As one of the first interns for ASU’s Cox Connected Environments Collaboratory, Pia Almora Vargas interned at the Collaboratory for about a year, playing an integral role in creating the brand’s identity and performing key marketing tasks. Fast forward one year, and we’re checking in with Vargas to see what she’s up to and find out how her internship at the Collaboratory had an impact on her career path.
After Vargas graduated from ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business with an MBA in Business Administration last May, she applied to marketing roles around the United States. She was happy to accept a position at NortonLifelock, a global software company in Tempe, Arizona that provides cybersecurity software and services. As a global partner marketing specialist, Vargas manages partnerships across 10 clients, maintaining partnership relationships and making sure these clients have content and assets needed throughout the year.
Vargas credits her experience at the Collaboratory for helping realize and affirm what she wants in a career and in a workplace. While catching up with Vargas last week, she shared four points of impact the internship had on her career beyond ASU. Here’s how:
1. A desire to work in technology
After her internship at the Collaboratory, Vargas recognized that she wanted to pursue a marketing career in technology. “I definitely fell in love with the projects that we were doing to enhance people’s lives,” said Vargas.
She also became more interested in how people use technology and take care of their devices. “We have four or more devices that have access to the Internet, and that makes it really dangerous for us, not to have protection from cyber theft,” said Vargas. “I was in consumer marketing before and this opened my eyes to a world that I was really not used to.”
2. An understanding of how to work for a global company
Originally from Peru, Vargas had only worked for smaller companies before her Collaboratory internship. The Collaboratory was her first experience working in the United States, and she gained a better understanding of how global corporations work.
During her time at the Collaboratory, Vargas’ took on the task to create a proposal that clearly explained what the Collaboratory is, its stakeholders and its goals, for both long and short term impact. This was helpful for key stakeholders to have a single document to reference when speaking about the Collaboratory. It was also instrumental for Vargas to have the experience of listening to many stakeholders and putting their thoughts and goals into a single, cohesive brand document.
3. Experience in brand management
While an intern, Vargas focused much of her time on establishing the Collaboratory’s branding. Now that she is implementing campaigns for partners and making sure they are brand compliant, Vargas is pleased with the brand marketing experience that she gained at the Collaboratory, and acknowledges how much she enjoyed it.
4. Appreciation for a positive work environment
Vargas has nothing but praise for the positive work environment that she experienced while working with teams at both Cox and the Collaboratory. Colleagues had “the best attitude toward work” and “always offered to help.” This is something that she was looking for with her next work experience, and she found it at NortonLifelock.
The Collaboratory is proud to offer high-quality internships for ASU students. Find out more about the hands-on work they’ve done at the Collaboratory and around campus, like testing video analytics to improve bike parking on campus and improving on-campus transportation.