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What a journey, I cannot believe that 16 weeks has already flown by. I have learned so much over the past weeks as well as made some great friends.  The internship started off so scattered for me I had a really hard time understanding the way everything went together. I would say that I got off to a rocky start and did not really start to grasp what I was doing until a few weeks in.  I was assigned to be on the marketing and sales team. For marketing I worked with 3 other interns to try and accomplish getting 5000 Facebook likes, as of now we are only at 81% of hitting our goal. We are not giving up we are going to give it our all this last week and try and get our numbers up. I also got to work on Google Analytics, this is a marketing tool used to track how many visits Bamboosk8 website got. We were able to reach our goal for this and increase our page visits by 15%!!! I also got the chance to work with 4 interns from the sales team. I had to visit different skateparks around where I lived and beyond to try and spread the word about Bamboosk8, and how awesome their decks are compared to maple decks. I really enjoyed this because it allowed me to go outside and mingle with the skaters. I also got a chance to really test my sales skills and go into a few shops to try and get them to bring Bamboosk8 into their shops. I talked to a few shops but never got them to try any of our decks. I guess my sales skills needs some working on. I did however sell 19 decks throughout the internship to various people that I networked with. All of them love their decks!!!! .

Another part of the internship that I got to experience was planning and going to events for Baboosk8. My first event during the internship was on St. Patrick’s Day in San Diego. It was a Grind for Life event to raise money for families with cancer. It ended up raining but that did not ruin the experience for me, a ton of kids still came out to support the event, we ended up selling a bunch of decks and getting to chat with a bunch of Bamboosk8 fans. The other two events that I get to be a part of will be held this week during Earth Week. We will be going to an event at San Diego State University called Green Fest, we hope to spread the word about Bamboosk8 as well as sell a bunch of decks. The last event that we will be doing is one that all of the interns put together another Grind for Life event. This one we had to plan ourselves and could not have done it without the help of Tameka or Jessi, they really put a lot of energy into making this happen. We will be having a raffle and silent auction to raise money. This should be loads of fun, can’t wait!!

Lastly one of the coolest things that I got to be a part of was working with a group of kids at the Oasis School in Toronto. Bamboosk8 puts together a competition for them. They have to come up with an idea on sustainability, and then they have to explain their idea and paint it on a bamboo deck. We then choose first, second, and third place. First place gets to be recognized at the Bamboosk8 warehouse. I was totally blown away by the work these kids created; they all had such amazing talent. All of their ideas were really good and their art work was even better. In the end we chose one but might end up featuring a few others on our website. Such a cool experience!!

Now that my journey is coming to an end I can truly say that all of the hard work and energy totally paid off. Everyone at Bamboosk8 really helps each intern to succeed at whatever it is they are trying to get out of the internship. I have no complaints. I am leaving this internship much smarter and much wiser than when I came in, and with so much more knowledge about marketing and sales.

What a ride!!! We are coming into the tail end of the internship and man have we done a lot. I have gotten the opportunity to work with some amazing interns along the way as well as had some amazing mentoring. I have been doing social media for Facebook and we just hit 4000 likes today, this is huge for us! Getting people to like you on Facebook is much harder than I thought. Hopefully we will reach our goal of 5000 by the end of this. I also have faced my fears of selling skateboards to shops. I finally went into my first skateshop; I did not sell any skateboards unfortunately, but just going in and talking with the guys was such a feeling of accomplishment. I am in the process of working with a few other shops and hopefully will get a sale by the end of the internship. I am super excited to attend our Grind for Life event on April 26th; hopefully we will have a huge turn out! I cannot believe all of the stuff that I have done and all of the stuff I still have to do in two weeks before this ride is over, wish me luck!!!

Wow! I cannot believe that we only have 1 month left of the internship, time has really flown by. I have got to learn and experience so much along the way. I can now truly say that I am a Facebook expert I have learned a lot about how useful Facebook can be if used properly. The marketing team has really stepped it up and has got a large amount of new likes. We took our final last week; it consisted of an income statement and a cash flow statement. Man it was much harder than I thought it was going to be. I almost ran out of time, luckily I finished. Now that that is done I am really looking forward to our Grind for Life event at the end of the month, I hope it will be a huge success. Another experience I finally manned up and did was to into a skate shop on my own; unfortunately the buyer was not there like he was supposed to be. I hopefully will meet with him this week and seal a deal!

The internship at Bamboosk8 is moving along quickly I can’t believe that it is already week 10. There has been so much that I have learned and got to do since starting the internship. One of the side projects that I have been working on is to work with high school kids that live in Toronto, Canada. They are a part of a program called the Oasis Skate Factory (OSF). They are working really hard at designing a Bamboosk8 skateboard deck. The entire class is competing to see who has the best idea. The kids are trying to design decks that have something to do with sustainable energy, and being green. I have been emailing back and forth with them for a few weeks now, and giving them feedback on the designs they have come up with so far. They are so good, I was completely blown away when I started to open their files and see their designs. What amazing talent! All of the kids get to keep their decks at the end of the contest but the lucky winners get to have their decks displayed at the Bamboosk8 factory. I cannot wait to see what the finished products look like and who ends up with the winning deck!!!

Another fun and upcoming event that I will be assisting Bamboosk8 with is the Clash at Clairemont. This is a skateboarding event to crush cancer held at the YMVA in Mission Valley, San Diego. They will have some of the top skateboard riders including Andy Macdonald, Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, Pierre-Luc Gagnon (“PLG”), Simon Tabron, Mimi Knoop and many more! All of the proceeds from the event go back to the YMCA and the Grind for Life Foundation. It should be a great day and event, can’t wait!

This week we had are BIG midterm, man am I glad that is done with. I never realized how hard cash flow and income statements were to understand until I had to deal with this midterm. Now that it is done I can say that it was a great learning experience, and it was worth all of the time and effort I put into it. I now understand how and why a lot of things are done in a company. Thanks to Geoff C. for helping me with my excel sheet without him I would have been totally lost and probably ten times more stressed out. I also want to give a shout out to Tameka; you are doing an awesome job handling all of the PR stuff for Bamboosk8, keep up all your hard work!!! Now that the internship is half way over I can say that all of my stress and hard work is now beginning to pay off. I am learning lots especially how hard it is to get new customers and sell skate boards. That alone takes a lot of time and energy. Are sales team is doing a great job of accomplishing this keep up the great work guys. I have also learned how to use social media to its fullest potential. I don’t think I have ever been on Facebook as much as I have in the last few weeks. I have learned a bunch of different things you can do on Facebook such as the reveal tab which makes followers like us they can view are page. Thanks to Jessi we have some amazing flyers that have been getting posted on Facebook, Twitter and Hook it. Thanks Jess you do a great job at creating these. The experience so far has been great can’t wait to see what the next few week hold!!

We are moving right along at the Bamboosk8 internship, I am learning a lot about the company as well as myself. One of the things I knew that was going to be hard for me was learning how to be coached and taking positive and negative criticism. One of the main reasons I came into this internship was to learn more marketing and sales skills, so being criticized is just part of the process. All of that I knew, learning how to deal with all of it was something I was not that prepared for. Now that I am 6 weeks in to the internship I am beginning to understand how to really take all of the criticism and use it in a positive way and then learn from it. Although some of it is hard to take I am beginning to like the critisism because it is helping me see the things that I am good at and the things that I need to improve upon.

            One of the biggest tasks in this internship program is leadership without it I think the whole program would never succeed. I always saw myself as a leader, someone who likes to take charge and make sure things are getting done. I have learned over the last few weeks that trying to be a leader and just being one are really difficult, especially when there is a group of so many different people with different ideas. Leadership is really important in this internship, especially now because we are really trying to work on some new things for Bamboosk8 like contest, competitions, and events. All of the things will get great new exposure for the company, hopefully. Without someone guiding, motivating, and tracking what we do none of this would be possible. I hope that I can continue doing my part and together we will create something great!

I have been interning at Bamoosk8 for about four weeks now and let’s just say I got off to a very rocky start. I was so excited to start the intern process that when it actually started I got so overwhelmed with everything my performance definitely suffered. It has been really fun learning how to Skype with all of the interns, there is nine of us that have survived the first few weeks. I am also enjoying getting to know Geoff Koboldt the president at Bamboosk8. He has been my mentor the last few weeks and I have really learned a lot from him.  Another highlight was selling my first deck, it was a Bamboosk8 blank pool deck to my friend Jeff he is an old school skater and loves long boards.

Now that I am a few weeks in I have been thinking about what is next, I have been thinking of a few of the top companies that I would want to work for other than Bamboosk8 once I finish my internship. My top choice would definitely be Billabong. I have loved them as a brand for a while now and even have a few friends that I know that work there. They are located next to where I live so my commute would be a breeze which is always an added benefit. RVCA would be my next choice. They are owned by Billabong and are a very strong company. I love what they stand for; bringing art, music, and action sports together is awesome. Hurley would also be a top choice of mine, the company stands for love for the ocean, positivity, with a premium on smiles. All of these things I try and live by in my life. Having the opportunity to work for any of these companies would be great, they all are strong and have a large part in making the action sports industry what it is today.  Now, I just need to stay positive and finish the internship here at Bamboosk8, so I can hopefully work for one of these great companies someday!

Hi my name is Jamie I am one of the new interns for the 2012 spring internship, I am super excited to start working with Bamboosk8 and can’t wait to get started. I found Bamboosk8 online and found out they offered an incredible opportunity for a marketing internship. I graduated college around a year ago with a degree in marketing and really had no real life marketing experience; I knew this would be an amazing opportunity for me to get my foot in the door. I currently am a hair stylist down in the South Orange County area; I have been doing hair for around seven years and love what I do! I am just ready to take the next step in my life. This brings me to what brought me to want to work at Bamboosk8. One of the other things that I am passionate about is action sports, I wakeboard, snowboard, and paddle surf and watch many of the others on television. Bamboosk8 seemed like a good fit for me to learn about marketing while working with people who share the same passion as I do. I also love the fact that Bamboosk8 is a green company; working for a company that is trying to make a difference by helping the environment is really inspiring to me.

I have been at Bamboosk8 for almost a week now and have learned a lot about the company, as well as the products they sell. The company as a whole is great! Everyone seems super excited about the company they work for as well as the products they sell. The use of social media has really brought a huge following for the company; I hope I can help to bring in more followers to help expand the company. Learning all of the different social media avenues is really important especially today. Most everyone uses the internet for either personal or business reasons, so learning how to properly use social media to promote a company will diffidently help me along the way with marketing. I also have learned how well the company has grown over the last few years; the company started off as just a manufacture of decks and now has a team of riders as well as a complete brand for the company. Starting to work with a company who is in growth stage will help me to see what it takes to grow a company from the ground up. It will be interesting to learn how all different pieces within the company connect to inevitably create a profitable lasting company.

Now that you know why I am here and what I have learned so far I thought I would share some of my future goals. In the next 16 weeks I hope to have gained more real life knowledge in marketing, especially in social media as well as knowledge about the skateboarding industry.  In the next year or two I plan on switching careers completely, I will give up my hair styling business and hopefully venture out into some type of entry level marketing job, hopefully for an action sports company if I am lucky. In the next five years I plan on having a secure job in marketing with a company that I am not only am passionate about but enjoy working for. Sometime during this period I would also like to have gone back to school and have gotten my MBA in management. And, hopefully in the next 10 years I plan on either managing a team or maybe even owing my own company, so an MBA would definitely help me.