Personal Contributions at Bose

As the only intern and college student on my team at Bose, I can offer a unique perspective to my team members because I am from a different generation than all of them. The reason this is useful is because we are a marketing team, and marketing is all about knowing your customers. A huge chunk of our customer base is from my generation, so I have a connection to that group of consumers, because I am one. In a meeting yesterday, something came up about using student ambassadors for our product and how a college campus would react to a marketing event that gave students the opportunity to demo and buy our product, Hearphones. My whole team turned to me for my opinion. I was able to share both my knowledge and my opinions about the matter. In addition, we were talking about music festivals that we could set up events at for music lovers. This was just another small example of how my generational knowledge and experience was helpful to my team. The biggest problem with our product right now is that people think it’s only for older people because it helps people with hearing troubles. Reaching the younger customers has been a challenge for my team, so hopefully I can be helpful in that aspect.

Additionally, my knowledge in leadership has proven to be more relevant in my position at Bose than I thought. My last internship was very coached in terms of being directed to complete a task, and reporting to my manager when it was done and I was ready for my next task. At Bose, I am given a lot more freedom. I am treated more professionally and I am responsible for many more objectives. One of these objectives that I have found is extremely important is relationship building. I have talked to many colleagues about how they ended up in their position today, and most of the responses to that question referenced how important networking and relationship building is. One of my colleagues explained how she never expected herself in the position she currently has as a product manager. The reason she ended up there is because a former colleague of hers thought she would fit perfectly in the position, and gave her a recommendation. She ended up loving it. The impact of connection comes up in the future so frequently, so I am really learning the importance of getting to know people and maintaining good relationships with everyone. Not only is this helpful for the future, but I have found it makes the day a lot more enjoyable when you have personal friendships with the people around you all day.