Jobs & Internships
The Internship for Aspiring Creators, Storytellers, and Marketers (Summer 2021)
Many college student's internships have been cancelled or postponed and that breaks my heart. I want to put my 15 years of knowledge, experience, and passion for working with college students to work this summer and I’ve decided to create this unique opportunity that merges internship, mentorship, and creative making into one.
This internship is for college students who are looking to learn real digital marketing and storytelling skills - the ones that will set them apart when they apply for jobs or start their own initiative.
It is important that I paint the full picture of my professional world and you read this thoroughly before you rush through and apply below.
My name is Kevin O'Connell and I am a serial entrepreneur, educator, and digital storyteller.
I own and operate FYN Creative, a small boutique digital storytelling agency in the DMV that has expertise working with higher education, nonprofit, and startup clients. There are two arms of the business. The "left arm" is the content creation side (producing all forms of video, stories, and marketing content that drives results for our clients) and the "right arm" is made up of training and consulting clients who are looking to master their storytelling strategy in-house.
Next, is The Niche Movement (TNM). This is a passion project of mine that I founded in 2012 and has since turned into a grassroots movement. It is my goal and mission that someday every student that graduates college, finds a job they love. TNM is a made up of one part community and the other part career-related content. In short, TNM is a community helping college students and young professionals find the work they love and rethink their traditional career search. In 2014 I delivered my first TEDx talk around news ways to approach career exploration. Then later that year and into 2015 I researched, wrote and published my first book titled TNM: New Rules to the Finding a Job You Love. This catapulted this platform into building out curriculum, trainings and workshops, keynote talks, podcasts, etc. We publish career and professional lifestyle content on a weekly basis through our blog, Instagram, LinkedIn, and email newsletter.
Lastly, I am educator and speaker at heart. I teach a leadership development courses at GW Business School to first year business school students and I also teach marketing, storytelling and career classes at General Assembly. Along with my teaching, I am a keynote speaker and trainer where I deliver anywhere from 5-10 high-impact talks a year.
It sounds like a lot, but I have learned to make it work and I am ok with being a multi-passionate entrepreneur.
The internship description:
This experience will be a minimum of 6-8 week virtual marketing and creative internship where you will work 1:1 with myself, collaborate with the other selected interns and other part-time staff that support my businesses while creating content independently. The goal of this internship is three parts:
1. Teach you the digital storytelling and marketing skills identified below.
2. Use my businesses as a “creative playground” to experiment putting these skills into action.
3. Mentor and assist you with launching a project of your own (i.e. blog, vlog, website, podcast, etc.).
The four main digital storytelling discipline areas this internship can provide experience in include (you will identify the top 1-2 when you apply that you feel you have knowledge in but want to gain more experience with):
Audio – Launch and produce a podcast, learn the art of interviewing and researching guests, experiment with audio equipment and editing software.
Video – Edit social media friendly video content, film and produce video content with limited equipment, and learn how to maximize video storytelling for a variety of marketing objectives.
Writing – Write for a variety of digital marketing channels (blogs, email newsletters, websites, short-form/long-form social media posts, etc.), how to repurpose and filter writing content for a variety of social media channels, and how to write, set-up, and distribute blog posts on Squarespace.
Photo/Visual/Graphic Design – Create graphics for email newsletters, YouTube channels, website, etc., create visuals for Instagram feed and story posts, and learn how to capture authentic but visually appealing photos using a smartphone for a variety of marketing objectives.
Viable project options you will have a chance to work on:
1. Producing, marketing, and editing a Skill-building Instagram Lives series for TNM
2. Research, produce, and re-purpose content for our Digital Success Stories series for FYN Creative (articles, videos, and/or audio)
3. Start and assist with producing a podcast around entrepreneurship and marketing
4. All forms of producing video and video editing: short form, long-form, micro social media friendly videos
5. Short form and long form blogging for TNM blog and social media accounts
6. Website design/management
7. Managing and building a YouTube channel
8. Editing together sizzle and highlight reels that position FYN Creative as the premier agency in the DMV
9. Create a marketing campaign to market and promote our FYN Creative trainings
10. Choose your own adventure.
Programs, tools, and resources you can have exposure to:
1. Editing software – Final Cut Prox, Adobe Premiere, iMovie, Frame.IO
2. Canva
3. Mailchimp
4. Adobe training course
5. Filmmaking and Storytelling course from Phillip Bloom and MZED
6. Storytelling course from The Muse
7. Podcast fellowship course from Seth Godin
8. Squarespace
9. Audacity, Anchor, Garageband, Audition
10. A variety of marketing and storytelling podcasts, books, and thought leaders
Our expectations and what we are looking for:
Ability to be available for at least two team Zoom calls/week of the entirety of the internship. (i.e. Monday morning weekly kickoff call).
Access to reliable internet and webcam for calls.
An average of at least 10 hours a week to dedicate to this internship.
Ability to identify, execute, and launch your own digital project.
Set and meet deadlines and over communicate when needed.
Have a dynamic personality that will bring out the creativity and fun in others.
Self motivation and desire to take a vision or idea and own it. Work independently at times, use your own judgment and put the pieces together to deliver a digital asset(s) for our business, a client, and yourself.
Curiosity and enthusiasm to learn from an entrepreneur and storyteller with 15+ year’s experience. (This will not a be traditional corporate, outlined internship. If you are looking for that, this it not it).
I have content for my businesses and myself in all corners of social media and the internet so if you search, you can learn more about what we have created over the last several years. But it give you a start, here are some links to learn more:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinoconnell2/
Niche Movement Youtube channel
The Application
The application closes at 11:59pm EST on Friday April 17th. Interviews will be conducted from April 20th-30th. Final offers will be made in early May. Interns will start approximately 1 week prior to Memorial Day weekend. It is my hope to offer at least three internships. There will be a lot of applicants so find creative ways to apply and standout, I am not accepting resumes.