What i Learned from my Internship Experience at Moroccanoil

Introduction and Background

My current internship with Moroccanoil began this past June as a full-time summer internship. I worked in the Marketing department for both the Retail and Beauty team and the Digital team. However, as my end date approached, my supervisors asked me if there was a possibility to continue working for them on a part-time basis throughout the school year. I really enjoyed working at Moroccanoil and loved the environment I was in. It was an amazing opportunity that I could not miss, so I extended my internship and arranged my school schedule to be more flexible so that I could come to the office for a few hours every week.

Since then, I have been working for them in the Marketing department, but for the Digital team only.

About Moroccanoil

Moroccanoil is an Israeli product line that is based on argan oil and specializes in hair and body products. The products are made in Israel and distributed across the world. It was originally founded in 2006 and started off very small but has made its way up in a short amount of time. Their products had limited availability and were not in high demand, but today, Moroccanoil is a manufacturer and distributor of oil-infused hair care and body products that are recognized worldwide. Over the last decade, demand for their products increased, allowing the company to continue growing successfully today. Moroccanoil is used by many people of all ages, including celebrities. The products are available for purchase in many hair salons and can be found in over thirty countries located in Europe, Asia, America, and the Middle East. There are also retailers with Moroccanoil products available for sale, such as Sephora, Barneys, Nordstrom, and many more.

What I Learned from My Internship Experience

Their office in New York, which is where I have been interning, is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on 57th Street and Lexington Avenue. It is a building with several floors, but only three of them which belong to Moroccanoil. Their office is small and consists of determined professionals of all ages, but mostly the younger crowd, who work hard every day to improve all aspects of the brand and to understand and satisfy the needs of their clients. Moroccanoil also believes that collaboration is essential to perform well at work. It is not a competitive environment but more like a place where everyone has a voice and works together to reach a common goal. I believe that I have been able to grow not only as a person but within the company as well. Personally, I work best in groups and prefer an open, friendly culture. Being in a welcoming environment is encouraging to me, as well as other interns and employees. This helps us contribute our best to the company and become more engaged, improving all aspects of our work and contributing to the company overall. I have noticed that a collaborative culture encourages people to work together to get things done and boost productivity.

Moroccanoil values customer loyalty and prioritizes the satisfaction of its clients and employees, too. In addition to the building I worked at, they also have another office located just two blocks away, but I would rarely have to go there. When I first began my internship, I was intimidated and nervous to ask too many questions because I did not want to seem like I needed constant training. I wanted to prove that I was responsible and capable of figuring things out all on my own, and I did not want to do anything that would make me look like a fool. However, now that I have been there for over six months, I look back and realize that the mindset I had was the wrong one. To learn and know what one is supposed to be doing, one needs to ask questions. If you understand the reason why you are doing something, it is more likely that you will do it the right way instead of guessing your way around. Everyone at the office is very nice and friendly, and I would’ve been more than happy to address any issues I faced and not be judgmental. I also realized that it is completely normal to make mistakes. After all, that is the only way to learn and do better in the future. My supervisors did not expect me to come in and know everything; it was a gradual process, and they were willing to help walk me through it. At that moment, I was not aware that I was not alone and that almost everyone was in the same position and went through this in the beginning.

When I first started working at Moroccanoil in June, I joined a project that the Digital team was working on. To sum it up in one sentence, we have been working on a startup that consists of launching a new subscription service. We are introducing a new concept for the beauty industry where salon clients pay a monthly subscription fee that gives them access to exclusive incentives at participating salons across the country. The subscription will provide customers with discounts on their initial visit at any partner salon moving forward. They will get free add-on services for any following visit. This project requires a lot of time, effort, and hard work. Since we are a small team, a lot of things were delayed in the process, which caused the launch date to be pushed off for a few months. We are a small team of six people, and each one of us has an important role and contributes to the project in our own way. Two of the people on our team are my supervisors, Magali Berville and Christine Schwarz. Magali is the Senior Director of the Digital team, and Christine is the Senior Manager for e-commerce operations.

Magali and Christine have made me feel welcome at Moroccanoil since my first day of work. They have been friendly to me and always had their door open for me to come in with any questions I had. I could feel comfortable, which allowed me to adapt faster to the environment and be myself. Together, we spent all summer and fall working on a financial business model for the new subscription service that will be launching as an independent brand from Moroccanoil over the next few months. This project involved a lot of team meetings, research, and data analysis. I would sometimes have to work on reviewing their user experience design for the website, branding, and logo analysis, and updating translations online for their international stores. In addition to this, I was also responsible for doing competitive research and starting up the business plan for this new service. I always had something to do and was kept busy, but I enjoyed it because I liked what I was doing. Magali and Christine would always include me in their meetings and calls, and they would always ask what I thought on certain matters. I liked seeing how my opinion mattered to them, especially because they always wanted to know and see the perspective of someone from the younger generation.

Personally, I am enjoying and learning so much from this internship. It is amazing to say that I was part of a team and worked with them on starting up a completely new business. It was interesting to see what is required legally in order to start a new business. From looking for a name for the service and dealing with the trademark registration process to making the logo and designing the website for this new service, I can say that I am grateful for this opportunity. Many of our meetings were with branding agencies for them to present marketing and advertising strategies for the business. It was a great experience, and besides meeting so many people, it was interesting to see how these agencies think outside the box and work on methods to help other brands put themselves out there and succeed. We also had regular meetings with our software development company, which was responsible for developing the website. I was able to see every step of the process- from the first stages of defining the digital strategy and product definition to the user experience and user interface design.

The rest of our team is based in the Moroccanoil Montreal offices, and we usually have conference phone calls with them. Once in a while, they come down to New York for all of us to meet and regroup together as a team. As mentioned earlier, I work best in groups, and it was amazing to see how each one of us put in effort to reach one common goal. We would have regular meetings to brainstorm, share ideas, and update each other on any progress made. It was overwhelming at times because there was a lot that had to be taken care of, and not a lot of people were involved in this project, so it would slow things down.

Many of the courses I have taken so far at Sy Syms have been very beneficial and have helped me perform well in my internship duties. For example, my Management and Information Systems courses involved a lot of group work and the use of Excel. Since I began in the summer, I have also done a lot of data entry, and it was not hard for me to figure out how to work my way through Excel. I have worked on several projects with people who have different mindsets than I do, but my courses have taught me how to collaborate and listen to others’ perspectives and ideas. These can be very helpful because, at the end of the day, we all have a common goal to achieve and can learn from each other. I have thankfully been able to develop the necessary interpersonal skills to work effectively with others and gain confidence in my own abilities.

It would have been harder for me to get work done without the knowledge I had from the classes I have taken, and it felt great being able to apply what I have learned to my daily duties at work. My Principles of Marketing course has also given me a basic introduction to the marketing industry, which was a good base to have when starting my internship. What I got out of my courses was beneficial to my internship, but what I have learned at my internship will also be rewarding for the classes I will be taking until my graduation. The exciting part was the process of applying to life what I had learned through the textbook. I am grateful for the things I have gotten out of this internship, and I believe they are substantial and are helping me continue paving the path to my future.

Conclusion and Forward Look

I am excited to say that I will be continuing the internship throughout the Spring until I graduate in May. For this upcoming semester, I have decided to register for a Digital Marketing course. Since I am currently working with the Digital team, I am excited about the class because it will allow me to learn more about this field, and I know it will be beneficial to me and help me improve my overall performance at my internship. Conversely, there will probably be many things I have learned while working with the team that will be useful to me during my Digital course this semester.

I am grateful for the opportunity I was given to extend my internship and excited to continue working at Moroccanoil. I can see a difference in myself compared to when I started and where I am today, eight months later. This experience is helping me grow as a person and professionally, too. The environment here at Moroccanoil is very relaxed, but it has still taught me how to behave in the workplace. By observing daily events, I have been able to learn more about teamwork and how people can come together to get things done. This internship helps me improve my skills and serves not only as a positive learning experience but as a resume builder as well.

References:

1. Moroccanoil. (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.moroccanoil.com/global/about-us
2. Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization. Harvard Business Press.
3. Blank, S. G., & Dorf, B. (2012). The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. K&S Ranch.
4. Covey, S. R. (2004). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Free Press.

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