When I first joined Integrity as a marketing intern, I had no idea just how varied my day-to-day work would be. My tasks spanned everything from data entry and content organization to QA checks and general housekeeping around the office. Half the challenge wasn’t the tasks themselves, but learning the tools that came with them.
I came in with some experience in Adobe products, but platforms like Slack, Harvest, BrowserStack, and Monday each required their own learning curve (along with plenty of patience from the team members who guided me). And if this internship taught me anything about my technical strengths, it’s that WordPress and I do not get along.
Becoming T-Shaped
One of the most interesting things I learned during my time at Integrity is that its expert team members are what they call “T-shaped”. In other words, everyone has a broad understanding of many roles, but deep expertise in one.
As an intern, I spent most of my time at the top of that T– gathering bits and pieces of knowledge from different disciplines. Some days I was doing QA, other days creating content, all while learning the logic behind internal tools or how a particular project moved through the pipeline. This wide exposure helped me understand how all the parts connect, and how each small task fits into something much bigger.
Mistakes, Lessons, and the Art of Over Communicating
I made mistakes in every project I worked on—some small, some a little more memorable. But each mistake taught me something important.
The biggest lesson I learned is simple: there is no such thing as communicating too much.
Not understanding something is never the problem—pretending you understand is. If you don’t fully understand something and you don’t ask questions, you slow the team down. The embarrassment of asking a silly question is nothing compared to the embarrassment of having done your part of the project totally wrong. I learned quickly that honesty and curiosity make a much stronger impression than silent guessing ever could.
Working in a Holacracy
Integrity operates under a leadership model called a Holacracy. If you told me to define it in my own words, I’d say it’s a model where the people actually doing the work are the ones making the decisions. It’s a system built on self-discipline. That means no rigid hierarchy and no “big boss” directing every move.
In a Holacracy, everyone is responsible for themselves. If people don’t want to collaborate with you, you just don’t get work. That reality was intimidating at first, especially when surrounded by people who weren’t just meeting expectations, they were exceeding them as a baseline.
I worried about how someone as inexperienced as I was, would fit into a culture like that. But once I got started, I realized the true value here isn’t in doing everything perfectly or working as hard as possible. That real value lies in the willingness to think creatively, ask questions, explore solutions, and honestly-just try.
A Culture That Encourages Curiosity
What surprised me most was how much Integrity values curiosity. People actively encourage you to ask questions. They want you to experiment. They want you to figure things out, not because you were told to, but because you want to understand the “why” behind the work.
The people here don’t do their work like checking off a box, they think about the problem they want to solve and innovate openly, all while supporting and collaborating with one another. This is the energy that made me feel less like an intern and more like a teammate.
To Conclude
My internship at Integrity taught me practical skills, yes, but the biggest lessons were all about the soft skills-communication, taking initiative, and trusting the learning process.
I don’t have to be the best at everything.
I don’t need decades of experience.
What matters most is curiosity, honesty, and the desire to grow.
Those are the skills I’ll carry with me long after this internship—and the ones that make me grateful to be a part of this team.
Additional Resources