SONY Music Video Interview Preparation

What are your top 5 songs?

My top favorite songs at the moment are DtMF by Bad Bunny, Tweaker by LiAngelo Ball, Luther by Kendrick and Sza, Go Back by John Summit, and Like That by Future.

Explain a project you worked on and what softwares you used

While I was at the Ford Foundation, a project that I worked on was extracting and tagging CRM, contacts. CRM systems essentially allow anyone that is a part of the organization to find contacts of any individual that the organization has worked with in some capacity in the past. The first part of this project was to extract these contacts from Workday, and then manually entering these contacts in a Google Sheet, where I was able to filter these contacts. This brings me to the second step of the project which included organizing and tagging these contacts in Salesforce, through Ford’s CRM. I was tasked with coming up with no more than 8-10 tags that would be helpful for over 10 teams in the Foundation. This would be beneficial in organizing contacts and helping teams find the people that they need to complete certain tasks. By using specific filters on Google Sheets to organize these different contacts, who had been hired by Ford in the past, I tagged them, to make it easier to find them in the CRM/Salesforce. This has been an ongoing effort at Ford as the Foundation looks to build its CRM capacity and it was a great experience to learn how to utilize the system to its greatest capabilities.

Name your three top department choices

My three department choices are Corporate Communications, Publicity and Media Relations, and Licensing and Copyright. I have had prior experience being a part of a communications team as a Reputational Risk/Strategic Communications intern at the Ford Foundation. In this role I was able to work along a team of 12 individuals, looking to uplift Ford’s grantees through storytelling and helping them on the frontlines with attacks from organizations that disagree with Ford’s goals. I was able to gain valuable insight into the day to day operations of a communications team and how it is so important to stay on your toes as things can happen in a blink of an eye. I would love to build on this experience at SONY, in the music arena, as I draw from my past experience to support SONY’s Communications team deal with potential negative publicity, along with providing fresh ideas about new ways to promote artists and really tell their stories through their music. With publicity and media relations, I have been a part of Binghamton’s largest student run newspaper since my freshman year. As Sports Editor starting from my sophomore year, I was able to lead a team of 12+ writers, organizing sports coverage and editing articles. With my experience in journalism and media I bring a strong angle that allows me to understand the importance of strong publicity and how to manage campaigns that help SONY’s image in the public eye.

How would you make the most of this internship program?

Making most of this internship program for me includes talking to anyone that I can, whether it is about their career, their interests, and just any advice they would have. Whether that is setting up coffee chats, going to panels and company events, and staying curious by asking questions, I have always been a large proponent of learning from others, and one of SONY’s core values is to Elevate Each Other is really ingrained within me. I believe that surrounding myself by like minded individuals who have a passion for music and are ambitious and career oriented is an experience like no other. I recognize that being able to lean on others and get their perspective is crucial to learning and becoming a better version of myself. Also, being able to Fuel Excellence, setting high standards and goals, while recognizing that mistakes are part of a learning journey is crucial. The experience of being an intern in a fast paced environment that has so many different moving parts and different teams that are coordinating together is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity that I would love to be a part of. As someone who wants to pursue a career in law, the discipline and ability to multi-task, skills that I believe I can hone at SONY, can help me in my future endeavors as well.

What challenges might music industry face in the future and how to prevent them?

In the future, I believe that an issue that has been increasingly concerning is the rise of AI. On social media there has an AI revolution which has resulted in artists’ voices being used to create songs that are not their own original work. This is largely problematic because individuals are profiting off of others, without proper credit. Songs created from AI, which I’ve seen ranging from Drake to the Weekend undermine the values of the music industry, which promote creativity and responsibility, essentially taking credit for something that is not yours. In my opinion, it is utterly irresponsible and immoral to be using another artists’ voice without proper permission in order to profit from it. While this is ultimately hard to prevent due to the prevalence of AI nowadays, I believe that there needs to be harsher punishments when it comes to those who have done such a thing. It is one thing to create a song using AI for personal enjoyment, but to release it as your own music, I believe is unacceptable. Combating such an issue requires stricter regulations and laws that can only be implemented by continues lobbying and shining a spotlight on it to get the proper officials to recognize that is is ultimately a problem that must be addressed. While AI is undoubtedly not intertwined into our daily lives, it needs to be used responsibly so that artists and individual’s unique work is not exploited.

Why do you want to work here?

I think that the unique culture and environment of is what has really drawn me to working at SONY. On the lifeatsonymusic Instagram page, I was able to take a deeper dive into what the workplace culture and environment that embodies SONY. The livelihood, blend of unique personalities, and the passion that is evident really stands out to me, even on a screen. It is authentic and I can tell that everybody who interns or works there is passionate about it. Coming from the Ford Foundation, where the importance of diversity and embracing differences were championed, at SONY, I can see these values in actions. They aren’t just statements made on a website, it is clear that through direct action that SONY embraces the values that it promotes. Fueling excellence and elevating each other are two values that I hold dear to myself. I have always had high standards for myself, even though I know that I am bound to make mistakes along the way. However, it is how I can respond to those mistakes which defines me. Being around individuals who are just as ambitious and passionate at SONY is invaluable. At the end of the day, my fellow interns are not just co-workers, they are my network, and being able to grow my web at SONY would be nothing short of an incredible opportunity.