I worked all summer for Executive Staffing Solutions as a Social Media Marketer. The office culture and workplace environment really is the dream job!
My name is Hannah Gilliam, and I will be starting my Junior year of college this fall. I attend Spring Arbor University, studying Business Administration with a Marketing Concentration. I’ve completed close to half of my business classes, but I have a lot left to learn. This job was a perfect experiential learning position.
Corporate Life
It was such a blessing to broach the corporate world through this job. When I started working here, I was immediately welcomed and felt comfortable.
And the best part? I got my own desk. No…like a real one…with two monitors and one of those desks that move up and down. So maybe I’m still a 20 something that gets really geeked about the little things, but I’ve been doing work on a tiny dorm room desk for the past two years.
When I came into the office the first day, my boss had well prepared for my arrival. She showed me to my cubical, where I had a plethora of office supplies that she had picked out for me. Sitting on my keyboard was a handwritten note sharing how excited they were to have me. It was such a small but meaningful gesture. This was just the beginning.
As I got into the flow of things, I realized how much of a dream job I was filling. By the end of my first week, I had helped set up a bridal shower for a co-worker, had a meeting with the Senior Partner, and been personally welcomed by countless faces.
Ideal Career
At the beginning, my bosses and I were trying to navigate what exactly my position would entail. I suggested I spend a little bit of time researching and pulling together a Social Media Marketing Proposal. They said YES, and I ran with it. Recruitment was a fairly new term to me, and so it took me some research to get a solid understanding of the company.
By the end of two weeks, I had created a 30 page proposal, and presented it to my two bosses. And not only did they sit through the whole proposal…they really listened and asked questions and created a dialogue. As a sophomore in college, I just scratch the surface in my understanding of the marketing world. However, because I was given the opportunity to research and struggle, they were able to praise my good ideas and shed some light on concepts that might not be worthwhile.
Best Place To Work
Executive Staffing Solutions is ranked One of the Best Places to Work in Ohio. I think they’ve earned this title for so many reasons. Most people will go on and on about the truly incredible benefits and incentives. Which I was blown away by. The trips, events, parties, and willingness to pay for any material that will improve the workplace is crazy.
On the other hand, the relationship aspects of this company go above and beyond. There is an open door policy that is weaved deeply into the workings of this company. They create close bonds not only among teams but everyone in the office. Every time they hire a new recruiter, they have a one-on-one lunch with each employee. Once a quarter, the Senior Partner has breakfast with everyone who does not directly report to him.
I’ve worked multiple internships, and they’re always hit or miss. However, the reason I loved this job is because they didn’t stick me in a corner to make copies, organize storage closets, and do laundry (yes, I had one internship that required me to do both office and house work).
Instead, they sat me in at a big girl desk with a big girl chair and said what do you think this job can be? How can we make this job all that we can?
This internship allowed me to learn and fail. Maybe fail in a lot more ways then I even let them see. But it also allowed me to pull out the all too new tools that my university is teaching me and enact them in the real world. Marketing is constantly changing and growing with so much up and coming research, and Executive Staffing Solutions saw that I had new ideas they could use. Because of this internship, I feel that in three short months, my marketing knowledge has more than doubled.
Our everyday life is marketing. You interact, socialize, and post all based on your personal brand. It’s a natural and subconscious part of life. Studying and enacting the subconscious is quite an interesting paradox, and feels anything but natural. Marketing is a planned reaction of analysis and checklists and strategies. But when these reactions are channeled the right way, the numbers show up. I’ve read a lot of business books in school…but seeing the numbers was the most influential and encouraging education I could’ve had.
Thank you for working muscles I didn’t even know I had.
