Engagement and Retention is an important department in many real-world companies. But on the Digital Media Engagement (DME) team, E&R differs in certain ways. “Most E&R professionals incorporate aspects of our engagement, metrics, onboarding, offboarding, and recruitment teams. E&R professionals also deal with conflict resolution, payroll issues, and strategic planning,” said Calley Walker, the E&R division officer. “We do not perform these tasks at the DME.”
“[And] while the work we do at the DME program is not quite the same as the work you might find in a corporate organization or business, there are still people who need coordination, guidance, and management,” she added. One of the most important parts of E&R work is the onboarding of new interns at the beginning of the internship year, and the E&R boarding packet is a key part of this process. “The emphasis on familiarizing interns with the mechanics of the internship is vital to our onboarding process,” said Jazlyn Benitez, the E&R department head, “because it enables interns to feel confident in knowing what is expected of them as an intern. It also helps to maintain the equilibrium of the internship itself — no one can follow the rules if they do not even know what the rules are, and a lack of rules can lead to chaos.”
Certain skills are required for doing E&R work. “Successful E&R professionals need to have great time management skills, an excellent communication style, and E&R professionals need to be detail-oriented,” Calley said. “It is important for E&R professionals to be able to relay their messages to fellow employees, and in our situation, interns. It is equally important for E&R professionals to be able to manage their time well.” But interns can gain skills while working in E&R , too, such as learning to utilize multiple programs like Canva, Salesforce and Google Office or doing cross-department work with departments like Web Development.
For Jazlyn, working in E&R has also taught her more about what she’d like to do in her professional career. “I’m fairly new to the world of E&R , as I very recently decided that my career goal is to be an Industrial-Organizational psychologist (which is a career that uses concepts of E&R and collaborates with E&R departments),” she admitted. “I’ve never had an internship like this one before! I love getting to learn new things about the world of E&R and building a more solid foundation for my future career. It’s also very rewarding to be able to communicate with a variety of people from such different backgrounds. It’s been opening me up to many different perspectives and giving me firsthand experience on how to collaborate with a variety of different people.”
“Even though DME E&R interns are not generally given tasks that deal with these E&R aspects, there may be times where E&R leadership members or other interns will need to address their concerns to other leadership,” explained Elizabeth Carter, part of E&R ’s executive leader team. The E&R department serves as a guiding and supportive force for the entire DME internship. Without a department that manages and analyzes intern data, it can be hard to determine the effectiveness of the whole internship.”
Writer: Sarah Concepcion
Editors: Annabelle Colton, Merrit Pope
Graphic Designer: Kiki Kelley
