Fresh Outta College: Sarah Massey
Fresh Outta College is a weekly SCAD District column that documents the post-grad life of a variety of SCAD alumni pursuing creative careers. If ever you doubted your ability to get a job post-SCAD tune in and let these alumni ease your worries a little bit.
Career Fair, an event that might feel like a waste of time and energy for some majors, but certainly wasn’t for Sarah Massey who just recently graduated with a degree in graphic design and a paid internship waiting for her in New York.
Massey worked as a branding intern for FCB Health and their network company Area 23 over this summer.
Despite never having designed for healthcare before, Massey’s time at SCAD prepared her to design for a professional setting and understand what was expected of her.
And that meant working from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Area 23 on client work with the branding team Monday-Wednesday and at FCB Health Thursday and Friday working on collaborative projects and campaigns with the rest of the interns.
“I was constantly busy working on real projects, whether it was with branding or a collaboration with other departments and my fellow interns. No coffee running there,” said Massey.
Massey was one of 38 interns but the only branding and graphic design intern in the group Massey was pleasantly surprised when the branding team picked out her design for one of the clients products.
“I was super surprised and it felt good knowing that I was just as good as the other full-time designers.”
The big apple means a huge cost of living, one that most Savannah off-campus students aren’t always accustomed to, with the low cost of living and affordable housing in Savannah.
“New York is way more expensive than anywhere I have lived. My parents helped with the transition financially. I wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t a paid internship,” said Massey.
Massey leaves students with a few words of advice on moving away from home for work:
“Don’t be scared to adventure out to different cities for internships. I think it’s really good to break out of the comfort of your hometown or Savannah.”
“Also, don’t be afraid to be the annoying intern with tons of questions. People love that,” she adds.
Written by Asli Shebe.
Asli Shebe is a senior writing major from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She began working for District in 2014 as a staff writer, then copy editor, A&E editor, Chief Assignment editor and finally, Editor-in-Chief in 2017. Asli currently holds the record for obtaining the most job titles during her time at District. When she’s not writing for District you can find her biking around the Historic District of Savannah at odd hours of the day.
