From start to finish, I had been exposed to many real-world business skills and experiences during my internship at UltiCareer. Even before I officially began, I gained experience in applying to jobs, writing cover letters, altering my resume, and interviewing in a formal business setting which I had never done for previous jobs I had. Because of this, I feel more confident as I approach graduation that I will have the necessary capabilities to find employment. Additionally, actually working as an intern helped with many of the necessary skills used when getting a job such as networking, making phone calls in a professional manner, and writing business-formal emails. These skills came about from my daily job functions and observations during this internship. UltiCareer began as a job placement website startup, the differentiating factor being that it would also be a social media and networking platform filled with extensive information in the form of videos and articles about different industries and job positions. Helping to manage and create content for this website taught me far more about different careers than reading job postings on a job search or company website would and even helped me get a better idea of which career path I would want to pursue. In completing this internship I also learned about the unique challenges faced by a startup company.

This taught me several entrepreneurial skills such as cost management, monetization strategies, researching funding opportunities, contacting investors, revising a business plan, prospecting potential leads, and even the legal guidelines to adhere to when starting and growing a business idea. However, the most important entrepreneurial skill I learned in working for a startup was being able to quickly adapt to change. This is essential to startups and entrepreneurs because markets, technologies, and the competition are constantly changing and failure to keep up with these changes can leave a company behind in the market. This taught me that it is okay and often necessary to change an idea in business even if you have spent a long time developing it. Another thing I had learned that is unique to working at a startup company is the job dynamics of a variety of positions, as I worked closely with every department in the company. I believe this to be a more valuable learning experience as I learned new skills from and saw the job functions of the social media marketer, the website developer, the media content creator, and the administration. This required me to communicate and work in a manner in which each department could be aware of the actions and progress of the others so that they could work on their part of a project accordingly. All these experiences working for a startup taught me a diverse set of applicable skills that I am thankful to have been exposed to, even though it was challenging at times.