Owen: What I learned as an Eat 2 Perform Intern

18 Jun Owen: What I learned as an Eat 2 Perform Intern

Coming into my first internship, I didn’t know what to expect, which made me a little nervous. But my experience at Eat2Perform has been a series of successful surprises. When I started my internship at Eat2Perform I didn’t have a clear idea about what I was going to be doing and what my role would be. I soon realized that it was going to be pretty enjoyable because I would be able to work from home and put my knowledge in sports nutrition to use. In the beginning, I was getting used to working from home and learning the mechanics of social media, case studies, and blogs. Soon, I began to understand what my role was and learned valuable, new skills that came along with my role. Some of these skills consisted of:

Building relationships

Building relationships with people in the work environment is fundamental. I learned that if you want people to recognize your business and who you are, establishing a relationship with influential people is a must. You never know who will be a valuable partner in the future.

Staying relevant

There’s so much going on nowadays with social media and all the content being posted, that it can be hard to know what content to put out. Keeping up with what is going on in the community around you is important because you want to stay relevant to your audience.

Blog posting

I never really blogged before, but learning how to blog was fun. It was also a great way of helping me to utilize my writing and research skills. Blogging is much more fun and easy to write because you don’t have to worry about the formatting and it’s much more lenient to write, but the information does have to be accurate and easy to comprehend. My writing skills are not my best attribute, but after having some practice working on blogs, I am definitely much more confident with my writing skills than before the start of the internship.

Social media platforms

Shortly before starting this internship, I was actually trying to distance myself from using social media. As soon as I began the internship I soon realized that using social media would be important. Learning how to use social media platforms such as Twitter, Sprout Social, and Instagram was more work than I anticipated. The team would have to look through Twitter, Instagram, and Sprout Social for topics that were relevant to the active individual and athletic community, in order to come up with ideas for content to create.

Case study

Although working on a case study involving an athlete was not entirely new to me, learning how to calculate recommendations for a triathlon athlete specifically was new to me. I calculated resting metabolic rate using the Cunningham equation, calculated hydration needs, macronutrient needs and percentages of total calories needed from macronutrients. At the beginning I was slightly confused with some of the calculations, but as the case study moved along, the recommendations became more clear and understandable because not all athletes have the same requirements. Working on a case study was a good learning experience because it helped give me a better understanding of what needs to be calculated for an athlete to perform at optimal levels for competition and gives me the satisfaction of knowing that I am helping someone to perform at their best.

Be ready to make mistakes and learn from them

An internship is a learning experience and making mistakes will happen. Always do your best and if you are not sure how to do something just ask your colleagues. If I made a mistake, I thought of it as a part of my experience and an opportunity to learn how to not make the same mistake again.

Having the chance to intern at a company such as Eat2Perform has been great. This internship has provided me with meaningful hands on experience that cannot be gained from sitting in a classroom. After going through this internship I have a clearer understanding of what I want to do, and that is to help people perform at their most optimal levels and improve their lifestyle.. From learning different marketing elements to applying sports nutrition knowledge to an athlete, interning at Eat2Perform has been a fun and fulfilling experience.

by Owen Ng