Digithoughts

In case you missed Volume 1: http://blogs.digitaria.com/blogs/adventures-adam-volume-1-intern-born

In a time where jobs are scarce and competition is fierce, I am very fortunate to have found an opportunity at Digitaria. Which begs the question, how was I able to find such an invaluable internship when most of my contemporaries are left wondering what their future holds?

To me, life is all about decisions. More often than not, I've found that choices made in passing are often the ones I look back on as defining moments in my personal journey.  Rewind a month...

I rolled out of bed like it was any other day. Stretch, brush teeth, grab a bite, check my email... wait a sec.

SUBJ: READ ME.

What's this? An email from my roommate. All caps. Ugh. This can't be good. My roommates only email me when I've either a.) done something horribly wrong or b.) been horribly wronged.  I braced for the worst and clicked.

I didn't read the email as much as frightfully scan it. I was looking for incendiary phrases like; "Hey, so, I borrowed your car last night..." or "What made you think you could eat my last..." After about 5 seconds, something caught my eye. Amazon Web Services. I didn't know what this meant or why my roommate sent it to me, but I was attracted to the words "free" and "Amazon."

It turned out my roommate was inviting me to a seminar on AWS and cloud computing at which a series of speakers from local companies showed how beneficial Amazon Web Services and cloud computing can be. At this point, I was so relieved that my day wasn't going to be a drama-fest that I happily replied YES! Only to, minutes later, realize that I had signed up for something I had next to no knowledge of and even less interest in. Oh well, email sent. Damage done. I couldn't back out now. I was gonna do some learnin' today - like it or not.

Once the seminar began, I instantly questioned my decision making ability. Speaker number one; boring and too technical. Speaker number two, talked too fast and way over my head. Charisma seemed in short supply that day. Until...

Chuck Phillips, CTO of Digitaria was introduced. Suddenly someone had my full attention. He was funny and smart and spoke to me in a voice I could "get." He detailed Digitaria's experience creating an interactive environment for Hasbro's new Monopoly World Edition board game and how Amazon Web Services helped the project succeed beyond expectation. All at once I was intrigued by the cloud and more importantly, by Digitaria.  After the presentation I rushed home and Googled Chuck and Digitaria.

I was immediately impressed by Digitaria's wide range of clients and the types of projects they worked on. After exploring further, I stumbled upon the Careers page. Although I had been planning on doing something to forward my marketing aspirations this summer, I have to admit, I hadn't made much progress coming up with something. It's not exactly the best year to be looking for work with little to no experience.

Hopefully, I read the open positions. Senior Flash Developer. Um, no. Account Strategist. I don't even know what that is. Marketing Intern. JACKPOT! Digitaria was looking for a marketing intern!? My mind raced and my eyes darted to the "APPLY NOW" link.

Unfortunately, just like the other internships I had half-heartedly applied for, a quick response did not follow. Two weeks went by with nothing back. I really wanted an interview, so I decided to hunt down some email addresses.

I sent an email to Chuck Phillips, congratulating him on a great presentation and asking him to possibly forward my resume to the marketing department. Another week and a half went by with no response. I was getting anxious; other companies (that I really didn't want to work for) started to respond, but not Digitaria.

Words cannot express how much I wanted this internship. I literally had dreams of working there - imagining what it would be like. I had to reach out one more time before I gave up. I spent about an hour writing the email, trying not to sound foolish or desperate. I clicked send.

I rolled out of bed like it was any other day. Stretch, brush teeth, grab a bite, check my email... wait a sec.

FROM: careers@digitaria.com

I stopped breathing.

I interviewed the following week and was offered the internship. The rest is history! I am now among some of the most creative and intelligent people I have ever met. Working here has been a great experience so far and I cannot wait to see what will come next.

Adam Storr Business Development & Marketing Coordinator

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