Startup enthusiast during day, Marketing Ninja at night – How I made the most of my summer holidays
Sindhujyoti Biswal is pursuing MBA in Media Management from Amity University, Noida. He shares insightful details about his struggle for getting an internship and how he finally managed it along with working for his incubator simultaneously.
It was the summer of 2016. My second semester was just over and I was excited to do a summer internship at some MNC. I tried a lot, but nothing was happening. I used contacts from college, scrounged for HR contacts, and did every possible thing to grab an internship but to no avail. HRs would just ask for my C.V. and then there won’t be any reply. I still can’t understand why they don’t just inform if a student is rejected!
I’m a social media freak and spend a lot of time on Facebook. I first saw a sponsored Ad of an online internship platform on my news feed when I was waiting for the replies from HRs. I visited the website and was really impressed with the variety of available options. I signed up and started my treasure hunt. I was interested in virtual digital marketing profiles and applied to a lot of them; however, my dashboard would give only one response – not selected – for all of them. I understood that there was some problem with the way I was applying and so I took some time off to ponder over it.
I realized that I had a big flaw in my resume – it was not updated! Also, I was sending the same resume to all the employers. How could I send the same resume for different types of jobs! I started making changes in my application according to the job description and updated my resume. As I was interested in digital marketing, I tried to highlight my marketing skills and experience. I also really liked the idea of having an online resume!
Soon, I got shortlisted by the company Logic Simplified. I was given the task to create a marketing plan for their product. I researched about the company, understood their products and services, and came up with a marketing plan. My chief strategy was to target the gaming societies and groups on social media. I took my time and prepared a document with a final presentation and sent it before the deadline. They loved it and scheduled a telephonic interview. The interview involved basic HR questions. Then I further explained the plan and provided few more insights. The result was declared after a few days, and I was hired! The feeling of seeing that offer letter in your inbox can’t be described in mere words!
During that period, I was also working full-time at Amity Innovation Incubator as an entrepreneurial intern. I dealt with clients to get funds for investment in startups, organized startup awareness campaigns at IITs and other colleges, and researched on MOOCs. And, so the first day of my internship was a hectic one. I returned from the incubator at 7 pm and started exploring the website. I was really excited to know that the product I was supposed to work on was Gamentio, a gaming platform. I started playing Rummy on it and earned points. That further increased my excitement. I called two of my friends and asked them to become my leads. They agreed and visited the site. And they actually loved it! Thus began my journey of product marketing and lead generation. I also had a cool senior named Shweta who guided me through various strategies of generating leads. I kept targeting gaming communities everywhere. Time management was tough as I handled incubator work during daytime and spent my nights devising new marketing strategies for the company products. Nonetheless, it was fun and I learned a lot in those 2 months.
I also remember how I worked at night in the hostel and took a break only while going to dinner with my roommate. The whole university seemed haunted as we were the only ones staying in our hostel during summer break. Those days were the best and I would always cherish those memories. By the end of my internship, I had generated around 200 leads and increased the user acquisition by 7%.
Author of the article: Sindhujyoti Biswal
