HeySuccess Internship Challenge: Season V (Update)

Hello everyone. It’s me, Abyan! I am one of the HR Assistants for the HeySuccess Internship Challenge Season V. It feels like it was just yesterday when we announced the new interns who made the cut for this season. Time flies, and now we are on our fifth week of the internship. I want sum up some of the highlights from our third and fourth weeks.

This is why it is called a “challenge”

In the previous blog, Matea explained how we only selected 7 interns so that we can focus on each intern individually. Each week, it is getting more and more intense. The challenges that we give them are opportunities to deal with real life situations, such as how to manage deadlines, managing time effectively, and what to do when schedules and expectations suddenly change. In the first week we had 7 interns, but right now only 5 interns are still in the running.

Flash Update!

Unlike previous Challenges, this season gives flexibility to the participants to choose what kind of final project they would like to do. After some brainstorming and planning, interns have finally decided on the final projects they want to do for their final task. The only condition was that they had to choose a project that is related to one of the streams. Some interns are doing activities connected to the event stream, while some others are planning to establish their own HeySuccess corners through which they will be able to help their fellow colleagues find amazing opportunities abroad.

There are some interns who wanted to do the sales stream, and we have witnessed sales stars emerging —Omeir, Shaheera, and Georgina—who have successfully sold HeySuccess premium accounts. The final stream, projects, allows the interns to make whatever kind of project they want. They can do research in their field of study, make a student organization that will address something important to them, or whatever else they like. Georgina is one of the interns who chose this stream and she is working hard on realizing her dream to make an activity that will bring international and local students together.

Blog writing and #instagramstar

In the third and fourth weeks, we worked to polish the interns’ skills in content marketing. We gave them an opportunity to write a blog and the winning blog was posted on they HeySuccess website. The winner was Shaheera, who wrote an excellent post about why extracurricular activities are so important. You can find it here.

Since then, we have emphasized how content marketing isn’t only about blog writing. In the fourth week, we went over using Instagram for content marketing. Interns had to create Instagram posts about opportunities abroad or the internship season. We were so excited to see all their lovely Instagram posts and hear about their experiences. For example, Georgina made a post about her experience volunteering in Romania and a semester abroad in the Czech Republic. She expressed why youth nowadays should engage in international opportunities. Omeir also did the same thing, talking about several international opportunities he has had. With 3 internships and numerous student conferences under his belt, he believes the whole purpose of being a university student is to LEARN, not just STUDY.

Webinar, webinar, and webinar

Have you ever wondered how challenging and exciting it is to talk with people from different countries and arrange webinars with groups of people from different time zones? You cannot separate the use of webinars from the Internship Challenge or HeySuccess, because webinars are a platform we use to interact, strengthen our networks, and learn new things. We also use webinars to give lectures and train our interns to perform various tasks. We are thrilled about how they are able to experience intercultural exchange during this internship.

At one point, we had two webinars in a week. The first one was about marketing and it consisted of lectures and interactive discussion, which helped the interns understand marketing and how to promote their projects. The second webinar was the most interactive and also the most challenging. HeySuccess’s founder and CEO, Milenko Pilic, also participated. The interns got to present their projects and hear feedback from Milenko and the HR team. I was blown away by the creativity that the interns are using for their final projects. For example, Robier will be presenting his own sharing session to Egyptian students about experiences abroad.

What’s next?