INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: MARKETING, SALES, INTERNET, PRODUCT, MANAGEMENT, ETC.

For those looking for interning and so-called “real world” experience-building opportunities, Big Innovations (hereafter BI) does not offer the classic internship program. Those programs involve putting people to work for (often) long hours at (usually) little-to-no pay. We believe that people should be paid for their hard work... including barely-seasoned talent about to embark on careers in fields relevant to our company offerings. Rather than the classic interning arrangement, we offer 2 interesting alternatives, both aimed at helping you learn the most valuable of “real world” skills (sourcing clients willing to pay for what you can do) in addition to client-servicing opportunities in which you demonstrate your knowledge & competencies:

• White Label BI Services: In this fully entrepreneurial option, you start your own marketing consulting business, pitch your own capablities PLUS the services that BI offers and outsource the actual work in the latter to BI (you keep any services that you can do well on your own). We do the work outsourced to us and you can take credit for that work. This arrangement is much like your new company having ready access to the entire team at BI plus our network of specialist subcontractors. You would basically be leveraging our experience & capabilities to woo prospects into giving you paying gigs knowing we can backstop your relevant promises with the range of services we deliver. Learn more about white labeling BI services.
• Referral Rewards: In this option you source clients and refer them to BI. If they choose to do business with us, we discreetly send you 15% of first-year collected revenues from them. Again, you can pitch your own capabilities and keep those engagements for yourself while outsourcing other tasks (that may be beyond your current capabilities) to BI. Learn more about our referral rewards program.

Become a Paid Entrepreneur Instead of an Unpaid, Employee-like Intern

Either of the above options involve one of the most challenging parts of business- sourcing new paying clients. Developing that skill means you acquire the lifelong ability to become an entrepreneur instead of someone's employee. As you should know, an entrepreneur is paid in profit while an employee is paid out of only a slice (often a relatively small slice) of profits (the rest going to others... and most going to the entrepreneur who owns the business). You can get very rich on the receiving end of your own company’s profits while employee upsides are always capped at a fixed annual salary maximum. Many settle for the steadier nature of the latter but it’s mostly through the former where bigger (life) dreams can be realized.

The old "teach a man to fish" saying is quite relevant to learning the fundamental entrepreneurial skill of attracting new business...

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

You can be as involved as desired in projects from clients you source. Thus, the interning goal of learning via (job) application is replicated through such options. As your own skills mature over time, you can optionally spin off from BI and run your own business selling whatever you are good at doing (and fulfilling those jobs up to completely on your own if desired). Alternatively, if your ultimate goal is salaried employment with one of the companies you source, we'll be happy to attest to any of your accomplishments for them.

What Exactly Does It Take to Participate?

Imagine you have won an internship with a marketing services company and most of your initial functions are in the capacity of new client salesperson. You would approach companies that need the kinds of services offered by your "employer" and attempt to frame their needs as fully as possible. In textbooks, this framing is often called “needs assessment.” You then share your assessment with the marketing company sponsor and more experienced personnel steps in to further qualify and/or pitch appropriate services to them. This is similar to how the selling piece of this program works at BI.

The big difference from the typical internship program is this: if we are able to sign any clients you source to a contract, you get paid very well for bringing that business to us. And if you could help on any of the projects they want us to do for them, you could also get some experience flexing your non-selling muscles with whatever you've learned within your coursework and/or with any relevant talents you have related to your career goals.

For example, let's imagine an intern who is good at web page or print ad design. They sell a company on engaging BI for web page or print ad design work. We could show them the intern’s designs as part of the engagement. If the client goes with those designs, the intern will have claims to not just learning to source new customers but also that some of their own creations were used by those customers. And the intern will also enjoy getting paid for the work too!

In summary, the key learning benefits you could get from this program are:

• Learning how to source new, paying clients to buy the kinds of services that you and/or BI can provide (an invaluable, lifelong, “learn to fish” benefit), AND
• If any newly-sourced clients want to buy the kinds of things you personally can do for them, your own creations and/or deliverables could be what fulfills those client needs.

The typical intern’s interests are usually more along the lines of work experience rather than compensation but we are happy to pay well for any new business you can source. Those interns needing to pay their own way through school (or knowing they'll have loans to pay off as soon as they graduate) should be particularly attracted to this kind of opportunity. Source a new client or two during your breaks and the rewards checks can keep on coming to you while you are focused on your education.

Lastly, it doesn't matter where you are located: we serve clients world-wide.

Dazzle Your Intern Program Chair With the Entrepreneurship Accomplishment

If you need the interning experience to include specific kinds of deliverables (your own specialized talents) for companies, the key is to source new clients where you can do some of that work yourself. For example, if your chairperson will need to see that whatever you are good at doing is actually utilized in some way by the companies you serve, you should target new clients that will want to engage BI for those kinds of deliverables. If you were good at- say- designing HTML email promotions, multimedia marketing, new product development, etc, then you’ll want to seek out companies interested in engaging BI for HTML email promotions, multimedia marketing, new product development, etc.

When it’s time to report on your interning-like experiences, you’ll be able to show that you both gained relevant experience AND sourced your own paying customers... the latter of which should be particularly appealing to your chairperson (they should certainly appreciate the great added value of you developing that monumental skill so early in your career).

Do this well and you could graduate & start (or continue to grow) your own company and/or retain this kind of affiliation with BigInnovations.com, leveraging our brand & identity to help get past the "new graduate with little 'real world' experience" business challenges. Our identity can help mitigate that common sales objection. The experience you get from fulfilling services for some clients can build your own personal resume of tangible deliverables.

If you demonstrate quality talent and attention to detail, you could also extend the relationship with us as one of our consultants, contractors or freelancers well beyond your graduation date- a great way to come out of school and bypass the long lines of (too) many competing talents chasing the (scarce) jobs that pay a (small) fixed salary. Do you really want to spend a couple of years in an introductory role at an "entry level" pay rate? Or would you like to graduate into your own title of CEO, President or similar and pay yourself whatever your knowledge & skills can harvest from the marketplace?

Contact us with any questions about the program.