Scott Ogle ’18 HireEducation – My internship with HireEducation was a rewarding success filled with excitement, challenges, and dogs. When Ben and I sheepishly walked into the office on the first day, we were greeted by six dogs and an office full of smiling faces. The friendly atmosphere was palpable and enduring. On the first day, Ben and I were given a lesson over the database HireEdu uses to compile and organize both their clients and potential job candidates. For the next few weeks we were given projects to complete which involved making entries into the database, compiling lists of potential job candidates for specific searches, and gathering contact information for clients and candidates alike. This kind of work required relatively little effort, but was rather time consuming. Consequently, I learned a lot by listening to the conversations that were constantly floating around the office. Because of the relatively young age of the modern education technology industry, there is constant change in the sphere. Listening to the recruiters chat about what new product was just released, or which two companies merged and why, was a font of information.
At roughly the mid-way point the COO, Katie Morrison, began working with me on various aspects of the company’s marketing strategy. This is where the excitement meets the challenges. As mentioned earlier, there was a lot of information to learn about the education technology industry. Furthermore, I found that many of the marketing strategies used in the Ed Tech space were new to me. Thankfully, the excitement of learning something new overpowered the difficulty of shifting my perception of marketing. Previously, many of my preconceptions regarding marketing were product based. However, with the help of Katie and the Internet, I was able to become knowledgeable about concepts such as B2B (Business to Business) marketing and using drip campaigns to foster lead generation.
Towards the end of June, two recruiters, Ben, and I took a flight to San Antonio to participate in the 2017 ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference. It was stunning to see a conference hall packed with so many innovators and educators. The passion for education among the attendees was contagious, with one of the most memorable moments coming from Flocabulary’s booth. Flocabulary teaches kids about various topics through song and music videos. When Ben and I walked by their booth, a giant smile appeared on my face as about 30 adults were singing along to a music video detailing the story of Ruby Bridges. Considering my summer was spent with stellar people in a stellar environment, I have nothing but good things to say about my SBIF experience, and I am grateful for it enabling myself and many others to have such opportunities.
