We first met Amber Bowden when she served as a Clutch! Brand Ambassador at the University of Alabama. After helping us launch in Tuscaloosa for our first football season, Amber joined us this spring and summer to intern in the Clutch! office! Here’s what Amber had to say about her internship with Clutch!
Scoring an internship with Clutch! was my biggest accomplishment of the summer. I enjoyed the time I spent at the Clutch! office in Birmingham working with other team members to prepare for the upcoming football season. I began my journey with Clutch! when it first launched at The University of Alabama last fall as a Brand Ambassador. Once the football season ended, and my time as an ambassador ended with it, I knew that I wanted to learn about the process of getting a startup off the ground. I ended my internship with more effective time management, communication and creativity skills.
Projects
One of the biggest projects I worked on was recruiting Marketing and Business Development interns at the four schools that Clutch! will offer parking in the fall: The University of Alabama, Auburn University, The University of Georgia and The University of Tennessee-Knoxville. I began every day at work by checking in with potential intern candidates and the status of students interested in the positions. I had to stay on top of getting back to the candidates in a timely manner in order to reach the goal of recruiting eight interns before the upcoming football season starts. I had a hand in the application process by reviewing resumes, reading over candidates’ written applications, and sitting in on phone interviews. It was important to me to find students who were just as eager and interested in Clutch! as I was during my time as a brand ambassador and intern. I took the lead on a few interviews and found myself capable of answering most questions any of the candidates had, which sparked a boost in confidence that I carried through for the rest of my internship. Through conducting these interviews and evaluating candidates, I in turn learned what will stand out to potential employers in my future job search. After finalizing the decisions for the interns, I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and appreciation to have contributed to that project.
Once we hired the interns, my job was to help to prepare training materials for them. I wanted to come up with a creative way for the new team members to learn about Clutch! that would be both interactive and compelling. I came up with a set of questions to put into an online quiz format that required the interns and ambassadors to go search through the app to find the answers. I enjoyed the challenge of working to code the quiz software because it required attention to detail, a skill that I am working on improving. I was also responsible for producing a guide for any questions that the interns or ambassadors may have. My goal for the guide was to have a single document that the ambassadors and interns could reference for any advice or questions they may have. I reflected back on my time as an ambassador and made sure to include all of the things I learned that helped me communicate well with sellers and fans when I was in that role.
Takeaways
The most valuable lesson I learned at Clutch! is to consider different perspectives. As I came up with training material for the interns and ambassadors, I considered what they would need to know to feel confident in their role. During my time researching, there were several occasions where I had to put myself in the shoes of someone who was unfamiliar to Clutch! to determine what it would take to catch my attention. Taking into consideration the perspective of others is a habit I want to carry with me outside of the workplace and Clutch! is to thank for that.
As I prepare for my junior year I am excited to talk to my administrative leaders and classmates about what I learned this summer. I look forward to applying my new found skill set to all the different aspects of my daily life. I plan on putting my time management, communication, and creativity skills to the test. Moving forward as a returning ambassador, I love that I get to witness the progress of Clutch! and all the growth they have experienced within a year. Clutch! has been influential in giving me a start to what my hopeful career in sports media and athletics could entail.
Some Highlights:
What Made My Clutch! Internship Unique: Members of the Clutch! team are constantly in the process of learning what to do in order to make game days more convenient and how to incorporate that into the app. They are more willing to listen to ideas and try things as a startup company because they are still learning themselves. It was way easier to pitch ideas to a company who is new because they haven’t been around long enough to have tried as much as a company who is older.
Most Challenging Moment: I was unfamiliar with Jotform website before I had to make the ambassador/ intern quiz. I had trouble figuring out how to program the answers to the questions to come directly after the person answered the questions. After playing around with the programming of the questions I was able to figure out how to get the quiz to work.
Favorite Moment: I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Instagram takeover for the Baron’s game. I had never done anything like that before and it helped me think about what is considered social media-worthy content. I thought about what I would want to see from someone attending the game and worked with utilizing the fonts and stickers that instagram stories offer.
Working in Sports: love how friend and family orientated gamedays are and the benefits that sports offer to a community. Clutch! works to make gamedays as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved: fans, locals, and the athletic program itself. The more successful Clutch! gets with helping people enjoy their gameday, the more I am reminded that sports offers the a common ground for different types of people to have something to collectively enjoy.
What I’ll Miss Most: I will miss sitting in on the weekly marketing meetings and getting updated consistently with how Clutch! is doing. I loved feeling in the loop and seeing how all the team members contributed to bettering the marketing aspect of Clutch!.
What I’m Most Excited About: I am most excited to see the progress Clutch! will make this upcoming season now that we have the Business Development and Marketing interns. I am eager to meet the new team members and watch Clutch! grow with the changes that have been made to the ambassador and intern program since I started as an ambassador this time last year.
Amber will return to Tuscaloosa this fall to continue her education at The University of Alabama, where she will also be serving as a Clutch! Brand Ambassador for her second year! We are so thankful for the incredible work Amber has done for Clutch! and can’t wait to see where the future takes her. Plus, we’ll see her on Alabama gameday!