Hannah, Customer Service
My name is Hannah. Unlike my fellow interns, I was a private intern, with no experience or educational background from polytechnic as I had just graduated from junior college. Even so, my boss and superiors at BloomBack have never failed to be patient in teaching me the ropes.
Being an intern at BloomBack has allowed me to be part of this loving nurturing family. Being able to laugh and joke around with everyone, while having a delicious home cooked meals by aunty Alice. Interning at BloomBack has shown me that it is possible to build valuable relationships even in the workplace.
I was in charge of customer service on various platforms, which required me to tend the customers who can be impatient at times. However, instead of taking over from me, they would advise me and get me to respond to the customers instead. Although it may have been a little uncomfortable at first, it has built my confidence while teaching me to be tactful. In addition, they also allow me to communicate not just with normal customers but also with big corporate customers where my interaction with them would affect the profits of the company. They have been nurturing to me even when I make mistakes, reminding me that the importance is in taking ownership and correcting the mistake.
BloomBack has shown me how each of our individual work together can help to make a difference. Be it from giving out beneficiary Faith gain a purpose in what she does, or the happiness of customers when they receive their purchase or the bouquets of flowers that are given out to our beneficiaries. Each of these has brought about a smile on each of their faces, while also planting a smile inside me as I realize how meaningful my work as an intern is.
Now, let me get some opinions from my fellow interns on what they felt about their internship experience here at BloomBack:
Ziying, Retail
I have had an interesting and fun time throughout my time here. When I first started, I was just confused most of the time. I am not really good with computers, but my main job was to help with the website. Though I am still not an expert at using the computer, I have definitely learned many things since coming here. For example, I did not know how to use BloomBack’s system software, WordPress. To be honest, I didn’t even know what it was! However, with the kind teaching from Bloomback, I am now able to use it with a lot more familiarity.
Another example would be the opening of a new physical store. They gave me the responsibility of heading the store and because of that, I have learned a lot about retail. It was an interesting experience as I had never worked at a retail store and it was very different from the F&B industry where I used to work as a part-timer. It has been a little bit difficult to adapt however after I learned the basics it progressively got much easier. Ultimately, I learned many things and really enjoy working at Bloomback and I hope that future interns will too.
Janis, Order Fulfilment
My time at BloomBack has been absolutely amazing so far! The reason why I chose to have my internship at BloomBack is because of the good work they do as a social enterprise. I love that I am actually making a positive difference to others while doing my work every day! I have a great team of colleagues and a good management team. We are like one big family working in a small working environment. They are all really nice people who treat everyone equally, and there is no workplace discrimination. In BloomBack, I got to make friends and I had a fun time working together with them.
Each of us has a specific role, and for myself, I did order fulfilment. When the task was given to me, I felt overwhelmed as there are many things to take note of. Though this role is prone to mistakes if one is not careful, the process has gotten smoother and easier once I had gotten the hang of it. My goal each day is to send out our gifts to get smiles on the customers’ faces and bloom them away with our quality! I made mistakes along the way, but I definitely learned from them earned as well.
Sim Wee, Operations
I am currently halfway through my internship at BloomBack as a marketing intern. During these two months of internship here, I had managed to learn a great deal of knowledge, not just limited to marketing. Being a small company, it means that often you would have to learn more and do more. However, this gave me the opportunity to be exposed to things that other typical internships won’t be able to provide me with. Despite being here for such a short period of time, I already had the chance to venture out to meet various clients to share my proposals and ideas to them and even attend a workshop on service innovation! This had certainly given me confidence and allowed me to grow as an individual.
In fact, just recently I managed to complete my first full project at BloomBack. It was about an online magazine feature of BloomBack on Ideas For Good, a Japanese based online magazine that touches on various social causes around the world. With BloomBack being a social enterprise that has a strong mission of helping marginalised women in society, it was a very fitting occasion. While the scale of the project was not particularly huge, I felt very accomplished as I felt that I had the chance to learn many interesting and useful things here.
Harold, Operations
As an intern at BloomBack, I am truly blessed to have such great colleagues and a great working environment. When I first joined BloomBack, I was tasked to be the stock in charge and had many doubts as I was new. As time goes by, my supervisor was guiding me on how to get things done correctly and teaching me new skills each day. With the new skills learned on the daily, the process of my stock take and also quality check gets easier. This role has taught me how to be more meticulous, which I understand is important when it comes to ensuring our gifts are of the best quality. One of the most important values I’ve learned from BloomBack would be ownership. For example, I made a mistake when doing stock counting resulting in discrepancies in the stock. I took responsibility and admitted that it was my mistake for not focusing while counting, and I took note to improve and not repeat the same mistakes again. I hope that future interns will enjoy their time in Bloomback like I did and learn new skills that will be useful in life. All in all, I hope to continue learning new values and skills from BloomBack.
Wardah, Graphic Design
In the beginning, I was very overwhelmed by the amount of task given. It was completely different from my previous experience, not that I was expecting things to be the same. As weeks passed, I managed to the gist of what was expected, though I am still learning, I am quicker at my job now. This job has given me the opportunity to constantly improve myself. Finding new ways to improve my graphic designs, maximise my use of Photoshop and video editing.
At first, there were many different colours used and different designs. It was time-consuming to keep doing new designs. I discussed with management that we needed to settle on a theme and tell me exactly what they wanted so that I can play around a fixed theme be it for Instagram or emails. This allows me to work faster and produce quality work. This whole process reminded me of how much appreciate the company for being open-minded in hearing my opinions and feedback. I take each comment at my work as constructive criticism to better myself. This job has shaped me to move fast and manage time properly. They have also taught me I’m not alone and that they are always ready to help.
As you can tell from both my fellow interns as well as my own experience, we have learned a lot in a short span of time, while still having a great time in the process. Come intern at BloomBack to create a one of a kind experience for yourself, or make a purchase today to make a difference with BloomBack by #BBgiftwithmeaning.