Making Memories as a Client Services Intern

At Bradley, you never know when there’s going to be an exciting new opportunity waiting around the corner for you. That’s just one of the many uniquely Bradley experiences Marketing and Management & Leadership junior Benji Spear has had the thrill of sharing with his peers in the Bradley community.

“I was setting up an event for the American Marketing Association, where I currently serve as president,” Spear said. “I was working with Simantel to set up a tour for our organization and midway through the email chain, they sent me a link to apply for the internship and asked me to share the opportunity with the club.”

Dutifully, Spear shared the application, but not without submitting one himself.

The rest, as they say, is history. Spear secured the position as a client services intern, a project management position in which he worked on scoping and estimating projects, building project timelines, and communicating internally with the Simantel team. Along the way, he supported accounts across North America, South America, and Europe, with his primary clients being various Caterpillar business units.

“Communication across teams is such a critical part of Simantel, and having strong processes in place is deeply ingrained in the work,” Spear said. “I gained a much better understanding of how all the different pieces of an agency come together to deliver strong results for a client.”

For Spear, the biggest challenge was adjusting to the pace of a marketing agency. With some clients on incredibly tight deadlines, Spear and his team had to be flexible and adapt quickly to make sure deliverables were presented on time. Learning how to prioritize projects and manage competing deadlines proved a valuable part of the experience, though not something he was altogether unfamiliar with thanks to his Bradley coursework.

“I’ve had a lot of group projects where I’ve had to take the lead in determining how and when we would complete a project. Learning how to lead with intention, communicate effectively, and set others up for success were skills I had already developed at Bradley and was able to strengthen even further during my time at Simantel,” Spear said.

For Spear, this internship is just the start of a deep dive into the many internships and extracurricular opportunities available to him at Bradley. He looks forward to building his skills in preparation for a career in project management, account management, or brand management.

–Jenevieve Rowley-Davis