Amanda Ronan, Auburn Media Relations Intern
Casey Schmitz, senior on the Auburn equestrian team and a marketing major, spent her summer going out of her comfort zone and interning with eBay's onsite marketing team in their Prague office. She wanted an internship that would set her apart and ultimately make her unique from the world of aspiring marketing majors.
"I knew an international internship would make me stand out and would also give me a set of tools that my peers may not have," Schmitz said. "Harbert College of Business prepared me in that sense- just through giving me realistic expectations and through challenging me to rise above the crowd and stand out both personally and professionally."
While the team she was with was responsible for putting up various eBay's advertisements on eBay's website, Schmitz was more responsible for the analysis of the performance of promotions. She would look at raw data that reported performance of the promotions and analyze the numbers into more digestible metrics, so that she could put together a report to help make suggestions to streamline campaign efforts.
"It's not necessarily the dream job for me, as I'm not a big analysis person, but it was a really great experience," Schmitz said. "I now understand why reports are so imperative and where the numbers come from, things that I'm going to have to deal with in marketing."
Although the experience she got with the internship was crucial, the main thing she learned during her summer in Prague was patience. Patience is what she plans to take away from the internship with her future endeavors in the marketing world.
"The onboarding process took almost two weeks-something that I was completely unprepared for," Schmitz said. "It was extremely frustrating to me because that's something that would never happen in an American office. I didn't have my own desk for almost three weeks. However, that's how their work culture is; I had to remind myself that just because I was used to a certain way did not mean that the way that they did was wrong. It was just different."
Through her experience in Prague this summer, Schmitz claims that being a student-athlete helped over-prepare her in a way for this internship.
"I think being self-disciplined is definitely a skill I've developed during my time as a student-athlete, and it translated directly to this internship," Schmitz said. "I think the concept of self-discipline also really helped me- I remember that they had given me a project that was supposed to take me all summer and I finished it in two weeks!"
Overall, this internship and all of her experiences she encountered helped Schmitz become a more well-rounded student-athlete. She learned valuable lessons and gained traits that will help her with her future endeavors in the professional world after her equestrian career is over.
"It's okay to be uncomfortable and that everything will work out in the end," Schmitz said. "I found myself constantly telling myself 'it will all work out in the end' during my time in Prague, and it's something I've even found myself doing now when I get stressed or anxious about any situation."