I barely learned anything productive. My major duties included cleaning and manual labor.
Pros
Most of the employees are very young, so it may be a comfortable place to work right out of college. Once you're with the company for over a year, you get to go on an all-expenses paid vacation with everyone in the office. Craig, CEO, sometimes rewards employees with bottles of liquor for reaching sales or other goals, and occasionally holds in-office happy hours with beer provided. I got to leave the office occasionally to mail things or shop for office supplies and was refunded for my gas.
Cons
I can only speak from my experience as an intern, and I am still glad I did the internship, hwoever I disagree with the way I and the other intern were treated for many reasons. So, first off the recruiter told me they would not participate in me receiving academic credit for my time with them which only required a signature on their part, so with my University, I lost about $300 because I had enrolled in the internship course and then had to drop it. Secondly, I was asked to send a picture with my online application which is completely unethical. Now, for the actual on the job experience: I expected to learn a lot in marketing and communications, even though I was told that I would be working wherever I was needed within the office. Well, my main job was to make sure all of the conference rooms were clean at the beginning and end of the day and after lunch. I also had to make sure the kitchen was always stocked with utensils, cups, coffee, etc. as well as the supplies cabinet with pens, binders, etc. There is a horrendous storage closet that is piled to the ceiling with chairs, cubical walls, etc, that me and the other intern were told to "organize" several times so that they could fit more stuff in there. I would be wearing nice business clothes, then have to climb on top of tables and literally do manual labor. I was also told at one point to assemble new filing cabinets for the entire office and then deliver them to each employee at their desks. I could tell that a lot of the employees felt bad for the interns and would've liked to have them help them with real work, because they seemed to be pretty slammed most of the time, but still my responsibilities remained mostly that of a janitor. I did also do a lot of online research to find the best prices for different things and then ordered the stuff for my manager, which wasn't all bad. A lot of times though, I would be given a task without any information as to how to do the task. Example: I was supposed to take inventory of all the marketing supplies at some point (trade show banners, monitors, tables, etc. ) but the marketing closet was a COMPLETE unorganized mess with nothing labeled, and there were many things on the list that was some jargon office term that I was completely unfamiliar with. Lastly, I was never involved in or invited to any of the meetings in the office when that could have been a great learning experience for me. AND I know one time in particular regarding the marketing inventory, my name was brought up and talked negatively about in a meeting that I, again, was not in. It is unprofessional and unethical to bring someone up in a meeting without having that person there to defend his/her case or ask questions. I had to find out about from an employee in a private conversation. Also, I know they pay horribly. I was paid $8/hr and the other intern that has been there for years was still only making under $9. The entry level reps make about 30K with not much guarantee for bonuses or raises. The office is also really cliquey and there is A LOT of gossip and drama that makes for a really unprofessional workplace sometimes.
