Throughout my free time this past RIT school year, I had searched for an innovative commercial printing company within my hometown, Twin Cities, to intern at over the summer. After looking at more than 15 companies, I chose to spend my summer at Bolger “Vision Beyond Print” located in Minneapolis.
Bolger is a family-owned company that over the years has made tremendous strides in expanding its services and becoming a leader within the industry. Staying true to the company’s motto, Bolger strives to go beyond full-service commercial printing to offering unique and unconventional advantages to its customers.
I sought out a CSR position at Bolger because I wanted to be involved in the entire print production process, starting from when the sales rep hands me the job all the way to when it’s shipped out the door. What I greatly enjoy about this position is working directly with each department (prepress, press, postpress) and overseeing that the job is moved throughout the workflow smoothly. This entails many tasks, such as communicating efficiently with the sales reps, working with customers, being flexible and working with changes/new information, etc.
Every day as I work with different jobs, I learn something new or think of a question that will lead me to seek out an answer. I have recently begun assisting with some of Bolger’s high-end work for clients from the fashion/jewelry industry. This experience has allowed me to get involved with some really amazing printed pieces and pursue an interest of mine in stochastic screening. If I ever have any questions about the theory of why a certain type of screening was used on a piece or how it improved a certain aspect of the image, I am able to talk directly with prepress, the head of production or even go on press and see the job being run and talk with the press operators.
What I enjoy most about working at Bolger is being around the progressive atmosphere and friendly staff day in and day out. This is my first full-time job and at the end of the day I leave feeling that not only did I learn a lot, but I had a really fun time doing it. Through this summer internship, I feel that having the CSR background is a valuable experience in my early career and will leave me with a sound knowledge of the production process that I can carry into future positions.
As time flies by, there is no doubt that the start of school at RIT will soon be approaching. I would like to continue sharing with you my intern experiences this summer and I also wish you the best of luck in your own endeavors.
