Hi, my name is Candy. I am a senior at Chapman University, double majoring in Psychology and Communication Studies. This summer, I have had the opportunity to work for Digital Domain as a business development intern.

I was assigned three main projects. I researched the virtual reality market in Korea, made a PowerPoint about a potential partnership, and researched Japanese culture. As a business development intern, my primary responsibility was to help the company research potential clients. I was also given a chance to sit in on different calls and learn about negotiating and partnering with another company. I believe both the interpersonal communication course and the public speaking course have helped me during my internship. I found myself using the skills from those two classes to understand clients as well as talk and work with my co-workers.

In just a short month, I have learned several valuable lessons from my internship. I have learned how to negotiate and communicate with different clients to reach a mutual goal. I have also learned the importance and the future of the VR industry. I learned that VR is not just putting on a headset- it is so much more. Also, I have learned the importance of paying attention to details. I was asked by my supervisor to create a reminder on google calendar for a meeting with a potential client. When asked by my boss, I thought he meant to just set a reminder for him, our colleague, and me, but I did not pay attention to details enough to realize that he intended to send a reminder to the potential client. I got scolded by my boss because of this but have learned a valuable lesson through it.

I learned that when doing business, especially when cooperating with another company, it is important to pay attention to every small detail and make no mistake. My boss has told me that it is those small details that separate good from great. I would consider the mistake I made one of the most valuable experiences I had during the internship. I felt discouraged at first, but it encouraged me to try harder and reminded me of the purpose of internships is for students to learn and improve their skills.

To end this blog, I would like to encourage the students to read this to step out of your comfort zone and apply to internships that you might not be super familiar with. Coming into this internship, I was not familiar with business development or VR, but I have learned so much in this past month and gained so much respect for the industry. I believe it is important for students to experiment with different types of jobs in different fields to really figure out what is or what is not for them. After all, you only regret the things you didn’t try.