This is a guest blog post by Dominique Monserrat. A junior at Wesleyan University majoring in psychology and double minoring in data analysis and education studies, she was a Citrix intern during the summer of 2019.
Interning at Citrix felt like my first step into the real world. The first half of college has flown by, and pulling into the Citrix parking lot on my first day was another reminder that the real world isn’t so far away anymore. I was terrified. How on earth was I going to survive working in channel sales when I couldn’t even tell you what a channel was?
Fast forward to my 12th week interning for Citrix’s Worldwide Partner Enablement, Marketing, and Communications team. My responsibilities included helping create partner enablement and marketing resources, engaging in social media marketing, and tracking usage of resources to determine the most effective methods of enablement.
My final week, I drove up to the formerly foreboding building with a mix of emotions: amazement at how fast time passed; comfort at the familiar routine; and surprise at the twinge of sadness. Learning about channel and all that goes into making it successful has been an invaluable experience. Here are my top four takeaways:
1) Learn by doing (aka Trial by Fire)
My first week I participated in an internal channel sales training, and I couldn’t have been more confused. It might as well have been another language. I sat through the entire training feeling lost, wondering how I was going to make it through my internship.
My team hosted a similar channel sales training ten weeks later but this time, the terms and concepts felt familiar. I tried to pinpoint the exact moment I began to feel confident in my knowledge of the channel and realized my learning came from hands-on experience. For example, one of my major projects was creating documentation for a new sales tool. In doing this, I learned about the tool, partner programs, and the process of selling Citrix products.
I wouldn’t have succeeded without all the help my incredible team provided, but the greatest lesson they taught me was to trust in my abilities.
2) Social media is a lot more than posting vacation selfies
So much work goes into creating social content and carefully maintaining a company’s social media presence. Seriously, so much work! I knew how to use social media in my personal life, but social media marketing is a different ballgame. I learned how writing for Twitter is different from writing for LinkedIn (and I created my own LinkedIn profile!), when to use emojis and hashtags, and why measurement matters.
In addition to content, a big part of social media marketing is analytics. You want your posts to reach as many people as possible. Spotting patterns and finding reasons why some posts do better than others is not as intuitive as you would think. I came into the internship with a strong interest in social media marketing, and my team’s willingness to involve me on projects and teach me anything I wanted to learn was wonderful and contributed massively to my incredible summer.
3) People want you to succeed and are willing to help you get there
When I was first introduced to my team, I was beyond intimidated. Here was a group of “real” adults (at 20, I hardly felt like an adult) who, in my mind, were expecting me to be able to do what they do. This couldn’t have been further from the truth. Every team member helped me more times than I can count, and not once did they make me feel like less of a team member. In fact, they ask each other for help, too. Seeing that helped me understand that it’s OK to not know everything.
The culture at Citrix is unique. People care here. For weeks, as I passed a coworker’s desk, we would exchange small talk, to the point where I assumed I must’ve met him early on and forgotten because why else would a total stranger care about how I was? Recently, he asked my name because he realized he didn’t know. We introduced ourselves, and twenty minutes later he emailed me offering to connect because he remembered wishing as an intern that more people would reach out. This small interaction highlights the importance Citrites place on ensuring everyone feels like they matter.
The biggest change I noticed throughout my internship was within myself. During my first status meeting, I literally shook from nerves when I had to introduce myself. My no-more-words-than-necessary attitude became well known, to the point of being a joke. But status meetings became the highlight of my week and being included in the friendly teasing was a sign I made it: I was officially part of the team.
4) Keep all doors open
I chose to intern at Citrix because I knew it would give me a broad understanding of what life is like in a rapidly growing, forward-thinking company. I didn’t come into my internship with a solid idea of what I want to do after I graduated, and I didn’t leave with one, either. But I do have a strong understanding of the type of company that I want to work for. I took advantage of the opportunity to explore a wide range of possibilities, learning that it’s more important to open as many doors into opportunities than it is to pick one and close off all others. You never know when you might want a change, and Citrix offers the opportunity to move sideways and up, allowing for personal growth and career growth.
Going forward, returning to university and beyond, I will take with me the mindset of always being open to trying new things. For anyone else considering an internship at Citrix or anywhere, I recommend exploring all opportunities presented and developing your network. Explore far and wide, high and low, because one of those adventures may just be the one that changes everything.
Learn about internship opportunities at Citrix.
