If you read the blog post last month from PIE’s first intern Alyssa (click here to catch up) you’d know that PIE was about to welcome a new intern. That was June 12th. While she was writing that post, I was gearing up for graduation at the University of Oregon—a place where I spent 4 years finding ways to get involved with student clubs & internships, while working towards a business administration degree (marketing & entrepreneurship) and multimedia minor in pursuit of ‘a career’.
I had my eyes on PIE ever since my marketing professor brought some PIE alumni in to class two years ago. It seemed like the perfect first place out of college: a place that combined entrepreneurship energy with great people and continuous problem solving; a place that also seemed to nurture my fascination in tech—all housed under the best advertising agency in the world.
Fast forward to June 23 at 9:30 a.m., the moment I walked through the large, gray front doors of Wieden+Kennedy for the first time as an intern—Wiedenisms like “Walk in Stupid” and “Fail Harder” resounding in my mind. I finished paperwork by noon and was quickly taken to a room where PIE’s power trio was working to find the 5-8 companies out of hundreds of applicants that would be considered for this year’s PIE class. (If you don’t know who this power trio is yet, you apparently still haven’t read Alyssa’s post.) They let me sit in on their discussion which also included goals, strategies, PIE’s objectives, light-hearted jokes, and more than enough insight to get me even more excited for the summer. All of that—let me remind you—was just my first day here.
A couple weeks in, and the experience of meeting amazing new people, learning new things, and working on new projects gets even better every day. Being a part of the prep-process has helped me build a much more concrete understanding of PIE’s vision before the 2014 class takes off. I’m thankful for Rick, Kirsten, and Renny, who have helped along the learning process and have also kept me on the team. I guess at this point they either count me as a sunk cost or think I might be doing alright. Some of the PIE community have already nicknamed me: Alyssa 2.0/Intern 2.0, thanks to being PIE’s second intern after Alyssa. I actually think I’m okay with that name—there’s a nice ring to it.
Companies for this year’s class will arrive at the end of the month, and leading up to that date is when this internship starts getting crazy busy. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to take on the torch from Alyssa 1.0, and I look forward to a jam-packed summer. Thanks for welcoming me aboard!
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