In this podcast, Employer Brand and People Experience Manager, Tannum, talks about Golden Hippo’s exciting and unique company culture with the people who know it best. This episode, we spoke with Christina, who has been at Golden Hippo for almost three years and is currently an Associate Copywriter. She even wrote our company video!
Here are some of the highlights of Tannum and Christina’s conversation:
What’s your Golden Hippo story? How did you start your career here?
I have a degree in English; as a kid I wanted to write books. But writing books for a living is really hard to do - I discovered that in my college career. I worked in Accounting for 15 years. During that time, the pandemic hit and like many other people I was ready for a change, so I started applying to writing jobs because that was always the goal. I didn’t get a single response, except for Golden Hippo. It ended up working out, and here I am three years later.
Can you share any memorable moments or achievements that have had a positive impact on your career?
The most fun moment was writing our company video. It was outside the normal work I do, and I had more freedom in what I wrote and our vision for it. It was fun to work with all the other teams and see it all come to life. When we debuted it for the whole company and everyone loved it, it was awesome. I feel like they saw my vision through from beginning to end, and I was so proud of it.
How would you describe our company culture to a candidate who’s interested in working at Golden Hippo?
I came from a pretty toxic workplace, so coming to Golden Hippo was a huge culture shock. My corporate PTSD still sometimes surfaces, but that’s what I think Golden Hippo is: non-corporate. People are really fun and easy to work with. There's a lot of collaboration and teamwork. It's pretty laid back but you can still be professional and accomplish great things. I am 100% remote but I can still feel that culture from here.
What do you find most fulfilling about your current role and career at Golden Hippo?
I write for one of our pet brands. I love animals, so writing for animals and selling products that help pets is a fulfilling thing for me. It connects my work with my passion.
How do you balance work-life responsibilities while maintaining a focus on your career goals?
Golden Hippo is great about work-life balance and very respectful about your personal time. It’s easy to end my working hours when I want them to end. It’s never overwhelming or bleeding into my personal life, and I’ve never felt that my job overshadows my personal life. It’s all about managing my time well so I don’t wake up in the morning already feeling like I’m behind.
What does a typical work day look like? (Remote)
I usually start around 7AM PT by choice. On my team it’s fairly flexible. I start by checking my emails and messages, making sure my campaigns look good, and then I’ll send out some emails to editors for revisions. I’ll then start writing what I need to get done for the day. Starting early helps me stay motivated because I can have my quiet time before people start messaging me. If I need to block out time to write, I’ll pause my Slack notifications, set a short timer, and go for it. Once I’ve done that and it’s all written, I’ll take a look at it and tweak as needed.
Is there a mentor or leader in your career who has positively impacted you that you’d like to give a shoutout to?
It’s hard to pick just one person because I’ve learned from a lot of people here. Something our leadership team imparts on us is to fail fast, which is something I really had to teach myself. It’s okay to fail strategically, basically.
If you could give job seekers one piece of advice, what would it be?
In general, don’t give up. I almost didn't apply for this job because I’d gotten tired of getting rejected. I kept chugging along and it was the one that did reply. Be your authentic self and don’t be nervous. Even in my interviews, it felt like talking to a person. It was friendly and easy to talk to them and learn about the company.
For copywriters, try to think outside the box. Be humble and open to feedback, no matter what your writing background looks like. Be ready to learn new things and possibly unlearn old things. Always be looking for ways to grow your skills - it’s very growth-oriented here.
If you’d like to listen to the full conversation, click here!
To apply for one of our Copywriter positions (or any other available positions), click here!
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