I run a successful business while still studying in college. Here’s how interns help me manage both.
About the Author: Prayas Gupta is pursuing engineering from VIT University, Vellore. He is the founder of Kkoir, an online clothing brand, and also runs Zulements, along with his father. He talks about how he runs his business while still studying in college with the help of interns.
We have a certain set of parameters set in order to hire quality interns from a bunch of applications that we receive. The interns are segregated on the basis of their college, past experiences, and the answers they provide for our questions. After the segregation is done, a strategic assignment is prepared by our design team for the interns to work upon. This assignment makes sure that we select the right intern who fits in our work culture and meets the deadlines efficiently.
Moreover, the everyday motivation for our interns gives them a boost so that they can put in more efforts into the work assigned to them. As we are in the manufacturing business, the best motivation for our interns is the number of placed orders by clients for their t-shirt designs.
From just one intern we have now grown into a team of 12 interns spread across the country. Here are some factors that helped us grow:
1. The benefit of having an online platform to connect with students:
As our factory is located in a small city called Tiruppur (also known as the knitwear capital of India) in Tamil Nadu, hiring educated and capable employees had been a rigorous and difficult process. Internshala provided us with the right platform to overcome this drawback. By just sitting on my office desk with a stable internet connection, I can hire and connect with all my interns spread across the country.
2. Virtual internships:
All our internships are work from home as we understand that many talented students are not available for in-office internships due to their college timings. In order to run a smooth and efficient internship, one has to be constantly connected with the interns making sure they are comfortable and are not facing any issued. We use WhatsApp and Gmail to be connected with our interns.
3. Being able to handle both professional and academic lives:
As I’m still pursuing my graduation from VIT University, working with virtual interns has proved to be the most effective option for me too. There are a lot of barriers one has to face when stuck between two phases of life, taking into account the time barrier and the need for proper planning. I’m glad that I’ve been able to manage both successfully, and I make sure that my interns are able to manage both too.
4. Compatibility with the interns:
Since all my interns belong to my own age group, we tend to have the same mindset which is why I enjoy working with them. It leads to innovative ideas which are an utmost necessity in a fashion industry. Graphic designing needs a lot of creativity, patience, and new perspectives which I believe youngsters can provide efficiently.
5. Never a sense of seniority:
Initially, the interns used to call me sir in our conversations. It felt like I was superior to them which wasn’t the case at all. I feel that all of us need to work equally hard to run a company right from the head of the company to the office clerk. In order to make it a comfortable environment for the interns, the term sir/madam was banned from our dictionary.
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