Interning at Media Volery: 3 Things I’ve Learned Working in an Agency

This blog post is by Hailey Bernhard, digital marketing and operations intern. Hailey is a junior at the City College of New York, studying Advertising and Public Relations. She is also studying sociology and is passionate about combining the two disciplines in her future career. 

Since 2018, Media Volery has had interns join us for summer/fall/spring terms. Interns have the opportunity to collaborate with our senior staff, work on real projects for our clients, and try their hands at skills from copywriting and video editing to podcast production and social media content. We also encourage our interns to write about their experiences and share what they’ve learned along the way. 

I’ve been an intern at Media Volery for about five months now, and I have definitely learned a lot. I wanted to share my three biggest takeaways from working at Media Volery!

Client Relationships: Connect in the Ways that Work for Your Clients

Being able to view the interactions and relations between an agency and their clients has been truly eye-opening. Before coming into this internship, I did not have this wide of an understanding of how the relationship is built and progresses.

Every client needs to be taken seriously with kindness and respect, but all clients have different needs and different levels of background knowledge. It is our job to connect with the client and build a relationship upon the foundations of the client’s desired message and background. As a professional, you need to find what is the best way to connect and communicate with them. Some clients want long video calls, some want brief emails and some want something in between.

Whatever it may be, it is your responsibility to find a way that works for both of you. Building this relationship on trust and understanding is what will keep clients around. You need to be constantly helpful across clients while being unique to each one.

At the end of the day, clients are people. They are individuals who require individual support, care, and will not fit perfectly into a box or template.

Social Channels: Get the Voice Right

Prior to working at Media Volery, I did not understand how detailed-oriented you must be to manage a social channel. You have to be able to look at the content you are creating and view it from the side of the client, consumer, and agency in order to see if the content has the right message for everyone.

One of the biggest things I learned about was tone. You need to understand the tone your client wants to give off. Once you find the correct voice, you have to make sure it is constant throughout, while also keeping the message true to what the client wants.

Being able to learn to use new programs to help manage social channels is also an example of how in-depth and you need to be to manage a social channel. One of the main programs I have used is Buffer. Getting a chance to see all the work done “behind the scenes” has given me a much better understanding of the way the information is created and the purpose behind it.

Learning from Professionals: Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions

During my time at Media Volery, I have learned a lot. Media Volery has been an immersive and hands-on experience that taught me so much about the professional world that would have been impossible to grasp in a classroom setting.

One of the best things about working at Media Volery has been getting to learn from amazing professionals. Being able to get input from people who have developed a great understanding of the industry from experience has been so helpful. The team knows the field and they know how things play out in the long term, and they have been able to provide me with insights into how my work feels and will be perceived by consumers and clients alike. Their one-on-one advice and input on how to get messages across clearly has been so valuable.

The advice and the insights I am being given will stay with me for my whole career because they are things I would have never been able to learn in a classroom. I’ve been able to retain the most important takeaways because I learned them hands-on and I got a chance to put them in action myself.

Media Volery’s summer 2021 internships have already been filled, but look out later this summer for information about our fall internships.