Life as a Content Marketing Intern at CakeResume
Being a student in the era of the pandemic, we face hardships and challenges like no other. All the instability of circumstances, lack of social interactions during online classes, unstable job markets, and the list goes on. I’m sure that many people graduating during these times go through “growing pains” like no other generation, and if you are still going through it, I’m glad that I’m able to share my experience with you here!
It was July 2021, about a year ago.
Having just transferred majors to Applied Linguistics, I was on a personal mission to look for various career opportunities. While most graduates from my major go through the translation/interpretation or ESL education route, I believed that if I acquired other hard skills that I was interested in, and added to my background education, there would be more career opportunities coming my way.
That was when I got to know what SEO was. I had a rough idea of what it was but never got motivated enough to actually put effort into learning it seriously. That was until a friend of mine told me about CakeResume.
One random night, I looked up the site. It was my first time knowing that there was a job search platform in Taiwan that is available in English! I was so fascinated by the tools and the variety of jobs that were available on the platform, and while trying out the features, I came across the job posting for the SEO Content Marketing Intern position.
Applying for the role
The JD ticks all the boxes for the particular skill I had wanted to learn that summer: SEO.
I wasn’t even planning on doing an internship for the semester, but I felt that this was too good of an opportunity to miss.
Maybe because it was late at night. Or maybe I just wasn’t thinking much. That very night, I updated my resume using the platform’s tool, crafted a cover letter, and submitted my application at 3am in the morning.
Just a few weeks after, I officially onboarded as a Content Growth Marketing Intern at CakeResume.
Let me tell you how that happened.
The interview process
After submitting my application, a few days went by until I received an email from Sindy, who is now my supervisor and mentor, inviting me for a 20-minute phone interview. Just a few days after, I met Sindy for the first time virtually over a video call. She asked me about my time availability for the internship and if I didn’t mind the commute to the office (I had to commute from Taoyuan to the office in Taipei). She then wrapped up by telling me that I had to submit a pre-interview task, in order for the team to gauge my skills in writing and social media content creation.
I was given roughly one week to complete two content-production-related tasks related to what my job responsibilities will entail:
Task #1: Create an SEO article
For my first task, I had to write an article on a certain topic using SEO strategies. Since I had little prior knowledge about the topic assigned and about SEO, I spent quite a lot of time doing my research and carefully drafting my article.
The article that I wrote for my pre-interview task is now published on CakeResume’s blog!
Check it out here 👉🏻 How to Make an Online Portfolio [+ Tips, Examples, Guide]
Task #2: Create social media posts
For my second task, I had to create two social media posts that I feel will fit CakeResume’s brand tone. I had to create a post for Instagram and had the freedom to choose the content type for the other post.
For the Instagram post, I opted for a 4-page carousel post that explains the DOs and DON’Ts when creating a portfolio.
For the other post, I opted for a 60-second TikTok video of myself explaining the 5 things that people should do before submitting a job application. I had opted for this content type because I felt it was something that hadn’t been done a lot at the time but had the potential to become more and more popular in the future. (I also just wanted to show off my video-editing skills 🤣).
A few days after submitting my work, I got an interview invitation! I still remember being quite surprised when I received the interview invitation email since I had not expected this would have gone so well.
When I came to the office for the first time, I was immediately intrigued by how nice the office was. The open spaces and cozy meeting rooms in the co-working space immediately got me thinking about how nice it would be to work in this space.
The interview was very relaxed and fun. Of course, I was a bit nervous going in, but Sindy and Steffie Mayrelin who were present during my interview was very welcoming. I had about 30 minutes to introduce myself, and present my pre-interview tasks during the interview. Both interviewers seemed genuinely interested in my self-introduction presentation, which at the time I took as a reflection of what the working environment at CakeResume would be like — fun, relaxed, and open. They asked questions related to my ideas, and also showed genuine interest in my upbringing and educational background. I also actively asked questions about the work and the company.
A few days later, I received an email notifying me that I passed the interview and got the internship!
Thoughts on the Interview
As a candidate applying for the position, the whole application and interview process posed a greatly positive impression on me. I learned that the recruitment process is meant for both the company and the applicant to get to know each other.
Through the interview, I got to:
- Know what my job will entail,
- Understand the skills that I will be expected to utilize for the job, and
- Have a run at what my day-to-day tasks will be like.
And the company got to:
- See evidence of the skills I claim to have,
- See how I will execute the tasks that will be assigned to me, and
- Observe if my personality traits will suit the company culture.
Based on my personal experience, the key to landing an internship and acing your interview is:
Be yourself and be confident.
Flaunt any of your skills, personality traits, or background that you think will help you do a great job in your assigned role. Show your enthusiasm and describe how you expect to grow from this internship opportunity.
Marketing Internship at CakeResume
What I did as a Marketing Intern
Working at a startup, you need to wear multiple hats. Although I was initially onboarded as a Content Growth Intern, due to my Indonesian background, I also helped create content & manage the social media handles for the Indonesian market.
My responsibilities include:
- SEO content production & management (for the English-speaking market)
- Instagram page content creation & management (for the Indonesian market)
- TikTok page content creation & management (for the Indonesian market)
- Influencer marketing
- Ad content creation (images & videos)
It may sound like a lot of things to juggle at once, but I felt that it was a good work arrangement for me as I don’t get easily bored with repetitive tasks, and get to work with different people and utilize different skills to accomplish different tasks every time.
For instance, I worked with Elsa Djohan to conceptualize the brand tone for our Indonesian Instagram page and brainstormed strategies to kickstart our social media presence.
Both the English-speaking and Indonesian markets have grown a lot since I first started.
Currently, I manage a team of writers with a fellow intern (shoutout to Yin!) to produce English SEO content, and work with two other interns (shoutout to Williams & Annette Lin!) to produce content for our Indonesian Instagram & TikTok page, which have now accumulated a following base of 34K+ and 13K+ respectively! 🙌🏻
We do brainstorming sessions on what type of content to create, what topics to approach and how to maintain performance. Not only that this requires us to challenge our creative thinking, but we also need to be in touch with current trends, keep up with the ever-changing algorithm of each platform, and most importantly, communicate our abstract ideas into explanations that everyone can understand and that can be delivered into a content that would perform well.
What I did aside from working
Aside from working hard, we (of course) had lots of other fun activities at work!
Occasionally we would play board games together during lunchtime, which I personally think is a great bonding activity between the teams who don’t get to interact much when working.
We also had welcome parties, happy hours, team-building activities, workshops, Christmas parties, and year-end banquets, which were all a lot of fun!
1 year later…
I feel truly blessed and happy to be able to be a part of this exciting journey of growth.
The best part of being a part of the CakeResume team for me is the opportunity to directly learn and apply your knowledge and actually get to see the results of your work.
You get to explore opportunities, come up with your own solutions to solve a certain problem, and see your efforts come to fruition.
As our CEO, Trantor Liu once said during our year-end banquet:
“CakeResume is a “stage” where we all can show our best self.”
For me, it’s not just a platform for me to learn & perform, but it is also a platform that shows me what a great team truly is — a group of people that grow together while looking towards the same goal.
Want to be a part of CakeResume?
If you are:
- Passionate about making an impact,
- Creative, loves challenges, and likes to think outside the box,
- Strive to grow & learn new skills every day, and
- Fit to work in a fast, highly flexible, and adaptable team,
I think you would make a great fit for CakeResume’s marketing team!
After a year, sadly, my internship is coming to an end.
But…
More exciting things are coming since I will be continuing to work with CakeResume, not as an intern, but as a full-time employee starting October 2022! 🎉🍾
I’m very excited for what’s to come and to continue growing with CakeResume and my fellow team.
