.jpg)
Hi! I am Jia Ying, a HR & Admin intern at Mighty Velo. I had just graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a Diploma in Business Studies, specialising in Human Resource.
My internship with Mighty Velo actually started last year, in March 2021, as a HR and Marketing intern. It was a graded six months internship and I even extended another 2 months after that before I returned to school for my last semester. I wanted to make full use of my school holidays and Mighty Velo had provided me with many valuable industry experiences. Thus, I decided to stay longer to get more opportunities and widen my skill sets.
Fast forward to this year, April 2022, I was given the chance to be back at Mighty Velo while waiting for my university admission. It felt comforting to see all the full timers’ familiar faces and I was very eager to create new memories with the new batch of interns too!
This time round, I joined Mighty Velo as a HR & Admin intern. I was able to be exposed to more back-end administration as well as my usual HR duties.
So…what do I do here?
What do I do as a HR intern?
HR and Internship Recruitment
My main task is to be involved in the end-to-end recruitment process of interns. Exploring various job portals to attract potential candidates to send in their resumes is a fundamental task of my job role. In a SME, we do not have the advantage of MNCs where candidates knock on their doors for a chance of a “big name” in their resumes. Hence, we have to maximise our visibility to potential candidates, from local job sites to institution portals.
Next, I will screen through the resumes together with my partner-in-crime, Kelly, also a HR and Admin intern. We then follow-up with our boss on which candidates would be a suitable fit for the company. After our boss’ approval, we then proceed to schedule the first round of interview with the candidate. All interns, not just HR, get a chance to be involved in this interview process as this allows the candidates to hear the present interns’ MV experiences! Furthermore, Mighty Velo lets our interns to develop skills in other areas other than their job roles. I have definitely seen interns become more confident with stronger communication skills at the end of their internship!
After the first screening, our boss will take charge of the second round of interview and make the crucial decision, to hire or not to. We then contact all candidates on their outcomes. For successful candidates, we have crafted a new Intern Induction Manual which we use to conduct our online induction to prepare them for their first day at our workplace.
For their physical welcome induction, we would bring them on a physical tour around our HQ, warehouses as well as the Experience store at BreadTalk IHQ Building.
Benefits and Compensation
I was also lucky enough to get the opportunity to work on employee contracts. Under my boss’ guidance, I checked that the current contract is in line with Ministry of Manpower’s regulations and organised the clauses. I had the chance to get involved in WICA (Workplace Injury Compensation Act) and it was such a learning experience for me! School taught me the foundation of WICA and I was able to learn so much more from this first-hand experience. Schemes like NS MakeUp Pay, GPPL (Government Paid Paternity Leave) and GPCL (Government Paid Childcare Leave) are some of the other government claims I was tasked to learn! All these industry experience has definitely made me gain more familiarity with HR policies which I hope to apply when I continue my journey as a HR professional in the future.
Admin Matters
This second round of my internship, I got to use an accounting software to print and arrange invoices. Kelly and I even went out of the office to complete some errands and visited a few really big buildings! I was also tasked to update the customer database daily so the marketing team could easily access back-end customer emails to send out promotional emailers.
I got my hands on creating TWO online order forms for the Reach GT and the CarryAll and CarryMe. The new form builder which we just started using has a more complex interface compared to Google Forms which I was more familiar with. Initially, I faced some problems in my first order form but my colleague and full-timer, Jun Jie, was very willing to come to my rescue and taught me the ropes of navigating the interface. Those two order forms are now live and sent out to customers to fill in!
Beyond My Internship Role
My Cameos for Shoots!
Being a HR & Admin intern does not mean we only stare at the laptop all day. Occasionally, when the marketing department requires additional manpower, the HR department steps in to help!
We were included in a few photoshoots and even had to memorise lines for some of the videos produced. Through this, we found out Kelly has such a flair for acting!
Getting involved in the productions really made me witness how much effort is needed to create the perfect shot. From pre-production to post-production, our marketing interns always ensure professionalism and good quality work. It is definitely a fun day with the team when I am out for shoots!
Check out their works on our social media pages and Youtube!
FaceBook Live
This sounds crazy but yes! I got the chance to host, not one but THREE Facebook LIVEs for MV. I was shocked too…. But these experiences allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and improved my presentation skills. I remember my first LIVE with Kai Ming, a fellow intern too, and we were both really nervous as we had no prior experience before. He even had makeup on! Totally had that Korean idol vibe going for him I was definitely still feeling the jitters at the start of the LIVE show but after a while, I just began to loosen up in front of the camera and could even start cracking jokes.
My second and third LIVE show were equally as memorable as the first. I had the chance to team up with Marcus and Schuyler. Both of them had very good product knowledge on our bicycles and that lifted so much pressure off my shoulders. I could always count on them to make sure everything goes well.
What our audience does not know is that we have an entire team ensuring the LIVE goes smoothly. The technical crews operating the cameras and systems alongside the back-end crews managing the comments. It is a whole team effort!
My TikTok hustle
My not-so-secret TikTok addiction made me in-charge of MV’s TikTok account. Together with an ex-intern, Natalie, we filmed funny bicycle-related and intern life content, in hopes of going viral someday….AND SOME DID! One video garnered OVER 146.7k views and I was so proud of us. Now that Natalie returned to school, I forced Kelly to film TikToks with me. I love it. We did one with the entire new batch of interns too, check it out here!
What I gained from this internship?
Big part of why I enjoy working here is undoubtedly the people and culture. I have so much fun everyday, I forget that I am actually working. My colleagues-turned-friends made me look forward to work and some of these friendships are certainly for the long-term.
Even with all this fun, I got to learn so much more! All the industry experiences I was exposed to is not something most could have had the chance to as an intern. So, if you are looking for an internship that allows you to learn, grow and have fun at the same time, send in your internship resume now to hello@mightyvelo.com!
