How a Chronic Try-Everything-er Ended up in a Swim Internship
I have always been one of those people who never really knew what they wanted to do with their life. The ultimate dream has always been very open-ended: “I want to do something I enjoy, something that keeps me inspired, and work with coworkers I like.”
Even though the nature of my dream was relatively loose, finding a job that checks all of the boxes wasn’t easy to come by. However, my internship at Swim proved to be the place that got the closest.
I wasn’t sure what I was looking for next. From being a princess performer to working on major film sets to doing social media management for an Italian cashmere brand, I had fun but I kept searching for something new. With each new venture, I found it fun to collect skills and stories. I just knew that in whatever I did next, I wanted to continue being creative.
In the early spring of 2024, I noticed an Instagram post from Swim. As a local, I had heard of Swim and had been following them for a while – I even applied to work there years ago. In bright orange, the post read “Hey you, we’re hiring. Content Producer Intern.” And I thought to myself, “That looks like something I could do.” Long story short, I sent in my resume, had my interview and was selected to join the Swim team for the summer!
As anyone who has ever started a new role has experienced, the first few weeks were an adjustment period. Having never worked in an office setting, I had a lot of ideas of what it would be like, and this one was different than I expected.
First of all, the office itself – gorgeous, amazing, a stylish open-concept oasis. The coworkers – vibrant, hilarious and always made the days fun. The coffee machine – fancy (except I never figured out how to use it). To top it off, remote work was a very common theme so I spent many days working at my favorite coffee shops, sitting outside in the sun or just couching it in my sweatpants.
Everyone was welcoming right from the start. As a content producer intern, I spent a lot of time pitching, planning and creating quite a bit of fun things for social media that often involved my other coworkers. Graphic Designer, Shawn, was especially enthusiastic about it and I’d hear him telling the others, “Henriette is going to make me a star.” Shawn was actually just nominated for his first Oscar (jk, still working on that).
I believe that collaboration is one of the greatest things life has to offer. During the internship, I felt fully immersed in the work I was doing as well as being able to help others with a wide variety of projects.
As a content producer, one of my biggest goals was to translate the vibrancy of the Swim culture into social media posts while ambitiously finding ways to engage more with Swim’s audience. However, what I learned is that being authentic and intentional is always the best way to post. One of the highlights of this was during the launch of the AR experience – we had fun making people excited for what was going to come by having an interactive countdown and asking them what they thought was coming. (Spoiler: it was not a swarm of bees).
My internship at Swim was a big step in the right direction for me, and knowing that I’ve had a positive impact was just the cherry on top. For this chapter of my life, I am very grateful to have had this experience.
A note to all my other Try Everything-ers: keep trying everything. Keep learning. Keep growing. It’s okay not to have it all figured out (nobody does). And obviously, have fun with it.
Written by: Henriette Blade, Content Marketing Specialist