Nicole Pignatello ’08 knew she’d found the right internship when she came face to face with the devil on her second day of work. The position – with luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton – placed Pignatello in the same room as Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the novel (and film) The Devil Wears Prada.
“She refuses to see clothes on mannequins. They have to be on models and they have to be presented to her,” Pignatello says of the encounter, which was part of a pre-fall collection release in a New York studio. “I got a six-foot-something model and outfits on hangers, and had maybe 10 seconds to dress her and send her back out. I was shaking. Everyone was really nervous, because if you need anyone’s approval, you need hers.”
The Information Design and Corporate Communication major spent last summer in New York, working in the Special Events department for Louis Vuitton North America. More than 94 percent of Bentley students will complete at least one internship during their four years, with employers ranging from accounting and finance stalwarts such as Deloitte and Goldman Sachs to less conventional choices like Fisher-Price and Reebok. For many, the experience is more than just a résumé enhancer. It’s a springboard for searching the job-seeking soul.
Preparation, Plus Instinct
When Pignatello wasn’t busy impressing the grand dame of women’s fashion, she assisted the special events manager with functions in New York and around the country for the iconic leather goods, fashion accessories and jewelry brand. She hired caterers and musicians, florists and decorators, and as part of a two-person team, took on an unusually high level of work for an intern.
“By my second week, I was doing my own events,” says Pignatello, a native of Verona, N.J. “I had to find catering, modeling agencies, and décor for events all over the country.”
The events ranged from celebrity-stocked press functions to charity events and fashion shows. Pignatello says that her public relations courses at Bentley prepared her for many of the challenges she faced – but not all.
“When you’re at an event with 200 people and something goes wrong, you have to know in a split-second what to do. It’s very much instinct,” she explains. “You’re thrown into a situation where anything can happen, and it’s your responsibility to make it right. It’s the nature of the industry.”
The internship convinced Pignatello to seek a career in special events. “Every day is something different. It’s such a dynamic industry. I could never be at a desk all day long. I love interacting with people and doing new things.”
Encouraging Words
Fashioning a web presence was on the to-do list for Andrew Lehrer ’08, who interned at the downtown Waltham bookstore More Than Words. Working 20 hours a week during the spring 2007 semester, he created an eBay venture for the shop that employs at-risk youth. He also trained staff members on inventory posting and wrote a manual of guidelines.
Lehrer learned of the opportunity in his entrepreneurship course. Guest speaker Jodi Rosenbaum Tillinger, founder and director of the store, was scouting for someone to start an online component. Lehrer’s experience running his own sports memorabilia store on e-Bay made him a stellar candidate.
“They had a huge section in the basement labeled ‘eBay,’” Lehrer says of the bookstore. The Bentley management major pored through the pile and unearthed multivolume sets by authors including Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. “We had a couple of sets go for over $1,000. During my first month we had sales of more than $5,000.”
Working with the store’s employees had its own rewards. Most are 13- to 25-year-olds referred by the Department of Social Services, high school guidance counselors, or parole officers.
“I was kind of nervous,” Lehrer admits. “But for the most part, all of them were really good to work with and motivated. By the end of the semester, I had developed relationships with all of the kids. They trusted me and were willing to work with me.”
The level of responsibility he received was another plus. “No one was looking over my shoulder,” reports Lehrer, who’s from Cranston, R.I. “I was forced to make my own decisions and figure things out on my own, rather than having someone tell me what to do. That was the best part of the experience.”
Future employers are sure to agree. Lehrer aspires to work in nonprofit management after graduation.
Lemons to Lemonade
Marketing major Heather Davis ’08 used her internship to master the power of positive thinking – and gained an unexpected view of business challenges. Her employer, Canton, Mass.-based electronics retailer Tweeter, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection during her stint with the company last summer.
“I didn’t do a lot of the traditional things that interns do,” says Davis. “Instead, I got to do real marketing, because they needed the help.”
Indeed, the department of 30 employees that Davis joined at the start of the summer was down to seven members when she left in August. Her work focused on guerilla marketing.
“It’s unique marketing,” Davis says of the strategy. “Instead of putting out an ad and waiting for customers to come into the store, it’s going out to get the customers. You might establish partnerships with other businesses or send a personalized letter to a company that has just moved into town. It is a very cost-effective way to advertise, and customers really like the personal touch.”
A native of Keene, N.H., Davis found her internship at a marketing and communications job fair sponsored by the Center for Career Services at Bentley. Danielle Leveille ’05, Tweeter’s brand manager at the time and Davis’s boss for the summer, quickly brought the intern up to speed. As time went on, Davis found herself more and more involved in marketing operations.
“At the end of the summer, I started doing project management, which I really enjoyed,” she says. One of her projects was working with Tweeter’s creative team to produce a marketing flyer for the company’s stereo equipment.
“I managed the team and was able to oversee the whole process,” she says. “I don’t think I would have had that opportunity if the whole staff had been there.”
Going Green
In internships, as in sports, timing can be everything. Just ask Jason Feldman ‘08, who landed a position with the Boston Celtics after a chance encounter outside a Dunkin’ Donuts in his hometown of Stoneham, Mass.
The Bentley marketing major was sharing a morning coffee with his grandfather and roommate when he looked out the window and saw someone having car trouble. The driver he helped turned out to be Susan Barabino, an executive assistant with the Celtics. Having recently attended a career fair at Basketball City in Boston in hopes of landing an internship with the team, Feldman seized the moment to move his résumé a little closer to the top of the pile.
“I was called in for an interview, where I met with a number of team executives -- got the job,” says Feldman, who interned in spring 2007. As an official corporate sponsor of the Celtics, Bentley enjoys a special relationship with the team, including access to internship opportunities and various events.
“It’s a different way for a school like us to get involved,” notes Feldman, whose duties included working on special events for Foxwoods Resort Casino and other team sponsors.
Another member of the Bentley team who interned with the Celtics in 2007 was Will Demars ‘09, a Management and Global Studies major. On game nights, the corporate partnerships intern did everything from ensuring that courtside advertisements were correctly placed to entertaining VIPs.
“A lot of my job was to be the face of the Celtics to a certain group of guests,” explains Demars, who landed the position after attending a career fair at Gillette Stadium. “I had to be both professional and somewhat entertaining.”
Along the way, he absorbed a key lesson likely to shape his path for years to come. “Business is all about who you know,” he says. “As a college student just starting out, you really don’t know many people. Keeping that in the back of my mind forced me to make an effort to get to know anyone I could. You never know who might be holding your next opportunity.”