Graduation Day!

It was my last semester in UT Dallas focusing on getting my master's degree in marketing. Since I’m an international student from Taiwan, the main difference I found about college student here in the U.S. compared to my hometown is that a lot of students have working or internship experience before starting their full time career. I realized that the only way for me to become a little bit more competitive in order to find a job after graduation is to get at least an internship experience in the U.S.

Everything with DMC Dallas was kind of unexpected. I was excited to receive the call from HR saying that they were interested to have a face to face interview with me, and after the first round interview I was disappointed because I think I wasn’t qualified and wasn’t the right person they wanted. Surprisingly, I got the opportunity for the second round interview and I had fun talking with my supervisor, sharing ideas and experiences. I was definitely more confident this time. One thing I was concerned about this internship is that it requires a lot of face to face talking with customers. I was afraid I wouldn’t understand the customers or anyone in the office because of my language and culture barrier.  However, everyone in the office treated me like a family and taught me slowly with patience---either product knowledge, objects from customer and communication skills.

I know that in order to become a successful marketer, you must know your product well and be confident with the product to make sales. I absolutely experienced this feeling on my first day, I have zero or probably just 10% of product knowledge and I wasn’t able to close a sale or even talk to customer fluently. Every day I learned something new with product features and I gain a bit more confidence every time I spoke with a customer. So after the three month sales experience, I was able to chat with customers without being nervous, engage them thoroughly and close sales.

Beside the work, I enjoyed playing "games" during our morning atmosphere. I’ve never actually had fun like this at work! I guess I became more Americanize compared to my fellow Asian and Indian classmates.  I also joined team nights couple times and I remembered one time we went to see a comedy show. To be honest, I have no idea what the comedian was talking about but I know if it wasn’t DMC Dallas, I wouldn’t even have the chance to participate in a comedy show. I also had fun meeting people from other offices and attending Dallas Leaders Meeting. I also enjoyed giving back to the community during our visit to Irving Cares Food Bank.

Irving Cares Food Bank

Being a full time student and having a full time internship is a challenge to me. Time management is one big thing, and sometimes I just wish I had more time to sleep and rest. However, I never regret doing this and I am proud of myself finishing a poster project about the internship to hand in to the marketing department of UTD.

Last day with my Supervisor Kenyah Ferguson

I am grateful to my boss Kenyah Ferguson, my coaches, teams and colleagues, not only because they teach me office skills and sales techniques but they add value to my experience studying abroad. Now that I finished my internship in DMC Dallas, I am ready to contribute everything I’ve learned and continue my journey in the U.S. as well as back home.

My Internship Project Poster!