Over the past few months at Hoffman, I’ve had the opportunity to work across employer branding and B2B tech PR, two areas I knew very little about when I first started. During my internship, I’ve been able to take on work that challenged me, pushed me outside of my comfort zone and taught me something new almost every day.
Looking back on my internship experience, the people I’ve worked with are easily what stand out the most. From the beginning, I’ve felt like the people around me genuinely wanted me to learn, succeed and get as much as possible out of this experience.
I’ve been especially lucky to have managers who trusted me to take on new challenges while also being there whenever I needed guidance. There were definitely moments when I felt overwhelmed or had no idea where to start, but I always knew I had people I could turn to.
At the same time, being surrounded by people who are so smart, hardworking and good at what they do has pushed me to grow. I’ve learned a lot about PR from them, but I’ve also learned what it means to be a supportive teammate and the kind of leader I hope to become.
Their support gave me the confidence to dive headfirst into employer branding, even though it was completely new to me when I started at Hoffman.
I walked into this internship thinking employer branding was mostly about finding creative ways to showcase what it’s like to work at a company. I quickly learned there are far more layers to it.
Every team, office and region has its own stories, experiences and perspectives. For global companies especially, the challenge is finding ways to bring those voices together under one employer brand without losing what makes each of them unique.
In an industry that can sometimes feel defined by products, platforms and technical jargon, employer branding has allowed me to humanize technology. Behind every innovation are people building it, solving problems, collaborating and shaping what comes next. Our job is to help tell their stories.
One of my favorite projects I worked on was helping create a talent community newsletter for a client. Full transparency, this project felt like a logistical nightmare at first. There were platforms to learn, processes to untangle and plenty of moving pieces. However, this project quickly became a puzzle I was determined to solve.
By asking questions, troubleshooting and piecing together each component, I watched something that once felt overwhelming come to fruition. Finishing that puzzle was one of the most rewarding moments of my internship.
That experience also reinforced some of the best advice I’ve received at Hoffman: Don’t take no for an answer. When something seems impossible or too complicated, keep looking. Find the workaround, search for a loophole, ask another question and explore a different route before giving up.
For anyone starting a career in PR, I’d pass along that advice, along with this: Absorb as much as you can and have the confidence to just go for it. Take the extra time to understand your clients, the technology they represent and why it matters. If you think you have something valuable to bring to the table, don’t be afraid to give it your best shot. Your idea might end up making a real difference for your team or client.
And finally, perhaps my most practical lesson from the past few months: Yerba mates are the fuel for success.
