Nora McNulty is a Junior at UCLA majoring in Communications and Psychology. She served as a Content Writer Intern at Magellan Health in the summer of 2018. In this role, Nora interviewed Magellan employees and curated a library of job testimonials and stories that authentically portray the Magellan employment experience.

Like many college students, as I neared the end of my time at UCLA, I worried about the next phase of my life. I doubted the existence of a purposeful job that embodied both my passions—writing and psychology—and, if such a job did exist, I thought I’d never find it. All that changed when I started my internship with Magellan and was introduced to employer branding.

Employer Branding is a field focused around accurately portraying the universal employment experience of a company to job candidates. This is a complex process that involves the gathering of quantitative and qualitative data through both internal and external research. Then, from this research, a brand is derived and executed through the creation of content, whether that be written, video, website related, or social media. This content is showcased to potential job applicants to attract the best talent, and encourage those who would mesh well with the company’s particular culture.

At Magellan, I worked as a content writer. I wrote stories for our career site, featuring employees from all different departments and cited their experiences and thoughts about the company. Before I joined, my manager, coach and mentor, Charlotte Marshall led the team that conducted the necessary research to launch the brand my stories would portray.

What blew me away the most is how naturally my pieces aligned with the brand that was uncovered. The employee testaments reflected what was gathered through research, and in turn, demonstrated to me the authenticity of the brand. This was particularly powerful because I never really understood employment branding. I had thought of branding as selling and therefore not always credible. To see that our brand was real and honest humbled me and inspired me to pursue employer branding: a field that involves both writing, through storytelling, and the psychology behind branding—all through authentic means.

Magellan introduced me to a field I didn’t know existed, in a place I’d have never thought to look: a healthcare company. I worked hard here, I learned a lot, and on my last day I was genuinely sad to be packing up my computer to return to school for my junior year of college. It was hard walking away from the first job I felt truly fulfilled doing.

This is the short version of my Magellan experience. The longer version would dive into the life changing interviews I conducted, my journey to grow from editorial criticism rather than take it to heart, and the company whose culture redefined how I viewed the “working world.”

If you are looking for a job straight out of college or even just a summer internship like me, I’d encourage you to give Magellan a try—I’m very grateful I did.