This summer, Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics student assistant Phoebe Sakhrani ’24 has been taking her skills and interests to a higher level with a film music internship at NBCUniversal in Los Angeles.

Helping to coordinate music for placement in movies has been the core of Sakhrani’s internship. After a productive summer with NBCUniversal, she has been invited to continue interning in fall 2022.

Sakhrani shared with us some of the highlights of her experience thus far, how she landed this opportunity and how her CSUF experiences have helped her thrive.

Tell us how you found the internship and about the interviewing and hiring process. Also, what motivated you to look for an internship at NBCUniversal in film music?

I found the internship through LinkedIn postings. NBCUniversal is interesting in that they don’t post internships for specific departments; they post internships for a general sector of the company.

I specifically applied to a few of their sectors, but this one was under filmed entertainment. I sent in my résumé and cover letter then heard back the next day.

The interview process consisted of three stages. First was a pre-recorded video interview in which I answered given questions and a computer program recorded me. With the help of my friend and fellow Business Honors student Saleem Haider ’22, I felt very prepared because we spent an entire night practicing interview questions and researching the company.

About four weeks after the first round, I got emails from specific departments within NBCUniversal saying they were sent my résumé and would request an interview if they were interested. One of the departments was film music!

I then had two interviews, one with my current coordinator and then with the coordinator and the director in our department the next day. 

I wasn’t specifically looking at film music when I first applied, but once I saw that it was an option, it was definitely up there for me. I was mostly just seeking a position that allowed me to be creative (specifically in media) and work within entertainment. However, I’ve always been interested in music supervision, I just never knew how to get into the field.

What do you think separated you from other candidates for this job?

My passion and curiosity. In my second- and third-round interviews, I asked a lot of questions regarding the interviewers’ jobs. We also talked a lot about music and music within movies/shows. I also shared with them that at the time I had over 300 playlists on Spotify – I have even more now – which also is something they don’t hear often.

Tell us about your internship responsibilities. Briefly describe a typical day. 

There really isn’t a “typical” day in my internship; my responsibilities can vary. In one week, I will download and add metadata to songs sent to us by labels or publishers to promote their new music or because we asked them to send us songs for a scene, put together a playlist of songs for a specific scene, and look up the labels and publishers for specific artists or songs to then send to our director. 

What are some exciting or memorable things you’ve done in this internship so far?

When I was asked to send some of my song ideas for a scene that is based in a club during the 2000s. The challenge was that the song needed to be a certain beats per minute (bpm) that is slower than typical club music for the time. I was really dedicated to this search and finding even a handful of ideas was difficult. It led me to go through Reddit threads and playlists on other sites. I ended up listening to hours and hours of club music. Eventually, I put together about 10 ideas to send to one of my coordinators, who really liked one of my picks. It didn’t end up getting used for the scene, but it was still really fun to get to problem-solve and think outside the box in that way. 

Other exciting moments were going to the world premieres of the movies “NOPE” and “Easter Sunday” at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater! This was the first time NBCUniversal interns had attended a movie premiere, and I felt incredibly grateful to experience such a historic Hollywood tradition.

What is one significant thing you’ve learned during your internship? How do you think this will help you in your career?
The importance of advocating for yourself. In such a large company, it’s easy to fall through the cracks as an intern. I’m one of about 500 interns in the program, which can be very intimidating to think about. However, once I began this internship, I realized that if I wanted to be memorable, I’d have to go beyond what’s expected of me. The film music department is very busy, with a team of 30 people overseeing the music of every title of Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Illumination, Dreamworks, Amblin and 1440. Because of this, to make my mark and build strong connections with the department, I needed to show my skills, passion and eagerness to my team.

With the guidance of my coordinator, I’m more confident in reaching out to executives and juniors for information or asking them to assign me to projects. 

To further show my capability, I spearheaded a weekly intern blast email in which I send our entire creative team a playlist of music I’ve liked and discovered from the tracks we’re sent by labels or publishers. The department president liked this so much that he said I raised the bar for future interns, which felt pretty great to hear!

I believe this will help in my career in that no matter where I work, I will feel more confident in reaching out to higher ups. I’ll be more comfortable about asking for more work and sure in my ability to handle doing so. When I enter jobs, I will also be on the lookout for ways I can do more in my position, seeing what little things I think could benefit the team and speaking up about it. 

How have your experiences at CSUF, including Business Honors, helped prepare you for your internship?
My experiences at CSUF have made me more comfortable with networking and advocating for myself. If it weren’t for the events, socials and workshops I’ve gone to because of Business Honors and the Entertainment and Tourism Club, I wouldn’t have felt as comfortable as I did doing informational interviews with all the juniors and executives on my team. The strong support system in Business Honors has also been invaluable. In the months leading up to the internship and at the beginning, I had major imposter syndrome and felt very anxious about my ability to do this internship. Especially since it would be my very first one. However, I had amazing friends and mentors who really uplifted and believed in me when I couldn’t do that for myself. I genuinely would not be who or where I am without the guidance and support of the people I’ve met in the program.