Bridging the Gap: The Power of Collaboration Between Marketing and Interns

One of the opportunities that LEARN Academy alums can look forward to after completing their Bootcamp is working as an intern at a software development company. LEARN Academy partners with several wonderful organizations, including us at Planet Argon, where we help give aspiring software developers a glimpse into their new careers.

About the Internships

The beautiful thing about internships is that they foster a positive learning environment while giving interns real-life work experience. They teach us how to be better mentors, teachers, and teammates.

For alums who work with us at Planet Argon, we take this one step further than only working on development projects. Our Engineering Manager allocates a block of time for interns to work with me, Autumn Morgan, the Marketing Coordinator.

Why would a software development intern need to spend time working with a Marketing Coordinator?

We're glad you asked!

Interns help craft social media content, and they write blog posts related to their work experience with us. Learning about marketing offers interns a more holistic perspective of an organization, encourages them to share their stories, and spend time thinking about what they'll like to do in their future careers. Plus, they further develop essential soft skills and become well-rounded professionals who can contribute to their own future success and an organization's success beyond technical expertise.

Here are a few other benefits of the collaboration between marketing and interns.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Once an intern has had a few days to get their projects set up on their computers, I'll send them a quick Slack message to schedule an intro call so we can get to know each other a bit better, and we can go over the types of tasks we'll be working on together.

Introducing interns to marketing skills enables them to work effectively with people from different departments, fostering teamwork, communication, and collaboration across various organizational roles.

We feel like the workplace these days should be interconnected and cross-functional. Each person doesn't have to "stay in their department." Let's shed those boundaries, initiate conversations, build additional skills, and connect as many team members as possible.

Communicating and Presenting Ideas

During our intro call, I'll share a blog outline I've written for each intern that I later edit to include personalized bullet points or topics to share in the post. We explore any additional ideas they may have, and then towards the end of their 3rd week with us, they begin to write their intern experience. I'm available for any questions or guidance. Once their draft is ready for review, I edit it, add any relevant links, and set it up for publishing. In their final week here, they've completed their first development project and blog post. Hooray!

Marketing exposure, especially in the form of writing a blog post, enhances interns' ability to communicate their ideas effectively. It helps them develop skills in crafting their stories, presenting information, and completing an additional project, which gives them a feeling of pride and accomplishment. This experience may help them when presenting their work and ideas in the future.

Branding and Professional Image

By having a published blog post about their experience with Planet Argon, interns now have an article that lives on the internet forever, documenting their journey. It's something they can share, revisit, and reminisce over a few years into their thriving new career. It also shows future employers that they're not afraid to work outside their comfort zones and collaborate with other departments and teams.

Besides their blog post, interns also help craft social media content. I'll ask them periodically what they're working on, what they're learning, what challenges they're facing, or anything related to different tools or programs they may be using.

We tag their LinkedIn profiles in these posts, giving them some exposure and showing potential recruiters where they should look!

As part of their exit meetings, our Engineering Manager, Ben Parisot offers interns practical advice on crafting a winning resume and updating their LinkedIn profiles to attract the best possible opportunities.

These tasks help interns understand the importance of personal branding and professional image. They learn how to represent themselves effectively and build their online presence.

Maximizing Intern Potential

We've heard stories from intern candidates about how they interned at a different company before joining our team. They share stories about being unable to work on client work or that they're given random tasks without much guidance. What's the point of bringing an intern on if we won't make it a valuable experience for everyone?

This seems like a massive waste of energy and potential! We believe that while an intern is with us, we should provide them opportunities to feel what it's like on the job. Real-life experience. When they're hired by their new company in the future, they'll have the confidence and experience to do an array of tasks and projects, which makes for a much more positive experience- now and later.

We encourage you to maximize interns' potential in marketing initiatives and leverage their unique skill sets and fresh perspectives. They may even discover another part of the job that they really enjoy!

Best Practices

If you're looking to help your interns become more versatile professionals, the best advice I can offer is this:

Think about what you wish you had known when you started your career path.

• What skills or experiences would have helped you? (If specific tech-related skills are irrelevant, think about soft skills.)
• What do you believe are the most valuable skills an intern should know before entering the workforce today?
• What are your organization's strengths, and how can you impart that in an intern's experience?
• How can you offer more collaboration and exposure to other departments in your organization?
• What marketing skills will benefit interns after they complete their time with you?

Also, have tasks and projects lined up before they come on board. We like to have a Marketing section in interns' Onboarding material.

Success Stories

By providing interns with marketing exposure, they develop a well-rounded skill set beyond their technical abilities to benefit them on their career journey. Plus, it shows other organizations that you care about mentorship and collaboration in the community.

We have many Intern Stories on our blog if you want to learn more about our intern alums.

Here, you can also read about our Internship Opportunities.

This blog was originally published as a Guest Post on LEARN Academy's Blog.