A Look Back at Our Summer Interns
With fall in full swing, we are taking it back to summer and our class of 2018! You read about Huun and Carlos earlier in the month, read below on our Sales and Marketing Intern Jeremy Prince, Mechanical Engineering Intern Victoria Fishman, and UX Design Intern Sydney Simon below!
Jeremy Prince – Sales and Marketing Intern
School: DePaul University
You have a unique connection here, but what did you hear about Beyond before starting?
Before I started, I knew Beyond was a very creative work environment, I knew that there was a lot of open space to encourage creativity, and I knew everyone was really passionate about what they did here.
What was your first impression of Beyond?
It was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be. We had a ton of people working in various teams when it came down to research, design, graphic user interface, and there was so much the team offered that I didn’t originally realize.
How did this internship differentiate from your first internship?
This internship had me doing a lot more meaningful paths. I could tell that the assignments they were giving me made a lot larger impact, and I learned a lot more from them as well. And it wasn’t just simple paperwork or filing or sorting something; it was real work that got involved with the clients, work that got involved with everyone on the team, and work that made me feel important, which is nice.
What did you like about interning and working as opposed to being a full time student?
Interning is nice because at the end of the day you really do get to go home and check out a little bit. You’re still thinking about work and have a lot of things on your mind, but it’s not the end of the world if you go home and decide to take a nap or decide to call it a day which is very refreshing as a student. The 8am mornings are rough. I know most places in the world, it’s the stereotypical 9-5 job, so an 8-5 is like “oh, everyone else is at 9.” But it shows that everyone here has a really good work ethic, because they start an hour earlier.
What was your favorite food to eat at lunch?
I really liked going to the Lillstreet Cafe, which is down the street on Ravenswood. They had really good sandwiches, check them out.
What was your proudest moment as an intern?
I drafted a presentation for an actual potential client. I can’t go into depth of what we put into the presentation because it’s confidential client, but after the presentation when the sales team came back, they told me very specifically one slide that kind of sold them, and it’s a slide that I liked and put together and I’m really glad that the clients also liked the slide.
What would you like to say to the Beyond team before you leave?
I’ll come back and visit. I like everyone who works here, everyone’s really great. Everyone has their own character and dynamic that they bring to the office. I don’t think this place is going anywhere anytime soon. That’s good.
Victoria Fishman – Mechanical Engineer Intern
School: University of Pennsylvania
What did you hear about Beyond before you started?
I really hadn’t heard much about Beyond except what I saw online through the website.
What was your first impression of Beyond?
My first impression of Beyond was that it would be an exciting and very hands-on place to work at. This made me feel right at home, coming out of school. My first few days, I was already thrown into contributing to building a new hydroponics prototype for the office, which was an interesting and exciting challenge.
How has this internship differed from past internships?
This internship has been the best application of what I am studying in school so far. It was a much more collaborative working environment and allowed me to apply both my engineering skills as well as my creativity. I really enjoyed working in the office environment at Beyond— I could be working at my computer one morning and in the back building the concept later on that day.
What did you like about interning/working as opposed to being a student?
I liked that the schedule was more defined than as a student. I had a lot more free time on weekends which was nice! Also, it was nice to have experts from other disciplines conveniently around to ask design questions rather than predominantly being around only engineers when in school.
What did you dislike? How did you adjust to 8 – 5?
I disliked having to wake up at 5:45 every morning to commute to work. This was definitely an adjustment in comparison to school, but I felt like I adjusted pretty quickly thanks to coffee!
What was your favorite food to eat at lunch?
My favorite food to eat at lunch was a salad from Spoken Cafe. I also really enjoyed when everyone would bring their own food and we would all sit outside enjoying the summer weather in the courtyard!
Favorite Chicago food?
It’s a tough choice between Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza and a Chicago hot dog, but I’d have to say a Chicago hot dog.
What was your proudest moment as an intern?
My proudest moment was when prototypes for parts that I helped design started arriving. I was also very proud when I was told that some of my sketch concepts were selected to show our client since it was my first time learning to sketch!
What is your favorite Beyond memory?
My favorite Beyond memory (memories) is of everyone in the office gathered around the kitchen counter eating surprise doughnuts on a weekday morning or celebrating an occasion on a Friday afternoon.
What would you like to say to the Beyond team before you leave?
Thank you all for contributing to my wonderful experience at Beyond this summer. It was an incredibly valuable learning experience, and I really enjoyed collaborating with and learning from the many talented individuals who work at Beyond.
Sydney Simon – UX Design Intern
School: DePaul University
What was your first impression of Beyond?
It’s such a beautiful space, there’s lots of light, there’s a lovely garden over here, there’s a fountain at the entrance area. It’s just a very welcoming, warm space.
What did you like about interning as opposed to being in class?
Interning is nice because there is a set schedule, you know that you need to be in in the morning at 8am, and you can leave at 5pm or anytime after 5pm. It’s nice to have a set schedule. Then again, if you are going to classes there is a little more break time in your day. It’s just a different schedule.
How did you adjust to the 8am-5pm work schedule?
The 8am was rough, but I actually ended up really liking it. You get up early, you do your work, then you have some time to go adventuring at night if you’d like to.
You’re originally from Colorado, what did you like about living and working in Chicago?
Originally being from Colorado, we have a really dry climate, so I was really worried about the summer humidity. But it ended up being really good. Chicago is nice because we have the lake to escape to, every weekend or weeknight. You can always explore different neighborhoods and eat different foods. It’s very versatile. It’s also nice being in a city where you can take public transit everywhere and not worry about driving or parking.
What was your favorite food to eat at lunchtime?
My favorite food to eat during lunch was the Jessica Rabbit sandwich. It’s from the Spoken Cafe right under the Montrose Brown Line. You guys should check it out if you haven’t already!
What did you like best about working here, specifically?
It was really interesting talking to other designers and finding out how they ended up at Beyond. As a student, I am always curious the twists and turns people take in order to find what they love. By interning at Beyond, I was offered a very unique experience because the firm has four different focus points: research and strategy, industrial design, user experience design, and engineering. I was initially hired as an user experience design intern, but by virtue of the firm, I was exposed to website development, google analytics, marketing layouts, industrial design sketching, researching, design trends, and physical prototyping in addition to UxD wireframing, information architecture skills. In a sense, I was able to test out four different career paths.
What would you like to say to the Beyond team before leaving?
Thank you guys for an awesome summer! I have thoroughly enjoyed working in this beautiful space with incredible and creative people. Thank you for opening up my design world!
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