Student, social media marketer, and content creator.
BLOGS
INTERNSHIP ANALYSIS
During the Spring 2023 semester, I interned with a software start-up company that specializes in connecting job seekers and employers using short-form video. A very short way to describe it is to think. of Indeed and TikTok combined into one.
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That said, because of it being such a new concept and business, the company and its clients (employers) require videos to help show them what type of videos to make to attract talent in the Hampton Roads.
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During my time with Reelist, I was able to put the stuff that learned in-class and apply them into the an actual setting. For example, I spearheaded the ideation of internal marketing content by writing scripts. After the approval process with my supervisors, I was able to film those scripts. After filming them, I got to edit the footage that was captured in Adobe Premiere Pro. As seen to the left (must be seen on desktop), is a video of my work that I scripted, filmed, and edited of Reelist's founder, Sean Worden, announcing a job that most people don't know about—a concrete specialist—to help drive applicants to its client, Hâpax.
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In addition to that, Reelist was flexible with my school schedule and even planned client shoots around it to ensure that I gained the experience that I needed.
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Overall, I think the company did a great job of allowing me to put my creativity into the work for Reelist along with our clients and trusting my abilities to develop marketing content.
INTERNSHIP ADVICE
There is not much advice that I would give to ODU or the company, Reelist, to improve this internship experience.
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The only thing that I think could have improved my experience would to be to work with a larger team during client shoots. The only reason that I wish for this is so that I can learn just a bit more from other video production professionals like tips to lighting, hacks to edit faster, or even career development advice.
"WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY IN A FUTURE WORKING EXPERIENCE?"
In a future work experience, I'd like to work with more people and even on more complex productions where lights, flags, and other lighting-related tools are used. During my time with Reelist, most of the productions were created to focus more on efficiency due to the fact that we were not a video-production-based company. Instead, Reelist used video production to fuel the end goal in mind which is to make it a more user-friendly platform where employers and job seekers use it as a tool to connect.
SMART GOALS
At the start of my internship, I set 3 SMART goals which were:
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Acquire at least 1 new client inquiry from marketing efforts, such as social media, in-person, etc., by the end of my time with Reelist in May
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Increase social media followers on Instagram and TikTok from 0 to 500 by the end
of my time with Reelist in May -
Deliver 20 short-form videos, both internally and externally, by the end of my
time with Reelist in May
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Two of the goals were not met, which are the first two mentioned above. The reason these goals were not met was due to the lack of time. Being that the company required the time of the founder/CEO to be on camera, scheduling time with him to film oftentimes did not align with my availability and his. The lack of internal content to publish, therefore, made it hard to reach the 500 follower goal. Rather than, acquiring a client via social and obtaining 500 followers, I was able contribute to the client satisfaction as measured through successful hires for said employer, or client, through the delivery of short-form videos along with 121 followers for the company Instagram. As for TikTok, I did not get an opportunity to publish content there based on our marketing strategy.
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Despite not reaching the first two goals, I had the opportunity to film, edit, and deliver 20 total videos to both Reelist for outbound marketing and our clients—Hâpax, TASTE, and ECPI—to help them find talent in the workforce. To right is a job video I created for our client TASTE to help them find sandwich makers.
WHAT'S NEXT PROFESSIONALLY?
Professionally, I'd like to work in a position where I can create videos and capture photos full-time. Ideally, I'd love to work in a video production company or work with a company that needs some kind of video production person similarly to the internship role that I fulfilled with Reelist.
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Outside of that, I'd like to create videos to publish online to inspire and help other videographers, video editors, etc. who want to learn more about creating stunning images, Adobe Premiere Pro, and any and all things related to video.