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What I've Learned at Inverse Paradox: A Farewell

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Today is my last day as a communications intern with the company. For the last four months, I’ve been making the trek to Langhorne from Philly three days out of the week and spending 8 hours working alongside some really cool people who are passionate about their jobs. In these past months, I’ve learned a lot about writing online, working with others, and even myself. (Whoa now, we’re getting into some deep stuff here.)

I’m a journalist by schooling (that’s actually how I met Neil; he taught a class of mine at Temple), so back in February when Neil said I got the job, I was a little apprehensive about writing marketing copy. I’m not specially trained in how to sell things to people, but after a couple weeks of getting into the groove and getting feedback from people around the office, I found myself actually enjoying writing something other than straight reporting. Ads and marketing can actually be fun to write, and I found myself more fulfilled by it than I ever thought I’d be. I guess I learned that, as long as I’m writing, I’m happy. Filling out Excel sheets is another story, though.

I think the coolest thing about being a writer is the fact that I’m always learning about new things. The reason I got into journalism is because I’m interested in way too many things to be tied down to just one. At IP, they have such a variety of clients with a variety of products, fields and missions, I learned new things every day. Sure, I may never have any need for knowledge of insurance options for small businesses, but it’s still cool to know. I’ve always been of the opinion that I should be cramming my head with every bit of knowledge I can get my hands on, and I did plenty of that on the job here.

Writing wasn’t my only job. That class Neil taught last fall went over basic html and CSS, which I used on pretty much a daily basis here. I’m now much more comfortable putting together stuff in Dreamweaver and MailChimp, working in the back end of WordPress (not just adding blog posts), editing photos and other images in Photoshop, writing with SEO in mind and more.

I’ve also learned a lot about beer. I thought I liked (and knew) beer before, but oh, how ignorant I was! Most of my job here has been researching and writing about different craft beers, which garnered a lot of envy from my friends, and turned me into a sort of beer snob (not that I mind). My boyfriend likes to poke fun at me when I start instinctively explaining the different styles or the brewing process to our friends. I know he’s just jealous.

I really fit in here. I never considered myself the type of person who could work in an office all day, but this ain’t no Initech. Mine was not the crudest sense of humor, and everyone has cool hobbies so ‘water cooler talk’ never felt banal. I’m usually a pretty awkward person (thanks homeschooling!), but I never felt ill-at-ease here. Everyone was friendly and welcoming, not to mention generous. I even got a Wacom tablet out of it (shout out to Sarah Coale!). As far as work environments go, this is near the top.

Lastly (and most importantly): there’s always good food, coffee and beer. I’m just mad I’m leaving a couple days after they set up the popcorn machine.

Neil told me not to get all sappy and gushing in this post, but I’m going to forget that he said that, because I really would like to thank the people here at Inverse Paradox for welcoming me into their family and allowing me to get some experience.

So, thanks everyone. I’m gonna miss you guys, and I hope we see each other soon.

The post What I've Learned at Inverse Paradox: A Farewell appeared first on Inverse Paradox.


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