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Delta Internship Shows Corporate Side of Comm

July 10, 2017

Delta Internship Shows Corporate Side of Comm

Abby Rosekrans

Summer Internship Series
Abigail Rosekrans
Marketing Internship, Delta Air Lines 

 

How I Got Here
When I first set out for a summer internship I had a clear wish list of what I wanted my summer internship to include. My list consisted of: finding a creative internship with an agency and preferably in a big city (London and New York City were and still are my dream cities to live in). After a trip to NYC with PRSSA and four months of interviewing for various summer internships, I landed a corporate marketing internship in Atlanta with Delta Air Lines. I was so excited (and still am) about the offer and the opportunity to work for a leading global airline in a marketing department, which has always been on my radar to pursuit for a future career.

What I Do

Abby Rosekrans at Delta

Within the marketing department I am on the Revenue Initiatives team, which is a part of the Customer Relationship Marketing team. I assist my boss and the six-person team he leads to create personal marketing communications. This includes assisting on email marketing campaigns where I get to experience working with agencies. My favorite part is when I get to work with my coworkers to go over creative decisions, which as a design minor has been a great fit for me. It has been a valuable learning experience for me to see how an agency works from the other side and I have been able to really get to know the wonderful people that I interact with at the two agencies I work on campaigns with as well. Some of my favorite meetings are the first design concept and first round of creative meetings because I get to see the brief I created for a campaign come to life with the agency’s creative touch. From there I use my design knowledge to narrow down the design choices to align a cohesive communication that caters to the message of that particular campaign.

Intern Tips  
Now that I am halfway through my internship I have had the opportunity to learn from so many people and pick up some great insights into how a marketing department functions. As an intern it has been a lot of work to learn all of the acronyms and lingo used in the airline business. Although this is common advice, I have found it is helpful to write down everything! Whether that be in meetings or just shadowing someone, you may be completely engaged in a conversation without writing anything down and then easily forget something important from that conversation that you need later. When I go to meetings I tend to make more notes on top of the deck that is provided so I can go back to them later and remember in my own words the main takeaways from that meeting. Another thing to keep in mind when you start an internship is to make genuine connections with people you work with and people who have roles you are interested in. Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone to get coffee or lunch, but make sure you’re flexible to their schedule. It’s also a good idea to have some questions prepared but don’t be robotic or insincere about your interest. Show a true effort to start a relationship with that person and follow up with them; you never know where that relationship could take you.