I’m a high school senior. Before this internship, my idea of “professional training” was watching a YouTube tutorial. But GoRout taught me otherwise. My name is Aaron Weiss, and I am a sales and marketing intern at GoRout working on Dick Polipnick’s team. In about a week, and roughly 40 hours of onboarding, I went from knowing almost nothing about how the company runs their business to feeling like a genuine part of the team. It happened in two steps. 

 

1. Meeting the team
2. Certification training 

 

Meeting the Team

The most valuable part of my onboarding was attending the meetings with the people behind GoRout. I’ve always been someone who learns better through conversations than through reading material on a screen, so the meetings were where things started clicking for me. 

 

The first one was a company-wide weekly kickoff meeting. It was organized, efficient, and energizing. A few team members spoke on the important topics to set the tone for the week. For me, it was the first real look at how GoRout operates as a team, and it made me feel like I was already part of something special.

 

The second was an L10 meeting, where I got to meet some of the people I’ll be working most closely with. Joe, GoRout’s COO, made it clear from the start to not be afraid to ask questions about anything. His background in D1 college football coaching tells you a lot about the kind of people GoRout attracts and the culture they have built. The marketing lead, Brandon, has been leading the team since 2021. Sitting in on his meetings gave me a sense of what his day-to-day work in marketing looks like. I am interested in graphic design and video, so it was genuinely exciting to hear about the work. Mason is the advertising specialist, handling outside sponsorships and PPC. Before I started my internship, I didn’t know much about either of those things. Now I have a foundation to build on. 

 

Finally, my direct advisor, Dick, set the tone from day one. He is straightforward, helpful, and made sure I knew what was expected of me. Starting something new is always a little intimidating, but having someone in your corner makes a big difference.  

 

Certification Training

The other major component of my onboarding was completing HubSpot’s certification courses and exams. It covered a wide range of topics– email marketing, workflows, campaign management, contact lists, data privacy, automation, and more. I won’t sugarcoat it, working through these online courses isn’t my preferred way to learn. But I will say that I did get a lot out of it. The material gave me a real foundation in marketing tools and concepts that I’ll be using throughout this internship.

 

Topics like A/B testing, contact segmentation, and workflow automation went from things I’d vaguely heard of to things I now have a better grasp of. Passing the certification at the end was a rewarding way to close out the week. It’s one thing to sit through training, it’s another to actually prove you learned it. I look forward to applying it.

 

Final Reflections

In one week, I absorbed more than I expected. Between the meetings and the certifications, I came out of onboarding with a clear picture of who GoRout is, what they do, and where I fit in. 

I’m not just a random intern thrown into the deep end. GoRout invested their time into making sure I was set up to contribute, and that says a lot about the kind of company this is. I intend to give back to GoRout as best as I can.