Becca Winkler is living out every interns’ dream: to be hired post-grad by a company she loves! Having recently graduated last spring, Becca is now working as the sole marketing coordinator for C2O Pure Coconut water.

Read on to see what Becca has to say about her job!

Tell us about your position.

I am the marketing coordinator for C2O Pure Coconut water. The company is super small, and I am the first person they hired in their marketing department (which is crazy to think)! I wear a lot of hats in this company since technically I am their sole marketing person at the moment. My duties range from influencer management to event coordination to marketing campaign planning. I have conducted a lot of competitor and trend research, and have shaped our marketing plan for 2018. Furthermore, I have created photo shoots and developed relationships with multiple influencers/brands to co-promote with our product. Heading our influencer campaign has also been one of my main focuses these past two months!

How did you obtain your position?

Interestingly enough, I was an intern for them in Spring 2017. I was their social media intern. As stated above, C2O contracts out someone to do their social media, so I was technically their Intern. They liked what I did so much-they offered me a job!

What do you love about this field?

What I love most about the field is the ability to be creative. I also love that I am able to meet and work with such incredibly creative people. The ideas that people have are amazing and to be able to see them come to life and help them come to life is incredible. I also love seeing my own ideas come to life. Having a lot of freedom has its benefits, and I am able to see an idea of mine come to fruition from start to finish, which is really awesome. I am gaining such incredible experiences that are going to fast track my career in the direction I want it to go. That is also something I love about my position. I am able to shape the job into what  I want to get out of it.

How did the School of Communication prepare you for this position?

Learning to multitask and be able to prioritize is something that I have learned through the School of Communication that has helped me immensely in my position. Being the only marketing person,  I have a lot of projects thrown my way but learning to stay focused and perform each ask in a timely manner has been something I have to thank the School of Communication for. Through my classes and professors, I have also learned about the industry and kept up to date on what is happening. For example, through the interview process, I was able to pull out real life case studies I have learned about through the School of Communication.

Is there a particular class/professor that stands as influential in your position?

The amazing thing about the School of Communication is that it offers such incredible classes and professors. I would say the most beneficial classes for me in this position were Message Design 1 & 2, since in that class we got handed some real life projects that I was able to apply the knowledge learned from those projects into my current role. As far as professors go, I would have to say Dr. Weber has honestly been such an influential person in helping prepare me for graduating and helping me create a killer resume, which was beyond helpful since graduating and finding a job is competitive.

What advice do you have for current students?

My advice can span for ages! I have so many tips and tricks, but I would say the most important advice would be to Intern as much as you can in college. It is such an amazing opportunity to be able to learn the field that you want to go into and helps you learn exactly what you are looking for out of a job. It helped me find my passion and helped me establish what I am and not looking for out of my career (trust me, I have both bad and amazing experiences as an intern!). Two other things I would say would be to network like crazy (that has helped me!) and another hint that always helps is create a one-pager, it will make you stand out and help a lot in securing an interview in the first place since not that many people do that.

Anything else you want us to know?

Oh lordy, not really! I mean in my position, I am going to be taking over the social media soon since the person who runs our social media will be on maternity leave, so that will be a super fun and challenging experience.  I am super excited!