Post # 3

Hours: 09.00-17.00 Thursday & Friday (16hrs, 16hrs total)

I've worked it out with my mentor to work two days a week (Thursday and Friday). Since I'll have the 80 hours in five weeks, I guess I'll do the last posts retrospectively.

This Thursday, I got settled in, and was introduced to everybody. I have a feeling the "office politics" are going to be very interesting to observe. There is a big long list on a whiteboard of things for me to do, so I'm pretty sure I'll stay busy. 

I'm getting acquainted with all the terminology of the corporate marketing world. "Marcom" = marketing communication. A "white paper" is a document recommending a particular course of action (usually: buy lots of our products). There is also a lot of slang used, especially with sales people or when referring to customers. Getting "creamed", "screwed", "screwed over", or putting one's "ass on the line" are common expressions used to express dismay with a particular outcome, or illustrate one's personal hardships. If something doesn't make sense or has no apparent logic, the author was probably "smoking crack".

On Friday, I started my first bit of real work, copy editing a press release. It's tough wading through all the technical jargon, but that will get easier over time. I also worked on a project to use a tool developed by Sendmail to scan the domains of the Fortune 500. The tool determines if the systems comply with any of the security standards set by the industry. 

Post #2

My ideal project would be something that is both beneficial to the organization, and something that I could take away with me and add to my own résumé. I am looking forward to doing a lot of copy editing and writing, and a portfolio of all of that work would be a great final project. I'm learning that a lot of the work that goes on in marketing is focused around writing and manipulation of language and information, which is something that I am good at. There's a good chance that a lot of what I end up writing will go into press releases and may even get published in tech journals.

Post #1

After much searching, I have found a WLE position at my dad's company, Sendmail, inc. in Emeryville, CA. I'll be working with my father and his team in the marketing department working on content.


Initially, I contacted my junior year mentor, private investigator Kurt Ginter. Mr. Ginter told me that they were too busy with business expansion to take on an intern. I then tried to find a position with a city government planning department, another of my interests rooted in my fascination with sociology. The governments of San Rafael and Novato, whom I contacted, both wanted only college interns and refused to let anybody work for free (crazy in this economy, right?). That's when I got the Sendmail position.

At the beginning of the search, I wrote off working at Sendmail because I really have no ambition to work in the high tech industry. As my search became more desperate, I convinced myself that it would be a good experience to see how a high tech firm works. Luckily for me, my dad's only subordinate on the marketing team resigned last week (crazy in this economy, right?), so I'll be able to do some actual work with content like writing and editing press releases, copy for websites, and the like.