The Top 10 Things I Learned as an Intern at eHealthcare Solutions

“EHS is the leading solutions-focused, premium advertising network specializing in the digital healthcare marketplace.” This is eHealthcare Solution’s company description that I found on their website when researching my internship position before the initial start date. To be brutally honest, I didn’t fully understand what it meant. In fact, I didn’t understand it at all, and I was pretty nervous about it.

However, I quickly realized that not knowing everything about EHS, and what we do and how we do it, was completely okay. It gave me the opportunity to be a sponge in a thriving, growing, and innovative workspace. “Not knowing” gave me opportunity to ask questions, and asking questions gave me opportunities to meet people, and meeting people gave me opportunity to learn about the different roles, personalities, skills, specialties, and areas of focus that the unique individuals here at EHS possess.

I’m eight weeks into my internship, and I’m not even close to knowing everything there is to know here. However, I have gained some important and incredible insights from being an intern at EHS, and below are just a few.

1. EHS is (for the most part) business casual. I definitely learned this one the awkward way by walking into work my first day in high heels and my nicest dress. Of course, if there is a meeting with a client, this rule does not apply. Nor does this rule apply to Samuel Ferrante, Accounting Assistant, who rocks great business attire every day. He always wears a brightly colored tie that perfectly complements his outfit. (And, he even had his attire-game above par for the company picnic by rocking a bow-tie and loafers.)
2. Acronyms are all of the rage here. It took me great lengths of note taking and googling to figure out what everyone was talking about in the office. As it turns out, acronyms such as: RFP, ROI, IO, AAFP, ADA, AMGA, etc, aren’t actually iMessage-type lingo. Instead, these acronyms are highly important shortcuts to speaking about the day-to-day operations of EHS and our highly valued clients.
3. EHS betters the world. This is most definitely my favorite one. During the new-hire meeting with R.J. Lewis (President & CEO), he spoke of EHS’ mission of being the behind-the-scenes operations that take care of revenue for healthcare companies, so that in return, they can focus on their “noble purpose of improving medicine.” That seriously rocks!
4. Monday mornings are actually incentives to wake up and come to work here. I can’t say I’ve ever worked (or studied) in a place where a Monday morning can totally make my week, besides here. Monday mornings at EHS include a stand-up meeting, where the whole company checks-in together to talk about our goals and to re-focus on the strategies and tactics for the week, month, quarter, and year. The meetings conclude with encouragements for one another, where you have the opportunity to thank a co-worker for his or her outstanding work contributions and provide them with a small bonus on their next paycheck.
5. EHS employees are foodies. The local sandwich shops and food markets tend to know most of our employees by name and their orders, especially Bryan Bonder (Partner Relations Sr. Manager). In addition, it wouldn’t be rare to come into work one day and see fruit, sweets, or snacks provided on the kitchen table as a little treat for everyone. Renee Kennedy (Analytics Director) and Diana Di Gioia (Digital Campaign Manager) frequently invite the entire office to join them in the conference room for lunch, on days where they are trying to save money and time by chopping up fresh salad ingredients together and creating delectable, homemade lunches!
6. EHS is a work-hard, play-hard environment. During one of the first days of my internship, I asked Daniel Mullen (Partner Relations Manager) which hours most people typically work. He told me that people will work until their job is done. I found that to be entirely true and have also found the employees to be incredibly motivated and conscientious. On the other hand, there is a “play-hard” focus as well. For example, there are fun events scheduled throughout the year, such as Trenton Thunder games and the Company Picnic, (in which I’ve experienced one of the most intense volleyball games of my life and found out why Digital Solutions Director, Don Langsdorf’s Slack username is “donnieballgame” and that he’s a great partner for the bean-bag-toss game.) In addition, you won’t have a dull lunch conversation with Diana and Katelynn Mareno (Partner Relations Manager), because they will keep you in the loop on the inside-scoop of the latest Pretty Little Liars episodes.
7. Every employee feels equally important. I started working at EHS on the same day as full-time employee Lauren Socienski (Sales Planner). Lauren gave me great advice to schedule 1-on-1 meetings with the other employees just like she was doing as part of her onboarding. When Alex Patrylak joined me as an intern, we created the idea of “2-on-1” meetings. The two of us together met each EHS employee and asked a list of questions to spark inviting conversations. It was incredibly special to see people take time out of their days to give advice and speak with us about their career paths, lives, and interests.
8. There could be a dictionary written just for the ad-operations side of the business. I had the opportunity to join Lauren Schulman (Operations Director) for an ad-operations training session. It was a few hours long, and I came out with pages of scrambled terms. The trickiest part is that a lot of terms have double meanings. For example, a box unit is also called “300 by 250,” and a media plan is also called a “media buy,” “order,” and “IO.” Once you get past the ad types and the order process, the cost process is another crazy ordeal. I learned about different forms of costs, such as CPMs and flat fees. There is also the delivery side of the campaign, which includes flight dates, under-delivery, over-delivery and discrepancies (but R.J. solved that problem with Ad Juster!) Pretty crazy, huh? And that’s just a tad of the business.
9. A second dictionary must be written for the supply side of the business. My initial project at EHS was to research, prospect, and categorize publishers by “channels.” Some of these channels, just to name a few, included: gerontology, gastroenterology, hepatology, hematology, nephrology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, and rheumatology. Mixing medical terminology and advertising terminology into intertwining sentences definitely makes for a confused intern, but with the help of some of the people at EHS, I think I’ve got most of the basics down. (Just the basics though. Like I said, there is still a lot more to learn here!)
10. “The best part about EHS is the people.” Whenever Alex and I held our 2-on-1 meetings, we would ask, “What’s the best part about working for EHS.” The response was always the same. “The best part about EHS is the people.” I can’t agree with this statement more. John Burke, Chief Revenue Officer, and also my boss at EHS, could quite possibly be the best boss I’ll ever have. To him, we weren’t just “interns,” but rather an essential function of the company with important daily tasks that truly mattered. Then there’s Sam Kolodney (eCommerce Director), who never missed a day coming into our office and just checking in with us to see how we were doing. To him, we aren’t just interns, he truly cares about us. I think that mentality radiates across the workplace.

The people here have the utmost respect for one another and their individual characteristics.  The perfect blend of personalities together creates a unique, comfortable, hard-working, and happy workspace. Putting all knowledge of the actual work-content aside, I think the most valuable lesson that I’ve taken away from my internship at EHS this summer is that by working with with exceptional, happy people, work can turn from being a four-letter word into something that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning.