We went OUTSIDE THE OFFICE
Don't get me wrong: AOL is literally the best place to be as a high school intern. They have an endless supply of free drinks and wifi. They let you laugh hysterically about anything and everything in the middle of a legitimate office. They give you nap rooms and ping pong tables and Jenga.
And they give you money for it.
Well, technically they pay me to code for and contribute to the *cough cough* amazing Cambio site, but, in all honesty, it's a package deal.
You see, a normal day at AOL consists of sitting in a rolly chair for hours, scrolling through Facebook and Stack Overflow, debugging lines of JavaScript and checking on Instagram posts, rummaging through the jar of ever-present candy that is oh-so-conveniently placed near the intern desks, and learning about everything from SEO (search enginer optimization for you coding n00bs) to building your personal brand (heyheyhey @codercaitlin everyone).
It's definitely not a typical job, but I wouldn't want to spend my summer doing anything. Well, maybe except for staying in bed all day watching Netflix, but that's a hard pastime to beat.
Though the office is cool, this week trumped all weeks. We got to go on FIELD TRIPS.
I barely go on field trips at school, but let alone three in one week.
Let's start with Cosmo.
""You will never stop feeling uncomfortable--that's what makes life interesting and how you find out what you're made of." -- Joanna Coles, Editor in Chief..."
Monday mornings are tough, but getting to sit down and listen to Joanna Coles and her sage life advice makes everything a whole lot better. Especially when she pays for lunch for all of the interns.
Free food is the best kind of food, though dolar pizza runs a close second.
It was surreal to be able to walk into the headquarters for one of the most well-known magazines in the world and then be able to speak to the editor-in-chief with maybe 30 other people.
Thursday July 23rd wasn't a field trip day by any means, but it was basically intern appreciation day at the AOL office.
"#BUILTBYGIRLS day rides again in 2015 celebrating over 75 future builders @aol from @builtbygirls @girlswhocode and #fiftyfor15"
Officially dubbed #FutureBuildersDay, the whole day was dedicated to us lowly interns, not just the #BUILTBYGIRLS and #BBG Ventures ones. We got to interact WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
It was jarring, to say the least :P
The day started off with headshots for our uber cool LinkedIn profiles. Hilariously enough, the calendar invite for the shoot said not to wear white or black, else you would look like a floating head, yet all of us wore black and white...
Thank Jesus I'm a blonde.
We got to hang out and discuss personal branding through social media with Instagram superstars @girlwithnojob and @jackieoproblems. They told us to embrace the number of posts we want to post--I have no regrets in terms of my Instagram posts. We spent our working lunch munching on sandwich wraps and cookies (guilty) and singing songs at each other based on what brand of toothpaste we use (yeah I have no idea either).
Normally we're lucky if we see two BUILD sessions a week, but we were able to see two in one day. WOOT WOOT. The first was made of some of the most powerful women in technology and entrepreneurship--Erin Glenn, Marni Walden, Minerva Tantoco, and Susan Lyne--while the second was promotion for the upcoming movie "Pixels" by Ashley Benson. After feasting on cupcakes from Baked By Melissa's (those things are ADDICTING), we attended the latter and then got to interview Ashley Benson herself. You can read the awesome Cambio article here :D.
Overall, #FutureBuildersAge is definitely one of my fave holidays, right behind Christ,as and Halloween.
We finished up the workweek with two company visits, one set up by our amazing design team and the other by our awesome supervisor.
Facebook has literaly been two floors above us the entire summer and we didn't know until one of our designer off-handedly mentioned that he had a friend who worked there. We were set on sneaking in after a Facebook employee in the elevator, but then he was able to book a tour of their offices.
Not only did we get to see one of the coolest tech companies in the motherboard, but they gave us swag and ICE CREAM. They brought us to a room to speak with some female engineers and we were most excited when they started taking out waterbottles and notebooks and stickers.
"Swagulous #builtbygirls #facebook #bustle 😜"
It was swagulous.
Literally minutes after experiencing Facebook, we were led like a line of ducklings to Bustle, a small (if you can consider millions of views "small") news article site. There we got to listen to some engineers and video content producers and marketing people.
So basically everyone who helps to make a business actually run.
I love working.
