IMA Schelling Group

Summer 2024 Marketing Intern

Growing up as a first-generation American citizen with a German heritage, I learned how to multitask from a pretty young age–switching from English to German, from St. Nikolas Day to Fourth of July and in-line engines to V8. In greeting each day as a learning experience that normally comes with foreseeable commonplace difference, I entered the municipality of Schwarzach, Austria with a similar approach. Knowing of and immersing oneself are two completely different things, but are of smooth transition to one another when you at least speak the language–but the dialect is an entirely different feat. Once I began my internship under the leadership of the woodworking machinery plant IMA Schelling Group in June of 2024, there was much to learn about what it took to successfully market an international corporation such as this one.

Having never experienced a 9-5 work environment before, my discovery of this work culture only grew. Reliance on the support from my fellow office members was crucial to getting a day's worth of work done as well as to prepare for the coming week’s initiatives. Specialized teams were scattered throughout the on-site location on multiple floors and studio spaces, built to accompany tasks that spanned entire cognitive and uncognitive skillsets. I was located on the third floor of the building on the marketing row, joint with the salespeople cold calling and checking up on their clientele.

Working alongside the seven-person marketing team as an outsider coming in was intense. I had only knowledge of what marketing might look like from a rounded, educational perspective. The leads in my team were scattered across the German-Austria country landscape in respect to their duties of administering external journalistic coverage and prospective clientele. I was tasked with a multitude of responsibilities–aiding in German-to-English grammar translation for newsletters & magazines, creative Adobe Suite use for on-location house show events and maintaining internal communication between technicians and sales lead teams.

Encapsulating these endeavors was the end-of-month on-site house show hosted by the IMA Schelling Group Schwarzach location. Here, I greeted and welcomed guests from varying European countries, facilitated tours of the showcased machinery and aided in servicing clientele and coworkers alike during breaks and deal agreements. Implementing the behind-the-scenes detail that made the transitions of the house show event positively smooth impacted the entire company, teams and overall future success of the IMA Schelling corporation–something I will always remember in each endeavor I am applicable to.

Me (right) and Lena welcoming guests into the 2024 IMA Schelling House Show.