Review of My Internship Experience at GfK Kynetec
Tosin Ayeni
My experience as a marketing research intern at GfK Kynetec has been nothing short of phenomenal.
As I hoped for at the beginning of the internship, this experience has been immensely valuable to me,
both on a personal and professional level. On a personal level, I was given the opportunity to collaborate
with some of the most intelligent and amazing individuals I have ever met. More importantly, on a
professional level, I was able to acquire and develop the skills sets needed to succeed in the marketing
research profession.
Internship Responsibilities
Bearing in mind that the requirement for this essay is a description of the skills I have learned in the
course of this internship, I will only provide a very short description of my internship responsibilities.
Even though I worked mostly on custom research projects, my responsibility was varied, as I contributed
to various stages of the research process. As part of my responsibilities I assisted project directors in
designing and critiquing questionnaires, conducting IDIs, coding open-ended responses, conducting
secondary/desk research, etc. Furthermore, I am particularly grateful for having the opportunity to write
reports for client presentation. I also spent about one month working for the syndicated animal health
team.
Skills Learned
Over the course of my internship, I have learned several skills, and further developed the skills set I
came into the company with. One of the skills that I have developed during my internship is the skill of
time management. For me, this is very important, as prior to the commencement of the internship, a
substantial proportion of my previous working experience involves working with university professors on
academic research projects. These projects are usually less deadline-driven than our marketing
research projects here at GfK Kynetec. Working on the projects here at GfK has enabled me to learn
how to work towards deadlines by dividing my tasks into different phases and working towards
accomplishing these tasks within my personally allotted timeslots. Closely related to this, I have also
developed the ability to work on multiple projects at the same time, learning how to organize and
prioritize projects as necessary. I was able to use this skill successfully recently because while working
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with the animal health syndicated team, I occasionally assisted on custom research projects. As can be
attested to by my supervisors in both departments, I successfully carried out my responsibilities in both
departments concurrently.
My internship has also given me the opportunity to build on my critical thinking and analytical skills. As I
conduct interviews, listen to focus group tapes, and review transcripts, I have developed the ability to
identify and critically evaluate respondents’ main lines of reasoning. In addition, I have learned how to
identify evidence that strengthens conclusions, while also evaluating biases that might diminish from
such. Closely related to this, my experience with report writing has taught me how to balance the need
for details with the need to synthesis information to enable the audience focus on the major points being
passed across.
Unlike most of my colleagues in the MMR program, the internship at GfK Kynetec has afforded me the
opportunity to develop my qualitative research skills. Apart from helping in the drafting of discussion
guides, I have assisted my internship mentor (Mike Healy) to organize a focus group session; I have
also conducted numerous IDIs for several project directors in the custom department. I am particularly
grateful because one of my initial concerns at the beginning of the internship was that I may not have
the opportunity to be involved in this kind of research because I am not a native English speaker.
However, thanks to the confidence everybody in the entire department have in me, I am now confident
of my abilities to carry out qualitative research projects.
Furthermore, my internship experience has greatly improved my computer skills, especially my Microsoft
Excel and PowerPoint skills. I never cease to marvel at how much my PowerPoint presentations have
changed since I started working here. Unfortunately, I had very limited opportunity to work with more
sophisticated statistical tools such as SPSS and SAS.
In my opinion, two pages are not enough to capture how much I have benefited from this internship. If
given the opportunity again, I will definitely not hesitate before grabbing them with both hands. Finally,
one of the major goals of SIUE Master of Marketing Research internship program is to provide students
with real-world, hands-on experience. To this end, I would conclude that my internship experience has
been very successful.
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