An Introduction to Corporate Communications

An Introduction to Corporate Communications

Having never written a line of code before, a tech company was the last place that I thought that I would end up in this summer. As a journalist and political science major at Northeastern University, I’ve spent much of my time avoiding STEM classes when possible, feeling that my interests and talents would better find a home elsewhere.

But in January, Twilio’s job description of a corporate communications intern role piqued my interest. During the first round of interviews, candidates were tasked with “writing it out” by answering a series of written questions regarding past experiences and how we lived the Twilio Magic – the distillation of Twilio’s values as a company. My introduction to the marketing and communications side of Twilio, therefore, was an assignment that excited me, and quickly after receiving the opportunity to participate I realized how important the job was to me.

On the day of my interview, I was traveling and had to call in from a sweltering hotel room. Despite nerves and hot temperatures, it went smoothly, and I was able to speak to the person who is now my manager. It felt like a good fit to me, and I was happy to get the call a week later saying I’d gotten the job.

I had applied for a blanket internship role in marketing and communications, and on my first day I still had little idea about what I’d be doing. I landed on the Analyst Relations (AR) team, which was a role that I’d learned about during the interview but was still unclear on.

Quickly, I realized that I had a lot of learning to do to participate meaningfully in the role. For a bit, I felt like I was blind on two ends – I was unsure about what the role of AR was at Twilio, and I still felt like I didn’t have a grasp on Twilio’s products. My first weeks were spent with a split screen – Zoom on one and Google tabs open that all started with “what is…” on the other as I tried to decipher all of the acronyms that I was hearing.

I set up a weekly cadence with everyone on the AR team to learn about what they did and what projects they were working on that I could get involved in. I set up informational interviews with Twilions on the marketing and communications team and started to get a better understanding of the organizational structure and learned how everyone worked together.

Defining Analyst Relations

In the first couple of weeks, I gained a better understanding of what the role of AR is. The team falls under the umbrella of marketing, and serves as a communication branch that conducts outreach and maintains relationships with industry analysts. AR acts as an intermediary between Twilio and external analysts who conduct research and produce reports about trends in given industries.

Twilio pays for seats, or licenses, that grant access to the analysts at firms like Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, who give insight into industry trends. In turn, Twilio gets to present to the analysts about the products that they offer. AR and the analysts mutually inform one another through briefings, inquiries, and advisories. During my time at Twilio, the Omdia Report has been a win for the team, in which Twilio was named a leader in customer experience and customer engagement platforms. In turn, companies turn to analysts to determine which vendors they will buy from.

Main Projects

Jalene and I, the two interns on the team, took the information that we learned in our first few weeks and created an AR101 eBook, meant to be used by others who wanted to know more about the team or for those who needed to understand best practices for working with analysts.

Soon, I was working on projects with bigger implications for the team and for the company.

One such project was a quarterly newsletter that recapped Q2 earnings, and highlighted research and customer stories. I was free to reformat and redesign the structure used in past newsletters with the goal of maximizing engagement. Between this task, sitting in on calls with analysts, and communicating directly with some, I felt that I was getting direct analyst-facing experience, a responsibility I hadn’t anticipated.

After attending a healthcare industry advisory with a Forrester analyst, I expressed interest in the topic and worked with my manager to write a post for Switchboard, Twilio’s internal message board, about trends in the healthcare industry.

I had informational interviews with nearly 20 other members of the marketing and communications teams to hear about their roles and the paths that led them to their current positions. With my career in front of me and a desire to learn about how to take the right steps to make sure that I land in the right space, these meetings were both a source of comfort and of inspiration. Everyone, it seems, has been in the unknown space that I’m in right now, and it’s been helpful to start to understand that there is so much opportunity and so much more to learn.

I was able to be reflective often – after my conversations, I often spoke with my manager about what I’d taken away. I took note of the types of questions that I was asking – was I more curious about the strategy or the context? Did I feel like I could succeed in the roles of the people I was talking to? Luckily, my manager also took note, tailoring projects and further suggesting people to talk to based on what I valued and what I wanted to learn. Each interview ended with an offer to help on their end, and some ended in extra projects that I could work in.

One project outside of my team was getting involved with the Twilio Segment podcast Good Data, Better Marketing. During my last internship, I worked for an environmental podcast, which I hadn’t assumed that what I learned from that experience would be transferable in any literal way to this role. But, I formulated questions to ask in a recorded interview and then edited the transcript and compiled a blog post attached to the episode.

Takeaways

Beyond the specific projects that I’ve engaged in, I’ve noticed an increase in my confidence in communication and ability to understand the operations of both the team and the company. Troubleshooting and finding solutions to the roadblocks that I was facing, meeting other interns and spending time getting to know other Twilions, working with and without deadlines, asking for more projects, and generally being curious were some of my main takeaways. I learned from the conversations that I had with other Twilions, the intern socials, and the learning and development courses just as much as I learned from the work itself.

In envisioning what an internship might look like, I pictured busywork and meaningless projects, perhaps feeling like a burden to disengaged leadership. Luckily, my experience was far from this idea. I felt that I was able to follow my interests and engage with projects that fit with my skill set, and I felt that my work was contributing meaningfully to the team – and I was able to see it in action.

With four weeks left in my internship, there’s much I’m still hoping to accomplish. Twilio’s focus on learning and development beyond the company has given me some clarity into what I want my next steps in my career to look like, and I feel confident that I’m walking away from this internship armed with further resources to maximize my professional connections and abilities in the future.

Zoe Baumgartner is a corporate communications intern working on the Analyst Relations team. When she’s not feeling defensive about not knowing how to code, she can be found in the kitchen or outside. You can reach her at zbaumgartner [at] twilio.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.