Beyond the Bank: Exploring Finance in the Advertising World
Written by: Evan Kalish, Business Management Intern (he/him)
As a business student majoring in finance and business analytics, I never imagined I would find myself working at an advertising agency. While all of my peers within my majors looked for internships at banks and financial institutions, I decided to explore a different path.
You may find yourself asking, “what does a finance major do at an ad agency, and why RFH?” Good question. When people think of an advertising agency, they typically think of roles like account managers, creatives, and strategists. However, the Business Management department plays a crucial role in the success of an advertising agency, carrying the responsibility of supporting client teams across projects in both financial management and project efficiency. As an intern in the Business Management department, I have gained a unique perspective on how these functions contribute to the overall success of Razorfish Health.
The day-to-day life in Business Management involves a great amount of collaboration. Whether it’s discussing burn reports with Account and Project Management teams or staffing meetings with various departments across the agency, I have gotten the opportunity to work with a wide variety of people across RFH while discovering the importance of my own team.
Throughout the course of the summer, I have worked on many different projects that have given me insight on what it takes to actually run a business. One of my first responsibilities was learning how to prepare a “burn report,” which is a compilation of data that records how many hours employees spend working on a client project, and we use this to analyze the total cost in comparison to the project completion rate. This is an incredibly important tool for not only the Business Management department, but for the rest of the agency as well, as these weekly reports can be used to assess the status of a project to ensure it is moving along smoothly.
I have also worked on updating our client teams’ staff plans, which are documents that organize who works on each client project and forecasts how much time they will spend on it. This helps Business Management understand whether the team is understaffed, overstaffed, or on target. To update this process, I have worked closely with my manager and others in the department to create a new and efficient staff plan model. After a month of brainstorming, testing, and receiving feedback, I had the opportunity to share my creation with the department to be used in practice.
The culture I’ve discovered at Razorfish Health is unlike many corporate destinations for a finance major, and it has given me a new perspective on the field. Razorfish Health puts their people first and prioritizes collaboration and creativity. Contrary to the typical internship stereotype, I feel like my work is valued and makes an impact, and everyone I’ve encountered has wanted me to succeed and has been willing to help me do so.
Working at an agency is truly a unique opportunity for business students like me. The most valuable thing I’ve learned this summer is that you don’t have to study advertising to work at an ad agency, and there truly is a role for everyone here at RFH. This has been an amazing experience, and I have learned so much along the way. Thanks to RFH, I have had the privilege of being exposed to a new industry and experienced the benefits of being a part of a great culture firsthand.
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Are you just graduating college? Are you wanting to make a career change? Or maybe you’re looking for a place to start your career? Check out our open roles to see if we have something that sounds like you. We know you are not your resume, we understand you are not your work, and we respect that you are so much more than a job description. You are you. So come be you and do you with us.