topic, I fell in love with the work.

The best was when it came time to share what we had learned. They actually cared what I had to say! People listened and valued my opinion, and it stayed that way for the rest of the summer. I wrote an article for the department’s monthly Perspectives magazine, I contributed on important Soundbytes, I was even able to throw my two cents in on a few conference calls.* Without a doubt that was the greatest part of working at RTCRM. They treated me as a valued employee rather than a lowly intern.

I have eight roommates who all had summer internships in DC, and none of them got the work experience or had as much fun as I did here at RTCRM (One of my roommates might have had more fun. He interned at a green consulting firm where all they did was play beer pong all day in the office, but come on how’s he gonna spin that into relevant work experience on a resume?) I can’t think of anything I’d change about working as an intern at RTCRM. I got to work with a fantastic team of welcoming friendly people, and learn a lot about how to be a good marketer. I’d highly recommend applying for any intern interested in marketing.

*Note to future interns: Nothing is more legit than conference calls