Juliann Carozza and Jake Tiernay - The Next Generation into Roofing and Summer Internships

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

What the next generation is looking for in a career and what you can do to recruit them. 

In Season 3, Episode 49 of Roofing Road Trips, Heidi J. Ellsworth virtually travels to Ohio to visit with two exceptional Tremco interns, Juliann Carozza and Jake Tiernay. In this podcast, Heidi finds out what brought these young professionals to work in the Tremco marketing department and what they think of the roofing industry after their 2021 summer internship.  

Tremco and WTI offer amazing internships every summer to up-and-coming roofing professionals. Interns at Tremco get to be part of the culture, gain experience working in various departments and get to present what they learned at the end of their internship to the leadership team at Tremco.  

Jake Tiernay and Juliann Carozza are two marketing interns currently attending college. Jake will be a senior at Ohio State University and is majoring in marketing. Juliann attends the University of Cincinnati and will be a junior with a major in public relations and a minor in marketing. 

Both students had connections with Tremco and the roofing industry from their parents. Jake’s dad works for an industrial coatings company and Juliann’s mom is a business developer for Tremco.  

"When she heard that the intern program was happening this year, I reached out to Jonathan [DeRosa] and he got me started with the process,” said Juliann.  

Over the summer the students have worked on a wide range of marketing and public relations projects including making social media content, writing newsletters, editing emails or documents, designing marketing banners, creating how-to guides and much more. 

“We were filling in where the marketing team needed help. We've also had some overarching projects we've been working on as well and were tasked with doing some market research in the UK. They wanted some direction and advice of maybe where they should look for business if we expand into the UK more,” said Jake. “That was the first time I've done any sort of market research report.” 

Both students agreed that the experience of working at a company like Tremco has been rewarding and career-driving. Additionally, their introduction to the roofing industry revealed to them the gamut of positions available for young people looking to start a career that embraces what they are passionate about. For Jake and Juliann, this was public relations and marketing.  

“Coming into this, I knew absolutely nothing about the roofing industry,” said Juliann. “I did learn so much [and] I'm glad that I got this opportunity to learn about something new.” 

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about what the younger generation is looking for in a career and how your company can attract the next generation.