Maizie Simpson

What It’s Like to Intern for Magoosh

A “guest” post from our intern Delanie, who joined us back in November. Today is her last day! You can read more about where she’s headed here :).

Below, she writes about her experience with interning at Magoosh.  Enjoy!

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As a UC Berkeley student graduating in May 2013, I knew I needed to start considering post-graduation options last fall. To go straight to graduate school or to look for a full-time job? I eventually decided to take the GRE, but to hold off on jumping into graduate school applications and pursue full-time job opportunities instead. When I found Magoosh at a career fair, I knew I had found the perfect fit. As a test-prep startup, Magoosh could help me prepare for the GRE as well as, through an internship, help me develop marketable skills for my post-graduation job search.

Before applying for an internship with Magoosh, I decided to purchase Magoosh’s GRE test prep to see how I liked their style. I found their interface refreshingly easy to use and their lesson videos and practice questions easily adaptable to my personal study plan. I loved being able to study at home, at the library, or at a cafe at any time of the day, and I loved not having to pay upwards of a thousand dollars for the high-quality material. After taking the GRE in late October, I decided I definitely wanted to intern for Magoosh and learn from the team behind the scenes.

Once I started my internship, I quickly realized that not only was I learning valuable skills that could be applied to any number of jobs down the line, but that I was actually enjoying my time in the office. While working from home was always an option, I actually looked forward to going to work at Magoosh. I never had to worry about what to wear—jeans were the norm. I got to play games like Bananagrams with my coworkers and really got to know everyone I was working with. Most importantly, I felt like everyone at Magoosh was excited to be there, and everyone appreciated the work I did as an intern. I enjoyed using Magoosh’s GRE test prep, and as an intern I realized that was because everyone working at Magoosh truly enjoys making Magoosh test prep the best it possibly can be.

On top of the casual and friendly yet impressively proactive office culture, interning at Magoosh helped prepare me for the post-graduation job market. As a Peace and Conflict Studies major at UC Berkeley, I knew that finding a job was not going to be the easiest task for myself. At Magoosh I dabbled in social media, product development, customer service, marketing, SEO, and outreach. Being able to wear many hats at once made my time at Magoosh interesting as well as beneficial for my future—I gained exposure to a lot of skills in a short amount of time and learned quickly what I liked and didn’t like to do.

As graduation day came closer and closer, I decided to start applying to jobs and fellowships to try to give myself as many options as possible. After interviewing for a Distance Learning fellowship in Uganda, I can say that my ability to speak from my experience at Magoosh was crucial. I can thank Magoosh not just for boosting my GRE score, but for giving me an enjoyable and relevant internship experience that directly contributed to my post-graduation career.

 – Delanie Ricketts

 

 

Author

  • Maizie Simpson

    Maizie writes about Magoosh and gets others to talk about Magoosh. A graduate of the University of Arizona (Bear Down!) with a BA in Journalism, she loves nuanced grammar rules, learning strange languages, and traveling to new places. She has an unnatural obsession with Middle Eastern politics and Mexican food.