Interning abroad and remotely for an international company Peyton Babbe's internship experience at HH Global
January 16, 2020
Hi everyone! My name is Peyton Babbe and I just graduated in Fall 2019 (ahh!) with a BA in Strategic and Corporate Communication and a BA in Political Science. I’m going to share a little bit of my experience interning with a print-marketing firm, HH Global!
Since I completed an international internship in Dublin, I’ve had my heart set on working with companies with a large global presence. When the opportunity arose to complete an internship this summer with HH Global, a company with a presence in 44+ countries, just outside of London, I knew I was in for a treat.
I joined as a Human Resources intern within the EMEA region. My time at the Leatherhead, UK office allowed me to work on a variety of projects centered around employee branding. My objectives were to develop strategies to enhance the employee communities between the 44+ countries that house HH Global. I was given the freedom to implement the strategies as I saw fit, and it was liberating to utilize creative solutions to benefit a global community. I particularly enjoyed conducting an analysis of the company’s LinkedIn page in contrast with its competitors in order to enhance company culture content within the platform. Most of all, this experience was particularly wonderful as it solidified my interest in pursuing a career abroad.
I greatly enjoyed my summer at HH Global, and I was elated to receive an offer to join the Americas Region as a Marketing Intern. As the main offices in the United States are located in San Francisco and Chicago, I joined as a remote employee.
Transitioning to remote work has been a full-circle experience for me at HH Global. While I worked in-office in London with the HR team, we worked on initiatives to increase outreach and connectivity for remote employees and I was excited to see some of these objectives come to life.
Working remotely was a brand new experience for me, and has been a unique way to experience the organizational culture. Positive aspects of this type of work have included the ability to work anywhere, increasing the number of hours that I am able to work, and allowing me to work with a variety of individuals across the globe that I would not regularly have access to in a traditional office. If you are interested in doing an internship remotely, I would say go for it as long as you know you can stay committed and focused!
Working in marketing with HH Global has been particularly rewarding. My internship has allowed me to utilize social content calendars and scheduling systems to create and post content for business development successes, employee branding, and culture. Especially with a large company, I am always excited to monitor the engagement of posts I’ve created across platforms. Additionally, when I told my supervisor about how much I enjoyed working with the HR teams in EMEA, my supervisor connected me with HR in the Americas. I was able to work closely with HR to refurbish employee rating sites to not only boost the company’s ratings but also effectively rebrand so HH Global is attractive for prospective employees.
I’m sad to be finishing my internship with HH Global in the next week, but I’ve taken away invaluable skills and connections as I leave not only my internship, but also Chapman! If you are considering an internship, I can only recommend throwing yourself into your work and asking to experience all aspects of the company, you will thank yourself later.