Arianna Olivas is an undergraduate student pursuing a BS in Hotel and Tourism Management with a minor in Food Studies at the Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. In this post, she tells us more about her internship this spring semester.
Where are you interning and what is your job title?
I am interning at Native Noodles, a fast casual Singaporean restaurant located in Washington Heights. My job title is Marketing and Branding Intern.
What projects have you been working on so far?
Because the restaurant has only been open for a little over a year, I have had the opportunity to work directly with the owner in a variety of tasks, such as redesigning menus, responding to customer reviews, and analyzing the local community to determine how to best market to the available customer segments. Besides this, I have been responsible for analyzing KPIs across a variety of platforms to track the success of our marketing campaigns.
Have there been any challenges in your internship so far? If so, how have you learned to overcome them?
Given the startup environment of this restaurant and this being my first internship experience in the restaurant industry, the largest challenge I have faced is the amount of freedom I am given to complete my tasks. Each week I am given a list of responsibilities to complete before meeting with the restaurant owner at the end of the week to report back. While it is often difficult figuring out how to go about completing the tasks assigned to me, this experience has emphasized the importance of communication. I have learned to overcome this challenge by asking the restaurant owner for guidance when I am unsure of what I should be doing or need reassurance that I am properly completing my tasks up to the restaurant’s standards.
What do you hope to take away from your internship?
Going into this internship, I hoped to gain a deeper understanding of what it is like to work in the restaurant industry. Now that I have been there for a few months, I have had the opportunity to grow both my industry knowledge and interpersonal skills from working with the restaurant founder and other team members. By the end of the semester, I hope to have continued to grow and learn more about the restaurant industry as well as continue to expand my network of professionals who I can learn from in the future.
What are your future plans?
Before I graduate in the fall, I plan to continue to explore the restaurant industry by completing additional internships. While my goal is to one day become General Manager of a restaurant and eventually open up my own restaurant, until then I plan to continue to grow my network and gain as much experience as I can.