R/GA Internship Experience

Summer 2022 | Art Direction Intern, NY

Over the course here at R/GA, I not only learned industry skills like team collaboration, creative ideation, public speaking; I was also surprised by how much I’ve learned about myself, the person I become, and the role I act in the working scene. 

For our intern project, I intuitively took on the leading role for creatives - by mapping out our creative ideas, managing team member tasks while respecting everyone’s work and opinions, making sure everyone is heard, included and cared for. 

Before MAIP had given me the chance to be part of advertising, I would’ve never thought of myself as a leader, or a networking extrovert who initiates handshakes with a confident “Hi I’m Katherine, nice to meet you.” 

Turns out, those skills were in my blood all along, only shining through at the right time and place. To get to work in advertising and do the job as an art director, it makes my blood boil and all those fears and overthinking are melted away by my determination and dedication.  

When pitching and presenting the overall project to our managers, I made sure to give credits to the team members who did certain parts of the project. In meetings, I cheer for my team’s progress, hyping up little efforts and accomplishments each person contributes, while engaging conversations in and outside of work. I learned that we are all humans, and why not make teamwork experience more humanized by actually asking and listening to others, what they want to share about their lives, instead of just talking about work in a cold, distant manner. 

I want my team to WANT to be here, WANT to work with each other, and WANT to be part of the change. That’s what leadership is about, it is not pointing fingers and telling people what to do; it is setting an example, getting your hands dirty, going through rough days, overtimes together with your team, and to LEAD the team with high vibration, positive attitude and confidence. 

I wouldn’t have known how to manage our intern team project from scratch without my manager putting me in a high-paced, real client pitch with Amazon Audible. My role as an intern on the pitch might not be significant but I took it very seriously by making myself visible and available. 

I engaged in conversions, meetings, changes, and adapting to the work pace with other senior creatives on my team. By observing on the sideline, helping with tasks like moodboards, ideation, concepting, or even providing my insight as a minority, a younger generation, I have grown tremendously over the past two months.