My marketing internship in the Center of the Universe of the center of the known universe was awesome. In geocaching lingo, the Center of the Universe is Geocaching HQ (or Groundspeak), which is located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood (which is also officially the center of the universe).
I connected with Geocaching during a study-trip over spring break. Geocaching stood out amongst the other companies our MBA class visited and my GCMC (Graduate Career Managagement Center) career coaches encouraged me to pursue an internship position, since I had blogged about my first geocaching experience back in SLC.
Originally, my internship search was focused solely in Utah and I had not applied out-of-state. However, working with the GCMC helped me realize that I wanted to expand my possibilities and career growth. An internship is an opportunity to gain experience and pivot industries; moreover an internship can provide insight into a company culture, business strategy, and also is chance to explore a new city.
The GCMC edified my internship goals and helped me attain a truly awesome internship in marketing (a desired career pivot for me). My coaches not only encouraged me to apply to Geocaching, they also assisted my contract negotiations.
My marketing internship included project management, a proposal to the senior management team, judging an international film festival, creating social media content, operations management, and learning a lot.
- Project manager: developing an outreach program that is the equivalent of a sponsored athlete team for Geocaching. This program included market research, gathering data through surveys, developing relationships with geocaching organizations, and building educational opportunities.
- Proposal to senior management team: for a social media analytics tool. I ran a comparative analysis of tools, demoed trials, worked with cross-functional teams, and negotiated pricing and features.
- Judged the Geocaching International Film Festival: during a two week nominations evaluation process.
- Created social media content: blogging, Instagram photo(s), and monitoring the social media presence of 330 geocaching organizations.
- Operations management: as an operations production assistant facilitated annual Block Party event with over 3,000 attendees.
Additionally, Geocaching is one of the coolest companies in Seattle, the US, and in the world. Geocaching is 
regularly a finalist in the Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle Met, and Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work awards. I was fortunate be part of an amazing team with the mission statement:
“We all work together to keep one of the largest (and in our opinion most fun) outdoor adventure games up and running. Our goal is to make everyone an explorer and make every location an adventure.”
I look forward to where my Geocaching Marketing Internship will take my career and also to where my geocaching adventures will take me.
– Annie Studer