#FeaturedWorkFriday: Madeleine Page's Internship with Horoscope.com

July 14, 2017

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Everyone has at least one person in his or her life who is gifted with the passion for daily horoscope readings. Whether they're conveniently found online or in your favorite lifestyle magazine, most people take the readings with a grain of salt. But others take them as a way of life, following each line as closely as you would follow instructions when assembling a piece of IKEA furniture.Next time you check out your horoscope for the week, you might be reading the works of Madeleine Page, a Digital Media Innovation undergraduate. Madeleine recently secured an internship with Horoscope.com and has been contributing to the site all summer. After finding the internship posting on Linkedin, Madeleine responded immediately with her application and resume.“The process of securing the internship took place in December, when I had applied, and it consisted of numerous phone calls and Skype interviews. I believe I had about three phone calls, all from different people, and 2 Skype interviews,” said Madeleine.After enduring the lengthy application process, Madeleine was informed that she had been selected to work with the company throughout the summer, performing research, writing articles, producing social media posts, and performing search engine optimization (SEO) for the company’s website, which is a fancy term for tracking keywords and ranking them to ensure traffic is being directed to the website.“I track the website's progress through multiple sites such as Google Analytics and SEMrush. I have also created editorial dashboards for the editors, which contains page views, unique page views, bounce rates, etc. for each article posted. Overall, I've gotten a taste of many different fields within the company,” said Madeleine.Confused about some of these fancy technical terms and job descriptions? This is just one way that Madeleine has demonstrated her expertise in the field of digital media through the SJMC.“The Texas State SJMC prepared me for my internship by teaching me how to correctly write for a company through AP Style and how to write better in general. SJMC also prepared me for the analytical tasks because of social media, multimedia, and digital media classes I took,” said Madeleine.If nothing else, Madeleine notes that her studies at Texas State have given her the confidence and resilience to work in the highly competitive industry, alongside highly trained individuals.“Overall, I felt prepared to go into my internship because SJMC and the wonderful professors who have guided me throughout the years in multiple ways, constantly making me a better writer and educating me on the digital media world,” said Madeleine. Since starting with the company, working closely with other graduates of the same field, Madeleine has learned the value of education and internships firsthand. Nevertheless, Madeleine is quick to note that an internship should be selected with great consideration.“When looking for an internship, I think it's important to really contemplate what kind of job you would like to have in the future and pick an internship that closely resembles that job. I say this because internships really do give you a taste for the job and you are able to evaluate what work you enjoyed, and what work you despised. It gives you a better understanding of which direction you should go after graduating.”Whether you are a zodiac skeptic or a horoscope fanatic, keep an eye on Horoscope.com and its social media platforms to see what Madeleine is working on throughout the remainder of the summer. If you have a bad fortune for a day or week, keep your chin up; the stars will soon align in your favor, just as they were for Madeleine. With a little luck and a great amount of hard work, we believe your fortune will be prosperous.Check out some ofMadeleine's work on these social media platforms:FacebookTwitterYouTube