The BFB Internship: Beyond Resume Building
Each year, college students everywhere apply for coveted internship positions with various companies. Although for many it starts out as just a resume builder, if the right internship is offered, it becomes so much more than that.
Buzz Franchise Brands offers summer internships every year, and this summer we were lucky enough to have two wonderful marketing interns who were eager and curious to learn and have the full corporate experience.
Meet Our Interns
This summer Home Clean Heroes sought out a Social Media and Content Marketing Intern to spearhead a Pinterest project. After speaking with various applicants, the team selected Ashley, a rising junior and Public Relations major at Virginia Tech. Ashley worked closely with Director of Marketing Kathy Turley on researching and developing a Pinterest account for the brand, as well as a strategy to maintain the social media account to make sure it stays relevant.
Our second summer intern was James, a rising senior and Business major at Shenandoah University. James filled a Marketing Intern role with Buzz Franchise Brands, where he focused on emerging technologies and new forms of advertising to consider for our brands.
Both interns had active daily and weekly tasks; this was not an internship based around ordering coffee and filing paperwork. They represented our company on phone calls, worked with our internal designer and met with various company executives throughout their time with us. On their final day they gave presentations summarizing their work and recommendations for us to take it to the next level after their departure.
A Lasting Impression
We asked our interns to share thoughts on their experience here before they left.
Here’s what Ashley had to say:
Spending my summer interning at Buzz Franchise Brands has truly been an uplifting and rewarding experience that has left me feeling excited for what’s next along my career path. When applying for summer internships earlier this year, I was looking for opportunities that would not only give me hands-on marketing and social media experience, but also a real taste of company culture in the workplace/office setting. I went with BFB and learned about the project that I was assigned to take on for Home Clean Heroes: to research, develop, and implement their new Pinterest channel (with some other mini writing projects along the way).
I think what I enjoyed most about BFB was the environment as a whole. Everyone that surrounded me were truly hard-working and talented individuals that obviously cared about what they were doing, and who they were doing it with. I feel like that kind of cooperation and work culture is so valuable, and I plan on emulating that everywhere I go. This ties into one of the key things I learned from this experience. There are so many moving parts to a business, and everyone has a role. In order for it to all function well, each person must understand how to communicate and cooperate with one another. Seeing everyone come together to achieve exciting and inspiring goals has been an experience that I am so grateful to have been a part of.
Here is what James had to say about his time at Buzz Franchise Brands:
I’ve heard countless times that culture drives a company. I never really knew what that looked like until interning at Buzz Franchise Brands. This summer I’ve been exposed to great people and a great work environment. What I’ve learned from my experience here will help carry me through the beginning stages of my career in the marketing field. Thank you to everyone who helped me throughout my time at BFB. I’m so grateful for the opportunity you’ve given me, and I couldn’t have been happier that this is where I spent my first internship.
Thank you Ashley and James for a great summer, and wonderful ideas that will help continue to grow our company. And if you’re interested in interning next summer with Buzz Franchise Brands, keep an eye out for open positions on our website.