The following is from Emily Markarian, an intern at Hadley Exhibits.  My office is in Hadley’s building and I, every once in a while, am asked to help out Hadley with the occasional marketing or branding issue.  On this occasion, I was asked to participate in Hadley’s intern training effort. It’s great when the intern and the company both gain from the experience.

It was on the 27th of April when Ted Johnson, president of Hadley Exhibits, called me back and offered me a position as an intern at his company. The excitement I got from this opportunity was indescribable. I major in marketing and will be graduating from St. John Fisher College in the spring of 2018. I was excited to start because I wanted to learn more about marketing and business in the real world and apply the information I have learned from school. Boy, have I learned from this experience. It’s amazing the things you learn from the books compared to the real deal stuff. I had so much fun here at Hadley and it made time go way too fast. Like they all say: Time flies when you’re having fun.

Three things I would take away the most would be (1) learn from mistakes, (2) office demeanor, and (3) writing skills.  Sitting in at meetings with employees and/or clients, creating spreadsheets and writing countless emails, and putting together a PowerPoint in redesigning Hadley’s website and creating social media for Hadley all demonstrated how these three factors came into play. The most important thing I learned from interning here is that learning from mistakes is how to become successful. For example, I am not the best writer but I have gotten so much better from the emails or reports I wrote that my supervisor reviewed, marked up, and had me revise. That’s the way you learn, by doing it over and over and learning from your mistakes. Eventually you become an expert and successful.

Another factor I found to be key to Hadley’s success is constant, open communication. I have learned that conference reports and status reports are important to update people on the latest information. Communication around this company is what makes them so successful. Any miscommunication could cause a situation to become a disaster, and I found that here they have nailed the communication aspect.

Throughout my time here, I’ve noticed that Hadley does a great job making clients feel comfortable working with them as well as making sure that they can trust the finished product will be done to the nines. I love how this company’s success isn’t based on just one person. They are a team. Every employee here has a special and specific role to get the job done. Hadley works as a team and that’s what I liked; Hadley’s teamwork is one of the things I liked best about my time here. Every day involves teamwork with all hands on deck to create and build great pieces of work. The people here are awesome, every one of them. I think the reason I enjoyed myself here the most was that they were all so welcoming, helpful, and funny.

Overall I have been so lucky to have an internship at a company like Hadley Exhibits. The information and knowledge I have gained from this experience will stay with me for a lifetime. I guess most people are right when they say you learn more from experience than from books.  Thank you so much, Hadley, for the time you gave me this summer, and thank you so much for the knowledge I have gained from this company. Finally, special thanks to Rick English for being my supervisor and teaching me the most.