I saw one of our Communication Studies majors looking through our internship binder in the main office this morning making plans for spring semester internships and I took it as a sign that it is time for another “Internship Ideas” post. Luckily Communication Studies major Brittany Dixon had already agreed to share her internship experience with us! Here we go…
Communication Studies major Brittany
Q: Where did you intern and what do they do?
Brittany: “This past summer I was an intern at a start-up website company called SkinnyScoop. SkinnyScoop is a forum site for women. It provides feedback on a range of different topics, including: parenting, cooking tips, product reviews, etc. They have dubbed themselves ‘the cheat sheet for everything.’”
Q: How did you find this internship?
Brittany: “A woman that I have known for a few years heard about this internship and referred me to her friend (and CEO of the company) as a good candidate for the position.”
Q: Why did you decide to intern there?
Brittany: “I really appreciated the general idea of the SkinnyScoop brand. Women take on over 80% of decisions made in each household and this site allows them easy access to tons of useful information. Also, the amount of social networking that SkinnyScoop is involved in really intrigued me. Like any other college student, social networking is a huge time-filler of my life, but I had never been exposed to it on a business level, prior to my internship.”
Q: What did you do on a regular basis at your internship?
Brittany: “As an intern, my main task was to expand SkinnyScoop’s blogger network. I did this through the use of twitter, tumblr, blog-rolls, and other blogging networks. I also spent time creating ‘lists’ for the site. My biggest and most successful list was my Guilt-Free Shopping List (http://www.skinnyscoop.com/list/brittany/guilt-free-shopping).
Q: What did you learn from this internship?
Brittany: “I’ve learned the importance of social networking and its usefulness for companies trying to get their name out there. Also, it was great to see how much effort goes into creating an effective and impressionable website and brand.”
Q: What advice do you have for other students looking for internships?
Brittany: “My advice for other students is to utilize all of the resources available to you. Friends, family, USF, etc. An internship is so important and very helpful in leading you to the type of work you are interested in, or leading you away from one you are not.”
Excellent advice, Brittany! I personally have benefitted from SkinnyScoop’s lists… well, one list in particular. The top Frozen Yogurt shops in San Francisco list that Brittany kindly passed on to me! (I have no idea how she knew this was one of my cravings… oh, maybe because there was a point in the semester where I mentioned frozen yogurt at least twice a day in class…).
