Summer Internship: A Day in the Life of Matt Miller

Marketing Major  

Hi everyone! My name is Matt Miller and I am a third-year Marketing student. This summer, I am working for Pocketalk at Sourcenext as a sales marketing intern. Pocketalk is a Japan-based company that builds two-way translator devices allowing for immediate translations between languages. I applied to a dozen internships at companies with a wide variety of positions and sizes, and Pocketalk was the company that expressed the most interest. It is my first internship and I am extremely excited about it even though it is held virtually. I enjoy working for a small company because I am exposed to so many different business operations. 

A Day at Pocketalk: 

9 am: I log on and typically hop on a call with the sales manager I’m working with. We go over business-to-business sales opportunities he is working on and he explains important things to look for in a phone call with potential clients. I am assigned various tasks for these projects so after the call I work on sales presentations and drafting email campaigns. 

10 am: It’s meeting time for our team. On Tuesday’s, we have a team Zoom call to discuss all operations: sales, accounting, customer service, and everything in between. The other intern and I give short presentations about what we are working on during the week, email campaign results, and takeaways from the meeting. There are only ten people working for Pocketalk at the Palo Alto office, so I have been able to get to know everyone on a friendly level. 

11 am: We often have client meetings following our team meetings, but each day can vary. On Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s, our team has meetings with the PR and marketing companies we are partnered with. On other days, the other intern and I have personal calls with the marketing manager or head accountant to learn more about their position and its importance in day-to-day operations. 

12 pm: Lunch time. I usually make myself a sandwich during the week, but on Friday’s I order food over DoorDash as an end-of-the-week special treat. Sometimes I take my dog on a quick walk around the block, then relax until it’s time to get back to work at 1 pm. 

1 - 2 pm: The afternoons are usually my time to get work done. My sales manager lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, so sometimes we have calls at 1 pm my time, 4 pm his time to run by any ideas of tasks that need to be done by the end of the day. After this, I work on any solo projects I am assigned, such as research on the telehealth industry or revising the company’s sales decks. 

The article above features Pocketalk and is from the Nikkei Asian Review, the Japanese equivalent to the Wall Street Journal.

2 pm: I typically FaceTime the other intern and work on joint projects we are responsible for. We are organizing an email campaign to sell devices to first responders during COVID-19, so we draft specific emails to fire departments, police departments, and EMT services. Having a partner to work with always makes the last hour fly by and increases productivity.

3 pm: Marks the end of our work day. Most days I am finished for the day and fill out my timesheet. Sometimes, if it is an especially busy day, I continue working until 4 pm in order to complete all my projects for the day. 

I’m thrilled that my first internship is with a smaller company. I am mainly involved in the sales and sales marketing of the product, but as the internship comes to an end, I am leaving with a larger understanding of everything that goes into a business. Also, we know that the projects we have worked on will actually benefit the company and will still be used. I am very grateful to have this opportunity and to learn from everyone at Pocketalk!