Rounding out the end of the official learning component to the ISSUP program, I spent this week exploring the final two site visits, designing content to complement our paid media proposals, and giving a couple presentations on what I’ve done these past few weeks.
Monday and Tuesday were filled with site visits to Blizzard and Google, respectively, both of which are incredible places to visit. At Blizzard, we got to learn about the many different divisions scattered across three buildings, from the new Overwatch programmers and the floor overrun by the WoW team to a control room where games are constantly monitored for glitches and possible enhancements for the players.
Google Irvine definitely lives up to the splendor of its Silicon Valley headquarters. With an incredible display of architectural design, game rooms scattered across the floors, and scenic views of UCI’s ecological preserve, the work environment is as enticing as the brand name.
We got to chat with a couple engineers who took us on a tour of the place, and learn how all sorts of things are structured in a huge company that still retains the quirks of a startup. Though there were many stereotypically shabbily-dressed engineers we passed by, Google Irvine also comes with a fairly large gym area where people can work out before dining inside. This is probably for the best, as the multiple cafeterias, snack rooms, and free barista would probably make everyone very fat otherwise.
Back at the Cove, I was asked to give a presentation on the social media analytics I had been working on for the past few weeks. In the all-company meeting, I told my fellow employees about our current social media structure, gave case study examples, and laid out plans for paid media approaches and narrow demographic targeting in the near future that could help out our many different teams. I enjoyed presenting, and lots of people came up afterwards to ask more questions.
One of the things I have started working on more in-depth after the success of my presentation (meaning: higher-ups are more willing to give me money) is a series of Startup Spotlights – creating great content in the form of 30-45 second videos highlighting a startup in the Cove.
At Chicklabs, I was busy this week focusing on brand image. This included designing and creating by hand displays and product prototypes for an Immuno Gum showcase, which involved one of the most difficult things I have done in the internship so far: trying to get my ideas and designs to print right from a noncooperative printer. For Chicklabs as its own entity, I started tackling a rebranding of the website content, adding in blog posts about relevant topics and slightly pivoting the taglines to better align with the management consulting side of Chicklabs.
Andrew Jabara 