(written by Alissa Zentz, Fall 2022 marketing intern)
As my time at Cowork Frederick comes to an end, I want to cry. No literally, I want to cry. Cowork Frederick has been SO much fun to intern for Cowork Frederick, and I have learned so much in the last 12 weeks.
I am currently a senior at Hood College and I am majoring in Integrated Marketing Communications, with a minor in Graphic Design. Since an internship is required for graduation,
I was very very VERY stressed about finding one that was local (a lot of marketing/communications internships in the area were all the way down in DC or Richmond) and targeted toward marketing communications. I stumbled upon Cowork Frederick during a google search and automatically felt the need to apply.
Based on the website I knew the community had to be welcoming, and I thought that the
business would be a unique experience and an opportunity to learn how to market. I had never heard
of coworking before but learned it’s about people who could work anywhere coming together to
work around each other, share ideas, help each other, or just have a lunch buddy. Side note: I
also learned it’s ‘coworking’, not ‘co-working’. There’s a difference. Amidst all the work of the
expansion and getting ready for their 10-year anniversary party, Julia was hard to reach. However, I
remained persistent, eventually got an interview, and was offered the intern position!
During my 12 weeks at Cowork Frederick, I brainstormed, created, and launched two campaigns around the expansion, created posters, designed, and drew 10 sandwich board signs (learned I am way better at drawing than I thought I was), and started a Tik Tok account for Cowork Frederick.
Julia has been amazing throughout this whole process; she warned me before I started that she didn’t have a degree in marketing and that Cowork Frederick did not have a marketing department. And honestly, that made me hesitant to accept the internship. I was worried there wasn’t going to be someone I could learn from, but, after our initial meeting and brainstorming session to see what my internship would entail, I knew I would be in an environment where I had the potential to learn a massive amount if I put in the effort.
One thing that stuck with me was that she said I would have the opportunity to make this internship centered around what I wanted to learn and the experience I wanted to gain. And let me tell you, I have learned a lot. Applying what I have learned in previous classes and previous jobs to real-world opportunities helps to understand what I learned better and why I learned it.
When creating my campaigns, Julia pretended to be my client. I had to come up with a budget proposal and create a presentation showing the analytics halfway through the launch of the campaign with suggestions on how the campaign could improve. Analyzing and presenting data was something I had never done or learned how to do in school. I like talking and I am a super outgoing person, but I haven’t had to do a presentation in school since pre-COVID 2020, and that’s when I was in high school.
I also learned from Cowork Frederick members. That’s one of the cool things about this business and this internship opportunity. All the members have completely different jobs and career pathways. Learning from those in the marketing and communications field has helped my career development, I loved being able to turn to the person next to me and ask, “Hey, is this worded well?” or “How do you feel about this picture being here?” But hearing life advice is probably one of my top 5 favorite things about this internship experience. Being able to network with many different people from many different career paths, life positions, and work experience has been very eye-opening, and I will carry this life and career advice with me wherever I go next.
What’s next for me? I have no idea. In the immediate future, I am going to finish out my
fall semester, enjoy my last winter break to the fullest (my last break before I become a full-time
employee somewhere), and ace my spring semester classes. Once I graduate in the spring, my
goal is to get a job in a digital/social media marketing position. I would prefer working at a
larger company because I have not yet experienced it. But the most important thing for me is
that the company has opportunities for me to grow and increase my knowledge. If that position
happens to be in a different state I would love to move and see more of the world, but if that
position happens to be around Frederick, then I am more than happy to stay.