It is the end of day 6 here in Portlandia, although the sky is still so blue you’d think the day was just beginning. Despite the partially poopy weather this last week here in the northwest—a mythical place where the sky is grey nearly as consistently as the conifer tree nettles are green—the sun finally made an appearance just in time for lunch earlier today.
The last week has certainly been one for the books. Nine other interns and myself arrived in PDX on Friday for our Colaboratory orientation. After a meet and greet, veggie buffet, and icebreaker we were ready to be broken up into our teams which will be competing against one another to create an advertising campaign for this years’ client, the Portland Timbers (Go team Argo—woot woot). A creative brief later, it was time to celebrate…with beer. We went to Lucky Laborador Beer Hall to get to know everyone better, interns and agency employees alike. Needless to say, everyone was awesome and I can’t help but feel more and more encouraged every day that I picked the right career path.
Saturday and Sunday were adventures of themselves. A few of the interns and I spent the weekend exploring Portland—walking around farmers markets, eating at various foreign restaurants, watching the Timbers play, and of course spending an ill advisable amount of time in a PSU dive bar singing karaoke until wee hours of the morning. Before we knew it, the first day of work had arrived and we all wished each other luck as we headed off to our own agencies.
Ascentium was the first stop for me. On Monday I was introduced to most of the office and right away I felt at home. Having never been inside an advertising agency before (I know, *gasp*) it was great seeing how everything works outside of a classroom. Since then I’ve gotten a few copywriting assignments, writing drafts of taglines and scripts for various assignments, and have even had the opportunity to sit in on multiple client meetings. Overall, these last three days at the agency have been a lot of fun and very informative! And although I told myself I was moving out of the PNW before October, I must admit that I’m falling a little bit in love with this city.
—Megan B