“Reaching the world is truly only a whisper away.”

-Chris Ryan

Writing this reflection piece today, I find it hard to believe that I have been at SIX for eight whole weeks. It feels like only yesterday when I was frantically walking around Saratoga trying to find the office without being late on my first day. When I look back at that time, I can notice the change I have undergone as an intern at SIX and as a student who is exploring the field of marketing as a potential career path. My interest in pursuing a marketing internship here in the US stemmed from the marketing class that I took during my spring semester at Skidmore. While in class, I was intrigued by the overarching landscape of marketing and the influence that it could have on a person. How a company breaks through the white noise to get to the over-exposed consumer is something that fascinates me to this day. Wanting to put into practice what little I learnt in class and to experience this field that I had somehow fallen for, I applied to multiple marketing agencies and ended up with an internship at SIX.
As an international student, this internship at SIX was the first I had ever done in the US. I had no idea what was expected of me during this internship, small things like office etiquette to the responsibilities that I would be given were all very different from what I had previously experienced in India. After my first few days at SIX, I soon relieved myself of all the qualms I had about working in this new environment, as Megan and Chris (M&C) were the most understanding and relaxed bosses I could have ever asked for. One of the biggest challenges that I faced this summer was the act of balancing both my internship and my summer program at Skidmore. For about four weeks, I had two classes to attend every day as well as an internship to go to. Knowing that M&C were as flexible and considerate as they are, lifted the worry of me disappointing them.

The Intern of Many Hats

Since SIX is a boutique marketing agency I had the privilege of dipping my toes in many elements of marketing rather than being isolated in one department. Some of the things I learnt and did at SIX are as follows:

• HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing
• Building personas on HubSpot
• Basic use of Wordpress and Wix
• The rising significance of social media marketing
• Creating storyboards for ads
• Writing copy and managing editorial calendars
• Visiting various clients
• Attending pitches
• Maintaining inventories
• Planning and executing social campaigns including #HOOKEDonBOMO
• Final project: Marketing strategy for an upcoming bar in Saratoga Springs/India

What I've Really Learned

One of the most memorable features of this internship was the responsibilities that I had and my inclusion in most planning and brainstorming. Whenever I had a doubt about something we were discussing, I felt comfortable pausing the discussion to ask and clear my doubts. Even when Chris and Megan had very busy days, they would still take some time off to explain concepts to me. One important lesson that I learned at SIX was figuring out when to accept new business, and checking to see if we were compatible. This is deeply ingrained in the business ethic of SIX as we aim to deliver the best content in order to maximize growth and profit of our clients. Working in the marketing field for this short time I have come to learn and realize the importance and dependence on platforms such as Google and HubSpot. Before doing this internship I only thought of Google as a search engine and a company that was just getting into Health Care, but I was seriously mistaken. Google offers so many tools and software that aid in managing your advertising, analytics and more.