Inside Look: PFCU's Internship Program

Podcast Transcription

Money Talk is a podcast brought to you by PFCU, where we will share tips and tricks and talk to the experts on all things finance related. Join us as we cover everything from credit and loans to cybersecurity and careers. No matter where you are in life, PFCU is here for you.

Maddy: Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of PFCU's Money Talk, as always, I'm your host Maddy. I was really excited to be able to sit down with PFCU's marketing intern, Marlie. I think I speak for everyone who has worked with Marlie that it has been an awesome experience and she has continued her internship into the school year. Alright, so, she gives us insight into her internship experience, what she's learned, what surprised her and why she would recommend the experience to someone else. Here she is.

I have with me today, Marlie. She is our marketing intern here at PFCU. Welcome Marlie, thanks for sitting down with me.

Marlie: Thank you for having me.

Maddy: Of course, I'm super excited. Looking forward to hearing your answers to these questions about your internship. So, if you just want to start with maybe talking a little bit about yourself, maybe where you're going to school, what you're studying, all of that good stuff. That would be great.

Marlie: So, I am a junior at Grand Valley State University, and I am studying marketing.

Maddy: Good. Okay, you said you're a junior and we know that I went to Grand Valley, so yay for Grand Valley.

Marlie: Yes, anchor up.

Maddy: Alright, so, could you speak to your internship experience a little bit? Maybe what led you to taking this internship opportunity, what those steps were that you took and kind of why you decided to take this opportunity at PFCU.

Marlie: So, I was really just looking to get more experience in marketing and I actually emailed Robyn, who is the SVP of marketing and I was just wondering if you guys had any openings for internships, I thought would be super convenient since I'm from Portland. And this internship really gave me experience in a little bit of everything. So, I was able to work in a bunch of different areas. I was able to get a lot of experience. So, just some examples of areas that I worked in were graphic design, social media marketing, community engagement and then I even helped a little bit with this podcast. So, I really got to experience and learn a little bit of everything.

Maddy: Yes. So, if you guys haven't checked out, Marlie actually did record her own podcast episode about AI scams. So, you can check that out. It's just out there on the website.

You said that you emailed Robyn directly. I think that's great that you took that initiative instead of just waiting maybe to see a posting online or something like that. You reached out and just asked, hey, is there an opportunity for an internship? And here you are.

Marlie: Yeah, I think that's the best way to do it. I think showing that you are the person to take that first step just really shows a lot about you as a person.

Maddy: Yeah. So, you said that you touched on a lot of different areas within the marketing department. Have any of those areas really resonated with you? Anything that has really stuck out that you might want to further work on?

Marlie: Yeah. So, I was really thankful that I got to work in a bunch of different areas because it did help me realize what I wanted to do since marketing is such a broad topic and a broad major. I really needed to decide what area I wanted to focus in on. So, I am a big fan of the analytical stuff, which a lot of people are not. I like to see the background of stuff. So, obviously you can do a campaign, but I want to see the results of that campaign and how it helped the company.

Maddy: That's a good perspective because people see the things that marketing puts out there. Like you said, the campaigns, social media, billboards, all of that stuff, but then there's that other side where you have to look at what the results of that were.

Marlie: Yes, I think that's super interesting.

Maddy: Yeah, cool. Is there anything that you learned that surprised you, whether it was about marketing, the internship experience, credit unions in general, when you got into this?

Marlie: I think the biggest thing that surprised me is truly the different areas of marketing that there are. Even at PFCU, we have how many different people on the team and everyone is always busy doing something. So, marketing has a bunch of different areas and I think that that's why I love it so much because there's so much that you can do with marketing.

Maddy: Yeah, again, people maybe don't realize all of the areas of marketing that you can go to. I didn't know that when I was in college, I just picked marketing because it was creative and a little bit on the business side, and then you don't realize all of the things that come with marketing and even at a credit union, I mean, our department here is, is pretty big for a credit union marketing department, which is, which is really neat.

Marlie: Yeah, exactly.

Maddy: So how do you think this experience will impact your career, your education? What does that look like?

Marlie: So, like I said earlier, it really helped me decide what area I wanted to focus in on. And I just learned a lot of valuable small skills, I would guess, you know, learning how to network more, learning how to communicate, email etiquette, small stuff like that. One example of something that I think will help me in the future is I wrote a lot of blogs. And so, I learned a lot about a lot of like financial information, like investing, budgeting, credit card stuff like that. So, it was awesome that I was able to learn as I was working.

Maddy: Yeah. I would, I would echo that completely even for like a personal perspective on, oh, hey, I didn't know that about investing or credit cards or whatever.

Marlie: Yeah. I know I was able to kind of double dip. I'm like, oh, I can use this in my future.

Maddy: Right, right. That's really cool. So, would you recommend, would you recommend PFCU's internship program or just really any internship program for people that are in college maybe considering something?

Marlie: Yes, I would definitely recommend an internship in general, but especially the PFCU internship program. They really provide interns with all the resources that they need to succeed. So, I was able to kind of focus on whatever areas I was interested in. My bosses, Robyn and Jordyn made sure to get me involved in every single meeting, event, presentation that they were able to, to really helped me get the most out of this experience. And then the PFCU team in general is just a great team to work with. Every single person that I interacted with was helpful and just overall kind.

Maddy: That's great. Yeah, I think it goes a long way to say you didn't just come in and sit at your desk and have one task that you worked on all day. They really, I mean, I saw you were doing out things that I have never done before. I think that's an awesome experience to have and you can take that with you no matter where you end up really.

Marlie: Yes. I was very active, which I was thankful for. It was awesome.

Maddy: Well, thank you, Marlie. I really appreciate your time.

Marlie: Yeah. It was great talking with you. Thank you for having me.

Money Talk is a podcast brought to you by PFCU. PFCU offers many products and services to fit your needs from our various loan and account options to our team of financial coaches to help you reach your goals. Make sure to take advantage of the many conveniences PFCU offers, such as the mobile app, mobile wallets, bill pay, and more. Visit our website at pfcu4me.com to learn more. PFCU is an equal housing lender and is federally insured by the NCUA.