From web developer to graphic designer – Finding my true passion with internships
‘The road to success is not the path you find but the trail you blaze’
Unlike my fellow students who were dealing with the expectations of their parents and struggling to convince their parents to pursue their passion, I myself was confused during my last semester. With just one month left and no internship in hand, I was juggling between designing, my passion, and development, my professional requirement. I was fascinated with Adobe software and wanted to learn them but web development was important as well. Amid this chaos and confusion, I received a call from Akash, an employee at Pure Design Solutions (PDS). I had applied for an internship with them and the call was for my telephonic interview. He assessed me on the basis of my technical skills and gave me an assignment on a programming language I had no idea about. I visited their Facebook page and saw videos of the fun the employees had at the office; that very moment I decided to work there. After completing the assignment successfully, I gave a Skype interview with the CEO of the company, Ms.Suchi. She asked me questions related to the work I had done in web development. She told me that they won’t provide any training and asked me how I would manage working there. I told her that I had learnt everything on my own and would continue to do so, but I would definitely need some guidance regarding my approaches. She asked me why I wanted to work there, and I recited the reason. Then, she asked if I was comfortable in shifting there to which I agreed. I was offered an unpaid internship for web development which I accepted.
My first day at the office was nerve-racking. I was nervous but confident. The office staff knew that I had a job offer with TechM and asked why I joined PDS instead. I told them that I was passionate about designing and irrespective of my work profile, I would build an opportunity to learn designing there. I was asked to measure the dimensions of boxes with scale, extract text from an image, and to copy type contents from business cards. I didn’t use the conventional technique to keep the image on one side of the window and type its contents rather I used an image to text converter. When I got the same task again, I uploaded the image on Google Drive and opened it with Magic which extracted the text from the image. I also helped my mentor in preparing presentations, excel sheets, and financial statements. I developed few pages of the existing websites which was built on WordPress, updated content, and formatted the blog. I coded emailers in HTML and CSS. I also did on-page SEO for websites built on WordPress and Magento, which I found monotonous. Consequently, I started to learn Photoshop on my own and the word reached the ears of the CEO. I discussed the monotony of my work and my interest in designing with my mentor and the CEO. After few disagreements and protests, they gave me a task to design a simple Facebook post image. I did quite well for a first-timer and started getting complex tasks. As I was still an intern trying to unravel a completely new horizon, no one expected me to do wonders, yet I put in my best efforts. I received a lot of feedbacks and my designs were used after many corrections. After a week, the CEO came and said, ‘I am impressed’ and awarded me the Forthcoming Learner Certificate. After 3 months of Internship, I was assigned the position I wanted. As a graphic design intern, I designed email templates, website popups, social media posts, blog banners, and infographics. I also redesigned the UI/UX of the existing website. Along with coordinating with my team and learning to appreciate the ideas of others, I reached out to everyone and learn from them. I worked with a lot of employees on various projects. The CEO said to me, ‘You are a Storyteller. You are a Designer. You are a Writer. Never Restrict Yourself’, and I never did!
Well, the internship was not all about working; we had our little moments of joy too. For instance, my team saw my fake birth date on Skype and arranged a party. When I saw my name on the cake, I couldn’t stop laughing. Another unforgettable incident was the CEO’s birthday when all of us forgot the occassion, but she treated us to a delicious cake. I developed a friendly bond with everyone at the office. My mentor would call me with weird nicknames. We also had lots of kachori and pakora parties and team lunches.
I’d suggest the newbie interns to learn new things at work apart from the work assigned, go to office early and complete any unfinished tasks or work towards their passion, and put in their best efforts. I’d like to thank my team for accepting me, guiding me, and believing in me. The CEO, Suchi ma’am, assigned me new tasks and motivated us with her encouraging words. She taught me to do better each day by challenging myself and working hard.
Author of the article: Monika Suryan
