Do you remember your first dream? The first time when an adult asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up and it didn’t sound like an intimidating question but as one full of promise and excitement? It is self-evident that most children wanted to be in the spotlight, so the most desired professions at an early age were actors, musicians, astronauts, anything that embodied status and privilege. While I have always been passionate about music, I was facing the rules of society dictating that you cannot have a career in music unless you are a musician, so early on I was discouraged from pursuing a career in music. That was until I got the opportunity to intern for Spinnin’ Records. There are so many memories that I treasure from my time at the company not only because I learned a lot about strategy, social media and how the whole system of releasing a song works but also because I got to take a chance on the dream that I had when I was little, and learned more about myself and the career path that would make me happy. Looking at my time there it’s really hard to pick only one favorite moment but I could share with you an experience I am really proud of.
Towards the end of my internship the label was preparing a very important event for a music release in collaboration with Call of Duty for their new video game, this being a double launch for both the track and the game. I was asked by one of my colleagues to hop on board of the project and help compile and manage the guestlist for the event. This came after a conversation I had with my team when I mentioned that I’d be interested in working on the project more on the PR side than on the social media side. My manager was very supportive when I accepted this task because I got to experience something different than what I was doing within the internship. In the week leading up to the event, everyone was stressed and working very hard, and I recall feeling tired but still excited about the opportunity I was given to organize the event. The day of the event came and I was browsing the schedule to see when they would require my assistance and then I saw a list of names of the contact people involved in the project, and there it was, my name in bold next to it “Guest List Manager”. In that moment I remember feeling such a big sense of accomplishment seeing all the people there enjoying themselves.
Of course this is just a small glimpse of the overall experience that I had with Spinnin’ Records but now I can say after reflecting on the five months spent there that I made the best decision choosing them as my host company. I met such wonderful people in my time there and learned so much because I was given the freedom within my internship to explore and try different tasks and ultimately to figure out what I’m passionate about. I learned that meetings can be fun, insightful, creative and they should always start with music. And most importantly that there is always room for improvement and you can always learn something from the people around you, you just need to be open.
The feeling that I have now is bittersweet because I’m sad that it’s over but I’m happy that it happened.