Oftentimes, recent graduates’ first interviews feel a lot like blind dates – change your outfit 10 times, get lost on the way and spend the entire time trying to dry your sweaty palms without drawing attention to them. Then leave without ever getting show off the ‘real you.’

Turns out, interviewers often feel the same way, and this frustrated the leaders of our Moosylvania Internship Program. We wanted to find a better way to evaluate potential interns, so in true Moosylvania style, we threw out the rulebook.

For the second year, our Application for Temporary Residency (a.k.a. internship) started with a written marketing assignment and one-minute personal video. From You Tube spoofs to true film shorts, we see the personality, creativity and hidden skills of potential interns through the video portion of the application.

(Among the great videos we received was Account Service applicant Ashley Hancock's stop motion masterpiece – yes, we do require creativity from our account people!)

 

With a stack of great applicants to choose from, we didn't want to simply invite top applicants for one-on-one interviews – we wanted to really get to know them. So this year we asked them to participate in a unique workshop, code-named Moose U.

Some applicants showed up with more personality showing than others – this is Marc Goone’s tribute to his favorite Moose client.

Of course, we started off testing their pancake-catching skills at an agency-wide breakfast before we got down to business with these 12 talented students. Here, senior Art Director Joe Wieneke demonstrates proper pancake catching technique for the internship applicants.

 

Part learning experience, part interview, the focus of the half-day session was on an intense work session. Working against a brief astonishingly similar to one we’d worked on ourselves, the students were broken into two groups and challenged to develop a marketing plan and big idea within a mere three hours.

Approximately 30 intelligent questions, 20 minutes with a member of their target and four pizzas later, both groups presented well-constructed, smart plans with exciting big ideas.

 

At the end of the day, they got a glimpse into the agency world, including high-pressure timelines and collaborating with people of vastly different backgrounds.

From the sidelines, we got a better view of their knack for marketing, enthusiasm and leadership skills than an interview alone could have given us.

We also saw them get lost in the process and let their personalities shine. And yes, we did fall in love with a few of them, and we can’t wait until they start their summer with us.