#LifeAtATT
This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity of interning at AT&T Entertainment Group (DirecTV) as an User Experience (UX) Researcher and I could not have imagined a better summer! I was definitely nervous to move down to LA, but the people I worked with and the other interns made the past 3 months fly by!
A little bit about the role, I was on the formative research team, which is responsible for researching a particular subject and discovering opportunity areas we can tackle. I worked on a project called "Social", which was understanding how people view and interact with video content -- haha yes, my job was basically researching people's tv viewing habits and it was so fun, it didn't feel like work! We went to people's homes to interview them, brought in YouTube influencers (I got to meet Paul Butcher, Dustin from Zoey 101 #TBT), and did a lot of unpacking to understand all the information we gathered from interviews and secondary research. Overall, I learned a ton from the experience and had an incredible manager who always made time to check in with me and trusted me with a lot of responsibility with the project. She's someone I really look up to and would consider a mentor. I was so lucky to be a part of such an amazing team and everyone on my floor was extremely welcoming, driven, and creative! Altogether, it was a great environment to work in!
The intern program as a whole was well put together and it's definitely a place I would recommend applying to! AT&T provides housing and since the office is in El Segundo, you are perfectly located close to the beach -- I went to the beach almost every weekend with my fellow interns! There were in total 50 interns, 7 of whom worked in the Experience Design Studio (XDS) with me. Throughout the internship, we had intern programs like bowling, tickets to Dodgers/ LA Galaxy games, and intern lunches where they brought In-N-Out & Kogi food trucks onto the AT&T campus. The intern program also hosted many workshops that helped with public speaking and building presentations. These prepared us for our final intern presentation where we presented to senior leadership. While this was nerve-racking, it was such an awesome experience to get that exposure and share with others the work I've been doing all summer.
This is a summer I will never forget. I honestly would have never imagined that my summer would be spent in LA working in entertainment, finding hip brunch spots on weekends, and exploring everything LA has to offer. I met so many incredible people and am really lucky to have had this opportunity. I've grown so much both professionally and personally. Best of all, I've made friends for life and many memories I'll look back fondly on.
Before I go, here are some take aways from upper management during my time at AT&T and I hope these tidbits will inspire you as much as they have resonated with me.
"Don't be afraid to be creative and continue to challenge yourself" -Teresa D.
"Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and learn from them" -David H.
"Don't be fixated on earning a certain grade or landing a specific internship. Set a purpose in life that will motivate you, and those things will just be byproducts of your overall purpose " -Eric T.
"It's okay to not have a plan. Sometimes you need to let life be and everything will work itself out" -Andrew M.
If you have any questions about my experience at AT&T, feel free to leave a comment or email me! You can also read more about the work I did here. I'd also love to hear about any of your internship experiences!
xo Kerstin