Interning to Learn the Art of Business

By Victoria Horton, CHID '14

Last May, through the CHID program, I applied for and was accepted for a summer internship with jimwalkerseattle. I started after graduating last June.  jimwalkerseattle is a marketing, brand and entertainment consultancy that works with clients to develop marketing and creative solutions that create growth for their clients.  Initially, I began coordinating phone calls and meetings for one of our clients, Opus Bank. Although it began as administrative work, I learned a lot about how the business world communicates, and what clients need in order for everyone to be successful. My next assignment was a project where my film and CHID background came in handy. jimwalkerseattle was hired to by Sparkling Ice to launch their new partnership with Kevin Durant and RocNation.  I worked with producers and editors to put together videos for our client to use for internal meetings. We also put together a photo and video shoot for Kevin Durant’s visit to Seattle and Sparkling Ice’s headquarters in Preston, WA.   The video and photography will be used to launch an exciting new partnership for Sparkling Ice. For another client, Taco Del Mar, we have worked on putting together radio spots as well as redesigning their menu for all their US and Canadian stores as we update the Taco del Mar brand.

This experience has been extremely valuable and has led me into a career I had not previously considered. Jim Walker, the founder of jimwalkerseattle and Robin Walker, who leads our work with Washington State Mentors, have trusted me with a lot that sometimes I felt was over my head.  However, it forced me to ask questions and learn quickly. My film background helped me with a lot of the production work as well as the visual aspect of this job, and my CHID background is what helped me with the advertising aspect. My CHID senior thesis was focused on millennials—how they think, what they buy, what they don’t buy, and what they respond to in the world. Our target audience is largely the millennial population, so having an understanding of our target generation, as well as a solid sense of perspective (of course, that I gained from CHID), helped me in my work.

Although my internship ended in August, I have been retained part-time and am currently working at jimwalkerseattle. I’ve been able to be a part of creating some very cool, fun, and effective campaigns for our clients.

Photos: CHID Alum Luke Walker poses with Victoria on the job (top). Victoria with Robin Walker and NBA player Kevin Durant (left).