Startup enthusiast by day, marketing ninja by night: How I made the most of my summer

By Sindhujyoti Biswal

In the summer of 2016, I’d just completed my second semester and was keen to do an internship at an MNC. Yet, despite my efforts, nothing happened. I used contacts from college, scrounged for HR contacts, and did every possible thing to grab an internship but I had no luck. HR personnel would ask for my CV and then there wouldn’t be any reply.

I’m a social media freak and spend a lot of time on Facebook. I first saw a sponsored ad of an internship platform on my news feed even as I waited for a reply from one of the companies I’d applied to, and was very impressed after visiting the website and soon signed up. Given my interest in virtual digital marketing internships, I applied to all available options but saw only one response on my dashboard—not selected. I realised that there was a problem with my applications and so took some time off to think it through.

I realised that my CV had one big flaw—it was not updated! Also, I was sending the same CV to all employers. How could a standard CV fit the different roles I was applying to? 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 was shortlisted by a company, Logic Simplified. I was given the task of 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. A few days later I was told that I’d been hired! I can’t describe the feeling of seeing that offer letter in my inbox.

During that period, I was also working full-time at the Amity Innovation Incubator as an entrepreneurial intern. I dealt with clients to get funds for investment in startups, organised 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 and was 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 loved it! And thus began my journey of product marketing and lead generation. I also had a great 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 the incubator work during the day and spent my evenings and nights devising new marketing strategies for the company’s products. Nonetheless, it was fun, and I learned a lot in those two months.

By the end of my internship, I had generated around 200 leads and increased the user acquisition by 7%.

Sindhujyoti Biswal is pursuing MBA in Media Management from Amity University, Noida.

This story is published via Internshala, the internship and training platform.