A HEARTful Reflection

In June 2022, I wrote a blog post on my Growth Journey and how I landed a marketing internship at HubSpot. Two months, two projects, one final capstone, three presentations, and a wiki space later, my internship has drawn to a close.

Internship Overview

The Role

As a marketing intern for the HubSpot Academy team, I worked with English Academy professors to help align their content creation and review process with customer needs.

Projects

I completed two projects that I presented to the English Academy Professors, and a final capstone project that I presented to the larger education team.

• For my first project (June), I analyzed customer and product data to find gaps in our existing and planned content, then proposed recommendations for content updates and net new content.
• My second project (July), I analyzed responses from a customer feedback survey and conducted thirteen customer interviews, then proposed actionable recommendations to improve case studies, learner retention, lesson relevance, and lesson delivery.
• For my capstone project (August), I synthesized the results from my first two projects and developed a wiki space and templates that guide professors to complete the content audit process on their own, and to transform their initial analysis into content changes.

The Day-To-Day

In addition to completing my projects, on a weekly basis I would have a check-in with my assigned mentor, 2-3 (or more) “coffee chats” with other HubSpotters to learn about their career journeys, 1-2 team meetings, and of course time to socialize with other interns. On a monthly basis, there are a few planned intern events/workshops and office-wide events (such as ice cream socials). I put a lot of focus on editing my resume and doing practice interviews with my manager and mentor. Interns also had the opportunity to do social media features and/or takeovers (see mine here!).

Most Important Takeaway for Success

Put yourself out there! Reach out to people for coffee chats, create blog or social media content sharing your experience, go to social events, and never be afraid to ask for help.

HubSpot’s Emphasis on Professional Development

HubSpot’s emphasis on professional and personal development is incredible. Before my internship, I had a 1:1 with my manager to get to know me, my vision for the internship, and how it fits into my overall professional goals. This information would inform my projects for the summer and an initial list of people to reach out to for coffee chats. At the beginning of the internship, I filled out a Working With Me document that outlined my values, strengths, and opportunities for growth.

Goals for the Internship:

• Improve data analysis skills: My projects mostly focused on qualitative data, such as support tickets, community forums, feedback surveys, and customer interviews. In a way, gathering key themes from qualitative data can be more difficult than quantitative data. I leveraged word clouds, sentiment analyses, and methods to “transform” qualitative into quantitative data.
• Make a lasting impact on the company through strategy-related projects: My manager made a significant effort to ensure that my work would be meaningful, long-lasting, and impactful. We brainstormed ways to transform my recommendations into tools, and decided on a spreadsheet with various templates, a comprehensive wiki space, and a slide deck.

Overall Professional Goals

• Marketing consulting or consulting role: My manager framed my projects as marketing consulting projects; I would be a marketing consultant for the HubSpot Academy team. While editing my resume together, we came up with ways to phrase my projects that demonstrated the key skills of a consultant (i.e. data analysis and stakeholder management).

What I value

• Respect: People treated me like an employee instead of “just” an intern. My manager and other team members gave timely, thoughtful feedback, and also expressed their gratitude for my work. The respect for work-life balance was never questioned, and I’m afraid it has set such high expectations for my future jobs.
• Autonomy: My first project was more guided than the second, with a detailed breakdown of my project into tasks distributed across four weeks. While I didn’t dislike this, I liked my second project more. I had a more vague project description and could set my own timeline, collaborate with UX researchers, and conduct customer interviews on my own. I still had weekly check-ins with my manager, but they were more open-ended and focused on idea sharing.
• Community: I really got to know my team on a personal level. Every team meeting would start off with an ice breaker and sharing photos on what we’ve been doing for the past two weeks. We also have team bonding events such as an escape room, cookie decorating, and more! Every week, there is a wider team meeting dedicated to expressing delight and gratitude for other team members, followed by a presentation and then discussion groups.

Opportunities for Growth

• I want to be more open to asking for help: The company’s physical set up (open office spaces, communal gathering places), digital resources (various Slack channels and wiki spaces), and culture (no one says no to a coffee chat) make asking for help frictionless. My manager also made sure to provide a list of “experts” I could readily reach out to.
• I want to explore more potential career paths and get to know a variety of HubSpotters: See above for coffee chat culture! I talked to people from a variety of teams, educational backgrounds, career journeys, and levels of experience. In particular, I learned two frameworks for thinking about career journeys:

1. Values come in seasons depending on time, scope, and budget. At certain times of your life, you will prioritize factors like salary, work life balance, direction trajectory, and travel frequency differently. (Thank you Jordan Ridge !)
2. Aim to answer the question, what energizes you? These fall under three spectrums: Narrow?(expert in a specific team/product) vs.?Big Picture?(high-level); Execution?(actually building and implementing things) vs.?Strategy?(providing recommendations and context); Core engine?(the central focus of the business, such as product) vs.?Ancillary engine?(the support systems, such as an investment team). (Thank you Katherine Britt !)

As I take on roles early in my professional journey, the most important consideration is whether the people I work with and for are good colleagues/mentors. Personally, I have found this a key truth; the work that I do at HubSpot feels fulfilling because my manager is someone I look up to and cares about both my personal and professional well-being.