George Washington University Athletics
Summer Spotlight: Youssef Ragab of Men's Swimming & Diving
8/9/2019 2:22:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving
GW swimmer has spent the summer in his native Egypt
Youssef Ragab of GW swimming and diving has spent the summer in his native Egypt working in the marketing department at Unilever. It's been an eye-opening experience for the rising junior swimmer who has earned All-Conference honors in each of his first two seasons in Buff and Blue.
GWsports.com caught up with Ragab to find out more about his summer.
What was the process for landing this internship?
There were several rounds of interviews, a lot of which tested things I learned about in my courses here at GW. It was very interesting to see how some of the concepts work in practice. The process included an online form, then a set of games that you had to complete on your phone, an online interview and finally an in-person interview.
What is a typical day like in this internship?
A typical day for me is usually about eight hours, maybe a bit less than that, and consists of a lot of work with various marketing agencies.
We will usually brief these agencies for a certain project and then wait for them to come back to us with proposals. The proposals will end up going back and forth with us giving them comments and then discussing the new outcome with the rest of the team on the project. We get everyone's comments again and keep at it until we have a final draft for a plan that we can execute.
What have been the highlights of your summer so far?
The biggest highlight of this summer would be being with my family and friends. I would say it was very nice to have a quiet summer.
I did not travel much or do any crazy activities. It was a way for me to get back to normal life in Egypt rather than treat the summer like a three-month long vacation.
I also got to show my former teammate Nicolas Reeves around some parts of Egypt. He is here at the American University in Cairo doing an Arabic course, so we hung out a few times in Cairo and I showed him around my hometown of Alexandria for a weekend.
What have you learned this summer that will help you going forward?
The biggest thing about this internship is that it puts me in a unique situation of working with the team that oversees building the brand image from scratch. This has given me an insight to what it takes to brand a product and the decision-making
process behind it.
A big part of this internship was trying to figure out whether this line of work, at a place like Unilever, was right for me. And for the most part it is. It's fast-paced, dynamic and ever-changing, all things I am looking for in a workplace.
It's also shown me what I need to focus on in school, like what classes will help teach the skills that I'd need in such a position. Since I am also majoring in business analytics, it's very interesting for me to see what data people are using to make decisions.
What has your swim training been like this summer?
After the season at GW, I was coming off an injury to both my shoulders, which meant I had to take some time off until around mid-May. Then, unfortunately I had to get a tonsillectomy in the beginning of June, so that had me out for another month.
I got back training full-time around mid-July, which should give me enough time to get back in shape for another season at GW. We all have goals for the upcoming season, and getting back in shape for the start of school is crucial for achieving these goals.
GWsports.com caught up with Ragab to find out more about his summer.
What was the process for landing this internship?
There were several rounds of interviews, a lot of which tested things I learned about in my courses here at GW. It was very interesting to see how some of the concepts work in practice. The process included an online form, then a set of games that you had to complete on your phone, an online interview and finally an in-person interview.
What is a typical day like in this internship?
A typical day for me is usually about eight hours, maybe a bit less than that, and consists of a lot of work with various marketing agencies.
We will usually brief these agencies for a certain project and then wait for them to come back to us with proposals. The proposals will end up going back and forth with us giving them comments and then discussing the new outcome with the rest of the team on the project. We get everyone's comments again and keep at it until we have a final draft for a plan that we can execute.
What have been the highlights of your summer so far?
The biggest highlight of this summer would be being with my family and friends. I would say it was very nice to have a quiet summer.
I did not travel much or do any crazy activities. It was a way for me to get back to normal life in Egypt rather than treat the summer like a three-month long vacation.
I also got to show my former teammate Nicolas Reeves around some parts of Egypt. He is here at the American University in Cairo doing an Arabic course, so we hung out a few times in Cairo and I showed him around my hometown of Alexandria for a weekend.
What have you learned this summer that will help you going forward?
The biggest thing about this internship is that it puts me in a unique situation of working with the team that oversees building the brand image from scratch. This has given me an insight to what it takes to brand a product and the decision-making
process behind it.
A big part of this internship was trying to figure out whether this line of work, at a place like Unilever, was right for me. And for the most part it is. It's fast-paced, dynamic and ever-changing, all things I am looking for in a workplace.
It's also shown me what I need to focus on in school, like what classes will help teach the skills that I'd need in such a position. Since I am also majoring in business analytics, it's very interesting for me to see what data people are using to make decisions.
What has your swim training been like this summer?
After the season at GW, I was coming off an injury to both my shoulders, which meant I had to take some time off until around mid-May. Then, unfortunately I had to get a tonsillectomy in the beginning of June, so that had me out for another month.
I got back training full-time around mid-July, which should give me enough time to get back in shape for another season at GW. We all have goals for the upcoming season, and getting back in shape for the start of school is crucial for achieving these goals.
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Swimming and Diving
/ Men's Swimming and Diving
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