Today we’re talking with Sam Criss who joined the Quotient team back in June as the Marketing & Media Services Intern in our New York City office and is now a full time Marketing Associate. Before interning at Quotient, Sam studied Marketing and Finance at Elon University. We are thrilled to have him and are excited that he was able to truly shine while gaining valuable work experience and building his skill set during his time at Quotient.
What was your job search like? What were you looking for in an internship?
As graduation approached, I was incredibly anxious in my job search, and I didn’t know quite what to expect. I was unsure if I should primarily look at companies with full-time positions open or ones that had internship programs that could lead to full-time positions later on.
During my senior year, I lived with eight of my best friends who all had full-time job offers back in October (granted, they were Finance majors and that is standard for their field!) Regardless, it definitely turned up the pressure.
I started reaching out to my network on LinkedIn – connecting with contacts from school, friends, and family (essentially anybody who responded to my emails or was willing to speak with me). Since I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, learning more from people who were recent graduates, managers, and even C-Suite execs provided me with a much deeper perspective about the marketing industry, current trends, what excites them about their work and what their own career path looked like.
In the end, after countless conversations, I knew what I wanted to do. I started looking for internship opportunities on the B2B side of marketing that were also indirectly consumer facing. Ideally, these companies were innovative, technology driven and more importantly, where I could make a meaningful impact. Eventually, I came across Quotient, which encompassed all of these criteria, and I realized it would be the perfect fit for me.
What did you like about your internship at Quotient?
After a few rounds of interviews with several Quotient team members, I was excited to receive an offer to join the company as the Marketing & Media Services intern. It was a huge relief to finally have a plan for after graduation (not only for me, but especially my parents!).
During my internship, I was lucky enough to work on a wide variety of projects that were critical to the newly established marketing team. These projects focused on marketing operations, brand messaging, lead generation, SEO optimization and email marketing. I’m proud to say that we made significant progress and accomplished a lot of great work in just three short months!
What I enjoyed most during my internship was the amount of independence afforded to me. It was of course incredible to be a part of a team that emphasized collaboration, flexibility and camaraderie, but what I truly appreciated was how they entrusted a major project with me at the helm.
At first, I was a little intimidated, but the thrill of making a meaningful impact was easily within reach. With the help and mentorship from my manager, Jim Selden, we were able to dive into our marketing operations and address bottlenecks, generating a plan that would reconfigure a key process for our company.
How did this internship compare to previous ones?
I’ve had the opportunity to intern at a variety of companies domestically and internationally, which were mostly smaller start-ups.
Unlike my previous roles, my internship at Quotient did not necessarily feel like an internship. The team welcomed me with open arms and were eager to hit the ground running with me by their side. I never felt like another cog in a machine. Instead, I felt a sense of belonging, that I was a key contributor to the team. This is one of the things that motivated me to wake up early (while my two roommates that I shared a dorm room with at NYU were still snoozing) and get to work so that I could take on any task that came my way.
Another reason why I fell in love with Quotient was the laid back, inclusive culture. Even though Quotient isn’t a start-up like other companies where I interned in the past, it shared a similar atmosphere that I was happy to be a part of. Besides the countless snack options, there are always fun and rewarding activities going on, whether that is a company happy hour, team lunches, off-sites, or even charitable fundraising events at Dave & Busters. Overall, I had an amazing experience as an intern at Quotient and I was thrilled to receive an offer to join the marketing team full time!
That all sounds fantastic! So, what is your life like at Quotient today?
Since I joined as a full-time employee, the marketing department has expanded dramatically, along with my responsibilities. I’ve had to opportunity to do some work with other teams like web development, sales, operations, engineering and events.
One of the many awesome perks to being a full-time Quotient employee is that the company encourages and sponsors continuous career development across the entire organization. In order to better assist our team, I decided to take online courses and become certified in HTML, CSS & JavaScript. One of my colleagues was even kind enough to find me comprehensive courses that teach me everything I need to be a professional web developer!
On top of the work in my expanded role across other marketing channels, I’m continuing to drive forward my original internship project. We are continuing to make considerable progress in better aligning our systems, even bringing in our executive team on it.
Although we accomplished a lot, Quotient always prioritizes great work-life balance. At the end of the year holiday party, it was nice to kick back, relax and not only connect with our team, but meet a lot of new faces from our new peers on the Ubimo team as we celebrated an incredible year.
We have many plans in store for 2020 and I am excited to be a part of it all!
—
Quotient will be launching a fresh round of internships this summer, across several of our national offices. Opportunities will be available in Customer Success, Marketing, Engineering, Digital Campaign Management, Media Activation, Research and Analytics.
You can find more info on the Quotient internship program and other open opportunities at Quotient.com/careers, on our LinkedIn page, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Email UniversityRecruiting@quotient.com to connect with a recruiter today.
