Summer Internship: A Day in the Life of Kendall Berger
Kendall Berger, Marketing major.
Marketing Major
Hello! I’m Kendall Berger, a rising business marketing major scheduled to graduate in Spring 2023. Throughout my time at SDSU, I've held the role of Vice President of Recruitment and Director of Lifelong Membership for Pi Beta Phi and was a Fowler College of Business Representative for Associated Students. Along with these roles, I am currently spending the summer as an intern at Paperless Parts.
I began my internship in late May 2022 after meeting with Mike Stankus, Chief Revenue Officer of Paperless Parts, and my supervisor for this internship.
Paperless Parts is a Boston-based, Series B, SaaS company with the leading estimating and quoting software platform that helps manufacturers increase revenue and earn more business. This past January, Paperless Parts decided to expand to Southern California to address a large market potential. I am interning in their Carlsbad office while working alongside other wonderful colleagues.
My day-to-day life on the job can vary quite a bit since my internship is hybrid - meaning I can go to the office some days and stay home other days. I try to go to the office as much as possible to get the most out of my experience.
Below is a glimpse of an in-person day at Paperless Parts:
7:30 am - I am not much of a morning person, so this is always a tough wake up call. I get dressed and ready, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, and get ready to leave.
8:20 am - This is usually the time I leave for the office in order to be there by 9:00 am. The office is 35 minutes away from my current home near campus. I make sure to turn on my favorite music to keep me energized and ready for a great day! I make it to the office just in time to get settled and check any unread emails I may have before my first meeting.
9:00 am - On Wednesdays, we have an “all-hands” meeting at 9:00 am sharp. This is when the entire team, including HQ in Boston, hop on Google Meet to provide any updates and other information. The meeting begins with 'shout-outs', which are my personal favorite, as they seem to boost the morale of the teamand make sure achievements are recognized.
Berger meets virtually with Matt Sordillo to discuss marketing tasks.
9:30 am - I have fifteen minutes of spare time before my next meeting, so I gather any notes or questions I have to be extra prepared. I am in a shared office space, so I transition into the personal meeting room for some alone time.
9:45 am - I am meeting with Matt Sordillo, Co-Founder of Paperless Parts and Head of Marketing Solutions. Matt and Anne Marie Tracey, Marketing Deployment Specialist, have been guiding me through “Marketing Solutions” at Paperless. They have allowed me to creatively flourish by giving me social posts, blogs, and newsletters to design. From this, I have been able to become comfortable with platforms such as HubSpot and Canva.
In this meeting with Matt, he is providing me feedback on the newsletter template I created. I was tasked with taking the previous newsletter I designed and creating a totally new design with the same content. The goal of this was centered around needing new ideas to make each shop’s email design unique.
10:00 am - My next meeting is with Will Scatchard, an Account Executive (AE). He is in the Carlsbad office, so it’s nice getting to meet face to face with him. Mike has tasked me with planning events for some of the Account Executives on board, so today we are brainstorming ideas for his event in Southern California. For each event, I have learned how to work with a budget to come up with the most efficient and fun events to provide our customers.
10:30 am - I would call this part of my day my “focus time.” I do not have any meetings scheduled, so I use this time to work on my current tasks or projects. Today, I am working on event invitations on HubSpot, specifically an invitation for an event I planned at a Boston Red Sox baseball game! Also, I am starting another event for our AE in the Texas territory. I cannot wait to see these events come together!
1:00 pm - Mike’s in the office today too and we have a meeting scheduled for the next hour. We use this time to increase our progress on my labor shortage project. I have been doing research and interviews internally and externally to gather information about why the shortage is an issue and ways we can combat this. The end goal is to create written assets and a webinar. This will help our customers understand ideas on how to handle the shortage to both retain and hopefully attract more employees.
Berger meets with Will Scatchard to plan company events.
2:15 pm - This is about the time where I usually take my 30 minute break. I head into the common area, grab my snack, and read my book to pass the time. I cannot put down Colleen Hoover’s books!
2:45 pm - The rest of the day is based on how much I need to get done that day. I first use Canva to finalize the social post that will be posted on Linkedin and Facebook next week. It is important to maintain the brand image within each social post while still displaying creativity. During this time, I use prior feedback to perfect my invitations and work on more event planning details for other AE’s. Lastly, I start outlining my Labor Shortage presentation. There are a lot of different activities that go on during my focus time, but it’s all about multitasking.
5:00 pm - My job is full-time, but flexible with how much I need or want to work as well. Usually at or before 5:00 pm, I head home, but first I sit in about an hour’s worth of traffic.
One awesome thing about being an intern for Paperless Parts is that my day-to-day is never the same. Some days, I am in Los Angeles visiting job-shops and shadowing Will or Ben Barton, Solutions Engineer, on their demos. Other days, I work on email marketing, content creation, or event planning.
Although I am only halfway through my term here, I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge and most importantly, strong connections with people who provide me with brilliant advice about my future. Paperless Parts will continue to have a huge impact on my future and life after college. I am forever grateful for this opportunity!
