Life as an Intern: Carissa Petzold

At the end of my freshman year at Washington & Lee, I was mired in the all-consuming question: what do I want to do with my life? There are infinite possibilities, and in our rapidly evolving world, it’s near-impossible to predict the job market. I began investigating opportunities in the local tech sphere, and Netsertive quickly caught my eye. The company, one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies for the 6th year running, is an innovator in digital marketing, offering a package of text-, image-, and video-based marketing services for businesses that spans Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and now YouTube, amongst other platforms. This marketing solution, equally valuable for its innovative technology, 9 years’ worth of data, and skilled account managers, can be utilized both by small businesses and by large companies to unify, yet localize their specific locations’ marketing strategies. The online marketing arena will only continue to grow as time marches forward; working for a company aiming to stay one step ahead of that game would certainly be a valuable experience to carry into the future. As soon as I saw that Netsertive had an intern position open in Finance, I was sold. It was only to be expected that the summer proved as enlightening and valuable as I had hoped it would be.

The opportunities Netsertive afforded me as the Finance intern were far beyond just “balancing the books”. In the two and a half months I’ve been here, I have become pals with Netsuite, close friends with Excel, and acquaintances of Salesforce, Paylocity, and SQL. I’ve interacted with a variety of vendors and customers regarding payments; worked on a variety of accrual, analysis, data populating, invoicing, and internal ID update projects; and seen the fruits of my labor included in company-wide reports. However, it was my responsibilities and involvements beyond the traditional finance sector which truly led me to understand and appreciate the company-wide focus on openness and learning.

Netsertive places a huge focus on the concept of community, evidenced in both its employees’ temperaments and how the company is run. Each week starts out with a company-wide Monday morning meetup in the “stadium”; each week ends with a Friday afternoon “show and tell” where all are invited to learn about the latest product updates from that past week. Tuesdays mean free lunch, either catered or in the form of a food truck rodeo. There are also quarterly all-hands meetings where the executives speak openly about the state of the company - and when they say they value transparency and welcome any and all questions, they mean it. My tenure at Netsertive also coincided with the launch of the new Youtube advertising solution, which was accompanied by a “Youtube Palooza” involving two weeks of daily company-wide trainings and Q&A sessions, as well as ongoing office hours with the Product Marketing team. The message is clear: every Netsertive employee wants every coworker to be self-sufficient, confident, and an expert in both their job and everything the company has to offer.

Perhaps my most educational and telling experience at Netsertive was overseeing the June cycle of sales commissions. Although it at first seemed daunting, this turned out to be the ideal opportunity for me to take on additional responsibility and interact with other departments. I utilized data from the Business Operations team to populate the commissions calculators, worked directly with the VP of Sales, and served as a resource to sales reps who were unclear on how the commissions plans worked. Ultimately, the kindness and respect of everyone I worked with made the project a rewarding success.

I was incredibly lucky to have spent my summer at this innovative company with such a dedicated and friendly Finance team. Working at Netsertive has not just granted me a deeper understanding of the fields of finance and accounting, but I have walked out with a completely transformed understanding of digital marketing and just how integral it is to our lives. I look forward to watching the company’s continued growth and applying my experience to my professional career.

‍