All About Interning at Doble: Q&A with Vincent Palladino
This past summer, Doble welcomed over 20 interns in departments ranging from software and hardware engineering, sales and marketing, supply chain management, lab testing, mechanical design, and more.
Today, we sat down with Vincent Palladino, a summer 2023 marketing and sales intern to discuss his time at Doble, his role and what he learned during his program. Over the last few months, Vinnie has continued his time at Doble in an expanded role as a part-time employee.
Tell us about yourself and what led you to this internship.
I’m currently pursuing an MBA at Bentley University with a concentration in marketing, so the marketing and sales internship at Doble was very appealing to me. I have experience in the industrial products industry, and knew I wanted to stay in the field. Over the course of my three months in the role, I’ve gained a lot of valuable and hands-on experiences that I have already been able to apply in my current classes.
What are some projects you got to work on during your internship?
I worked on many projects with almost every member of the marketing team, but one of the larger projects on the marketing side entailed creating new web pages for products that we were integrating onto the website. Another project I worked on involved an email marketing program called Opensense to create a more uniform look to company email signatures and make them more interactive. My role in this project was to assist in getting employees registered and help solve any issues that surfaced in the process.
In my role on the sales side, I undertook a comprehensive summer-long research project. This gave me the chance to engage with different members of the sales team, providing me with a deeper understanding of their processes. Through these interactions, I not only expanded my professional network within the company but also gained crucial insights that significantly enhanced the quality of my research.
Tell us about some of your major achievements or challenges you faced during this internship. How did you overcome them?
Some of my biggest challenges led to my biggest achievements. Initially, I struggled using the software that was crucial to building and maintaining pages on the website. Going into this internship I had some, but very little, experience with it.
However, my manager and the marketing team were quick to train me in this software. In just days, they were able to get me up to date with all I needed to know for my project and then some. Over time and with a lot of practice, I was able to build even advanced web pages, which led to more web projects.
How did your mentors and leaders at Doble guide you through your internship?
Both Brian and Marc served as invaluable mentors throughout this internship. Brian was my manager, and he gave me some of the best guidance and support as a mentor that I could have asked for. Through him, I learned many technical skills that I later applied over the summer, and he provided me opportunities for collaboration within the marketing team and across other departments. Knowing I was new to a lot of the different processes and tasks, Brian was always able and willing to help me out. The entire team, including Brian, was approachable and consistently helpful.
Marc served as my supervisor and mentor on the sales side of my internship. As someone that came in with limited knowledge about Doble and sales, Marc provided great insights into the company and their operations. With Marc’s guidance, I was introduced to members of the sales team and had the chance to meet with them over the course of the summer, allowing me to gain extensive insights into sales operations.
What skills did you learn or develop during the internship?
Throughout this internship, learning many different digital marketing software and applications taught me so much. I know that I’ll be able to apply those skills at Doble and beyond.
On a broader note, the team always welcomed me sitting in on meetings and allowing me to raise my hand on projects, which gave me solid insight into how campaigns and other operations work. One of my professional goals is to eventually hold a management position, so my experience of being able to sit in on meetings and observe how upper management handles operations and challenges will prove to be useful in future roles.
What was your favorite memory or experience that stood out to you?
It is hard to choose just one, but if I had to, I would say the volunteer day at the Grafton Community Harvest. This was a volunteer event where all the interns spent the day helping at a local farm to give back to the community. It was a great bonding experience.
How did the program encourage connections, with both other interns and employees?
Doble offered so many learning and team building opportunities throughout the program. Despite working across different departments and locations, Doble enabled and encouraged the other interns and I to not only work together, but also connect and socialize. The other interns and I had chances to network and collaborate on projects together as well as participate in a cornhole tournament on-site with other Doble members.
I was also able to work with members of HR on an intern project on Doble’s Instagram account. During this project, I interviewed the interns and created spotlight posts for each of them. As the only intern in my department, this allowed me the chance to get more face time with the rest of the interns.
How were you able to connect and build your professional network?
Brian and Marc offered me many chances to work with other Doble employees and make connections. Additionally, Doble provided employee-led sessions throughout the program including product orientations and Lunch and Learn sessions focused on professional development including resume building, public speaking, and other various networking events.
Do you plan to pursue a career in the same field or industry?
Yes, I am planning on pursuing a career in the same field. I guess you could say I am already in the process of doing so! After my internship ended, I decided to continue working at Doble as a contract worker while I finish out the rest of my degree. I’m very thankful for this opportunity and glad that I can continue developing my skills and network here.
Any tips or advice for any future interns or students?
Network as much as possible and be involved. You never know where you might cross paths with someone again, so it’s always important to establish those connections while you can. Even if it’s just connecting with your fellow interns on LinkedIn, it can go a long way!
If you’re interested in interning at Doble, please check out our careers page, and browse currently open positions.
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