Alum of the Month
Hollie Jones
August 2016
New York Program
September 2010 Intake
What and where did you study before your Mountbatten internship?
I studied Political Science at the University of Birmingham. During my time at University I worked for two local MPs, carrying out research at constituency level.
What made you apply for the Mountbatten programme?
I wanted the challenge of living and working in a completely different country, away from my regular support mechanisms.
Describe your sponsor company and your role within it.
I was a research assistant for the Risk and Liaison Overseas Network (RALON) at the British Consulate.
What was the highlight/most memorable moment of your working experience during this year?
I was lucky enough to be invited to travel to the annual regional RALON meeting, and meet with colleagues from Embassies and consulates across the Americas.
What was the social highlight/most memorable moment during this year?
Tamsin Holleran and I started a music blog, and made acoustic music videos of bands and artists in interesting locations all over the city. We continued going when we returned to the UK and Secret Sound Shop is still alive and well today, 6 years later (albeit a little less frequently populated). Our most popular video has over 65k views!
Please share a little wisdom/philosophy that you acquired during your internship:
If it scares you, it's worth giving it a try. You'll probably surprise yourself.
If you could change anything about your internship, what would it be?
I was so sad during the last month or so - I didn't want to leave! If I could go back I would not let that consume me as much, everything turned out just fine.
What happened after completing the year - what did you do next?
I returned to London, tried a couple of things out and eventually ended up working at Kiosk, an insight and content agency that at the time was just a few months old.
Where are you now in your working life and what do you do?
I'm still with Kiosk, and lucky enough to lead our New York office. We connect with consumers and help them to create content that enables us to answer key business questions. We work across categories for clients all over the world- including the BBC, Pepsi Co, Unilever, Diageo and Visa. I'm very excited to have our first Mountbatten intern join our New York office this month.
Do you have any future plans that you would like to realise & what are they (career & social)?
To make sure that the people I work alongside are happy and feel like they're learning and growing every day. Outside of work, I'm pretty keen on getting a dog.
What three words would you use to describe yourself?
Focused, thoughtful, playful.