Hello! My name is Katharine Walker, I am a senior at Chapman University majoring in Strategic and Corporate Communication, minoring in business and economics, and I interned at Rentokil North America during the Spring 2021 semester.

Rentokil office

Rentokil North America Headquarters

During my journey of finding an internship for my final semester of college,  I utilized a lot of online platforms such as LinkedIn, Handshake, Glassdoor, and many more. I was able to apply to the seasonal human resources internship at Rentokil through Indeed, and was able to conduct all of my interviews online as well through Google Meet.

My primary responsibilities as a human resources intern for Rentokil were to assist with the company’s COVID tracker, onboarding procedures, unemployment claims, job postings, acquisitions, and post accident drug screenings. I am thankful that I was able to gain hands on experience in different aspects of the human resources field, so that I would be able to build my resume with transferable skills that I could use at any company.

Working from home at my desk

My “work from home” set-up!

I believe that taking classes within the School of Communication at Chapman helped me success at my internship because I was taught the values of leadership, collaboration, hard work, and professionalism. Every homework assignment or project that I worked on during my time at Chapman has prepared me for a professional role post graduation, and I am extremely thankful for that. I appreciate all of the projects that I collaborated on with other classmates, as the internship I am in currently revolves a lot around working with other colleagues on various projects. I also enjoyed learning about the professional work setting during my business communication class that I took. I think this class prepared me the most for entering the work force because I was able to learn about work place etiquette, as well as gain resume and interviewing tips.

 

Something that I learned from this internship is how to adapt. Entering a new internship during the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot was changed with the format of the internship. Instead of working in person, everything was switched to an online format. Fortunately, the company was able to send me a laptop and monitor from which I was able to work from home and host virtual training sessions with my supervisors and other colleagues. With that being said, starting a new role online is not easy, and takes a lot of adaption in the beginning stages. As someone who thrives from hands on learning, this was definitely a challenge I had to learn to overcome. By taking copious amounts of notes during training session, I was able to swiftly get the hang of my new position and complete tasks to my full ability. Featured below is a picture of the Rentokil North America headquarters office, which is a similar building to where I would be working in person.

Overall, I have enjoyed my time working as a human resources intern for Rentokil. I was greeted with open arms by the whole human resources shared services team and they provided a structured, informational setting for me to learn more about the chosen field. I would recommend this internship to any students who are interested in gaining perspective into what it is like to work as a human resources coordinator, even with having little to no experience prior. This was my first role in the human resource field, and now that my internship is coming to an end, I can confidently say that I now have the skills instilled in me of what it is like to work in the human resources field that I can carry with me anywhere I go from here.