Internship at Confirmtkt – Dipin from NIT Jalandhar
After rebelling a hard time of internship hunt in his third year, Dipin shares how he ended up interning at a start-up and how he expanded his horizon.
I always read how an internship could be the turning point of your career. Well, now I have experienced it. My internship with Confirmtkt was a completely impulsive and exotic journey where I came across many unforeseen milestones and adopted a new way of living.
It was June and my summer holidays had started. I was seeing them as my last holidays, as I was soon going to be in the final year of B.Tech so I was determined to make these holidays count.
As the placement season was due soon after, I had high expectations from my 2-month internship program. I had joined the training program at the thermal power plant, Bhatinda for these summer holidays. But I knew it was not going to be enough. I had a deep-rooted love for literature and writing has always been my passion. I started exploiting my options as a content writer on Internshala and applied for a bunch of organisations and that looked interesting. As it was my first attempt at such a thing, I had not hooked my hopes on this.
But, to my surprise and utmost joy, I received an e-mail from Confirmtkt.com. It was a start-up, almost a year old, aimed at PNR prediction for Indian Railways. They were interested in me and asked for a telephonic interview only, as this was going to be a virtual internship. I cancelled my plans to attend a family function and excitedly started to wait for the call. Pranav sir, Head of Marketing and Growth and my (to be) mentor, called at 12:30, same as he had fixed via e-mail and asked me about my previous assignments, my ideas about their official site, how I intend to get more people on board and a bunch of other questions. He even showed interest in my college, NIT Jalandhar, as Mr Dinesh Kotha, co-founder of the Confirmtkt, and me shared the same trait, we both studied at NITs. He sounded happy with my responses and told me to wait for their final call. Now my spirits were high.
I used to check my mail ID bi-hourly from that on for four consecutive days. Finally, I emailed him on 9th of July regarding the final appointments. I was on cloud nine when the reply came, and with it came an offer letter. I had been selected for my first stint as a content writer and media marketing executive. I gladly read the terms of the contract, signed the copy, and sent back my acknowledgment to their offer. Now I was an intern at Confirmtkt.com.
On the same day, I received a call from him. He congratulated me, welcomed me into the team and provided me with a brief orientation. We were a team of two, me and Anmol, and we were in charge of the marketing. We were handed out tasks like writing articles for faking news, times the internet, witty feed, scoop whoop and other such sites, blogging for Confirmtkt.com, forum maintenance, social media engagement, content creation for site, etc. Every day was filled with something new and exciting. It felt like we were the face of the team in the market, we were responsible for upholding a certain image and improving the standards- And it felt really good.
We started developing engaging content for the blog, which used to be full of just train news earlier. We updated the blog template, rewrote the FAQs for the site from POV of an average user, and suggested a few changes for the home page. Pranav sir was really supportive of us and encouraged us to come up with new ideas and suggestions, without any apprehensions. As this was a start-up, we even used to engage with the founders of the company, Mr Sripad Vaidya and Mr Dinesh Kotha. 5th July 2015 marked the first year anniversary for Confirmtkt and we all celebrated it together via Skype. It was a fun virtual party.
In the second phase of the internship, we were introduced to the basics of marketing- What is SEO, widening the user base, engaging with a wider crowd, peak activity hours and much more. Facebook and Twitter were no longer just social media outlets, Pinterest, Quora, Instagram, etc. – they all were a gold mine now. I was regularly engaging with travel bloggers and enthusiasts, people from other start-ups, marketers, mentors, journalists, fellow interns and most of all, potential customers. Networking was fun, it became a way of living.
As we entered the last week of the internship, we received a mail from Mr Sripad Vaidya informing us how happy the team was with our performance. He offered to extend the internship and even raise the stipend. I didn’t want to leave, but time management was getting difficult as the placement tests and interviews had already begun in our college. With a heavy heart, I had to let go of the opportunity. By the last day, I finished my last assignment- a press release for the site- and said my farewells to every member of the team. They all appreciated my work and said I was welcome to join again.
It was a fantastic experience which I think has changed the course of my life. It carved new interests in me, letting me follow my passion. I made new connections and came to know of the opportunities available to me as a writer. It made me get off the engineering bandwagon and follow my heart as a content writer.
If Dipin’s experience motivates you, you can check the latest Virtual internships and Marketing internships.
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