January 23, 2023
In Turn with Clayton Broadway
My name is Clayton Broadway. My hometown is Norwood, North Carolina. I graduated from ECU College of Business with a business degree (concentration in marketing).
I am pursuing my MBA, with an expected graduation date of May. I work as a graduate assistant (GA) for COB’s Dr. Amy McMillan and Dr. Das to a lesser extent. When I am not working, I hang out with friends and play recreational sports like golf (disc and regular) and surfing.
Below, I’d like to share my internship experiences with Food Lion, which happened from May 23, 2022 – Aug. 12, 2022. I’ll also provide insight into how the Cunanan Center for Professional Success and the College of Business prepared me.
The Cunanan Center helped with my internship search by allowing me to craft an ideal resume and practice my networking skills. During my internship, I was allowed to complete a project of my choice and present it to the heads of the company. I chose to do my project on program success, meaning I was responsible for collecting consumer data and compiling reports on how each program performed. I then had to take my findings and come up with recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of our marketing strategies.
One of the things that helped me work so efficiently was the numerous team projects I had completed throughout my time in the COB. Communication is key in a corporate setting, and all those years of practice communicating with my peers and professors helped me in that regard.
My biggest challenge during my internship was the sheer volume of data I had at my fingertips. I was looking at data for every program they had run for the past decade, and it was a little overwhelming. One of the best things I have learned throughout my academic career is how to filter data by relevance, which made cutting down the bulk of that information much easier. One of the coolest parts of this experience was observing firsthand the concepts that I had studied being put into action. Being behind the scenes of a large company and seeing how things get done allowed me to understand how interconnected each concentration is and how they are all important to the company’s success.
This internship taught me a lot about responsibility, as I was responsible for providing good, usable data at the end of my project. Not only that, but I got to have a voice and give my input on decisions that would affect the department’s reputation, which was both thrilling and terrifying.
I think using the Cunanan Center for Professional Success to give yourself a little boost in both confidence and capability is an ideal first step in finding a good job or internship!
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