Practicum
For my practicum I did an internship with a real estate agent at Berkshire Hathaway as her marketing coordinator. In my time there I mostly took care of creating and posting social media posts, sending letters to specific neighborhoods, and eventually I learned to make and send out contracts. Being a Communications major taking the public relations track, I was able to apply what I was doing in my classes at UMD and also bring the experience back with me to my classes. I found this internship because she is my friends mom and offered me the job. I would advise future scholars to look to the people closest to you. Maybe your neighbor or family friend or even family member is working in something that you are interested in getting into. It is an easy way to get experience and since you already know them, it will be easier to get acclimated and comfortable in that work environment.
In my practicum, I learned a lot about the world of real estate as well as marketing. That is a big part of what I am majoring in so it was really helpful to get work experience in something that I am thinking of doing later on. I learned the importance of consistency with marketing and most importantly how to be patient. You aren't going to post something and get 10 clients from one post. You have to be consistent and try to target different groups of people. This has certainly helped me as a student because I am learning in my classes about things that I have actually done at my job and therefore I can compare what I learn with what I have done and try to improve. I have really grown as a professional because I now have experience in an office which is going to be really beneficial in the long run.
Below is an image of a post I designed:
In my practicum, I learned a lot about the world of real estate as well as marketing. That is a big part of what I am majoring in so it was really helpful to get work experience in something that I am thinking of doing later on. I learned the importance of consistency with marketing and most importantly how to be patient. You aren't going to post something and get 10 clients from one post. You have to be consistent and try to target different groups of people. This has certainly helped me as a student because I am learning in my classes about things that I have actually done at my job and therefore I can compare what I learn with what I have done and try to improve. I have really grown as a professional because I now have experience in an office which is going to be really beneficial in the long run.
Below is an image of a post I designed:
This is a template for instagram that I designed. My boss wanted to make her instagram look classier so I chose the font as well as the gray color scheme to emphasize that idea. I put her award at the top so that her followers can see how successful she is. These are all decisions made in order to gain more clients. This was a lot of work and it continued to improve later on. Now her instagram has pictures with my templates on it which have proven to be successful. This post shows the trial and error until we found a template that could be simplistic and yet give as much information as possible. This is another lesson I learned through my work at Berkshire Hathaway. You have to keep trying at things until you get them right. A lot of times it feels like especially in school, you have to get it right on the first try. While that is true in some situations, this internship showed me the importance of trying, failing and improving.
This job really helped my resume:
This job really helped my resume:
This internship was even more valuable due to the fact that I am planning in getting into real estate or marketing. This internship covered both and has given me a lot of experience in these fields. It is now the most important part of my resume.
For the rest of my time at UMD, I plan on continuing to work with real estate and finish with my Bachelors degree in Communications in the PR track. Afterwards I want to get my real estate license and even if I decide to go into marketing or PR, I can get a little extra money selling houses. The scholars program has helped connect me with people and motivate me to go out and work in a field that interests me and I am committed to following this path for the rest of my college career and after.
For the rest of my time at UMD, I plan on continuing to work with real estate and finish with my Bachelors degree in Communications in the PR track. Afterwards I want to get my real estate license and even if I decide to go into marketing or PR, I can get a little extra money selling houses. The scholars program has helped connect me with people and motivate me to go out and work in a field that interests me and I am committed to following this path for the rest of my college career and after.