Global Spotlight – Hope Marchiano, BrandX

Hope Marchiano is a Pre-Business major graduating in May 2021. Last summer, Hope interned with BrandX in Dublin, Ireland.

If you worked on a big project during your internship, please describe what you did to help. The other intern and I were assigned to conduct comparative analysis and market research for AvCom, an audio visual equipment supplier in Ireland. BrandX needed to come up with unique and innovative marketing strategies to help make AvCom one of the best AV companies in
Ireland, in order to gain them as a client. In order for BrandX to do so, my supervisor needed to know more about the AV market in Ireland and AvCom’s competitors and that is where me and the other intern came in. We created an informational PowerPoint slide explaining what other competitors had that AvCom didn’t and what the Pro AV market was like in Ireland. Recently,
we found out that BrandX gained them as a client and will be making extensive changes to AvComs website and much more with them.

What did you find most challenging about your internship? The most challenging thing about my internship was teaching myself about social media ads and tracking pixels. My supervisor wanted me and the other intern to find out the prices and the reach on Twitter and Facebook ads based on one clients criteria. Unfortunately, I picked Twitter ads to
research and found that Twitter doesn’t tell you any prices or narrowed down reach, but Facebook told you everything. So, I found it was incredibly frustrating to learn about. We also had to teach ourselves about how to install social media tracking pixels on to Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager and then present our findings to our supervisors. This task was
incredibly difficult to do because there are so many different ways for do it and we have to learn about the Google products to understand how it works. It’s very confusing and probably the most challenging to do because I know absolutely nothing about Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics.

​What advice do you have for other students that are also considering interning abroad? All students should take the opportunity to intern or study abroad. If you decide to intern abroad, take every opportunity to explore, not only the area you are interning in, but other places as well. There is so much of the world to see! I would also advise students to always ask questions when your confused about your work. At my internship, they will tell you to complete a task, but they will not hover over you while your doing it. Do not be afraid to ask questions, your supervisor and your co-workers want you to learn and complete a task successfully.

​How did Eller (or your previous coursework) prepare you for your internship?  My previous coursework prepared me by helping to adapt to work culture. In my classes, we talked about resume, elevator pitches, work etiquette, and dress codes. One thing, I am sure of is everything you learn about is useful. The weekend before I arrived at work, I made sure to introduce myself formally via email, which is one thing you learn about in school. Also, the very first day at the my internship, my supervisor asked me to tell him about myself — elevator pitch. Elevator pitches are probably the most taught at school and they are useful and they help sell yourself.