Sydney Oates
2016
Majors:
Food Marketing
Minor(s):
Business Intelligence and Analytics
Internship/Job Position:
Market Research Intern
Internship/Job Company:
Turkey Hill Dairy
What are your day to day job responsibilities like/what does a normal day look like?
Really there was no normal day. I worked very closely with another Saint Joe’s student, so the two of us were together 40 hours a week, never apart. If we were apart it was very weird. Around the office, if someone saw one of us and not the other they’d be like ‘oh what’s going on?’
So somedays we would be in the office compiling surveys, sitting in on meetings with project managers, sitting in R&D meetings to taste test the flavors, analyzing all the data that had come back, coming up with reports and PowerPoints to present to leadership. But more normally we were at The Turkey Hill Experience which is an interactive ice cream museum. There we would have people who came in take surveys, so we’d give them usually three samples of gelato and they’d complete the survey. This summer we ended up scooping over 5,000 scoops of gelato. We also did some testing on sweet tea and lemonade as well, but most of it was spent doing ice cream.
We also had the chance to sit in on focus groups and in-home interviews through the internship. We went to Baltimore to sit in on focus groups for novelties – like popsicles, ice cream bars, and stuff like that. We would sit behind a one way mirror so we could see everything that was going on and we’d get to see what people had to say, which was interesting. We also traveled back to Philadelphia (we were living out in Conestoga) and sat through focus groups about new package designs for drinks. It was cool to have the experience traveling.
How did you land your current position?
I had seen the position on the Career Development Center’s website first, and then the Career Fair is actually where I met the man from HR and chatted with him. Then I applied and interviewed out in Lancaster where the position was located.
What do you find most challenging in your position?
I think just that every day was very different. There was never a day when we would come in at 8 AM, sit at our desks, and leave at 5 PM. Instead, there were days we’d come in early, scoop ice cream all day, and be done by 3 PM. Or some days we would come in a little later. So it was tough because there was never a regular day.
I guess working with people was difficult too. A lot of the internship was customer service, and it was just me and the other intern there. So we would always get people who would say mean things to us or who were just kind of crazy.
What is some advice that you would give to students who are currently searching for internships?
I would definitely recommend looking for an internship that is in the field that you want to go into. With Food Marketing, a lot of positions are either in sales or are very generic, but I knew I really wanted to go into market research, so having a marketing research internship on my resume is really going to help me get my foot in the door. Just having that distinction from people who just did sales is a great thing to have.