Interning as a toy designer at Hasbro has been a hope of mine ever since I started my degree in Industrial Design at BYU. I applied for the summer co-op with high hopes and low expectations, not anticipating actually getting an interview, much less a job with such an iconic company. So not going to lie, I was shocked and honored when I was offered a position as the Play-Doh team intern.

Working remotely has had its ups and downs. Not going to lie- some days were really hard to stay motivated and in communication with my team, but overall, it still turned out to be the most incredible experience. Over the summer I was able to support the Play-Doh team in a variety of projects at all different stages of development- doing trend research, creating mood boards, brainstorming, doing concept sketching and concept refinement, creating cost evaluation sheets, presentations and spec documents. I had the opportunity to present several of my ideas in meetings and to work on a personal project in my spare time using the new skills I’d gained. I listened in on strategy planning meetings in the morning and listened to lots of podcasts while sketching alone in the afternoon.

What’s made this remote internship so amazing has honestly been the people. Not going to lie, having such a kind and welcoming team to meet with every day, incredible coordinators who set up lectures and meetings with different departments, and other interns willing to reach out and spend time together (over Microsoft teams of course) helped to make this internship a time of incredible personal and professional growth. The passion and dedication I witnessed from everyone I interacted with motivated me to work hard and have fun this summer at Hasbro.

Carly Matheson

Brigham Young University