After a grueling morning bus ride all the way to Merchandise Mart, the elevator doors open to the 12th floor to a massive start-up incubator. The ideas are bouncing, the innovation is radiating, and people are scavenging to get their work done and to get their ideas written down on the nearest napkin. You forget your bus ride and dive into the world of 1871, Chicago’s number one start-up collaboration space. 10:00am- Begin Day As I walk through the space to set my stuff down and say hi to all the staff, I check in with my supervisor, Diana, and I may get a project or two thrown at me. Diana would say, “Did you finish the investment project for Howard?” And I would respond, “Yes I did.” Diana would follow up saying, “Great here is a list of new interns that I need you to help set up for me. And by the way, how are your social media posts going with Vanessa, are you getting your marketing stuff done?” I would smile and say, “Everything is fine. I will be by the moss wall if you need me, I’ll get the list right over to you.” (That’s correct you heard it right, there is a real moss wall, but don’t touch!) 10:30am-Catch Up After a brief catch up with everyone, I begin my projects. In the morning I usually start off by making sure that I am on track with all my content deadlines and that I haven’t missed anything. For what I still need to accomplish I do research and I make sure to have all the information that I need to get going with. At any time I might get pulled away to do something else for someone else, so keeping myself in check is really important in getting things done. 11:00am- Meeting Every Friday I meet with Vanessa who is the Event Associate and she is in charge of my social media content that I write. 1871 is a big space, newly upgraded to 115,000 sq. feet, and they host a lot of events and welcome many different important people. David Axelrod, Steve Case, and Dikembe Mutombo are just the few of the people that have visited the space and the people I got the chance to write about on 1871’s social media platforms. I usually write up 4-5 brief sentences about the event and why it was important. I also get to choose the pictures that will go up on our websites or I will sometimes edit them into something that is called a “postcard” that includes a quote from the event. This is my favorite part because I love to work with pictures to edit them and design different layouts. Our lovely photographers are very on point about sending us the photos as soon as possible, which makes everyone’s job easier. Besides writing about events, Vanessa likes for me to stay on top of the different trends that are happening in the tech community and in the world in general. It is important to stay relevant in marketing and this helps us stay up to date. 12:00pm- Lunch. There is always food here! Along with my social media responsibilities I have to also manage any other project that gets thrown my way. 1871 is busy, a lot is going on, and while the CEO is running around giving tours of the space in between his other responsibilities, sometimes he needs help figuring out where all his investments are at and who else is investing. I get to do research to help him out. I also get to work with the COO to help him organize our board members and figure out the best way to reach them. The company isn’t big, staff wise, but there is a lot going on, which is why everyone has to stay on top of it. My job as the marketing intern here is very do-it-yourself, and figure-it-out-on-your-own kind of deal. When you are working amongst entrepreneurs you really can’t stay behind. 2:00pm- Keep Going! The biggest perk of working at a place like this is the first hand knowledge and exposure to the start-up world and it’s possibilities. You are exposed to how people are thriving and what they are doing to become successful. You get to mingle with them when there is the opportunity to do so, and you get to see what works and what doesn’t. Even though sometimes it feels like all you are doing is writing up a post or making a spreadsheet, half the time you are still learning something important or getting exposure to something you never had the chance to know about before. 4:00 pm- TGIF Every Friday 1871 host a “Thank God It’s Friday” event, this is where they collaborate with a small food business start-up and bring them into the space for exposure and as a way to support Chicago’s local business. The start up provides the food, the space provides the drinks and the members of the team get to enjoy each other company and mingle. A couple weeks it was stuffed egg rolls, and not just regular egg rolls but chicken fajita egg rolls, and even cheesecake eggrolls. The food aside, the most important part about having an internship, even if it is an unpaid one, is to NEVER get discouraged. Everyday is something new; you are not standing still, but by using your time wisely to learn something new really puts you at an advantage for your future career choices. Right now is when you are learning about what you like and what you don’t like. What kind of work culture suits you the most and what kind of cubical or the lack of one is it that you are looking for. You make your own decisions about the place you really want to work at, because this is the time to do so. Choosing a fun innovative place like 1871 couldn’t have been a better choice for me.
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