Andrea Hurtado
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Y&R, first day at internship!

11/11/2013

1 Comment

 
AFTER PLANNING AND ORGANIZING FOR SEVRAL WEEKS THE INTERNSHIP DAY IS FINALLY HERE!  #REALWORLD #HANDSON #INTERNSHIP #Y&R
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Today I woke up early and went for a walk with my mom and my dog. I showered, ate breakfast calmly and left for work at 8:30 am.  I arrived at the office at 8:40 am, awake, excited and most importantly eager to learn.  I apporached the front desk where a man asked me for my DNI and told me to wait for Eduardo. I waited… waited…. and waited… NOTHING. So I spoke up and I went to another lady sitting in the desk and I asked her to inform Eduardo's secretary, Rubi, that I was here. Luckily I was early and I could wait all the time needed. 
Finally a guy came down the stairs and asked if I was Andrea; he then took me to the Cristal team office. David introduced me to their creative directors, designers, accouters and more people who are part of their team. Then we sat down with Melissa, the accounts executive, and we talked a little about what I was going to do during my time there. David wanted me to experience contact with the client so for some time I am going to work in accounts, getting the orders of the clients and transferring into the system and creating an order for the team to produce whatever is needed by the client. Then he told me that I was also going to work on production and learning how to produce the different types of promotions and how each work. Finally David left to a meeting and I stayed with Melissa.
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C H A L L E N G E S on the first day….
Being YOUNG
1. I am only 16 years old and in the REAL BUSINESS WORLD (through the eyes of important/ experience people) I am seen as less important (because of no experience) or less professional background.  When I got to work and I was early, the assistant in the front desk told me to sit down and wait; he did not bother to do something, considering I was already waiting for 40 minutes, until I asked him for Rubi.

2. People underestimate young people, therefore they gave me SIMPLE
 work like easy research on the projects. In the beginning I was not getting any attention which I understand since they have tons of work. But then when finally started to push the bar a bit by asking questions not only to Melissa but to the different people who are part of the team and making conversation in lunch I got the opportunity to learn more. 

BIG COMPANY =TOO IMPORTANT, TOO BUSY
2. People are nice but they have so much work they don't  bother teaching me things or showing me around. When Diego brought me up he introduced me to the team every one was super nice and welcoming, since all the people were lively and young the environment was very positive and fun. However he had to go to a meeting, therefore he left me with Melissa, the ejective de cuentas. I sat for 30 minutes watching her write mails, we talked for short periods since she was so busy figuring out her mail. 

Observations based on a REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE
1. Have
 
FUN

The people have FUN at work
-They call each other personalized 
N I C K N A M E S (chuky, kevin, chap)

-They are allowed to
EAT while working, they even have a waitress theta brings them food or drinks from the bar

-They can listen to
music, play, joke around, chat go to Facebook, tumblr

-They personalize their working area, their computers have stickers, pictures of whatever they want
2.Observe for 


INSPIRATION
 
The people are always looking around for INSPIRATION and also for fostering CREATIVITY.
-They have thousands of posters, ads, bottles, logos, cans, caps, calendars and all sorts of things they design or create for promotion of the brand (Cristal). They keep this things not only as an archive but also so that when they get to work they feel INSPIRED and also they get into the atmosphere of the brand. By beign exposed to the products and promotions they create they start to think on more ideas and it also fosters they CREATIVITY as to wise the product they are promoting.

-They look into the Facebook page of crystal and watch youtube videos to get in the mood of crystal and begin creating and producing things in that feeling. If they produce things with that feeling of crystal it is more likely that the costumers will feel that same feeling.

-They are not only exposed to the brand they are promoting but also to the competition. They have their products around and also in the computer they have files of the different ads their competitors have. This allows them 

LESSONS from my first day
1. Asking thoughtful questions makes people give you thoughtful answers which you can learn a lot from.
In the beginning I was scared to say anything since I didn't know these people. For the first time in my life I felt a strong desire to learn about everything they were doing. I saw people around me doing amazing advertisements, with cool colors, images and amazing editing skills, I wanted so bad to be part of it. I though that there was going to be a moment when a person was going to go with me through every single thing about promotion and this Cristal project. I was wrong. Instead of sitting back and eating for things to happen I made them happen, I begun to ask questions, it was my way of trying to get out information from the people, only that in a good way. I asked about:
-The impact of products in their office and ads they have made on their current work
-The synthetic grass in the office
-Personalized working areas
-Music (relaxed, calm)
-Their current campaign 
-Ads they showed me
-Promotion in tv, ads, packaging (process)

2. Accepting harsh feedback often
From my time in Innovation Academy I know how hard it can be to accept harsh feedback. But let me tell you something this is a skill you must attain because in the real world it is all around. During the 7 hoursI spend in the office I realized how much the designers, producers and creative directors get criticized by other people, specially their costumers. Day-to-day designers, producers and creative  directors are constantly generating ideas, creating ads, commercials, etc. for each campaign. Today as I was working in the accounts area, area of Y&R that gets in contact with costumers, I realized how demanding and strict costumers can be. As these people generate ideas or produce them they need to constantly keep in contact with their costumer so they can approve or give comments on what is beign made. For example today I saw a Cristal article, which in my opinion was perfect but as the day went by and we communicated with the costumer, Backus, the ad was changed at lead 5 times until it was sent for final approval. They guy, Chuky, creating the ad had all these critiques from the company (logo is standing out from banner logo is centered, logo too close to the people) and even though he had worked hard and he liked what he had made he had to change it to satisfy the costumer. Also in our team room there is one guy who produces ads for Movistar. Throughout the day I saw him produce at least five different ads with the same information only that with different people and backgrounds to see which ones would get approval. Many directors came to him and as they analyzed each ad they changed them several times. In my eyes it looks like minimal details, such as color of the grass or size of the clouds, but once they actually give a reason behind why it should be changed it makes me realize the importance of every single small part.
3. Following up with deadlines
In the real world deadline are deadlines that MUST be followed. It's not like school where you can ask for extensions. Missing a deadline is falling at work. Today the client, Backus, made the designers here do many changes and they worked very hard to have it on time. However the client did not approve the "prensa" ad on time and Libero, newspaper, couldn't wait any longer so they can't put the new ad on this week. If is approved then it will be used for next week. However, Backus still needs to answer as soon as they can so they can approve the article and it can be released at least in Depor tomorrow. 
1 Comment
Corey Topf
11/11/2013 09:37:11 am

Drew! I love that you're already trying to take initiative on the first day. Continue to ask yourself, "How can I add value in big and small ways at Y&R." If they're working on an ad, brainstorm possible ideas. Try to view things from a teenager's perspective, because that's the unique view you bring to the company. It will get better!!

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