Changing Career Paths at ARCO/Murray: My Internship Across Divisions

INTERN BLOG BY FINN MCTIGUE – My name is Finn McTigue, and I hail from the great town of Downers Grove. I first found myself at ARCO/Murray working as an intern for the Entertainment team during the summer of 2022, going into my senior year of high school. Then, after a separate, eye-opening internship in mechanical engineering, I decided that the field of engineering was not my desired path. I decided to pursue Business Analytics at Miami University, where I recently completed my first year. Luckily, I was able to find my way back to the perfect community at ARCO/Murray, but working in a division more tuned to my strengths. I feel that my experience jumping ships as an intern has been a unique experience that I want to share with you all.

With the Entertainment team, I was able to work on Topgolf projects and spent my summer learning all sorts of budget terms. Eager for more responsibility, I found myself asking my team, “What work do you have that I can do?” Doing this was one of the greatest learning experiences so far in my life. I was able to work on things I never would’ve gotten a glimpse of normally. I was calling asphalt subcontractors in West Memphis, doing detailed reviews of architectural glass drawings, and driving hours to deliver fire code documents. I learned more from this experience than I have in most of my years of school.

Coming back to intern for the Marketing team allowed me to use my skills to optimize ARCO/Murray’s website and build best practices to ensure digital success for years to come. I helped build resources to track and analyze our marketing efforts and impact. I felt like I was able to make a real impact with the work I was doing. I learned so much from my experience here that I will be able to call on and develop for the rest of my professional and academic career. My analytics background developed, and my marketing skills grew substantially.

But the biggest thing that I learned was how much culture mattered to me in my future working environments. I’ve been lucky enough to build a log cabin sabbatical prank, sing the national anthem for way too many witnesses, and compete (and win) in an extensive summer long Wordle competition. No matter the work or the department, I have never found myself in such a welcoming and helpful group of people as the people of ARCO/Murray. I will cherish my time(s) here for the rest of my life and remember my coworkers as the greatest I could’ve asked for.

Interested in learning more about internship and co-op opportunities offered at ARCO/Murray? Check out our programs page by clicking here.