Like everyone does their senior year, you sit and think “How am I going to get a job after graduation?” You start looking at job postings and quickly realize you’re not qualified for any of these positions. You have no experience and no references, therefore no job. It can be very discouraging. Lucky for me, I didn’t let my discouragement get the best of me. I went to one of the college’s career expos and started to network. Within a couple weeks, a gentleman I met at the expo ran into Kim May. Kim May is the owner of Nobox Creative, an Advertising Agency in Amarillo. He mentioned meeting me, and just like that, I had an internship. It was like fate, or should I say, it was God making sure my path crossed with this wonderful Kim May.
At first it was hard. Coming into a new place with a new atmosphere, new team, and a long list of things to learn. My role started out small: a few hours a week and a couple things to work on each day. But as I started to learn more, the team trusted me more, and gave me more responsibilities. It soon turned into something I wanted to be doing everyday. Team building is important to everyone at Nobox. We would spend a couple hours a week, sitting together, actually getting to know each other, rather than being the girl that sits across the office from you. That is something I appreciated while interning here. Your team reflects your work, and when your team is great your work is even better.
I quickly learned that Kim May is a very successful person. Not because of all the clients she had, or how many people she knew in Amarillo, but because of what she was teaching me everyday. One day Kim asked me to create a Facebook Ad for a client. I nervously told her that I didn’t know how to do it because I had never done anything like that before. She unexpectedly responded to me, “Well I really don’t either, so let’s just do it and learn together”. She was okay with trial and error and she was okay with learning as a team. She would always make sure I understood constructive criticism. If she changed a post I wrote, she made sure I knew it wasn’t because it was wrong, but because it could be better. Our job is to do what’s best for the client even if it takes all six of our teammates to write one post. The smartest people ask questions. Kim told me that. And after Kim told me that, I took full advantage of it. But the team didn’t care or get annoyed if I asked questions. They wanted to help me, we all wanted to help each other.
I couldn’t tell you what my every day routine was during this internship because every day I was doing something different. “That’s just how it is when you work in the agency world”, Alicia, my coworker, would always say. And she was right. Some days I would be writing posts in my cowboy accent for The Big Texan’s Facebook, then 20 minutes later I’m on my way to a press conference to do a live video for Mayor, Ginger Nelson. One morning I’m writing a blog about the benefits of IV therapy, and next thing I know I’m geo-targeting a Facebook ad that will be sent to strippers. Yes, strippers. Every day was different, but it was all part of the learning experience.
I had no idea what to expect when accepting this internship, but meeting Kim and having her as a mentor totally exceeded anything I could have ever expected. I recently accepted a new job in Lubbock and will be leaving Nobox Creative soon, but I can confidently say that the only reason I got the job was because of the things I learned at this internship. If you ever have the chance to work for Kim, or even just sit and have a conversation with her, you will be impacted. Her, and the Nobox Creative team are truly amazing.
