Internship Spotlight: Elizabeth Lovret, Sydney Film Festival

Elizabeth Lovret '23 BSBA (Marketing and Public Relations) was a Global Intern at Sydney Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.

If you worked on a big project during your internship, please describe what you did to help.

For my internship, a lot of it has been focusing on the post festival wrap reports. These reports get sent out to each of the festival’s sponsors. It shows them the festival analytics and content the festival posted about the sponsor. I help with this by finding the content that was posted for each sponsor and uploading screenshots of the post into different Dropbox folders. After I find all the posts, I go through an excel sheet of analytics, gather what we need, move it to a newer and more aesthetic excel that is put on the wrap report for the different sponsors. 

What did you find most challenging about your internship? 

What I found most challenging was that the festival dates were the first two to three weeks of our internship. Working during the festival had lots of moving parts, different tasks, and overtime hours. Sometimes I would have to go to an event at 8:30pm and wouldn’t have time to unpack or relax. However, they are very flexible and would let me have the next Friday off or work from home to compensate for overtime. 

What advice do you have for other students that are also considering interning abroad?

If you are older, I think doing the internship is great because you gain experience and get to experience a completely different work culture. The people I have met from work are super friendly and give great recommendations around Sydney. I would also recommend not traveling with people you already know from school. On my trip I am the only Arizona student and while that was scary for me at first, it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip. I feel like my experience is so unique, I met so many new people, conquered my fears, and could really make the trip what I wanted. 

How did Eller (or your previous coursework) prepare you for your internship?

At Eller, learning how to conduct yourself in a professional manner has been beneficial. Little things such as showing up on time, not complaining about tasks you might not want to do, and being friendly with your coworkers make the biggest difference. I feel like the basics I have learned about Excel, marketing analytics, and navigating technology have helped me as well in making my work more efficient.