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Imagine yourself surrounded by friends in college, getting internships left and right for the summer….in December. Summer internships don’t start until May or August and I was feeling the pressure of finding an internship that allowed me to grow and learn professionally and personally.

My Stories Inc. Internship Experience

After almost four months as the Business Development Intern here at Stories Inc, my experience has succeeded my initial expectations and helped me to achieve my initial goal – to grow personally and professionally.

This video (below) about their culture on their careers site caught my attention and was the reason why I applied for the position. After watching the video again at the end of my internship, the content still resonates with me. As a candidate, I thought the Stories Inc. team was authentic and caring. They are exactly what I thought and much more.

Commuting as an intern

This role was my first internship experience working full-time. I live in the Northern Virginia area and commuted everyday into the DC office. I had to Slug for the first time ever. “Slugging” is basically professional hitchhiking for commuters. It’s a free service for people heading into DC and builds camaraderie within the community.

Unfortunately, I was in a minor four-car accident while slugging to work one day, which made for great story…once the shock wore off! Honestly, I’ll miss waking up early in the morning to catch a Slug car, hopping on the Metro train, and walking the three blocks in downtown DC to the office and then doing the same thing in reverse going back home. My commute sounds like a lot of hassle for an internship, but I kept doing it because I truly loved working for Stories Inc.

Why intern for Stories Inc. – for food and much more!

On my first day of the internship, I knew this was going to be a fun summer because it seemed that every minute revolved around food. Right as I reached the office, the cofounder, Lauryn, took me to Starbucks for a coffee and debrief.

Then, she treated me to lunch at her favorite sandwich spot. Later that day, the entire team walked to a gelato place to get ice cream! Knowing that the team loves tacos was a plus for me because my favorite food is tacos, but my internship experience did not entirely revolve around food, although we did eat plenty of it!

As the Business Development Intern, my day-today responsibilities were to research our target companies. I contacted company and division leaders with specific ways that Stories Inc. can help with their employer branding and set up meetings between them and our team.

I also helped the project team with specific tasks on current projects. Throughout this internship, some of the things that I learned was how to write a request for proposal, understand business terminology, draft proposal decks, and write concise and targeted email for sales and marketing campaigns.

Interning here is different

Although Stories Inc. has few people, they are some of the most thoughtful, genuine, and ambitious people that I know. I felt that my opinion mattered everyday. They valued my opinions from something small like what office snacks we should buy to big decisions like if we can fit two site visits in different states and film in one day.

Not only did the team value my opinion, but they also treated me like an equal and not ‘just an intern’. I set my own hours and the team understood my overseas college preparation schedule. I had the flexibility to work from home when I needed to, which came in handy when I registered for classes or woke up at four in the morning to register for housing for my study abroad program.

Some of my friends had internships this summer where they didn’t feel valued or productive. Internships look great on resumes, but the experiences and values from the internship are more important. The Stories Inc. internship will give you much more. You will be able to apply everything that you learn from it to further your business skills and your career.

What’s next?

I am studying abroad in Ireland for a semester! As I travel the world, I will continue to work for Stories Inc. as a part-time employee – sending emails and nurturing our sales leads. My summer experience built my business skills which has laid a foundation for me to grow my career in marketing hopefully both in the States and around the world!