マーケのインターンとしてHENNGEで働くってぶっちゃけどう？
おさらい
こんにちは、初めまして！HENNGE渋谷オフィスでマーケティングの長期インターンをしている古小髙（コオタカ）です！本ブログは私のインターン体験談や感じたことについて英語で書きますが、英語がそこまで得意じゃない方も気軽にリーディングの練習として読んでいただけると嬉しいです。では、どうぞ！
Introduction
If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering what life is actually like inside the marketing team at one of Tokyo’s most global B2B tech companies, HENNGE. It’s been about half a year since I started working as an intern at the marketing section, and I hope this article reaches students who are considering a long-term internship in Tokyo. In this blog, I aim to uncover the true colours of HENNGE and my experience working as a marketing intern.
What do I do as an intern?
Before joining this internship, my initial thought was that this would be just like another internship, where your boss just passes you the dirty work and I would be bored during work hours, essentially acting busy lol. But it turns out these were all preconceived notions I had towards an internship, and HENNGE has completely destroyed my idea of it.
However, let me emphasise that I do believe in the notion that to be able to do great work, you have to start from the very bottom. I’m not here to say that giving interns simple tasks in the beginning is wrong, but doing that for a prolonged period of time would defeat the point of an internship. Of course, when I first started working here I was assigned tasks that anyone could do, such as video editing and double checking articles.
But shortly after, I am involved in tasks that require critical thinking, such as optimising workflow efficiency, formulating marketing strategies, content creation for digital/on-site marketing, and so on. To many college students, including myself, these terminologies might just sound like any other buzzwords that are on the internet, but in fact, taking on these tasks actually makes an impact on the business scene in Japan, and that is what motivates me to keep working.
How do I feel as an intern?
Before talking about how I feel as an intern I want to really emphasise the culture at this company. I am a firm believer in understanding the culture of the company before joining them, especially as an intern when your time is precious as a student.
First, I was super shocked as to how bottom-up the company is. The emphasis on challenging yourself and adapting indefinitely is actually insane (in a good way). The CEO, Ogura-san literally told me to FAIL with a straight face, probably more than ten times. You can get what you want by just asking. In other words, you have to take the initiative to ask the people around you to be involved in what you want to do.
A few months ago, I was doing general tasks like editing and double checking but now I’m involved in content/event planning, optimising workflow, and so many other tasks and all I did was just ask. Of course, adopting this mindset didn't happen overnight. A key turning point for me occurred when I was creating an interactive demo for one of our products.
I would often keep the issues I face to myself as I thought it would be troublesome to ask others for help but that only delayed the process which affects not only myself but the whole team. So my teammates would always check up on my scheduling and offer help and only after that I realised it is completely normal to ask for help when you need it. You might be thinking I’m mentioning the word “ask” a lot in the last few sentences, and that is because all it takes is to ASK.
Another thing is, the people are all extremely kind to you. It's one thing to say 'just ask,' but an environment where you can comfortably ask for it is important too. My teammates are always encouraging me to try new things for me to gain experience, not only within the company but outside as well.
Conclusion
With that being said, do I recommend that you join HENNGE as a marketing intern? One thousand percent. As I’ve mentioned, unlike enterprise level companies, the foundation of this department is built, but it is not strict. If you see possible improvements within the company, you are more than welcome to raise your voice and take actions.
This is the advantage of being an intern in an SMB (Small and Medium Size Businesses). You get to take ownership of your own actions which is, in my opinion, a way better learning experience as an intern than interning for a large corporation. Also, if you’re interested in the tech field but don’t know where to start, this is your perfect opportunity. As being in an environment where you’re part of a company that develops and sells their own software, you will learn far more about technology than just taking courses online.
To be honest, I started out with zero knowledge about software and servers, but looking back, the amount I've learned about the tech world in just six months is unreal. In the upcoming months, I will uncover actual projects and tasks that I've worked on to help gain a clearer vision of what a marketing intern does at HENNGE.
