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Business Internship Experience 1.B: Continual Process Improvement for Business Operations and Sales

PromoterMotor.com
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We’re changing the world by serving many, diverse nonprofits at once; you will gain practical experience while making a big difference here!
  • 100% Remote Participate-from-Anywhere Position
  • Full-time and Part-time Flexible Participation Options
  • Unpaid Internship for Training  
  • Project-based Learning based on your interests
  • Possible Academic Credit: check with your college about credit and visa requirements before applying
  • Apply soon for all start dates: our internships have Rolling Start and End Dates All Year

Please apply for only 1 position at a time, even if you are interested in several, and apply now for all start-dates at any time of year. All of the internships (see https://promotermotor.com/careers/) are available to discuss during an interview, regardless of whether you see them on Handshake. If you are selected for an interview, we will prefer that you interview with us about halfway between now and when you might want to begin an internship. You may send us a message with your questions at any time.

Please apply to our positions via Handshake. Initially, you don't need to submit your resume or unofficial transcript via Handshake, because if we decide to take the next steps in the application process, we will ask you to supply those materials via email. We prefer to have these materials via email so that we may confirm that method of communication between you and our team.

When applying on Handshake, make sure that your GPA is visible to employers. GPA is one of the many factors that we take into account when screening candidates and reviewing applications. We encourage you to show your GPA on Handshake so that employers who consider a student’s GPA will review your application.

If you seek credit, then check with your school's Internship Coordinator BEFORE accepting an offer to determine if this position satisfies the criteria for receiving academic credit.

Project-based Learning: The current project for this position is to develop strategies for sales and marketing. The point is NOT to make outgoing sales (see Business 2.B) but to come up with methods to improve sales of our advertising services to non-profit leaders (see Marketing 1.A and 1.B), which includes brainstorming, researching, testing, and more. This will involve a degree of implementing the strategies and techniques that you propose as well as refining them based on what you learned. There may be similar projects to improve the way we track progress and use spreadsheets. Additionally, interns may work to plan future company projects and analyze resource efficiency to ensure successful completion. 

Training and Responsibilities May Include But Will Not Be Limited To

Note: This is by no means an exhaustive list but it gives an indication of the many projects taking place. You might focus on some of these to the exclusion of others. Tasks and training will change according to business needs.

  • Design internal processes for sales and marketing teams in order to improve the current sales process
  • Investigate or resolve operational problems
  • Test the efficiency of current processes through conducting research and developing methodology for internal improvements
  • Analyze the success of Google Ads in promoting nonprofits, as well as factors preventing more nonprofits from taking advantage of it
  • Participate in a 100% remote environment alongside peers across the globe
  • Navigate diverse workplace with varying time zones and cultural backgrounds while maintaining an inclusive and supportive environment
  • Build strong connections with other interns and staff people through networking, peer collaboration, and other weekly meetings while working remotely.
  • Attend regular meetings to network and work alongside other teams and departments, preventing isolation and facilitating collaboration
  • This team will sometimes work with the digital media teams (regarding graphics), software engineering teams (regarding coding), marketing teams (regarding messaging), human resources teams, and technical writing teams. 

Note: Think of this internship as an opportunity to apply the skills you’ve gained in the classroom to real world situations, not as an introduction to skills or an alternative to classes. Also, look for us to give you the kind of real-world business context and feedback that professors generally cannot provide, not only about your specific skill area but (perhaps more importantly!) feedback from perspectives outside of your major such as how various other aspects of the business drive needs and decisions for your projects. 

Relevant Future Careers include but are not limited to: Project Manager, Director of Operations, Operations Analyst 

Relevant Majors include but are not limited to: Business Administration & Management, Consulting, Entrepreneurship, Marketing Research, Product Management, Non-Profit Management

Quantitative Resume Accomplishments: After completing this internship, depending on the projects completed, here are the top accomplishments that you might be able to add to your resume:
  • Designed numerous practical experiments to determine what outreach methods provide best return to sales person’s time 
  • Collaborated on investor pitch and sales processes to increase business revenue with various new clients added
  • Conducted research to identify many new competitors entering the market

Qualitative Resume Accomplishments: After completing this internship, depending on the projects completed, here are the top accomplishments that you might be able to add to your resume:
  • Created a performance management system for the sales team to analyze, evaluate, and improve their overall results
  • Documented methodology and results of various analyses for effective internal knowledge management
  • Improved internal processes by implementing tracking methods for employee task completion
  • Participated in and expanded the training procedures that will benefit future interns
  • Presented the status and progress of ongoing projects in weekly meetings with supervisors and colleagues for evaluation

Learning Objectives:
  • Strategy: Use critical thinking to solve complex problems and plan for the future of our business
  • Market Research: Successfully collect and analyze valuable information regarding the needs of nonprofits
  • Reading and Writing Comprehension: Develop excellent oral and written communication skills in professional documents, especially with creating and improving templates and spreadsheets
  • Time Management, Organization and Coordination: Focus on different tasks and use time, energy, strength, mental capacity, physical space, etc. effectively and efficiently to achieve the desired outcome
  • Service Orientation: Deepen knowledge of the nonprofit consulting sector
  • Telecommuting: Participate remotely in both a team and individually 
  • Communication: Make connections with your peers and others through a positive personality and sense of humor
  • Critical and Creative Thinking: Challenge your own assumptions and contribute new ideas

Technology Learning Areas: Please review these tutorials before beginning an internship with us.


About PromoterMotor.com 

PromoterMotor is an Advertising Agency and a Division of Bashpole Software, Inc.

Our Mission: Nonprofits need our help to provide disaster relief, prevent suicides, feed the hungry, educate children, rescue animals, protect our environment, and benefit the world. We create and sell technology to help nonprofits gain online visibility and automate marketing functions, namely our upcoming PromoterMotor.com software. It automates what we have done for years by hand: help non profits get and make maximal use of free advertising from Google. Also, we create ads for nonprofits in ways that actively counter misinformation by educating the public. Bashpole is a for-profit company that exclusively serves non-profits as its clients.
 
Emerging Growth Company: Bashpole Software /dba/ PromoterMotor.com has a start-up-like environment with fewer than 10 team members plus many bright interns; our growth in terms of clients and staff is accelerating, which makes this an exciting time to get involved. Check out our internship and contractor positions and testimonials from departments such as Marketing, Digital Media, Business, Software Engineering, Technical Writing, and Human Resources: https://promotermotor.com/careers/


About Our Internships 

Apply to One Position, Maximum: Do not apply for more than one internship position at a time. Apply to the one that interests you the most. Then, if you are invited for an interview, you may indicate interest in other positions at that time, and we can discuss which position would be best suited for you.

Minimum Education and Experience: Applicants need to be enrolled in a college or graduate program at the beginning of their internship. Previous internship experience is beneficial but not required. You must have completed some classes relevant to your internship prior to beginning and must show examples of what you know during your interview.

Professionalism Expectations: Internships are not like the classroom and operate differently than what students do in school. Our internships are meant to challenge you, not to introduce you to a subject for the first time or to tell you exactly how to do everything. We offer a very hands-on experience in which interns are empowered to take initiative, problem-solve, use resources, creativity, and personal judgment. After receiving instructions, we expect interns to find their own solutions to problems in collaboration with their peers. We also expect interns to speak up throughout an internship. We work closely with nonprofits whose mission is to speak and act in ways that take courage for the greater good, and value members of our team that are able to do the same.


Frequently Asked Questions:

Why Us? Gain real, professional training with one or more internship experiences at Bashpole Software, Inc. Apply your creativity and drive for project-focused, hands-on learning experiences. In every internship with us, you’ll receive individual guidance and feedback to help you on your path to a professional career. You can participate in our training as an intern or a volunteer, using your time to make a difference. We are all linked, so help us help nonprofits help the world.

Why Participate Remotely? We are creating the workplace of the future. It is akin to what the CEO of the multi-billion dollar company Automattic calls Level 5. As a 100% remote company for many years, we have developed remote internship processes that prioritize and achieve freedom, socialization, organization, and personal wellness. See below about networking and meetings.

What can we offer you? 
  1. Real, Hands-on Experience: Rather than the coffee-fetching of a typical internship or the text-book learning of a classroom setting, we provide interns with hands-on experience with real projects. Each intern will have a main project along the lines of the title of the internship position to which they were accepted plus several side projects, which together create a diverse set of learning experiences. Moreover, your training and participation in our research and development can directly help nonprofits around the world to connect with donors, volunteers, constituents, and more.
  2. Make a Difference: In participating here, you can help nonprofits help the world on a larger scale than by volunteering for any one nonprofit. Join us in the pursuit of truth, knowledge, and how best to help the world make itself a better place. This allows you to have a larger impact than if you were to volunteer with a single nonprofit or government organization alone. We are developing a first-of-its-kind system to help non-profits gain the publicity that is currently more desperately needed than ever.
  3. Teamwork and Mentorship: Bashpole Software, Inc. enables you to work in small teams of typically 1 to 5 interns. You’ll meet regularly with fellow interns on your team. You’ll also meet weekly as a team to gain direct supervision and mentorship from the company’s CEO, senior staff members, and/or more seasoned interns.
  4. Network with Peers, Mentors, and More: Bashpole creates networking opportunities by helping you to learn how to effectively communicate with executives. This will allow you to build lasting impressions and have direct interactions with staff members and fellow interns around the United States and the world. Interns often report connecting with more people in our remote internships than they do in physical classrooms of comparable size because of the ways we encourage and facilitate networking meetings.
  5. Company Culture: Bashpole believes it’s crucial for interns to feel comfortable speaking up for what they believe in. We value suggestions for improvements on all aspects of our company and voicing opinions about projects in team settings. Additionally, we seek interns with the ability to pursue the career growth that they want and the courage to request the kind of work that they want to do. Bashpole looks for intellectually honest individuals with a spirit of independence and interdependence.
  6. Workplace Readiness Training: Employers expect students to understand communication soft skills and corporate culture, however, colleges offer few opportunities for students to learn day-to-day workplace fundamentals for behavior. As a result of this, we’ve developed something unique: our Rules-of-Thumb (RoT’s) training process. The RoT’s’ are the otherwise unwritten rules of professional etiquette straight from hard-learned experiences of industry professionals. We’re developing a book and a training system for explicitly teaching this kind of advice to our employees, interns, and eventually to others which will be valuable for their future career.
  7. Portfolio: With approval from management, this internship also offers opportunities for you to add examples to your professional portfolio, which you can later use for future job applications.
  8. Academic Credit: If you want work-study or school-credit for the internship, we can almost always provide the kind of oversight your university would require. Some educational institutions require prior approval before the start of an internship. It is your responsibility to check with your institution to be sure you meet all requirements for participation before you interview with us. We do NOT require you to enroll in a class or get credit for your internship; some universities do require this of you, others make it optional, and still others do not allow credit.
  9. Letter of Recommendation: If you successfully complete one or more internships, we will sign compelling letters of recommendation for you. Previous interns have used these letters to get into our nation’s top graduate programs and excellent post-graduation careers. We can also serve as a reference for various applications you may pursue.
  10. Leadership Opportunities: In addition to encouraging each intern to demonstrate personal leadership within their team of fellow interns, Bashpole also has “Level 3: Management” internships in every department that people can apply to as long as they have participated in at least one prior internship with us. This advanced position gives smart, responsible interns training and practice for leading teams of other interns, while under the supervision of a Bashpole employee.

What does a typical day look like? There is no typical day, but there is a typical week. 

What does a typical week look like?
  • You will work either collaboratively in a team or independently on a project of your choice from a list that we will provide.
  • Every week, you will use your “Personal Syllabus” to complete weekly tasks and log your process.
  • In weekly team meetings, you will be guided by Bashpole team members who have years of experience and will act as your supervisor. You may ask questions about department supervisors during your interview. In weekly team meetings, you’ll show your syllabus log to your team via a screenshare, as well as show, get feedback on, and take notes for next steps with your project.
  • In addition to this, you'll have intern-only meetings throughout the week for collaborating with your peers, reviewing each other's work, and answering each others' questions.
  • Every other week, we will have an “All Hands and Rule of Thumb (RoT) Meeting” where all interns will work collaboratively on the Rule of Thumb (RoT) book. The book contains our advice about corporate culture and communications soft skills: these are mostly from lessons that we learned the 'hard way' in the workplace, things that no one taught us in college classes but that most employers expect you to know.

What are the schedule expectations for this internship? 
  • We have team and individual meetings every week via Google Meet. We expect you to be generally available for meetings during business hours of US Eastern time.
  • Aside from scheduled meetings, you will have your choice for daily start and stop times; you can create a routine that works for you, as long as you make your internship your top priority.
  • For internships taken during the fall or spring, participate part-time. For internships during the summer, participate full-time. Internships can be a mix of part and full time.
  • Manage your personal schedule such that you fulfill the weekly internship time you agree to.
  • Internship begin and end dates are flexible according to your university’s calendar for classes.

What is the expected time commitment? 
  • We offer both part and full-time internships with rolling start dates. 
  • Full-time: strongly preferred in summer and available throughout the year, 40 hours/week (or whatever is the maximum your college allows) lasts for 3 to 4 months.
  • Part-time: during school session, 12-20 hours/week (or whatever is the maximum your college allows) for 6 months. 
  • You are able to switch from full-time to part-time, or vice versa, as long as the duration adds up to a total of about 60 work days or 480 work hours.

When may I get started? If Bashpole then makes you an internship offer, you may start either as soon as you like or later in the year when your schedule permits: we have an orientation/onboarding meeting almost every Thursday for new interns. 

Who is more likely to succeed in this internship position? People with:
  • a genuine interest in the nonprofit consulting sector 
  • classroom experience relevant to this position
  • proactive mindsets that like their voices to be heard
  • detailed note-taking habits
  • time management skills who are organized and dependable 
  • an eagerness to take initiative with their ideas and communicate early and often

How does the interview process work? First, if an applicant meets our preliminary qualifications, we send them a message with detailed instructions for setting up an interview that must be followed precisely, or else we will decline the interview. Generally, each applicant has at least one interview during which their aptitude and knowledge are evaluated. If this goes well, the applicant will be given a follow-up task to examine how much they understand about our company and their position. Then, Bashpole may send out an internship offer decision within a few business days.

If I apply, what are the odds I’ll be accepted? Bashpole Software posts its internship positions to nearly 1,200 colleges across the USA and receives hundreds of applications for each position for each season of the year. We generally select between 1 and 5 people per position per season (Winter/Spring, Summer, or Fall/Winter). Although our interviews are friendly and conversational, there are a great many factors that we carefully consider before, during, and after each interview. If you are selected for an interview, it is not a guarantee that you will be given an offer. Upon selection for an interview, we will send you a message with everything you need to do to prepare for your interview, and you will be expected to follow all of the instructions completely. You should take some time to prepare for your interview.

Can I participate in more than one position? Not simultaneously; you may only participate in one position at a time. However, we welcome and encourage sequential internships, meaning participating in one team at one time and then another team at another time. 

How will I be supervised, and who will be my supervisor? Each team will report directly to their Department Manager (that will be the title of your supervisor) every week by screensharing a log about their training and accomplishments. (See also “What does a typical week look like?”, above.) Your manager may be assisted by other team members and sometimes by interns who are more senior than you, so treat them all as sources of authority. If you ever have concerns about your peers or supervisors, you can contact people at any level of the organization. We prefer that everyone communicate early and often about their concerns... and their accomplishments!

How often will I work with supervisors compared to other interns? This varies from position to position and changes from the beginning to the end of a typical internship, however, generally: you will meet with your supervisor for at least one, if not several hours a week. You will meet with fellow interns for at least a few hours a week, if not up to about half of the time per week that you spend on your internship. The rest of the time, you will spend working on your own on your projects and training. If you want to spend more (or less) time working directly with other people, just let your supervisor know, and they will sometimes be able to make adjustments. We will encourage you to collaborate with others as often as possible.

What are the challenges to expect? We believe interns grow by dealing with such challenges and working through them; this is how the real world works. This internship is going to take hard work and sometimes will be an imperfect experiment in training. There may be occasional communication at odd hours due to time differences and urgent matters. There will be more intern-intern interaction than with supervisors, and you can expect a mix of training from supervisors and finding and developing training yourself. Tasks may be vague and unclear at times as some assignments will be new. Our organization is run by real people — and while we are not perfect — our intentions are to work hard and be the best we can be. We look for interns that have the humility to admit the same about themselves.

What have previous interns said? Check out testimonials from our previous interns on our Careers page: https://bashpolesoftware.com/careers/

There are no costs to participate in our internships of any sort, ever. Our internship is like a class that you get to take for free, and yet even though our internships provide substantial experiential learning, we recognize that sometimes personal financial situations are an obstacle. If this is a concern for you, then check with your career services center and academic advisers about whether your college offers any form of support that helps students take unpaid internships. Some colleges have scholarships, grants, stipends, or options for gaining class credit; some do not; either way, there are never fees nor expenses of any kind related to our internships, and you should be wary of any company that would try to charge you for anything for an internship.

Why is it an unpaid internship? Bashpole is a for-profit company that’s rebranding itself, which explains the start-up-like environment. Due to these circumstances, we currently don’t provide compensation. In lieu of payment, we provide interns with rich learning experiences such as receiving mentorship, the responsibility to create training, strong recommendation letters based on performance, and the opportunity to graduate to advanced management-based experiences. We are also newly offering a monetary bonus program that all of our team members at Bashpole are aware of and eligible for. Bashpole Software, Inc. complies with all US Department of Labor Federal Internship Guidelines per https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm. This position also complies with NACE Criteria for internships per http://www.naceweb.org/about-us/advocacy/position-statements/position-statement-us-internships/#sthash.WbfvUjco.dpuf.

What if I’m an international student? International students are encouraged to apply for any and all internships. Make sure to show your university this internship description and check with them about their requirements. If selected, confirm everything is approved through your university before beginning an internship. Bashpole will provide documentation for the university in the form of an internship offer agreement. 

Non-Discrimination Policy: All nonprofits we serve are required to be compliant with Google’s non-discrimination policies, meaning that Bashpole works with a diverse set of nonprofits such as nonprofits working with crime to mental health issues to combating misinformation. Thus, Bashpole interns are expected to be non-discriminatory themselves and help us serve any nonprofit that fits the eligibility guidelines. See more at https://promotermotor.com/careers/.