This article was written by Himawan, Talent Development Manager, Indonesia, as part of 24Slides’ Storyteller’s Program.
In the past few years, I’ve seen many new faces coming to 24Slides as new employees, but some of them are not exactly new. It turns out that we have some talents rising from our internship program. I wondered what brought them back here, so I got Stephen and Ayu to share their stories. Let’s find out how they decided to continue their journey here.
Stephen is one of our Junior Associate Design Manager (JADM), who started his journey at 24Slides in 2018 as an intern. A few months after finishing his internship, he got recruited and became a part of 24Slides. He made the decision to go back since what he learned during the internship was real work. “It made it easier for me to adapt to the job here,” he said.
Everything Stephen learned here has significantly changed how he sees PowerPoint. He learned all the way from basics, and now he has come a long way. “I struggled in color accuracy due to my partial colorblind condition, but the company kept supporting me,” he added. He managed to overcome the challenge by utilizing color codes. Today, as a JADM, he has made a lot of improvements compared to when he first started.
Ayu, one of the most recent additions to 24Slides, also has an interesting experience to share from her internship days. She started a 3-month internship in September 2021, and she joined us as our first Talent Acquisition Officer (TAO) the following November. “At the end of my internship period, 24Slides had an open recruitment for the TAO position; I just took the opportunity since I felt it is closely related to my area of study”, Ayu recalled. The announcement was in the middle of November – before her internship ended, so she just went straight into working as an employee.
24Slides gave Ayu the opportunity to learn and implement the knowledge from her studies. “It was an epic experience to be appointed as an interviewer in a recruitment process and then got involved in the decision making upon selecting candidates,” Ayu said. She felt every activity during the internship was very memorable and meaningful. From her experience, she believes it is genuine that 24Slides does well in treating people, not just employees. “Their culture of treating people well is really valuable in the professional world,” she added.
Both Stephen and Ayu have experienced growth through their journey at 24Slides. “Obviously, I’m happy and proud of myself,” Ayu said in excitement. For her, what she is doing now as an employee is more or less the same as what she learned during the internship as she got involved in many events. However, she has more responsibility as both initiator and executor now. As for Stephen, he has a unique experience assisting an intern as a mentor. “It unlocks my ability to transfer knowledge to someone new to the design industry, and I’ve been in that same position when I was an intern here,” he explained. From their stories, we can see how 24Slides has always been a place to learn, live, and grow throughout the years. Guess that’s what keeps bringing people back here.
