Being an intern is no easy task. You need to juggle the unfamiliarity of a 9-5 corporate job, while also balancing the unpredictability of university. And just when you think you’re about to catch a break — something new always pops up!
Ever since joining Heineken as their Global Analytics Communications Intern, my schedule has been relatively manageable. I had ample time to complete my work, never felt overloaded and (almost!) always left work half an hour early. After this became a routine, I figured I would be okay taking on more responsibility. Next thing I knew, I suddenly found myself juggling several new projects in addition to my current responsibilities (mind you, I asked for this!).
So, come along with me as I tell you how one such chaotic day went as an intern in Heineken.
As per usual, I began my day with a hot chocolate and my 8:45am check in with my supervisor. We have these daily check-ins every morning at 8:45am to ensure that we’re all aligned, awake and ready to start the day. We often exchange jokes, discuss our plan of action and head into either our next meeting or our tasks.
At 9am, I was about to enter a meeting for a huge new project I was working on — the data maturity assessment. In this assessment, we’d conduct surveys and workshops with an operating company and use this data to create a roadmap that helps the operating company build their data skills. The meeting began with a quick introduction with the data lead in Cambodia and ourselves, and we dove into an intense, 2 hour workshop with Heineken Cambodia. It was here that I learned the value of patience, communication and typing fast.
Following this, at 11am, I found myself in another meeting — the Data Literacy Project. I’d been on this team for a while so I was very familiar with the project itself. I had been previously assigned the task of creating a video for one of the modules of the project, thus, during this meeting, we had the first viewing of the video (which everyone enjoyed!) and a feedback session as well as next steps for the launch of the project in September!
At 12:00pm, I was in the canteen, exhausted, gobbling up my lunch with some friends.
Networking is an important life skill, and I was attempting to hone my networking skills at Heineken by organising coffees with colleagues or people who’s careers I was interested in. Thus, at 1:00pm, I was having a coffee with a colleague!
At 2:00pm I was back on the grind — I was updating presentations, editing the video and preparing content to launch for the rest of the week in advance.
Our last meeting of the day was at 4:00pm. I grabbed my laptop, went to a quiet spot and proceeded to host our monthly webinar. We had invited data leads from our department to deliver a talk about their latest software launch. This call was highly anticipated, as a lot of our global operating companies wanted to use this software as well.
At 5:00pm, I was done. Giving myself a pat on the back for the hard work during the day, I bought myself an ice cream on the way home, spent some time catching up on university tasks, and was asleep by 11pm.
I hope you enjoyed my chaotic day at Heineken and I wish you all the best for your internship journeys!