Embarking on the post-graduation journey from intern to full-time is a transformational time, holding the promise of professional development, personal growth, and valuable lessons. This blog introduces you to Kaitlyn Palmeter, an Assistant Counsel member on the Legal team, who started off as an intern but now joined us as a full-time HubSpotter.
We wanted to see what that journey looked like up close, so we virtually caught up with her to get a glimpse into the start of her career. Over to you Kaitlyn!
Can you sum up your internship experience @ HubSpot?
I was a legal intern for HubSpot beginning in the Summer of 2022 through to the Spring of 2023. I believe it was the first time the internship program was open to candidates remotely, which was a blessing for me being a Los Angeles native and resident. I truly enjoyed my internship experience at HubSpot for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, they provided me with opportunities across varying topics within legal. The internship program really focuses on the interns and seeks to provide interns with tasks that are most closely related to our interests. Personally, I knew I wanted to focus on privacy, so most of my projects were directly assisting HubSpot’s legal privacy team. However, I also expressed interest in general corporate matters, so I also had opportunities to assist the corporate team.
Second, the internship program provided me with real-life hands-on experience. Most of my tasks revolved around research and writing, but I was also able to shadow a lot of different team members within Legal to see for myself what it’s really like working as in-house counsel.
Lastly, as far as remote internships go-- HubSpot has it down! I participated in a couple of internships remotely, because of COVID and always felt the experience was lacking for one reason or another. However, that was not the case for HubSpot as I never once felt at a disadvantage because the experience was remote, in fact, I found the program to be quite well-developed and leagues beyond what I had previously experienced.
What were some of the reasons you decided to join full time?
There were many reasons why I wanted to come back to HubSpot and it was really hard for me to be concise here.
- Probably the number one reason would be the people and the culture. HubSpot has created such an incredible team. Folx are super intelligent and great at their jobs, of course. But they are also supportive, driven, flexible, and a joy to work with. For me, culture is make or break and at HubSpot, I knew I found a gem and didn’t want to lose that. The hardest part about choosing where to work is you never know how you’ll fit in with the culture and co-workers. Here, I had already worked with a number of people within legal and business, so I felt I got a good sense of the dynamics. I also was able to join several Legal team meetings as an intern, which gave me direct insight into how the org. itself operates and communicates to leadership. I found HubSpot to be a place where one could be honest and where Leadership affords opportunities for us to do just that.
- I also saw HubSpot’s potential and knew I would be joining an organization focused on growing, which is extremely important to me as someone who is constantly trying to evolve and grow.
- I also have to mention, of course, the perks. Of course, the unlimited PTO is a dream, but the ability to be fully remote was also a plus.
What tips or advice would you share for those who are currently students and interns?
My best tip for interns is to be curious, soak up as much information as you can, and ultimately find work that makes you happy.
Find work that makes you happy!
And join us in building a company we’re proud of. Learn more about HubSpot’s culture on our careers website and follow HubSpot Life on Instagram or LinkedIn as we continue to share employee highlights, internal celebrations, learnings, and more. Interested in Legal @ HubSpot? Have a peek at our Legal and Compliance page.
