I have had the opportunity to intern at Sawtooth my senior year of high school, in place of two school courses. Each day entails a new mission, and each mission has a different result. The results of the work I do here not only familiarize me with the job field, but teach me a little more about the real world and about myself every time.
Each day begins by arriving in Woodbridge after a long forty minutes of nonstop blasting music and singing in the car. How else would a teenager spend this long of a drive by themselves? What can I say, there has to be some transition between school and work. Upon arrival, the happy, cheery faces of the hard workers that make up the Sawtooth team always welcome me. I believe that the most inspirational aspect at Sawtooth is the team of people that keep me motivated each time I come here. Constant laughter and devotion definitely inspires me to one day be as comfortable with my job as these people are.
There are projects that I get to help with, as much as one can without a degree in this field. The tasks here that I partake in entail interaction with the workers and hands-on tasks on both the computer and paper. Filing is very important in this company, so organizing and labeling filing cabinets and folders is a popular stay-busy for me. Speaking of organization, I have gotten extremely comfortable making binders for both the ads themselves and accounting. The Biggest Loser was a fun activity to witness as an outsider of the competition and I enjoyed tracking the percentages each week. One of my most exciting moments interning at Sawtooth was when I helped brainstorm taglines for companies, only to find out mine was selected, among a bunch nonetheless, as a potential candidate to be sent to McCormick.
There are also those days, though, when half of the office is out of town with clients and I get to partake in the fun. Sometimes everyone needs a break from his or her work and this was a great way to end work before Christmas break. It was around Christmastime and I worked as the “elf” of the office, hanging garland and ornaments all over the office. Sounds tedious, yes, but I actually had a lot of fun doing it. It’s times like these that I get to ask my friends, “Did you get to do anything like this today at your internship?”…the answer is always the same; “No.”
No matter what the day, busy or quiet, Monday or Wednesday, I always return home feeling accomplished. To see commercials on TV and be able to say, “I sat in when they first presented the script to Creative,” or “I was on the set when they filmed that,” is an awesome feeling. I have had an opportunity much different than the other interns at my school, in ways I can’t explain in words. I have learned more in the past six months than I imagined I ever would here. I look forward to coming each week and being able to spend time with the people that work here. When I’m at Sawtooth, it’s like a family–everyone is always asking how I am, how school is, and they truly care. I feel comfortable and welcomed here, and because of that there is not another place I would rather myself be interning at.
