While most kids spend their summers tanning and bingeing on Netflix, I spent mine preparing for a future in writing as an intern at The frank Agency.
My last summer before entering college was, well, different. While most of my friends slept in every day and stayed up late every night, I was waking up at 6:30 and driving 45 minutes to work. Okay, so that wasn’t my everyday, but it was my Monday and Tuesday, and although I complained about the early wakeup time, I really enjoyed working. The frank Agency made working fun.
Before you start thinking my summer at The frank Agency was just like Mad Men, know this – there was a lot less drama. But the work was more exciting and fun than you’d think. Definitely more fun than I thought it would be.
During my internship, I was given the opportunity to help create the theme for the 2016 Ambit Awards show. How insanely cool is that? That The frank Agency gave an 18-year old recent high school graduate the opportunity to come up with the idea for an entire awards show? Not only did I come up with a Broadway theme, I also made a video presentation introducing my idea. And that meant I had a chance to learn iMovie – which was more than I ever learned in my high school computer classes. I even went to a meeting where my idea was introduced and approved. I then spent weeks curating a Pinterest board full of table decorations and food ideas that will be brought to life at the event.
But this is just what life was like interning on the creative side of The frank Agency – and doesn’t represent everything that goes on in an ad agency. That’s why they had interns in other departments, too.
One of my fellow interns, Bea Reiter, had a completely different intern experience than mine. For the first part of the summer, she worked on scanning documents so the agency could go paperless. After that was done, she got to check coding on one of the agency’s websites. I won’t lie; Bea’s job seemed a lot more complex and confusing than mine. Every time I walked by her cube she seemed intently focused on what she was doing, her earphones in and her head down. From the first day I met her, I could tell she was a really hard worker.
Sure, Bea and I did very different things at The frank Agency, but that was my favorite part about interning – I was able to see all the different types of work that go on in an agency.
So, yeah, my summer was a little different than most kids. I didn’t take the typical summer job route. I didn’t work on my tan. I interned at a really cool agency and now I have some projects to put on my resume. Plus, I had a chance to get paid doing what I like best. Like write this blog entry.
So, here’s to The frank Agency, and their willingness to take on a few high school kids for an entire summer. If you ever have the chance to intern – even if it’s not at a place as cool as an ad agency – take it. It’s not really like Mad Men. It’s better.
