Marketing Internship Begins!

Posted on January 20, 2012
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January marks an exciting time for 2 NAIT business students as well as Igloo Prebuilt Homes. This month is the start of their 4 month journey into the modular home industry under the wing of the sales and marketing team here at Igloo. TJ Schroepfer and Chris Schmidt are both in their 4th year of the Bachelor of Business Administration Degree program, which is a recent addition to the educational offerings at NAIT. They will be working to develop Igloo’s relationships with realtors across Alberta, with the realtor referral program offered by Igloo. In addition to this goal, the students will be conducting marketing research on target markets across Alberta, more specifically Edmonton and within 150km radius. The students will also be keeping Igloo’s customers and friends updated via the website blog, our Facebook group and our Twitter account. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, @IglooPrebuilt, and friend us on Facebook, to stay updated on all the news the interns have to offer to the social media world! Keep reading to learn a little bit more about who are interns are!

Hello All,
My name is Chris Schmidt and I will be working with the Igloo Prebuilt team on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I am currently in my fourth and final year of the Bachelor of Business Administration program at NAIT. My degree has mostly been concentrated in marketing and I would one day like to be a marketing manager in the construction, real estate, or retail industry. 
My interest in marketing and sales began back in 2008. At that time I had worked most of my career in customer service and retail positions, so I decided to enroll myself in the Business Administration Marketing Diploma at NAIT.  I thought it might be a good idea to try and get my feet wet in that field to be sure that it was for me and it turns out that it truly was! In the spring of 2008, I got a job as a salesperson for a new and growing RV dealership in Nisku and have been working with them during the summers ever since.
What has kept me going in this field the most is my innate interest in people. That interest has pushed me to take courses in consumer behaviour, economic history, market research and any sales courses available. When this internship came up I was very excited because I knew it would give me a real life opportunity to put into practice the many skills I have learned, and also to learn a lot about the Alberta real estate and construction industries. Today is day three, and already I’ve learned so much about housing styles, prices and markets in our province.
Well I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a bit about me. I’m looking forward to learning even more about Igloo and I’ll be keeping you updated with my experience as it goes. They’ve been keeping me pretty busy, but I’ll try to eek out time to do one of these per week.
Cheers,
Chris

Hey Everyone,
My name is TJ Schroepfer and I’ll be in the Igloo Prebuilt marketing office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This is my fourth year and final semester at NAIT in the BBA degree program. My degree will be in management, but because of my strong interest in marketing I have built my degree around management as well as taken all the marketing courses that were available to my section. At the end of the school year I hope to further pursue sales and marketing, with the next goal in my career to be involved in marketing or sales management.
I started working at the young age of 13 through a work experience program offered through my junior high at the time. I entered the world of retail sales through a locally owned golf shop in Edmonton, doing minor tasks like taking out garbage and cleaning clubs. Over the past 8 years I have worked part time during school and full time during the summers, allowing me to develop my personal selling techniques and skills. I love the problem solving aspect of sales, especially golf, as it is a passion of mine. I have recently moved into a manager role at the golf shop and on top of face to face sales, I now take care of all the marketing and social media efforts we are involved in.
The opportunity this year at NAIT to become involved in an internship program was given to me by instructors and I jumped at the opportunity. During a third year sales management class I had made contact with Igloo previously, working on a project which related to their marketing efforts and relationships around industry. When the opportunity to work with Igloo Prebuilt again came up I was very excited. I am now in my second week of the internship and I have learned more than I ever thought I would. Energy efficiency, building processes, sales information and marketing efforts are only the beginning of what I have started to learn, with much more information and knowledge coming in the near future.
I look forward to working with the Igloo Prebuilt family and getting to know not only the industry and company but each of the amazing individuals that have helped me along the way so far! I hope you continue to read the intern’s blog posts and can continue to learn about Igloo and the prebuilt industry as we learn with you!
Keep on reading,
TJ Schroepfer