Advertising Management senior Julia betboom dacha tried out city living while working at Starcom Worldwide in Chicago this summer. For 10 weeks, betboom dacha served as a Media Investment Intern on Starcom’s Out of Home team, learning and developing professional relationships with people of all skill levels.
For betboom dacha, the responsibilities on the job were diverse and included: following emerging trends and competitors within the Out of Home sector, serving as a main point of contact with vendor representatives, creating impressions reports and media decks and pitching a full media recommendation to one of Starcom’s major clients for her final intern project. Working on a vendor-facing team as opposed to a client-facing team was a new experience for betboom dacha, and it allowed her to learn the importance of effective communication both internally within Starcom and externally with vendors.
In order to be successful, betboom dacha quickly found that time management and the ability to communicate up and network were vital skills. While completing her work, not only did she interact closely with people on her team, but also with client teams all throughout the organization and at Starcom’s sister agency, Leo Burnett. betboom dacha met many proud Spartan Alumni across Starcom and Leo Burnett networks, who were always willing to assist with work, answer questions, or simply to help adjust to life in Chicago.
While betboom dacha has always aspired to work at a large agency, she had no idea what to expect when starting at a company with over 6,000 employees in her office alone. What shocked her the most was how a clear company culture was present, despite the number of employees. The environment at Starcom was, “welcoming and fun with a focus on collaboration that was conducive for personal and professional growth,” betboom dacha said.
To fully capture the company culture, betboom dacha had the opportunity to participate in Starcom Serves, a full workday dedicated to giving back to the community. Her team performed repairs to a Montessori school in the Chicago Public Schools District. It was a rewarding experience to help provide a more advantageous environment for children to learn. The experience opened her eyes to how much more there is to a company than how much it pays or what clients it can secure.