Internships

From the Mansion to the Classroom

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Author: Sharif Hraki

One of the first questions people ask in business school is in regard to employment history. From the faculty to fellow classmates, there might not be a day that goes by that someone doesn’t ask what we did prior to returning to school. When asked, I tell people about my most recent experience in the manufacturing industry as a finance manager and my internships at Caruso Affiliated and Playboy Enterprises.

If you are like everyone else that has heard my response, you’ve already forgotten about my first two positions and are curious about my duties working for the Bunny Ears. For my first MBAM article, I will discuss my time spent at Playboy, the “perks,” my opinion of the company, and what I learned that I’ve been able to apply to business school thus far.

I remember my interview as if it were yesterday. I drove down to Playboy’s LA office in Burbank and met with the marketing director. I had my suit dry cleaned, I got a haircut, and I left early due to the ridiculous and constant LA traffic. As I sat in the lobby waiting for the marketing director to come out and greet me, I noticed that I was the only person dressed in a suit. I didn’t think much of it until the marketing director saw me and immediately started to laugh at my getup. You could only imagine what was going through my head at that very instant. At the end of the interview she offered me the job and told me I could wear jeans and a polo shirt.

Lesson 1: Do research! If the company culture is laid-back it might not be necessary, or appropriate, to walk into an interview wearing a business suit and freshly shined shoes.

I was excited about my new job and figured I was living every man’s dream. That is, until my first day when I was presented with a laundry list of tasks to complete. I was placed in charge of doing secondary research on the gaming industry and coming up with innovative ideas to revamp the gaming/nightlife portions of Playboy.com. I compiled a list of hotel/casinos around the world and the elaborate gaming laws in their respective countries. The amount that some countries tax casinos is truly unbelievable.

I bet at this point you are a bit disappointed that I am not telling you about the dozen playmates that would walk around the office? I too was disappointed when I realized that didn’t happen. However, I did get to work on and attend the first annual Playboy pajama party.

I was given a cubicle directly in front of my boss’ office and I spent the majority of my time doing research. Truth be told, I would not have preferred it any other way. I gained valuable insight into industries I had no knowledge of and I appreciated the laid-back and friendly company culture compared to what I was used to. The best part of working for Playboy was the people and their friendly and personable attitudes. I learned to be more laid-back while still getting the job done and this new mentality has allowed me to remain calm in business school.

From doodling in my management communications course (I swear, it’s required!), to my reading assignments, to the “networking events,” there isn’t much time to do anything else but to enjoy it while it lasts.

Lesson 2: Our time at Pepperdine is already going by quickly. Stop and smell the roses. Or, in our case, stop and enjoy the beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean and spend time getting to know our amazing classmates and faculty. The bonds we make now will pay dividends in the future.

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Confessions from the Cube: The Beginnings

Friday, September 18th, 2009

The following is an account of real events of a summer internship courting. If you find it offensive, you most likely don’t have a sense of humor.

It was a cool day in October when I realized I should probably get on that whole “internship search” thing. Seeing how the world’s face was busy melting off, I was pretty excited to hop on the failure train as soon as possible.


Step 1: Harass personal network

It’s a lot more work to charm strangers than it is to take advantage of people you already know. I reached out to the usual suspects: family friends, undergrad alumni, and random rich old dudes. After a few weeks of schmoozing, it became clear that no one could throw me a recessionary bone. My inner circle was dried up, and I was dreading the inevitable next place to turn.

Step 2: Career “Services”

Feeling like a failure, I groveled to the last place I ever expected to find myself. After about a 10 minute chat about my trials and tribulations, the conversation took an uncomfortable turn. I was being advised to look beyond what I want and more to whatever was available. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I explained that I would rather have no internship than a random crappy one and went on my way.

It became increasingly clear that I was on my own.

Step 3: “If you can dodge a wrench…”

If you hit on enough chicks at a bar, one will likely succumb (read: be drunk enough) to your horrendous game. By the same logic, if you call enough HR reps, one will be weak-willed enough to sit and listen to your full elevator pitch. I called every HR rep dumb enough to take my call. Most cut me off immediately and continued to tell me that they were dissolving their internship program, or were at the very least delaying the hiring schedule for a few months.

Three nervous breakdowns and about two weeks later, I finally found that one poor HR soul to hear me out. She told me to send over my resume and if it looked good, she would set up a phone interview.

Yadda yadda yadda, I passed the resume test, the phone interview, made it to the final interview, and got the job.

Step 4: Pat self on back

So what’s the moral of the story? Grow some balls big enough to cold call people. On paper, you look like 10,000+ other people. On the phone, you only sound like 5,000 other people. I’m not a statistician, but those look like better odds to me.

These days, more people are worried about keeping their own job than helping out Joe Blow Pepperdine. No one is going to do the work for you, but you can definitely get the job done yourself.

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My Internship Experience

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Author: Jessica Grewal

I was one of the lucky ones; I had my internship well before the end of spring term. This was not the case for most of my classmates. Spring term is difficult and provides little time for internship hunting. You hear it a million times though, “network, network, network!” So I did. Unconventionally.

But first, I applied for a few internships through GTO and a few other places on the Internet. I also attended panel sessions to schmooze the alumni and other company representatives. No luck. Just when I was starting to get worried, I found out that my classmate’s husband worked at a company that was looking for an intern. Score!

So, I was hired as a digital marketing intern at TouchCommerce, an online acquisition optimization company in Agoura Hills. TouchCommerce assists their clients with converting more online visitors into buyers through the development and delivery of online engagement strategies.

I worked under the VP of Client Services as well as the Global Lead for the Financial Services and Retail sector. My primary responsibilities were preparing site immersion documents to present to the internal teams and helping to create new marketing collateral. I also had the opportunity to attend numerous executive meetings where I was able to join in discussions regarding pressing issues in the company. This was beneficial because I was able to experience the company’s strategy.

Digital marketing was not something I anticipated on doing but am so glad I did. I enjoyed working for a smaller company because I was able to have more hands-on experience and get a better understanding of the company and how they operate than I would have at a larger company. I still keep in touch with many employees at the company, as well as my boss, which is great for networking.

My advice to you is to keep in mind that career services and networking events are not the only ways to find people in an industry you may want to break into. Your fellow classmates are probably your best resource at Pepperdine. Networking with them opens up their personal networks in their respective industries to you too. You never know — the person who can help you may be the one sitting right next to you in class!

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