In early July this year, the professional course teacher posted a recruitment information in the WeChat group. Jiangxi Shengyi Technology Co., Ltd. is recruiting human resources interns, with priority given to class cadres. My first reaction was very excited because few companies can provide short-term internship opportunities, especially in our field, which is rare. I signed up with the teacher that day and asked the teacher to submit my resume. About 10 days later, I received an interview invitation and then started my internship at the company.
From July 18th to August 23rd, about a month of internship, I met many people, did a lot of work, and learned a lot. As my first internship job in my life and my first contact with work related to my major, I want to record my experience and thoughts as a memento.
Starting the Internship#
There was a small episode at the beginning due to communication problems with the timing. I arrived in Jiujiang after midnight on July 18th and stayed at a hotel near the company. The next morning, I went to the designated hospital for a medical examination and then returned to the company to attend pre-job training and complete the onboarding procedures.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I entered the dormitory with my luggage and looked at the bare bed and desk. A sense of unfamiliarity and loss suddenly arose. I didn't know anyone here, everything was unfamiliar and unknown. After unpacking, I sat down and suddenly a question appeared in my mind: Is interning here the right choice? I found the answer one week later.
During the Internship#
On the first day of entering the company, the biggest impression I had was strictness, including strict hygiene and confidentiality. As a visitor to the company, I needed to register and the camera on my phone needed to be covered; when entering the office building, I needed to change into clean shoes. Since I didn't have shoes, I wore shoe covers; if I didn't have permission, I couldn't enter certain areas. After thinking about it, I realized that the company is a leader in the industry and certain things must be kept strictly confidential.
It was interesting that the dormitory, office, and cafeteria were all in the same building. The dormitory was on the 5th floor, the office was on the 3rd floor, and the cafeteria was on the 1st floor. If I didn't go out, I would be in the same building 24 hours a day.
The department I was in was called the Human Resources and Administration Department, abbreviated as HRAD. I used to think that the human resources department only had administrative assistants, recruitment specialists, compensation specialists, performance specialists, etc. However, different companies have different arrangements. In my department, there were also personnel responsible for logistics and infrastructure, such as managing the cafeteria, dormitories, and company infrastructure.
On the first day of formal work, I met with the supervisor and manager under the guidance of the supervisor. He asked me which of the six modules of human resources I liked. I was at a loss at that time because I had no practical work experience and couldn't say which one I liked. I just wanted to start from the beginning, so I said recruitment work. In the following month, I learned recruitment work under the guidance of the recruitment specialist in the department and helped the HR assistant with other tasks during my free time.
The main tasks that occupied most of my time were:
- Interviewing general workers
- Handling onboarding procedures (including pre-job training, signing labor contracts)
- Organizing files
As a manufacturing company, the main product was copper-clad laminate. Although most of the work was automated, manual assistance was still needed. Due to the large amount of labor and the hard work, the turnover rate of employees was quite high, so we conducted general worker recruitment almost every week.
We would post recruitment information on weekends, conduct interviews on Mondays, announce the results in the afternoon, and then arrange for those who passed the interview to go to the hospital for a medical examination on Tuesday, return to the company for training, and complete the onboarding procedures on Wednesday before officially starting work...
On Monday, I accompanied my colleague who was in charge of recruitment to interview candidates, and then we screened them together and sent out medical examination notices. After completing the pre-job training on Tuesday, we arranged an open-book exam and on Wednesday, I led the newly hired employees to sign employee handbooks, labor contracts, and other documents. After completing these tasks, I started entering the personal information of new employees into the system.
Before that, I had registered on the job information websites of more than 70 universities, preparing for the upcoming campus recruitment season. It was a simple but tedious task to find the job information website of each school, register, and save the account and password. Some websites required approval, so I had to log in every one or two days to check if the approval was successful.
During my free time, I would search for suitable candidates on websites like Zhilian, BOSS Zhipin, and 51job, invite them to submit their resumes, and arrange interviews. This made me think of the invitations I often received from others on these recruitment platforms. At first, I thought they were just completing performance tasks, but in reality, they had job vacancies and were inviting candidates persistently.
There was also an interesting task. My colleague gave me many personnel files of people who had previously applied to the company and were successfully hired, but for various reasons, they did not choose to join. So I had to call them again and ask if they were currently looking for a job and if they were interested in the company's positions. At first, I was worried that I would be scolded, but fortunately, the other party was polite and courteous. Some politely declined, while others wanted to continue the conversation and added me on WeChat.
One day during lunch, I happened to sit with the supervisor and we chatted. The supervisor mentioned that out of the seven people in our department, only one had a major in human resources management, while the others were related to chemistry and chemical engineering. I was quite surprised and wondered why people from unrelated majors would be doing this job. The supervisor explained that most of them had transferred from the company's technical department to the HR department. In other words, they had worked in the company's technical department for many years and had an understanding of the company's products, business, and technology before transitioning to HR work. This had its advantages, especially in terms of familiarity with the company's business and departments, which made HR work smoother. However, compared to those who majored in human resources management, they lacked more specialized knowledge because they didn't study this field in school.
I also remembered what my colleague who worked in recruitment told me. If you major in human resources management, try to work in this field in the future. For HR professionals, studying human resources management but not working in HR is a big taboo in this industry.
In addition to completing recruitment-related work, I also participated in the onboarding process for new employees. This included collecting and registering personal information and entering it into the company's SAP system, as well as organizing physical files.
August was the company's corporate culture month, and I participated in three activities. On August 17th, there was a voluntary blood donation event. Since I lived in the company dormitory, I got up early to help with the setup and later registered to donate 300ml of blood after breakfast. Employees who participated in the blood donation event received welfare gifts from the company, such as a bucket of oil, a box of milk, and two bottles of honey, with a choice of three. The city blood center also provided gifts based on the amount of blood donated, such as a bottle of energy drink, a set of bowls or cups, etc. I thought to myself that there were so many benefits, and I almost earned back the blood I donated. There was also a free bowl of pig liver soup.
On August 19th, there was the 4th Family Open Day, where employees could bring their families to visit the company, observe the production process, and enjoy games and meals together. As a staff member, I participated in some work arrangements. This year's theme was "Passionate Work, Warm Life". At first glance, it may not seem significant, but upon closer inspection, it revealed the interdependence between work and life.
The last event was the first King of Glory e-sports competition, which started on August 1st. There were few people in our department who played the game, so we borrowed three players from the technical center. We made it to the semi-finals, but on the day of the semi-finals, the team members had to work overtime and couldn't coordinate the time, so it seemed like we automatically forfeited (after leaving the company, I heard from my colleague that they rescheduled the match and won the semi-finals, waiting for the next match to compete for the championship).
For more specific information, you can visit the official WeChat account of Jiangxi Shengyi Technology Co., Ltd.
End of the Internship#
Returning to the question I had at the beginning of the internship: Is interning here the right choice?
My answer is - yes, it was the right choice.
This internship taught me the first lesson of adapting to the environment. From the initial confusion and unfamiliarity to the current familiarity and habit, I learned to accept and adapt because the environment is unchangeable, and we can only adjust our mindset to adapt to it. After living in the dormitory for a while, I became accustomed to my bed and desk; after sitting in the office for a while, I became familiar with its layout and routes; as for the cafeteria food, the more I ate, the more I got used to it, and every mealtime, I would wonder what dishes would be served. Communicating with colleagues more, I realized that making new friends is a simple thing.
In the future, we will face unknown environments and unfamiliar people, whether it is a startup company or a well-established corporation, experienced professionals or inexperienced rookies. Adapting to the environment is one of the necessary skills.
Secondly, I call it "learning to be content". Many people get tired of their work and feel that work is tiring and exhausting, but I focus more on the relaxation after exhaustion.
After completing the tasks assigned by the leaders, returning to the dormitory, taking a shower, listening to favorite music, or eating delicious snacks, or doing nothing and just lying on the bed and falling asleep, this is also a kind of pleasure, the pleasure brought by work. From another perspective, busy work makes our lives more fulfilling, and the day is no longer wasted and idle.
During the internship, I didn't have a lot of work to do, and I finished it quickly, but I enjoyed the process. Although the work I did was not particularly important, it allowed me to understand what human resources management specifically involves and how to do it. Don't complain about work, focus on the work itself and the value it brings.
Thirdly, building courage and developing oneself. As I mentioned earlier, making phone calls to people who previously applied to the company and were successfully hired required a certain amount of courage. You have to make a call to the other person, risking being scolded, and ask, "Are you currently looking for a job?" This can be quite offensive. At first, I needed to think about what to say before the phone call, write down the key information on paper, and then read it out according to the written words. The more phone calls I made, the more fluent I became in speaking, and I became less nervous and afraid.
Learn more, do more, ask more - these were the six words my teacher reminded me of before the internship, and my colleague also taught me these six words during the internship. After the internship, I realized that these six words should be applied throughout our lives, whether it is work or life, we should strive to learn more, do more, and ask more.