Pre-Arnold (Part 2)

Before interviewing at Arnold I had to make sure my portfolio was immaculate. I prepared a “leave-behind” version of all of my work to give to my interviewer after I left and a 14×19 portfolio book. I picked my strongest pieces from my classwork and a few of the pieces I had done as freelance work.

I went in for my interview and met Mia Greenblatt, Senior Art Director in Brand Promotions. I had gotten into contact with her through a friend, MassArt alum and Arnold employee, Joe. We talked about my work doing promotions as a Brand Ambassador for a few different agencies and my part-time job doing Marketing and Promotions for WBCN. This experience was of great interest to her as her department designs promotional materials for events much like the ones I had been working at. We reviewed my portfolio together and I was able to talk more about the pieces as she looked at them. We wrapped up our conversation and she offered to show me around the agency and my future place of employment! She offered me the position that day and I accepted exictedly. I was able to see the Studio, offices, “Barnold,” ping-pong tables and common areas for the first time. It truly embodies a comfortable, cool and creative work environment and nearly everyone I met seemed to really enjoy themselves at work.

The next coming weeks dragged by while I awaited my first day at Arnold. I received a packet in the mail from them with all of their policies and procedures. I finally received my Arnold e-mail address! (How official).

At the end of January they had an orientation for all Arnold interns working in the spring semester. I was excited to see another MassArt graphic designer in the room and the others there were really friendly. I sat next to a BU advertising student who I hit it off with right away. We did Arnold trivia as a get to know you game and I didn’t do as well as I would have liked! A lot of Arnold’s best known work is in television advertisements and, although this is crazy to many people- I have lived the past three years without television (for the most part.) I would have been an ace if the questions were about print campaigns, though, I swear! They had a copy writer come talk to us at the orientation, too, who worked on the Tag bodyspray account. He helped Tag develop a campaign to reach out to “urban” teans that included having a legitimate emcee battle in NYC and an emcee battle via Myspace that is still ongoing. They also developed Tag records in support of the brand: http://www.tagrecords.com.

I left the orientation feeling like I had just spun around and around. I was nervous, disoriented, excited and lost all at the same time. I recieved my pass to let me in to the 19th floor of the 101 Huntington Prudential building though and that, combined with my @arn.com e-mail address made me feel like I was on top of the world.

The next week I started my whirlwind internship at Boston’s leading advertising agency…