Intern Life by Sam Rathe

  As my internship here at Mudd Advertising is drawing to a close, I just want to say that I am grateful for the opportunity I have been given and am thankful I have gained this experience to further my career aspirations. I think impressed is the best word to describe the feeling I had when I first arrived and took a tour of the entire Mudd complex.  I knew they were a big company, but I had no idea of all different departments they had working collectively.  I also learned about some new things like TargetClick and the production team and the things they do for the company.  When I first saw Studio5, I think all I said was, “wow.”  Not only was it huge, but it looked like something straight out of a Hollywood set with all the cameras and lights, the studio audience area and the giant green screen in the backdrop.  It was definitely really cool to see they had this and also that they put it to good use. One of the first days I got a chance to sit in with one of the people in Studio5 to watch what they do.  His job was basically the final step in the commercial or animation making process.  The artist and designer would make the logos, the writers wrote the material that needed to be in there and they would send it all to him to compile and make it look good.  Even though I’m not particularly interested in this area career wise, it was a very cool experience to see how this part of the process works. Right when I started interning here they put me to work; not just making copies, but they had me doing things I actually enjoyed.  I wrote lots of articles for their blog, proofread, made calls, helped compile handbooks, and helped write mailers and newsletters as well.  It’s an understatement to say the work environment here is awesome – everyone seems to like the atmosphere and gets along well.  There’s music playing all the time, a popcorn machine that you can satisfy your snack need with, Nerf guns that are constantly locked and loaded at the ready for a Nerf war to break out, people laughing and shouting and having a good time; also not to mention the Mudd Café that is available for free to interns (pretty neat eh?). Saying all this, I think that the best part about interning here was learning how a big advertising company like this works; there was definitely a lot more going on than I would have expected, and it’s an outstanding place to intern.  Mudd really tries to reinforce how everyone here plays an equal part and deserves respect from all departments, and after reading The Ad Man, a book by Jim Mudd Sr., I can understand why such a team oriented workplace is so important. Something else important I learned was that I don’t need to fear graduating from college and getting a job anymore if this is how the workplace is going to be.  They really make an effort to make people comfortable and happy when they are working here, and they know if they don’t have happy employees, they won’t have happy customers.   -- Sam Rathe