We welcome Ashley Ng, who will be part of the communications team from January to June. She came all the way from the United States to join Habitat for Humanity as Communications Intern. Read more to learn how she's adjusting in the first month of her role.
I joined Habitat for Humanity to supplement my studies in international business. My university requires that I spend at least one year studying/working abroad before graduation and this six-month internship met the requirements. When searching for a global work placement, I told myself that I wanted something new and that there was no point in going abroad just to accomplish the same things I've accomplished before. This led me to apply for the communications role at Habitat for Humanity Ireland.
This is not my first full-time work experience. In the previous year, I worked for six months in human resources at a large corporation based in America. I never got the opportunity to touch communications or social media in my first co-op. Going back to my desire to try new things in my second work placement, I saw this role as the perfect opportunity to fill the gaps in my experiential learning.
A bulk of my day-to-day work currently falls under the category of content creation, particularly short-form content, and consistent posting. This is in the hopes to increase reach, awareness, and engagement on all the platforms that Habitat for Humanity Ireland uses.
I want to give the spotlight to the scavenger hunt series I created on social media. Staff and volunteers take on the challenge of finding one item that relates to the three randomly generated words of the day. This series aims to promote different ReStore locations, the variety of their stock, and bring consistent content to Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Outside of social media, I also recently sent out the January e-news to all volunteers, posted blogs here on the Habitat website, and participated in training sessions.
My work is task-based rather than project-based. Therefore, the pace is much faster than I've experienced in the past. This shift has reinforced the importance of knowing my priorities and deadlines on the scheduling side. All of my work is done on my work laptop, however, I still rely on my notebook and post-its to keep track of my thoughts.
There is never a day without uncovering a new culture shock. Whether it's the formatting of the keyboards or the order of how the date should be written, I add it to my growing list of culture shocks. I find it ironic that a person in a communications role would have difficulties communicating "properly" due to differences in American vs. British spelling. But it's simply a challenge to overcome on my end and a source of humour on my manager's end.
This is only the beginning of my experience here at Habitat. I've started volunteering in ReStores once a week and I always have a good time working with the people I meet. I look forward to visiting more ReStore locations, attending more events, and filming more content for social media. I'm particularly excited to participate in the House to Home programme in March!
Keep an eye out for more blogs from me in the future, where I plan to speak about the different aspects to my time here at Habitat.
