How I learned to grow up at Sunday Ins. [People & Culture Intern]
“Every day is like a rollercoaster here.” It’s fun, challenging, and sometimes scary. It’s not every day that I find success. The first phase of an internship was the hardest part and the learning curve was the steepest. There were many days that I was down, but also many days that I grew up here. In the end, I learned that it’s a normal thing to face if you want to become a better version of yourself.
Let’s get started…
I had the opportunity to intern at Sunday Ins. for 2 months in People and Culture or human resource team. In the beginning, I got to know Sunday Company by attending an event organized by the university and the company. Then, when I was looking for an internship during the summer term of my third year, I saw a job posting on LinkedIn and I applied via email with my resume and cover letter applying for the internship position. After a few days, I was contacted by the recruiter team and had a preliminary discussion about my background and my career aspirations. Then I had 1 round of interviews with the supervisor and after a week I received an internship offer here.
On the first day, I had an onboarding session with the P&C team along with other people who came to intern on the same day. After getting to know the company initially and receiving a small welcome gift. I met with my supervisor and discussed what I expected from this internship. I still don’t know exactly what I want to do, so I propose that I want to do everything I can to explore my career aspirations in the field of HR as much as possible. My supervisor assigned me to try both the recruiter and operation roles and I so agree with this offer.
Technical Recruiter Role
“Recruiting can be a job that changes one’s life.”
My supervisor showed me the value of the job that I’m gonna do.
The role of this job is to recruit people who meet the needs of the company to fill the company’s job vacancies. The process starts with screening potential candidates’ resumes through various job search channels and doing screening calls to discuss the needs and initial experience of candidates. If they match, we will arrange an interview with their supervisor. After the interview, there will be a discussion to mutually agree on a job offer.
The positions I’ve been responsible for include “Application Engineer” and “Network Engineer” which are so far away from my background knowledge. I have no idea what they were doing at first and I’m so scared that I have to offer a job that I don’t know well to them. But eventually, I spoke to dozens of candidates from various channels until being able to offer these two positions to 3 candidates.
“Learning by doing is the key to growing here.”
I was entrusted by my teammates to give it a try after just a few days of training which is very challenging for me.
I had training on the technicalities of the roles and job descriptions of many positions in the IT field, also the qualifications the company required. I had a role-play session many times with my team to help me practice to call with the candidate. I always receive constructive feedback from them. Both what I’m good at and what I can do better. Also receiving encouragement all the time as well. My teammates gave me more confidence in doing this job and made me very proud of working in this position.
I think the challenge of this role is to find a medium point between the needs of both the candidate and the company. Many times I have to reduce or add something to meet that point. And also many times, I will be disappointed by being rejected or even rejecting them myself. Working in this role has allowed me to develop strong communication skills in negotiating with candidates, coupled with the ability to adapt quickly to the nature of the job and transfer positions within the IT industry.
Operation Role
“I found that the new idea can be raised at any time from anyone, and people here can make it happen.”
In this role, I have been assigned to participate in several projects. Both internal work and external events.
- The Newbie Box Project: From helping to keep things organized inside the box and packing the box. I found that my little proposal, like adding an employee’s name tag to help increase their engagement, didn’t go unnoticed. On the other hand, it is also applied if there is a supporting reason that benefits the team.
- Employee Boards: Helping to classify the board by different departments in the company. I had the opportunity to get to know employees from different departments and get to know the organizational structure better.
- CSR Project: The project that collaborates with a high school in Bangkok. I’ve been involved since researching the list of schools and proposing them to the team. until contacting the school to make an appointment to discuss project details. This project has made me see the truth of the education system in Bangkok where some children do not have access to sufficient technology which leads to the lack of many opportunities. I feel valued to be able to be a small part of increasing this opportunity.
- The Internal Transfer Project: In the last project I had to interview successful employees who transferred internally and write articles published on the company’s social media platform. Through interviews with many of the employees, I have seen some of the common motivations they share both within themselves and outside that come from the work environment here that drives them to choose to continue staying. I’ve also seen many different career paths and felt the passion of everyone who dared to leave their comfort zones. I discovered that I loved hearing their stories and wanted to be as brave as they were.
Special Activities
“Participating in many activities outside work hours made me see a new side of my colleagues that made me feel closer to them.”
The activities that I participated in during my internship here are also very intense. For Internal activities such as knowledge-sharing sessions in which each topic is very diverse and useful in our daily life, Happy Friday where I can socialize and get to know my teammates and also the other teams.
For outside activities such as joining HR Tech Thailand 2023, BKK.JS event, and going on a trip to Ayutthaya province with a quarterly team budget. In addition, I also went to dinner with my teammates many times during the internship period. These activities allowed me to have a better work-life balance here.
Final messages
“Working with people is my fear. But meeting people here makes me enjoy listening to their stories.”
Finally, I feel that HR work is very challenging for me. From having to talk to get to know new people, negotiating, proposing new ideas, and adapting to various roles. These are the comfort zones that I always try to step out of. Even today I’m still not doing my best. But the internship here has helped me to be much less afraid of stepping out.
I appreciate every moment that happened here. Both parts are fulfilled and disappointed. I am grateful for the kindness and devotion of all the People and Culture team members who made me want to become a better person. And I want to thank myself very much for deciding to apply for an internship here. Since that day I have read Medium from the person who came to intern before. Until the day I sat down to write mine, I was so proud of myself.
Sunday made my first internship a very good experience. And I want you to experience it on your own. I’m sure that you will have a memorable experience by doing real and intensive work and also meeting a good culture from the people here. It may not be every day that will meet your expectations. But if you can face your fears, You will definitely learn something from it.
