Swamp Rentals interns share some thoughts about their experience during the Swamp Rentals intern class…
Stephen Koepp
You never know what opportunities you will get out of an internship. They may not be the most glamorous or resume popping accolades, but for what I learned in Swamp Rentals, it’s been the best experience in the real world I could ever hope for.
Learning how to take on the World Wide Web and Google, with the Search Engine Optimization, HTML, CSS, meta-descriptions and so on, it was honestly an entire new world opened to me. People have carved out successful career paths through the Internet. Just talk to Mark Zuckerburg. But what I learned is that when you understand how to properly use these tools, you can communicate with, impact and touch thousands of people.
For Swamp Rentals, it is a company that provides an Internet Listing Service (ILS) that enables certain housing markets to showcase their properties in one aggregated site. It was my job, as well as my fellow interns, to show how to use the ILS to its maximum potential. These listings needed to be up-to-date, relevant, and filled with information on prices and photos. One of the biggest lessons I learned, though, was that all of this is an attempt not just to attract people to the apartments, but also to attract them to a community. The main goal is to establish a connection with people. It’s not just selling- it’s showing them what it is that makes the apartment community the right choice for them.
Through research consisting of personal interviews and web surveys, we were able to find a lot of information on what people were expecting to find through these ILS websites. We then in turn presented this information to apartment community managers.
There is a lot to learn from these points. With advertising, you do not want to TELL people why they should buy your product or invest in your cause, but SHOW them. Say, “this is who we are” and people will see things they identify with. The more they know, the more they can identify with. If they can see themselves buying that product or living in that community, the battle is nearly won.
Swamp Rentals taught me that entrepreneurship is one of the greatest offerings of America. It enables a few people with a great idea to in turn help thousands, potentially millions. Entrepreneurship is risky yes, but you dictate your own path, and there is something very comforting in that. This isn’t just an inspiration for me to go out and be an entrepreneur but to do whatever I CAN. It is very unlikely that I will ever start up a company because I know that’s not for me. But I can bring knowledge of what it takes to undertake a project, own it, and turn it into something great.
Katie Brady
Like most students, I was nervous to apply for my first internship. I had heard of the Swamp Rentals program from a friend and was eager to apply…yet I still could not help but feel a twinge of doubt. Having never served as an intern before, I was worried I would not be “experienced enough” for the role. What if I made a fool of myself? What if I couldn’t keep up? I decided to take a leap of faith and submit an application.
Immediately, I realized I had made the right decision.
Interning for Swamp Rentals was such an amazing and enlightening experience. I was able to learn and practice skills that my school curriculum barely touched on. For years, I have heard professors lecture the importance of understanding HTML, CSS and Search Engine Optimization. Ironically, no professor ever went beyond lecturing and attempted to teach these concepts.
Swamp Rentals was my first and only introduction to working with web content. I was finally able to get hands-on experience with web design, writing and coding. This internship has allotted me the tools to becoming a more diverse and well-rounded job applicant.
Throughout the internship, the Swamp Rentals team was encouraging and helpful. You could tell that they truly wanted their interns to learn and grow from the experience. Personally, I feel that I grew a lot over the course of the program.
I left Swamp Rentals with a newly acquired understanding of web management, programming and digital marketing. Though, more importantly, I left with a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities.
I would encourage anyone (whether a veteran intern or newbie, like myself) to apply for the Swamp Rentals internship. For such a short program, I feel that I have gained so much.