Jonathan Lipshy expanded his role in his family's event management business to include on-site management and sales.
How did you get your internship?
My connection to this internship is that it is my dad’s company. I have been involved since I was a kid, so having a more formalized role and learning more specifically about marketing and operations was the next logical step in my career development. This experience allowed me to make more contributions to the company rather than more of the shadowing I did when I was younger. It was rewarding and felt like a full circle moment to transition from working on-site inflatables games to learning high level marketing strategy and event planning to booking leads for the coming year.
Why did you choose this internship?
It was a natural transition for me. It offered me experience with a hands-on approach in a real business atmosphere. I got to learn from mentors outside of my dad, like my site supervisor Amanda who runs marketing, who was an incredible resource and teacher. I learned a lot from her about creating online engagement such as polls, or just creating connections and how subtle approaches can have a high impact on marketing and sales.
What kind of work did you do throughout your internship experience?
I did outreach to prospective accounts and prior customers to try to retain their business. I organized Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and updated our client databases to better organize and prioritize our clientele. My work was a hybrid between being an on-site manager at the summer events, and in sales trying to book new events for the coming year. We expanded our services to book events outside of the country now, so that aspect of the sales was very cool to me.
What is unique about your situation that impacted your experience?
What is unique about my situation is that I was able to collaborate with the owner and see how someone in that high level of leadership operates the business. I got to be in the middle of all aspects of the business and see how much problem-solving happens and how it was managed with a lot of grace and style. The relationships I made this summer were also meaningful to me. This summer was emotionally taxing, as I experienced a loss in my personal life, so it was nice to be able to lean on the rest of the team.
How was the internship related to your Applied Humanities degree?
I feel that many of the skills I have learned and fostered within my degree and even Pre-Internship class (PAH 383) transitioned perfectly into this internship experience. Everything from my adaptable, human-centered communication style and even having the self-awareness to understand my skills and strengths served me all throughout the internship. When challenges came up, even in my personal life, I was able to pivot and navigate as best as possible. The ability to document everything I did in my Activity Journal for the Internship course (PAH 493) was also important as it organized me and allowed me to understand, even during the internship, what I wanted to get out of this experience.
What did you find most challenging about your internship and what did you learn about yourself from it?
The most challenging part of the internship was wearing so many hats. One day I might be working alone, talking with prospective customers and the next day I would be out in the field meeting with clients at venues. It was great, but also challenging because I couldn't concentrate on one thing. I learned from the challenge that I could do so much more than I expected of myself. I learned to multi-task and was able to juggle a lot of responsibilities, and it was fine. Things were going to get done at the right time; this was the expectation I learned to set for myself.
What was your favorite or most rewarding part of your internship?
I love working with people, so serving at events was my favorite part. I got to work with vendors, customers, caterers and entertainers. It was really exciting to connect with many types of people and be a team; all of us creating a goal with the same objective in mind: create a successful event. Also, like I said previously, this was most rewarding because I used to go to the events when I was younger just to be a kid and have fun, so going to these same events as an intern was a memorable moment.