My whole life, the word “job” seemed very daunting; I didn’t feel fully equipped to join the workforce. How would I know what to do? What do people even do at work all day? How would I learn how to do anything?
I was worried about choosing a career path defined by unfamiliarity and nervous about starting something new.
Yet my time at Hoffman and my introduction to the world of tech PR have been anything but unfamiliar. It’s been straightforward: a gradual slope that’s snowballed into an exciting career path.
Things Hoffman does well: PR, tech, tech PR and caring.
When I walked through the doors on my first day, there were balloons, streamers, breakfast, friendly people and warm smiles. That was not what I expected, nor had I ever seen that in a workplace before.
From the moment I opened my laptop for the first time, everything was taken care of: my schedule for the next few days, my internship curriculum, 1:1 meetings with everyone on my teams and an extremely long email thread with everyone welcoming me to Hoffman (cue a lot of emojis and GIFs).
Most importantly, the onboarding was gradual; it prepared me for both B2B tech PR and the working world in general. From taking the time to show me how not to “reply all” on a company-wide email to writing pitches and hosting briefings with executives and reporters, my team taught me every little detail I needed to excel in the PR world.
Everything at Hoffman is curated to set you up for success. For me, the pace of the weekly lessons and training sessions ensured I was able to sit back, learn and observe during my first few weeks. Eventually, I began to have a workload and a “plate.” I would take “first stabs” at tasks, and at first, they were usually far from perfect.
However, as time has gone by, the edits on my work have slimmed down, and there are fewer red markings and lines of text crossed out on my work than before.
I definitely still need my work reviewed, but I’m learning, and it’s a nice feeling to finally grasp something I’ve been so nervous about my whole life.
Because of this, combined with the people and the encouragement I receive from my teams, my experience here at Hoffman has been truly fulfilling. Learning as I go and embracing my intern journey are what helped me get to where I am now.
Three months in, and I’m by no means an expert in PR, but I can confidently say a lot of my question marks have turned into exclamation marks!
