A Day in the Life of a Research Intern

As an intern in the research (i.e. customer insights) department, I have a variety of responsibilities. My time is split between content and sales work, and I’m doing several interesting projects for each. This week, “content” work is focused on a report for the FCC. To keep our TV news license, we have to demonstrate that we are keeping the public informed in several important areas: public safety, politics, education, etc. The report is our proof that we’re being responsible broadcasters, and are communicating information that the public needs to know.

For sales, I’m working with consumer data from Nielsen, and I use that data to figure out how to best focus advertisements. For example, if a university wanted us to help them recruit new students, we would research how to best reach those potential students. It’s very cool having access to such a huge treasure trove of consumer data!

Because I get to work on a variety of interesting projects, my day-to-day work schedule isn’t very consistent. Below is an outline of what a day might look like.

8:45 AM – Arrive at desk and begin checking emails.

8:50 AM – With emails categorized, I develop an outline of my responsibilities for the day.

9:00 AM – Meet with the rest of my team to discuss objectives for the day/week.

9:05 AM – Begin pulling news stories from our broadcast database for the FCC report.

10:00 AM – Meet with my supervisor Fantine Kerckaert, the Director of Customer Research & TV Programming, to discuss my progress on the FCC Report, and get feedback on my work.

10:30 AM – Work on my long-term project for the summer.

12:00 PM – Take a break from the FCC report to design a demographic report for one of our sales research managers.

1:00 PM – Lunch

1:30 PM – Collaborate with other interns to help them out with their long-term projects.

1:45 PM – Continue work on my long-term project.

3:35 PM – Send out last emails of the day and make necessary adjustments to the calendar.

3:45 PM – Pack up my things and leave for the day.