Summer Internship: A Day in the Life of Leah Urena
Business Administration Major with a Marketing Minor
Leah Urena, Business Administration Major.
Hello everyone! My name is Leah Urena and I am heading into my senior year at San Diego State University. I am majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Marketing. Currently, I am the Marketing Director for the Transfer Student Outreach Alliance on campus and the Student Assistant for the Career Management Center at the Fowler College of Business.
After graduating from high school in 2018, I scored a job as a barista at Dutch Bros Coffee. I instantly fell in love with the company, the culture, and the people so I worked my way up to become a shift lead manager. I knew I wanted to continue growing within the company and expand my experience in marketing, so I applied for Dutch Bros’ Remote Summer Product Brand intern position and secured the role!
Here’s a day in the life of my remote Product Brand internship!
8:00 am - Rise and shine! When my alarm goes off at 8am, I start my day by quickly getting out of bed and heading to my local Dutch Bros shop to get a dub shot of espresso with oat milk. I definitely need that caffeine boost for my long days!
9:00 am - Once I get back from my mini coffee run, I start my work day by checking all of my emails and viewing my calendar to take note of the Zoom meetings I have for the day. I tend to have two to six hours worth of meetings every day! The Brand team works with many other departments, so we meet with them to make sure our projects are all aligned.
10:00 am - I meet with my Cold Brew/Coffee & Rebel managers and the Director of Product Management for updates regarding campaigns. I work with the analytics portion of the campaigns, so I get to analyze if the campaigns are going as expected or if there are any hiccups. Also, I work on the end results of campaigns and analyze the numbers to determine if this campaign will be a great fit for next year.
Urena (bottom) with fellow interns on Zoom.
11:00 am - Every week I conduct market research on current coffee trends and insights such as unique coffee flavors, scarcity of coffee beans, our competitors in the market, and other product innovation related topics. I present my findings to the Brand team alongside the other Product Brand intern who focuses on R&D. This part of my day is the most interactive because sometimes I am encouraged to test new drinks and flavors that are released by our competitors.
12:00 pm - Mini break from Zoom meetings! I tend to work on some projects like key performance indicator (KPI) benchmarking for each campaign, competitive market pricing analysis, and proofing regional menus before they get sent out to shops. This time is also reserved to take a step away from the computer and listen to some music, hangout with my cat, or just take a deep breath outside.
1:00 pm - I hop on Zoom meetings with different departments like Digital, Field Marketing, Finance & Analytics, or Retail Technology for alignment and updates that will help our campaigns run smoothly and successfully. For example, we sometimes meet with the Field Marketing team to better understand how we can make the drinks on the campaigns easier for baristas to communicate to the customers. Or we may meet with Retail Technology to make sure that the drinks on our campaigns have a special place on our POS system so baristas can quickly input a customer's order.
2:00 pm - Attend a one-on-one check-in with my Cold Brew/Coffee manager. We discuss the progress on my projects, new projects, and how our day is going so far. I have the most caring and genuine managers ever! I sometimes spend this hour networking with interns in other departments. We have meetings discussing our DISC assessment (a behaviour self assessment tool), going through important training, and even having a chat with our CEO/President.
Leah's local Dutch Bros.
3:00 pm - I wrap up my day by meeting with the rest of the Brand team with any final updates for the day. I show the team the tasks I completed and what my to-do list looks like for the next day. I also take this time to add any finishing touches to the projects that I have been working on.
8:00 pm - I head to my local Dutch Bros coffee shop to work a night shift! Even though I work at headquarters, I still work at the shops to maintain field experience. It is really rewarding to see the campaigns I work on released into the shops!
Starting off as a barista, then a shift lead manager, and now as the Product Brand intern has been surreal. This company treats its employees like family and focuses on maintaining its “Dutch Culture.” Getting to work my way up in this amazing company has provided me with the experience and knowledge about what I want to do with my career after college.
For those interested in remote positions in the future, I recommend building up time management and organization skills. It is tempting to roll out of bed without starting your morning routine or changing out of your pajamas, but this will make you feel more put together and excited about work. Also, it is critical to stay organized by keeping a planner or notebook handy. This is especially important when you have six different meetings each day and have deadlines throughout the week. I find it most helpful to utilize Google Calendar and sync my personal, academic, and work schedules so I could get a holistic view of what my days look like.
