Name: Marissa
Hometown: Hanover, MA
College: Providence College
Major: Marketing
Minor: Finance
Fun Fact: Is allergic to bananas
Hi! I’m Marissa. I am this summer’s marketing intern! I feel so incredibly lucky to be a part of such a fun and young company for the summer and I am so excited to be in Boston with the Mautic team!
As an intern, I know I am going to learn a lot this summer, and I am excited for the opportunity to share this newfound knowledge through a series of summer blog posts. In this new summer intern series I hope to offer some insight into my role and share my experiences working for a startup. I want to use this blog as a platform to share and document my adventures and to showcase all the exciting things going on at Mautic. So…let’s get started!
How I Got Here
As a rising senior in college I knew that it was crucial to secure a summer internship. Having an internship would help me learn more about myself and what fields I was interested in. Internships are a great opportunity to expand your skill set and learn about new industries and job opportunities and I wanted to take advantage.
To be honest, when I first applied for the position, I did not know what marketing automation was, or that there was a whole industry dedicated to marketing technology (shocking I know). As a marketing major this was pretty eye opening. There was a whole industry in my field of study that I had no idea existed, and as it turns out, is pretty cool! As I did more research on the field, the more interested I became in the position. I was curious about how you could automate the process of delivering content while still maintaining a personal tone. It definitely got me thinking about how companies I love deliver their content to me, and I just need to know more.
Although I was unfamiliar with the field, it did not deter me from applying, in fact it made me want to apply more. I loved the idea of learning about a completely unfamiliar field and being part of a startup. I also knew this was a great opportunity to expand my learning beyond the classroom. Marketing Automation is growing and innovating at an unprecedented rate and I thought it was important to learn more about the industry. I consider it a luxury to be a part of such a young company and have access to experienced professionals in the field. It’s been such a huge help while trying to learn the basics of marketing automation and Mautic itself.
What I Expected and What Actually Happened
That being said, I have to admit after I was offered the position I was a little worried about how my lack of technical knowledge would impact my work. I mentioned in my interview that I was not very familiar with marketing automation or with marketing technology in general, but I still feared that this could prove to be a major setback. I did not want my lack of knowledge to prevent me from doing a good job and I honestly couldn’t see myself picking up the tech lingo quickly.
I’m so happy I was wrong.
I definitely do not consider myself an expert at this point, but I am happy at the progress I’ve made. The language can still be difficult at times, but it is not as much of an obstacle as I thought. Having a small team of experienced individuals and Google at my disposal definitely doesn’t hurt! It’s also been fun learning how to use Mautic. I honestly thought I would be plagued by technical incompetency and be weakly attempting to market a product I couldn’t understand.
But that didn’t happen!
Mautic actually is an easy to use tool! When I first signed up and started using it was obvious that it was a sophisticated software and jam packed with advanced and diverse features, but it is user friendly and easy to figure out with a little time and research. I am a visual learner so I spent my first week as an intern doing research and learning how to use the tool with help from video clips on our YouTube page. I loved that there were an abundance of resources at my disposal to help make my experience with Mautic even better.
What I’ll Do
My objective this summer is to help show the world how great Mautic is. As the marketing intern, my tasks will center mostly around raising awareness and developing leads. But, if there’s one thing I have learned working at a startup is that roles are not rigid, and there is a lot of room for flexibility. This is exciting for me because I get the opportunity to try out different roles and projects. In my first two weeks I have worked on a diverse number of assignments designed to help different areas of the business.
As a millennial, social media happens to be a natural skill of mine. I want to use this inherent skill to help build more awareness for the Mautic brand. Primarily through social media campaigns and reform, I hope to bring our current community closer together and bring others aboard. My hope is to make our current social media more social and to introduce some new platforms into the mix by the end of my summer here. Social media is such a great tool to allow others an inside look into the company. I love getting a behind the scenes look at companies I admire, and I hope to bring that same element to Mautic’s social media campaigns.
What I’ll Leave With
I know that I am going to be learning a lot about a lot this summer and I could not be more excited to bring that knowledge back to my college campus. You gain experience at any internship, but coming into this position I knew I would be getting something unique. Working at a startup has given me the opportunity to try my hand at a number of activities and I’m not limited to just one task or one project for the whole summer. I’m learning how to write blog posts and use Wordpress, LinkedIn is actually useful to me now, and networking is still hard but it’s not as scary. I never could have anticipated such personal growth and development in such a short period of time, but I’m more than happy it’s happened.
This summer is my time to grow as young professional. Being involved with a diversity of projects here at Mautic gives me the opportunity to build on my professional skill set and further separate my likes and dislikes in the workplace. I look forward to taking the foundation I’ll build here at Mautic and going back to school to further my professional development.
It’s going to be a jam packed summer and I cannot wait to share it with all of you!
