Huh? JIDOKA? What?
I am Charlene Asvestas, a graduate student at PXL. I study Business and Languages with the option Human Resources. And yes, I was also an intern at JIDOKA, so welcome to my blog.
Then you start wondering how an HR student ended up at an IT company? Well, as everyone knows, we were confronted with the Corona virus. My original internship was interrupted on March 16th by this and a lot of people went teleworking and others in the company were no longer allowed to work at all.
After EIGHT weeks of staying home (read: being lazy, okay I still did my workouts but besides sports and eating I didn’t do much), I heard that my internship was irrevocably stopped and the school would look for other possible internships. In the week of 4 May 2020 they suggested the company JIDOKA which would offer a fully remote work internship.
Hmm okay JIDOKA, honestly never heard of it before, so I went directly to their website. My first thoughts along with my other thoughts? How is this going to work? Me staying at home learning something from people who I
have never seen? Luckily I am a person who can work independently. Next step was to write a motivation letter, which is another thing that isn’t very easy if you don’t know what position you’re applying for and don’t know the company very well. But okay I know how to sell myself and I’m not that bad at writing motivation letters (in my mind). Then the email came that there was an interest for a telephone interview, yes!
The first contact
My telephone interview was with HR Officer Paula Kozanecka, she was so friendly and accessible on the phone, that I began to wonder what she would be like in real life. Then I got the confirmation that I could start my internship at JIDOKA on May 11th 2020, I would support several HR and Office projects. I was so happy! Still graduating this year, yes!
Each day at 10 o’clock Paula and I discussed what my task were for that day and I also get some feedback about the day before. Very excited I was waiting in front of my laptop on Monday morning, waiting for the phone to ring. The tasks for this week had been written out per day so I could finally start.
The days went by well at home, the tasks were fun to do. I was also expected to come to the office for 1 day. I always find it so exciting that first day at the office with a new internship, new people, but now in these different times it was even more exciting… Less people present, no more handshakes (I don’t mind that much) and sitting somewhat apart from each other.
Now one week as an intern at JIDOKA had passed and I have to say that everything goes very smoothly even though I do my internship from home. Both Paula and the Office Assistant Karen are there for me if I have any questions. One week down, four more to go. Keep you updated!
Time flies!
Meanwhile it’s my third week at JIDOKA, jeez time flies. The second week of my internship was only a short working week of three days. Of course, that meant a long, long weekend, with lots of sun, food and walks. On Monday I was ready for a new work week. Every 25th of the month is payroll day at JIDOKA, so I was happy to follow Paula how she does payroll. I was very curious how this was done, as I had learned this at school with pen and paper. But I was amazed she only needed half an hour to complete the submission of the payroll.
I think it’s great that I now have a view on the Human Resources way of working in a company. What an HR employee’s day looks like, what tasks need to be done and what programs are used. It’s very different than in a Recruitment and Selection company, where I did my previous internship.
In the meantime I already created a routine in my remote (internship) work. The first thing I do every morning is cycling on my exercise bike for an hour with my laptop on my lap while starting my first tasks. Then I take my breakfast and work until noon. During my lunch break I go for a walk and eat something. And then I continue working until it’s time to call it a day. The days really fly by which is very positive!
Tuesday I was in the office for the second time during my internship. It’s crazy how there are empty desks, empty offices, … at Corda Campus. Secretly I’m looking forward to our old life again. Unfortunately, I can’t experience the JIDOKA family culture to its fullest right now.
Starting Wednesday I worked from home again, I can sit outside with this nice weather so I don’t complain. What I also really enjoyed doing this week was preparing a quiz for a first virtual JIDOKA teambuilding. I am curious what the colleagues will think of it!
Everything is going well, so three weeks down and two more to go.
The last weeks
The last two weeks of my internship at JIDOKA, wow, time’s moving fast. It’s already June… This week it’s all about WordPress. All the translations Dieter and I made of the website are done. Now it’s time to put it all into WordPress.
If you consider that three years ago I didn’t even know how to scroll with the mouse from my laptop and now I’m just busy with WordPress, SEO, making subtitles for movies, you can say that I’ve made good progress. I almost feel like an IT girl!
After all the translations were finally on WordPress, we started to improve the SEO’s as well. And believe me when I say this wasn’t easy. But we did it! In the meantime, I’ve also been busy with HR-related tasks, such as salary benchmarking, research on incentive plans and satisfaction measurements. In the end I also made a quiz about first aid and I also learned something from it.
And then it was the last day… I think it’s a bit sad that it’s already done. The last five weeks flew by so fast. I really learned so much at JIDOKA, my tasks were very varied, from Office tasks to HR to technical matters. This internship showed me that HR can be fun and certainly doesn’t have to be
boring.
I am very grateful that JIDOKA and especially Paula gave me the opportunity to complete my internship and invested her time in me. That way I was still able to get a taste of the business world. They certainly exceeded the expectations I had, JIDOKA is really an example of what an internship place should be like! Are you looking for an internship? Then I can definitely recommend JIDOKA!
