Nick’s Knacks — How I Sold Myself for an Internship

This is my first of three posts on creative ways to land a marketing internship.

Parts for Sale
When I was a junior in college, I spent my entire spring break applying for internships. I thought I'd share my most creative internship application with you. I hope this inspires you:

I was applying to an ad agency (I don't remember which one) and the application process simply said, "sell yourself to us." So, I took that literally and created a catalog that I called Nick's Knacks. In the catalog, I offered my body parts for sale (it sounds weird, but it wasn't — click on the images on the right to see spreads from my catalog). In the catalog, I included photos of different body parts like my hands, feet, and head, and I used descriptions of my parts to write about how those parts made me the perfect candidate for the internship. I then sent the catalog to the hiring manager with a cover letter.

Here's the description that I used to sell my feet:

Nick's feet provide him with a firm foundation — one that's based on hard work. His strong foundation will support him as he tackles this challenging internship. And eventually, his feet will carry him very far in marketing and in life.

The End Result
Unfortunately, I didn't get the internship. In fact, I never even heard back from the agency at all. I called to make sure that they got my package and they told me they had no idea what I was talking about. So, I sent another one and then got the same run-around. As far as I'm concerned, it was their loss, not mine!

Add This to Your To-Do List
If you're currently looking for an internship or a job in marketing, get creative! Sell yourself well and convince the employer that you can sell their products or services even better than you can sell yourself. Stick yourself out there and see what happens. The worst that can happen is that you don't get the job. Trust me — it's better to try and not succeed than it is to have never tried. If an intern applicant sent me something as creative as Nick's Knacks, I'd schedule her for the first interview.

There's never a lack of ideas.