(So it’s a bit late for my first post, being we’re six weeks in and all, but it’s just that I’ve been so busy with work and all the cool activities the program hooks me up with.)

Way back when I was accepted into this program in February, the months leading up to it couldn’t go by quickly enough.  I mean, I’m from Missouri, and I’m going to be living in flippin’ San Francisco! Are you joking?  As it got to be just days before I left to experience California dreaming first hand, the nerves hit me.  I wasn’t so nervous about living in a new city because I knew I would be with so many other students also peeing their pants.  In those few days, though, I remembered that I’m going to have like a real job out there.  What if I don’t like the job?  What if my coworkers hate me?  What if my office dress code is flannel?  I guess the whole idea of working nine hours a day in a big boy office was kind of intimidating, but after all, that’s why I signed up for this program.  I kept reminding myself that this all is going to help me so much in my future.  It’s definitely going to be beneficial when it is all said and done…

So here I am with just a few weeks left of one of the most amazing summers of my life (ok, you probably think that I stole that last line from their website, but honestly, it’s been awesome).  With the goal in mind to learn as much as I can not only about the advertising/marketing field, but also about myself in a new city, I have been taking in every minute of all this.  Even though I have enjoyed it so much out here, it’s still all so surreal.  It feels like it was just yesterday that it was Christmas break and I was telling myself, “Hey Nick, you need to get an internship this summer.”  Now I’m working in the heart of downtown San Francisco everyday.  This program is so great for anybody looking for an internship, especially if it’s your first.  I’m just going to be a junior next year, and I’m sure a lot of companies want older, more experienced people in their office.  So when they are able to guarantee an internship, it gets your career train moving forward.  While here, I have been networking with my coworkers (who I get along with very well, and there’s no flannel dress code either, just Hawaiian Fridays) and learning so much.  After these eight weeks are up, I’ll have plenty more connections than I had coming in (I guess I can only go up from zero) and I’ll also know what it’s like to be out in the real world.  Yes, you learn a lot in the classroom, but until you get out there and really experience it, you’ll never really have a complete grasp on it.  I’ll have pride going back to school and telling people about my summer because, really, who else got to do something like this?  This has been one of the best decisions I have made because it’s going to do so much for my future.  My only regret: not bringing enough warm clothes, it gets freaking cold here.

PS: I’m pretty much a regular here now since I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge.  And don’t call it Frisco, us regulars don’t like that.

Wud up everybody? Hope all is well, everything is going swimmingly for me with my internship and everything.  It seems like I just got off the plane here in San Francisco not knowing what to expect.  Now, here I am, with only six days left here, and I’ll be leaving with a much better grasp on what I want to do in my future.  As far as this post goes, I’m going to talk about how it’s important to be assertive in an internship.  Example: yours truly.

I’m going to admit that at first, I wasn’t too fond of my job.  Mainly because it was all so new or maybe it was because I knew nothing about the company, but after just the first few days, I had become a professional at putting together spreadsheets.  I really didn’t plan on sitting at a desk all day typing numbers.  The company I’m at is focused more on the sales side of advertising, but I really enjoy the creative aspect of it.  I hate to break it to ya, but there is absolutely no creativity involved in punching in numbers.  Zero.  As the days passed, though, I got used to doing the spreadsheets and website research and I began to know how the company functioned.  The job increasingly got more tolerable because I was actually starting to learn a bunch about the industry.  Still, though, I wanted to be creative with something.

            So one day I went out to lunch with a few co-workers at a tiny pizza place.  On our way back to the office, they were discussing how tough it is to be working for a start-up company such as the one we are at.  They were saying how it’s a very stressful job and tough to deal with sometimes.  I was thinking to myself, “Wow, I know I don’t want to be in sales and now they are telling me this company is a tough place to work?  That makes this all the more enjoyable.”  Just happening to be with us at lunch that day is the company’s creative guy, Ryan.  Right after they discussed how difficult being a sales guy could be at a company like this, I turned to Ryan and asked, “Hey, what exactly is it you do here?”  He told me he makes and designs ads/promotions for sports websites we work with. “That’s awesome,” I said. “Do you mind if I sit in with you and kind of see how the whole creative process works?”  He was thrilled I asked him and more than happy to let me work with him.  I went on to tell him I want to go into creative and before we even got back to our building, he has a proposition for me: make an ad for a Mixed Martial Arts clothing line.  What!  In a matter of minutes I went from the boring spreadsheet guy to having the task of creating an ad that could go live on the Internet! 

            So over the next two and a half days, my boss let me work with Ryan.  Ryan let the ad be completely mine.  All the ideas that went into creating it would come from me and only me; Ryan would just help me with executing my ideas on Flash.  He even added something to the ad which threw off what I wanted, so I told him to take it out, and he did.  The process took a lot of attention to detail and I finally had the finished project.  I sent the ad to our ad guy and he loved it and sent it to the clothing company to see if they would approve it.

            Two days later, I got a forwarded e-mail from the president of the clothing company that simply read, “I love it. Let’s move forward.”  He loved my freakin’ ad!  He actually wanted me to make two more but I didn’t have the time, but the company is going to use the ad.  My boss then came and told me that the president went crazy over my ad and thought it was awesome.  So, this advertisement will be on the Internet (and boost my resume), all because I asked if I could sit in with the creative guy.  Be assertive!  What do you have to lose?