This week was a whirlwind and definitely felt a bit like diving straight into the deep end (fun but stressful)! Rethink is an AMAZING place to work with the coolest office ever, the nicest, kindest people, and a really fun work environment! It’s totally different from what I expected going into it.
I was lucky enough to get the chance to attend an all staff meeting at the end of my first week, and was shocked at how transparent the company is on everything to their employees! Before Rethink, I thought every role was very separate, like accounts wouldn’t really interact with designers, etc. But here, everyone feels looped in on everything happening like one big team. Even if you aren’t on a project, you will still get a chance to hear about the progress and stuff on the weekly Friday emails and at the all staff.
One thing I’m super grateful for is that I’m not doing this alone. Aleks from my class is also doing an internship here too! The first day was pretty fun–we went in the lego room and I got to build my name.
The hardest part for sure going into practicum at Rethink was learning all the jargon and acronyms. We don’t really cover advertising in school at all, so pretty much every term here is new to me. In addition, Rethink itself has a huge vocabulary exclusive to the company. A lot of terms used here aren’t used anywhere outside the company. Luckily, everyone is super helpful and understanding when I don’t know what words or acronyms mean, and I’ve been learning slowly but surely.
Right off the bat, on my second day, I was assigned two briefs already. For one of them, I was the only art director, as the other one was on vacation. This made me feel especially pressured to execute something great and prove myself a little bit. I got paired with a really genius senior copywriter which was super cool to work with. On monday I have my first OH (Office Hours), where we present our work to the CD (Creative Director), and I’m super nervous! Hopefully he’ll like some of our ideas!
I almost forgot! We also have this thing called coffee dates/coffee chats. You can set them up with ANYONE in the company! It’s such an amazing thing really–I was shocked when I first found out about them. I’ve already learned so much from everyone working here. It’s so nice to get to speak with people in all different roles, from copywriters to strategists to even partners at the company.