When Work Becomes Play

For five months, Angel Asinas worked as an Employee Experience Intern at Globe, finding innovative ways to improve the journey of every Ka-Globe in the workplace. The answer, as she would find out, lies in play.

As a Management Economics student, I was curious about how to apply my studies to business cases. I discovered that Human Resources was a function I could explore.

The LinkedIn job posting that caught my eye.

One random evening while taking a break from my thesis, I saw a LinkedIn job posting from Globe Telecom. I found the title interesting: Employee Experience Intern. It was unfamiliar because my previous HR intern roles focused on recruitment, employer branding, and people operations. My curiosity got the better of me – I applied. 

Going into the interview, I got really excited because the role, I found out, focused on answering this question: How can we enhance our processes and events to further improve the journey of a Ka-Globe within the company?

A sample of a Ka-Globe’s Onboarding Booklet.

One of the tasks my co-interns and I did was to improve the onboarding booklet given to new hires. From then on, I knew I was going to enjoy this internship.

The ‘Hybrid’ Life

During my internship, I was actually a student at the University of the Philippines Baguio. Yep, in Baguio City. I was lucky that this role was hybrid, so I could still go to class and work on my thesis. You could also say that I was hybrid because I was a student for half the day and a Ka-Globe for the other half.

Check-in sessions with the team – meme edition.

Working from home (or from school 😜) does not mean that there is a lack of collaboration, connection, and productivity. I looked forward to our weekly check-in sessions – Sir Paul Constantino, my mentor, conducted the most engaging sessions I have encountered. 

Meet the TrEX Marias + our awesome mentor, Sir Paul & VP Nico Bambao ⭐

I got the chance to connect, both professionally and personally, with my co-interns Ricci and Ianna – we later on called ourselves the TrEX Marias. 😁 I would say that 70% of my internship was spent remotely. The rest, well… these are the moments where it gets especially fun and exciting.

Organizing the team norming for Globe WEX Team – and meeting them in the flesh!

Our first-ever physical project was organizing the team norming of the Wonderful Experiences (WEX) team. Prior to event day, the TrEX Marias were already collaborating online: designing materials, delegating assignments, and finalizing the program flow. I remember looking forward to the actual event because I was assigned to do the documentation and same-day video edit – which was a challenge for me as I had never done an SDE before. Nevertheless, I was able to go to Manila and spend the two days meeting not only Sir Paul, Ricci, and Ianna, but also the rest of the WEX team. All of them were so fun to be with and I learned so much in those two days from them. It is amazing how these different personalities are able to come together and form great dynamics!

Attending the TechCo Universe plus trying out the coolest gadgets ever! 😎

Aside from the projects we did face-to-face, another notable moment was attending Hello, TechCo! The goal of this event was to introduce Globe as a TechCo (technology company) from being a TelCo (telecommunications company). It was fascinating to see the modernization of Globe and the different technologies they are innovating and improving on. I tried the latest gadgets like VR and AR. One of the activities with the VR lens was riding the rollercoaster while shooting targets. Ricci and Ianna laughed and became embarrassed of me because I screamed during the virtual ride. It feels close to reality when you are wearing those lenses!

Volunteering at the Waawesome Musikachill 🧍‍♀️

And of course, one of the most fun gatherings I have been to is during the Waawesome Musikachill, a concert for members of the Ayala Corporation. This was thrilling because we got to participate as Globe volunteers for the night. Huge shoutout to Ms. Jen Zurbito for guiding us and allowing us to have extra fun on this day even as volunteers! ✨ Even though this was Ianna and Ricci’s last day (I finished later than them 🙁), it was a fantastic night to cap off our TrEX Marias moments.

Work & Play: The Globe Metaverse Museum Project

The main highlight of my entire journey was working on the Globe Metaverse Museum.

Expectations vs. Reality: The Metaverse Museum output vs. how it actually looked like for months

Behind the (semi-) finished product of the Metaverse Museum on the left are hours of planning and designing on a Miro board behind the scenes. There were moments when I dreaded the Miro board, haha! 😅 But I now feel fulfilled seeing it side-by-side.

Hours of sorting and analyzing gathered data in Miro 🤯

Despite the play aspect of this project, the work was definitely serious. The TrEX Marias interviewed different people to gather their initial insights on the virtual gaming platform and their thoughts about its potential launch. I volunteered to sort these data and summarize the key message for each aspect (hence my overdose of Miro, joke!). We also worked on different tasks to expedite things: Ianna researched the media assets; Ricci gathered information about Globe’s history; Sir Paul negotiated with our partner developer; and I explored voice recording platforms and designed narrative boxes. This whole thing did not just bring out the creative skills in me but also my analytical, organization, collaboration, and interviewing skills. It resurfaced my amateur gaming knowledge, too! 🤭

The Metaverse Museum now! 🤩

When the Metaverse Museum launched, I could not believe everything looked so real in Spatial (the platform we used) after all the storyboards, inspiration boards, and floor plan ‘sketches’. I am still giddy that I can see the fruits of our labor right before my eyes.  And that narrative box, right there? Yup, that was my design! 

Level Up! Unlocking the ‘Full-Time Job’ Stage

Just like in a game, once you gain enough XP (experience), your character needs to level up. After five months as a Ka-Globe, my leveling up meant finishing my internship and transitioning to a full-time career. Of course, my whole journey as an EX intern helped me get to this next level.

💾 Save As: Angel_s_Memorable_Ka-Globe_Moment.sav

There are three things I would like to highlight as part of my overall learning that helped me leverage myself in getting the career I want.

First, learning agile project management. Like in every Ka-Globe, we were taught the agile mindset when executing our projects. It helped me balance my studies and internship because every project was divided into smaller phases of planning, execution, and evaluation, which were delegated to the team. You could focus on things assigned to you while ensuring the project is moving forward.

Second – and in relation to being agile – collaboration will get you to places. Being collaborative shows your ability to adapt to different working styles and effectively work with a team to achieve an ultimate goal. In every project I did as an EX intern, the output would not be as awesome if not for the people I worked with. I learned the importance of playing on each one’s strengths.

And lastly, keep an open mind. One of the hardest things I learned from my EX internship, that I think I am still learning, is unlearning. In some situations, you have to unlearn what you’re used to so you can make room for new things you can learn. 

Even though my time as a Ka-Globe feels brief, all of these memories and lessons are still invaluable to me, especially when I decided to pursue a career in an industry that is fast-paced and requires adaptability. 

I will always be grateful for this opportunity to be an Employee Experience Intern at Globe. And to you reading this, may you find inspiration to embark on your own quest as a Ka-Globe. 

Game on! 🎮