They say that when one truly envisions something, when one truly believes within the depths of their heart that it will happen, eventually, it actually does. I can testify now, for a second time, that this is true.
Although everyone knows that I had always envisioned myself walking down the streets of Los Angeles, calling The City of Angels ‘home’, and being able to work there (that vision in my mind came to life last year – read about it here), you may not know that I have also always envisioned myself working at a record label, as I believe that to be successful within an industry, it is important to understand all facets of it. What better way to understand one component of the music industry’s ecosystem than to work at a company that falls within that component?
After persistence, persistence and more persistence, what I always saw in my head, became what I saw with my own two eyes. From the beginning of May, until the end of August, I was the Digital Marketing Intern for the leading label in this country, Universal Music Canada, a division of Universal Music Group.
Walking in and out of the Universal office in Toronto on a daily basis was so surreal to me. Truthfully speaking, there is not one day where I help up my pass to unlock the door and didn’t have a smile on my face, or butterflies in my stomach. Looking back, I still cannot believe that this opportunity happened to me. Not only did time pass by way too quickly, but I also learned more than I could have ever imagined I would, and made many new friends & contacts.
During my internship, I worked on multiple tasks, but my favourite parts of the week always involved attending meetings (I want to have proof of myself saying this, as, I have a feeling I may not think the same thing in a few years ahah). It was also so interesting to me to see how different departments have their specific tasks, yet all work on overarching projects, and must put all of their abilities at the forefront, to ensure success for the project in question. I love it!!! “Teamwork makes the dream work”, right?
The craziest part of this whole journey though was not even interning at a record label, but rather, how the opportunity came to be. It was February 2017 and I was applying to every internship position that I could find in LA/NY/Toronto. Out of the blue, I fell on a random page with a message saying that Universal was looking for Fall 2016 interns — yep, interns for the year prior. With my “everything happens for a reason” and “if you don’t try, you’ll never know” mentalities, I decided to follow the steps listed on the page. About two weeks later, I heard back from someone. [If you all only saw my face when I received the email – I was so excited and quite frankly, in disbelief]. From then, I had an initial screening call with HR, before being asked to take part in a Skype interview with the head of our department and the individual who ended up being my supervisor. That Skype interview took place on a Friday, and on the Monday, I got a call from HR saying I was chosen as the company’s Digital Marketing intern for the summer. Ouf, I got the chills again just writing that – I couldn’t believe it. ❤
This is a perfect example demonstrating why I continuously emphasize the risk-taking and thinking positive – it has been proven to work, yet again. 🙌🏼
Bottom line: When you see that post regarding an intern search for a previous term, or a job posting from a few months ago – if you can still apply somehow, DO IT. You really just never know. Heck, you could gain an opportunity from it, or, at very worst case, you lost a few minutes of your time filling out a form or sending an email…for the possible gain, I’m pretty sure that the possible loss is worth it 😉
#DreamBIG
Check out some pictures below from my experience:
So beautifully said Giuliana, love you, grandma xxxx