My internship this semester was for ListReports, a real estate marketing platform, that presented me with various challenges for opportunities to grow both professionally and personally. ListReports provides marketing materials to real estate agents and helps loan officers foster their agent relationships. Working at a startup has allowed me to remain nimble as I am constantly tackling multiple projects with various people as we work collaboratively to achieve a goal. I have been trusted with responsibilities and projects of high impact that have a direct effect on the company and its clients. Not only have I felt like I am part of the team but I also feel like I fit in with the company and its fabulous culture. The employees here understand that culture is what creates a business and that we live and breathe for the client – more specifically, to delight them – which is exactly what we are doing.

My position on the customer success and communication team involved many projects, but my main focus was on recouping revenue for the company through a lead aggregation process. This process involves a lot of research, critical thinking, data analysis, and making informed decisions based on the data about our customers. I reported to my manager with details about our customers, patterns I noticed in the data mining process, and bugs that needed to be fixed on the platform. During my training and on-boarding I learned that the activities I spent my time on yield the results that I will get, which is why I was strategic about what I spent my time on when interning.

I found that my background in Strategic and Corporate Communication gave me the tools to excel at my internship by empowering me to add value and go beyond what is expected of me. Many of my classes at Chapman taught me how crucial it is for a company to learn about customers and market dynamics, which is something I mastered at ListReports through the use of different research techniques and the use of strategic and persuasive messages.

I’m grateful I chose to intern at ListReports because it is a company that motivates me to explore and push myself out of my comfort zone. I first arrived at the company thinking it would be a regular internship where I would just get some real-world experience and also have to go out and buy my boss coffee. However, ListReports has proven over and over to be more than just a job, but a place where I feel at home.