Students
2009 Summer Internship with Verizon Wireless
by Verna Hsu
This summer, I did an 11-week internship in Promotions Planning and Strategy (part of the Marketing department) at Verizon Wireless in Basking Ridge, NJ. My background is in video games, so making the switch to telecommunications was actually quite challenging at first. I spent the first week just getting familiar with the industry terms, learning about Verizon’s phones, and figuring out the building! Verizon’s headquarters is huge – it’s actually 7 buildings combined into one giant behemoth – so it takes awhile to find your way around, but they have a great cafeteria, gym, and dry cleaning service.
My first project, which took several weeks, was analyzing the success of past promotions and developing best practices going forward. I worked with our Reporting team to get all of the data, built Excel models, and analyzed the results. My next project was to look at the competitive landscape and research their past promotions and upcoming devices. Finally, I synthesized all of this knowledge and helped to develop the Q4/Holiday 2009 promotions strategy with my manager. I even had the chance to present to our VP, which was really exciting and great exposure to senior management.
One of the best parts of the internship was networking with interns from other schools. Verizon does a great job of planning fun and informative events for the interns, so that you not only work hard, but have a good time too. Finally, I was really impressed by the people I worked with and was surprised by how much I was able to learn in just 2 ½ months!