Over the summer I had the opportunity to intern with Beard Implement Company, located in Ashland, IL. I was the first intern they had ever had and I worked closely with Jeremy Beard, one of the managers, in the marketing department. Throughout my time there I was able to learn the ins and outs of the business and became close to most all of my fellow employees and even had the opportunity to work with a large portion of their customer base. One of my main responsibilities was to work with employees from each of the four locations and make informational videos regarding new equipment and how to operate different settings in new products that are offered.
Although I loved getting to work with other employees, by far my favorite part of the summer was getting to film and edit customer testimonials. This allowed me to work directly with customers and made it possible for me to travel out to their farms and tour their operations. The first testimonial video I filmed was with my dad, who has been a customer for over 30 years. I got to make a day of it and travel to our farm and get footage of him speaking about his experiences with Beard's over the years. I also was able to get footage of my dad, brothers, and grandpa using the equipment out in the field. After getting all the footage I needed I traveled back to Ashland to begin editing and "spicing up" the video by adding background music, captions, and transitions. This video was then released to youtube, twitter, and facebook to promote our business. The amount of views and shares the video received was truly shocking and my supervisor and other employees were extremely thankful for the job I had done.
I thoroughly enjoyed my summer working with Beard Implement and am very thankful for the people I met, the memories I made, and the new skills I gained. I am now much more confident in my abilities when it comes to working with other people and really enjoyed being able to push myself to try new things and not be afraid of the outcome.