PARTNER TESTIMONIALS
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About Lynn's Experience!
Hello everyone!
I will be sharing my experience working with Pearl Lemon Group remotely from the USA.
I worked at Pearl Lemon Group for 4 months (March-June 2021), and it was a great learning experience!
Introduction
I found Pearl Lemon Group on google whilst looking for a writing internship in the fall of 2020.
Several months into my last semester at University, I was accepted for the content writer position.
To my dismay, I was scheduled to work 20 hours a week, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both the internship AND a full course load of 17 credits during my senior year at University.
To my surprise (and delight), Deepak offered the position at 10 hours a week until graduation (May). I gladly accepted.
I even got to count my internship toward my credit hours which meant that working at Pearl Lemon Group counted as taking another class!
I already knew I suffered from procrastination syndrome, but it turned out to be more impactful than I thought as the weeks went on. This was my first challenge.
Month 1 (March)
The 10 hours a week was much difficult than I thought. As I said, I suffered from procrastination.
I still made myself sit down throughout the week and get my hours in, but I remember having to cram the rest of my hours in on Sundays before the week ended.
I wanted to be better.
What I learned in March:
During March, I learned to organize my chrome bookmarks and to bring my inbox to zero, increasing my productivity in the long run.
This is what my Chrome bookmarks look like now:
During this first month, I also had a hard time saying no. I took on new tasks for which I barely had room. I took on:
- Recording software review videos
- Writing up 4 bios for LinkedIn outreach
Luckily, I finished the bios, but after one software review video, Pearl ( the Head of Content and no, lol, you’re not the first person to ask if Pearl Lemon Group was named after her) reminded me not to take on any new tasks until May when I was working 20 hours a week.
First Weekly Team Meeting
I usually was unable to attend the team weekly meetings since I either had a class or Chapel. But one day, my Friday morning was freed up, and I attended my first meeting.
I learned a lot during that meeting, particularly time management (which doesn’t really exist- it’s just self-management).
My challenge for next month: don’t wait until a deadline.
Month 2 (April)
As soon as April hit, my personal challenge blew away like dust in the wind.
I was just trying to keep everything together at this point. Finals were approaching fast; assignments were getting harder (plus there were more to do).
Multitasking Marathon
I no longer stuck to a schedule but fit Pearl Lemon Group wherever I could or in between classes.
I remember working out, and sometimes, instead of listening to music, I was either doing homework or watching content writing trainings (multitasking! 😉 ). Nevermind how silly it might’ve looked- kind of, like this TikTok:
New Task Goals:
Despite all this, I was introduced to POP (Page Optimizer Pro) in the second month. Now I not only wrote, but I made sure to edit (something I already did beforehand) and optimize each blog I wrote.
I never submitted a blog without thorough editing/optimization, using these tools:
SEO was entirely new for me, but as a fast learner, I caught on quickly.
My challenge for next month: focus on Pearl Lemon Group, work 20 hours a week and see what I will learn.
Month 3 (May)
Finally. I graduated.
It was finally happening. Classes, homework, and everything to do with school was (almost) over, and I could fully experience this internship.
As a content writer, I wrote more than 25,588 words of content in the last 2 months. I was proud. And I had learned to push myself and write even when I didn’t want to (recommended by Pearl).
HR & Social Media
Noemi, Head of HR, was leaving; she had a new opportunity. I was going to miss her (she had always been there to answer my questions). But her leaving opened the door for me to try things other than content writing.
I began working with Akhila, and together, we were the HR department.
I loved this new department because I was still writing by exercising business communication, editing, and incorporating teamwork skills.
I love helping people, and as part of HR, I always answered questions, organized the meetings, or edited the toolkit. Not to mention, I loved working with Akhila!
Improving Pearl Lemon Group
One of the ways I contributed to Pearl Lemon Group was by organizing and editing.
During this month, I accomplished many tasks, but just to name a few:
- Updated and edited the onboarding toolkit
This is the training every new intern needs to understand Pearl Lemon Group, what’s expected, and how to use the tools. It is a vital document, and I had the privilege of updating and adding essential information.
Developed a centralized drive containing key information, contact details, and essential spreadsheets
I first suggested this idea to Akhila, and she readily agreed. Together, we developed a centralized Pearl Lemon Group Google Drive that each team member would be given access to quickly locate the contact details of everyone in the team and passwords shared for different tools.
This was information everyone needed and kept coming back to, so I added it to the toolkit in the hope of making it easier for people to access.
Suggested and drafted mission statement
After helping with suggestions for the Pearl Lemon Group career webpage, I suggested that we have the company mission statement listed on the page.
Pearl Lemon Group did not have one, and Deepak handed the task to me. Although I never saw it to completion, it was a challenging project, and each draft brought us closer to the real statement.
My challenge for next month: Exercise more creativity
Month 4 (June)
In the first half of June, I continued learning HR and was still head of social media.
Head of Social Media
Previously, I had developed over 30 ideas for posting on Deepak’s Instagram and TikTok.
I was quickly promoted to Head of Social Media (Instagram and TikTok), but after a quick call, we decided to wait until Deepak recorded more videos before moving forward on managing the social media.
In the meantime, I developed a Training to help future interns manage Deepak’s Instagram and TikTok.
New Position as Head of Content
When the Head of Content position opened up, I hesitated at first because it was such a big commitment.
But I wanted to learn (after all, this is what an internship is all about) and I wanted to be challenged, so I took the position of Head of Content.
There was first a trial week, which I passed, and I immediately began my journey.
This was my favourite position so far. Here, I was still able to do all the things I loved, the most important being:
- Control quality of content by proofreading, editing, & checking for plagiarism on all articles
- Train writers in research, SEO optimization, editing, & writing skills
I found that investing in the writers was something I absolutely needed to do and loved doing it.
Sometimes content writing had been boring for me; not every topic I wrote about was interesting. It was hard to enjoy writing during these times, especially when I wasn’t motivated.
I remember hopping on a call with a new writer and showed him how to use POP (SEO is always tricky for the new writers). It was more helpful to him than any loom and I was glad to invest time in him.
Challenges completed.
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed Head of Content. I enjoyed working at Pearl Lemon Group, and I especially enjoyed working with the people here.
I learned a lot.
Here, you can see evidence of all the time and effort I put into this internship by viewing my clockify report:
But this report can by no means really show just how much work I did and how much I learned.
What I learned
The most important thing I learned working at Pearl Lemon Group can be summed up in a few bullet points:
- Challenge yourself. Don’t always wait for someone to tell you what to do. Know your weaknesses and improve.
- Try new things. If I hadn’t taken the position as Head of Content, I would have never discovered how much I cared about helping writers and their writing.
- Be self-motivated. It’s too easy to give yourself excuses. Make sure someone you trust knows your goals so that they can keep you accountable.
What a great experience. And special thanks to Akhila for spotting my strengths and encouraging me to use them.