‘People and Finance intern’ seems to indicate pretty clearly what it is I do on a day to day basis, but in truth the border is rather blurred and my scope of projects rather diverse.
How does an intern end up at Hokodo?
I came to Hokodo from Cardiff University for my sandwich placement year in November 2021 (having just missed the window for the offsite trip to Malta, which I was pretty furious about). I wasn't given much indication as to how or where to find placements but rather a general direction I often get from my mother: “Get a job”. I decided to take a risk and ignore the swathes of companies offering to do specific placement roles and instead spammed the living hell out of CEOs of interesting companies. This landed me at Hokodo, where I don't think I could have asked for a better opportunity for personal growth and development.
Getting into the nitty gritty of the actual day to day, my work consists of mainly introducing new ideas to the People function (we say People, not HR) and improving on the old ones.
One of the most exciting additions that I’ve worked on recently is part of our rebrand! I’ve been tasked with designing and producing our new merch, this includes items ranging from our Hoko-hoodies to mugs and Hokotokens. That doesn't sound like a normal People activity does it? Well I would refer you back to the first line: my spectrum of work is quite broad. The great thing is I have been given a say in what kind of projects I would like to help out in and that’s one of my favourite things about working at Hokodo.
A more traditional People activity that I have been hard at work on and improving with each iteration is onboarding new employees. We get new joiners every two weeks, which gives us a rather good window to make little tweaks bit by bit (sometimes rather drastic changes too) in order to improve. I can proudly say that every one of our joiners is amazed at the onboarding process and really manages to get stuck in very quickly. Luckily, as we are growing more and more (48 Hokodians when I joined and now breaching 90), we have recently hired Joris for the People team in Paris who is a joy to work with and really good for bouncing ideas off and planning – we have some more big changes to add yet. I hope that by the time my placement finishes, we will be able to say that Hokodo’s onboarding is really ‘best in class’!
Running alongside my main projects I always have a bit of upkeep to do. That might be making sure everyone is well equipped or could be organising fun events for the team, like our pizza party the other day! Just a warning though, if ever Johnny Knight from the tech team invites you over for a pizza at his house, say NO!
I have really enjoyed everything I have done at Hokodo and, when I get back to Cardiff for my final year and beyond, I can really say that I will cherish all these memories and will look forward to seeing my fellow Hokodians soon!
Fancy finding out for yourself just how great Archie's onboarding process is? Check out the latest vacancies at Hokodo and apply today.
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