Jacqueline Myers completed her internship with Rethink Loyalty, gaining skills in market research, project management, graphic design, and Excel.
How did you get your internship and why did you choose it?
I got my internship through a program called Amirim Young Judaea. This is a program for college-age self-identifying Jewish students and young professionals that offers the opportunity to visit Israel and complete a meaningful internship experience. Amirim connects the participants with an internship based on their major and what they want to do in the future. I was able to connect with Rethink Loyalty for my program internship because of my interests and my plan to attend graduate school for marketing, specifically cosmetic marketing programs, in New York City. I had the option to choose between two internship programs, and I decided to choose Rethink Loyalty because they were interested in what I could offer and it felt validating to choose an opportunity where I felt valued.
What kind of work did you do throughout your internship experience?
Within Rethink Loyalty, my projects started out small. They first gave me research to do on their clients. Once I had the background information I needed, I created Linkedin posts and wrote white papers on various clients. Then after that I was assigned my first account with Sephora to develop a pitch for them to become one of their clients for their loyalty program. This required me to create a custom presentation that required several rounds of feedback from my supervisors and giving a presentation via Zoom. I also worked in Excel to organize data for companies for a client based in Hawaii.
What is unique about your situation that influenced your internship experience?
The unique part of my job that influenced my internship experience was it being remote since I was in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Rethink Loyalty is based in Canada. Being remote and in a different location influenced my situation because I wanted to travel over the summer, but I knew I also wanted an internship. Last summer I spent time in Jerusalem, Israel, and had a job working as a graphic design assistant, but I did not work many hours. I knew doing the Amirim program would provide an experience that was broad enough and with enough experience hours to train me for the real world. The experience I had with Amirim and Rethink Loyalty did a great job preparing me and I am thankful for that.
What was your favorite part of your internship?
My favorite part of my internship was everything! The reason why I loved my internship so much was because I got to have such a great supervisor and coworker, and be in a cool city. My supervisor was so great because of the experience and expertise he brought to our work. My coworker was actually another intern, so they would assign the work to each of us and we would collaborate and divide the work to make sure it got done and that it was fair for both of us. Living in Tel Aviv was another unique experience because in Israeli culture you work hard but you also get to enjoy your time away from work, which taught me balance. This internship was meaningful for me because it really showed me I could make it in the marketing world and not dread working because I realized I have a passion for it.
What did you find challenging about your internship?
The most challenging part of my internship was having my boss based in Canada. This was challenging for me because I prefer communication in-person rather than online because it feels slower and you can get mixed messages when communicating over email, especially with a time difference. I learned from this challenge to hold your head high and never give up. This was one of the major lessons I learned in my internship because it shows that you can make it through receiving feedback and constructive criticism. When I was working on my presentation I had to redo it several times and I started to feel like a failure; but I knew it was going to get it right if I didn’t give up and showed my resilience.
How has your internship experience influenced your plans for your future?
My internship experience influenced my plans for my future because it gave me experience living in a city with a different climate and confirming my plans to pursue graduate school in New York City. Tel Aviv felt like it was the hotter version of New York City and I think I’ll prefer the weather more in NYC. My internship experience itself showed me marketing is the right path for me because I enjoyed the marketing and social media projects that I was assigned. It makes me feel like the programs I am applying to for graduate school are the right ones for me.