From One Intern to Another: Creating Success During Your Internship

Co-managers Robert Goodfellow and Kaitlyn Mortimer, co-intern Samantha Townsend, and me posing outside of the Colgate-Palmolive building | Source: Robert Goodfellow

To any and all prospective interns,

My name is Brooke Vogel. I’m a junior at Ithaca College studying Journalism and Legal Studies. This summer, I had the opportunity to work at Colgate-Palmolive as an intern on the Global Corporate Communications team.

Throughout my ten weeks at Colgate’s headquarters in New York City, I learned the ins-and-outs of sharing a company’s story with its stakeholders – including Colgate People and our families, new hires, potential recruits, among others – ultimately helping me cultivate my skills as a journalist.

I wanted to offer you some tricks of the trade in order for you to make the most out of your own future internship.

Tip #1: Speak up.

If you have something to say, don’t be afraid to say it. It doesn’t matter if you’re an intern who’s part of the team for only 10 weeks or a full-time employee who’s been on the team for many years, you have the ability – and opportunity – to share your ideas and opinions just the same as anyone else.

In my first week, I quickly jumped onto a project that highlighted a few of our many Colgate leaders in a series called “Beyond the Bios.” By the time I joined, the first episode had already been published, so I analyzed the video to see how we could adapt it for our social media platforms. I was so engaged with the content that I found myself analyzing it in more ways than one.

The first episode focused on Balunji Nkhwazi, General Manager, Colgate-South Central Africa; I watched on repeat as Balunji spoke of her lack of self-confidence growing up, and how Colgate helped awaken and build it. Her closing sentence, “voicing what you believe in can help the business,” influenced my mindset when going to a pitch meeting with the subject of the second episode: Joanna Zucker, CEO, CP Skin Health Group. My team asked me to brainstorm ideas on how we could make this video stand out from the rest. Instead of a traditional interview, my vision was to have Joanna talk directly to the audience as if she were speaking over FaceTime. The goal was to have her answer a few questions while giving a brief tour of the Company’s Skin Health offices. I was nervous as to how my idea would be received, but during the meeting my team and Joanna listened intently and moved forward with the concept. Within a few weeks, my concept had become a reality. Working on “Beyond the Bios'' emphasized that it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been at Colgate-Palmolive or what position you hold, people are eager to listen to you, so don’t be afraid to voice your opinion.

Tip #2: Don’t be stressed out by the amount of computer tabs you have open. Prioritize.

You’re going to have many projects and tasks to complete during any internship. The key is to prioritize what needs to be done first and as long as you’re clearly communicating progress with your manager and team leader, there’s no need to be stressed.

Within the first few weeks of my internship, my co-intern Samantha Townsend and I were offered the opportunity to “combine our superpowers and amplify the experiences of our entire class of summer interns.” How could we showcase the phenomenal interns of Colgate-Palmolive? We decided that one tactic was not going to be enough: we had to piece together three concepts to formulate one big idea: We created a “Day-In-The-Life” series where interns would take us through their day on social media, invited our global interns to post on LinkedIn on National Intern Day, and edited a culmination video that highlights who our interns are. We realized that executing these three ideas, while trying to keep in contact with all of the interns who volunteered to participate, in one week would be an arduous task. Nevertheless, we knew this was the best way to convey that our interns are the best and brightest.

On top of that, Samantha and I were also working on other individual and joint projects. To reduce any stress, I set bite-size deadlines for myself and took it one step at a time. In doing so, I was able to manage my time in the best way possible and complete each assignment efficiently.

Tip #3: Colgate employees have a mutualistic relationship: Everyone is eager to help for the benefit of the team.

A benefit to working at Colgate is the strong, supportive culture and work environment. The environment strongly resembles a mutualistic relationship, a concept I learned in biology class. A mutualistic relationship is one where an interaction between two parties results in a net benefit. At Colgate, everyone helps each other reach their fullest potential, making each relationship a mutualistic one. Those who I met throughout the interview process were so helpful, especially in helping me gain insight on how the company functions internally. When I asked my interviewers, “what do you appreciate most about Colgate?” right off the bat, they shared the benefits of the Company’s hybrid work environment, where people could come into the office several times a week to interact with one another and share ideas in person.

Tip #4: In-Office Work Matters for Our Development

During the initial shutdown of the pandemic, I was a high school senior deciding which college to go to. The school I chose decided to stay completely remote for my first semester and hybrid for the following two semesters. While I agree that the decision contributed to the safety of my peers, I must say I also felt isolated and yearned for that in-person experience that I had lacked. For that reason, coming into the office and having the ability to have those in-person connections – in order to build mutualistic relationships – excited me.

I learned that pitching ideas is much more gratifying to present to an in-person audience compared to over Zoom. At Colgate, one of the most efficient ways to enhance a concept is to take it to a “Rounds” meeting – where you create a concept or proposal and invite everyone to go around the room to ask clarifying questions and then another round to offer their perspective in order to strengthen the concept or proposal. Samantha and I were asked to conduct research on different companies’ alumni and intern programs and formulate potential programs. We presented our deck to Chief Communications Officer, Paula Davis, and our managers, Robert Goodfellow and Kaitlyn Mortimer, and requested their feedback and answered any questions they had. We went around the room and brainstormed how we could further enhance the idea. Between the five of us, we innovated the concept in a way that concentrated more on a unique program for interns. Their feedback and willingness to help us enhance our concept were what made our presentation so successful. It’s hard for me to imagine conducting such a collaborative process – in such a smooth, energizing way – on Zoom.

A Vivid Memory: You’ll Remember How You Feel

Before I go, I wanted to share how I felt on my first day. I feel as though my first day was eons ago; but I still remember it as though it were yesterday. What I remember most is not what happened that day but how I felt that day. My palms were sweating, my heart was racing, and my stomach was churning. I tried to reassure myself that there was nothing to be afraid of. I knew that I was right, but I was still thinking of the millions of ways that my first day could go wrong.

With every step from New York’s Grand Central Station to the Colgate-Palmolive building, I shook with anticipation. I took a deep breath and walked into the room with the rest of my fellow summer interns – who looked just as anxious as I was. However, it wasn’t until I met my Global Corporate Communications team when I felt all of those fears slip away. I remember taking a tour around the floor and everyone that I met that morning had something positive to say, and genuinely wanted to get to know me. That was when I realized that working at Colgate-Palmolive this summer would be an enriching and memorable experience – and I felt at ease.

At this point, I must sound like a broken record, saying how much I enjoyed my internship at Colgate, but that’s because I mean it. Every day was a new opportunity to learn and grow, and while new experiences can be intimidating, the Company’s community and environment – where I could be my authentic self and where I felt I truly belonged – felt so familiar and helped me adjust quickly.

Working at Colgate-Palmolive was the experience of a lifetime: If you get selected to work for the Company – or a company like it – I would not hesitate to accept the offer – because the summer I worked at Colgate-Palmolive is one I’ll never forget.

Sincerely,

Brooke Vogel