As the semester is ending, and my time at Focus Point Global is coming to a close, I’m confident in moving on to new opportunities and taking with me everything that the company has taught me. I’ve learned a lot of skills as an intern, such as social media tools, ad spending budgeting, and marketing strategies and buys. Looking back at the last couple of months, I think that the company, and in particular the women I have been working with during my days, have taught me one of the most valuable qualities that I can take away from this internship—never stop thinking.

The women in the marketing department at FPG continue throughout my internship to encourage me to think outside of the box, as cheesy as that may sound. No matter what the project may be, or how long we’ve been working on it, one thing that the Director of Marketing, Charlotte, constantly reminds myself and the Marketing Assistants is that there is always something new we can learn and try. I learn something new every day, no matter how big or how small it may be. I am constantly encouraged to brainstorm, try a new approach, and research anything and everything. I still remember in my interview when Charlotte told me that the marketing departments looks for stalkers, they want someone who isn’t afraid to spend time learning every little detail about a project, company, market, etc.

Take for example the project we have been closely working on for the last couple of months—increasing our Chicago database. We’ve searched all over the internet for opportunities, bought ad space all over the Chicago market, and placed as many free social media posts as we could to drive traffic. Some of it worked, we saw some peaks in the sign-up numbers, but we still had our off days. It had been about two months since we started on the database growth project and the two Marketing Assistants, and myself, thought we have driven our Chicago brains dry with all of our research and attempts at finding media outlets.

Charlotte had the three of us in her office for a meeting one day and reminded us that there’s something we haven’t tried, something we haven’t uncovered. She reminded us that at work we’re supposed to learn something new every day—so this new approach was bound to happen if we just took the time to research and strategize. Well, strategize we did. We came up with the idea to target particular studies instead of in general. We now see Chicago numbers rising each day and staying consistently high. We’re still spending money, but now we’re spending smart. With this project I realized that it’s important to try everything, even if you fail. I also learned that even if you find success, like we had in the beginning, that doesn’t mean you should stop seeking something new to do. This internship has taught me I want to be in an environment that constantly challenges my mind to do more.