By Rachel Swaldi, Account Leadership Intern
My name is Rachel Swaldi and I am an Account Leadership Intern for the Chipotle and Zales teams. CHIPOTLE AND ZALES! When a female college student is told that she gets to talk about burritos and diamond rings all day, she does not hesitate to sign up. The first time I interviewed with GSD&M, I unfortunately was rejected due to my lack of experience, but I quickly decided that wasn’t going to stop me. After getting two more internships under my belt, I came back and knocked on GSD&M’s door. And now, here I am, working for the same company that created the “Baby Back Ribs” song for Chili’s, “Always” for Walmart and “Don’t Mess With Texas.”
My advice: Do not ever give up and always be resilient.
Within my first three weeks working at GSD&M, the Chipotle team entrusted me with the opportunity to research and create a montage of competitive work that would be displayed and shown to the CMO of Chipotle. Not only was I incredibly honored, but at that moment I realized that I belonged and contributed to a fierce team of innovators and creative leaders.
Since then, my team has continued to trust me with projects and tasks that the typical coffee-run intern could never dream of. I have learned how effective time management, communication and dedication to clients can lead to radical creative work and ideas.
I have learned how to transcribe focus groups, generate informative newsletters and analyze competitive spots to make sure we always stay ahead of the curve. In fact, I am fortunate enough to continue working for GSD&M as an Account Leadership Intern in the Spring!
I am inspired daily by the community, freedom and responsibility, curiosity, integrity and restlessness of my team and how they incorporate these core values into their work each day. Specifically, my two supervisors, Cat Snyder and Jodi Bucciarelli, who work their butts off every single day of the week to create groundbreaking work for their clients. They are restless in their efforts to build revolutionary campaigns and they lean on their community at GSD&M to help bring visions to life. Most importantly, they carry out their jobs with inspiring integrity and kindness. With leaders like these, there is no doubt that GSD&M is the place to be, and I am extremely thankful to be here.
