Posted by By Ruth Bekele, NYU Steinhardt ’22
What are you studying at NYU? My name is Ruth, I’m a senior (2022) here at NYU studying Music Business in Steinhardt.
What is your current internship? This Fall I am a Talent and Industry Relations Intern at SiriusXM!
Can you describe your role and what your day-to-day looks like? As an intern at SXM, each day is a little different. I work on the music side of the talent relations department and get to be fully immersed in the day to day of booking artists for interviews, performances, promotional opportunities, and more. A large part of my role is researching upcoming concerts and festivals that are happening in some of the major markets where SXM has studios, to help identify potential opportunities to bring talent in for interviews and in-studio performances. I also help identify programming opportunities by researching upcoming music releases and talent that might be a good fit for specific programming across the SiriusXM and Pandora platforms.
Do you feel like you are able to contribute and make an impact at SiriusXM? This internship is very hands on and as the intern you really are a part of the team. I have been able to help schedule interviews, and even had the opportunity to book and execute an in-studio performance from start to finish (with the help of my manager) to gain an understanding of how the complete booking process works.
In my experience as an intern, I really do feel like the work that I’m contributing is meaningful and adding value to the department and the company. Learning about the inner workings of the department, being so involved in the everyday projects, and getting to work alongside some really amazing people has been such a valuable experience for me and I’ve loved being able to work for this company!
How has COVID impacted your internship and SXM? As things shifted to a remote environment over the past year and a half, SXM was still able to book interviews and utilize virtual platforms like Zoom. As we safely transition to being able to have some in person experiences again, SXM has begun hosting artists in studio for sessions while also continuing to conduct virtual programming. In the virtual space, I’ve had the opportunity to sit in on and help monitor a handful of zoom interviews with various hosts from different shows across SXM and recording sessions for content that is used on the Pandora platform. In addition to the projects that I work on, I am also a part of weekly department meetings, meetings with labels, managers, and individuals at both SXM and Pandora.
How have you been able to learn about the organization outside your specific role? Outside of the work that we do as an intern in our specific departments, there are also many opportunities for the interns to learn more about different departments at the company through special events that the university recruiting team puts on throughout the semester. This includes the Listen & Learn series where individuals across the company speak to the interns about their role and answer any question that we may have.
Do you believe that your courses and experience at NYU has prepared you for your internship? As a student at NYU, many of us often find ourselves writing a lot of papers, doing presentations, and working with other students in group projects. While in the moment these projects can be time consuming and sometimes hard to manage, the skills that I’ve developed in doing them has proved to be helpful at my internship. These class projects have helped me develop skills on how to communicate with others effectively and how to work on a team. You might not realize it in the moment when you’re working on these projects in class, but those experiences may come back to help you in the future as they did for me.
Check out SiriusXM internships and full-time jobs, as well as upcoming events on Handshake!
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