Making of InternSaturday 2013
Nikhil Varshney is (now) a 4th year Civil Engineering student at IIT Roorkee, is one of Internshala’s first CampusInterns and was the lead coordinator for InternSaturday 2013 – Internshala’s flagship on ground career guidance and networking event for students from all over India. In this article, he relives his experience of making InternSaturday 2013 a reality and what he learned in the process.
As I sit comfortably in my room reminiscing the complete experience of working with Internshala, I feel lucky to have had a chance to work here. My stint with Internshala started off as a part of the first ever group of Campus Interns hired by Internshala. Soon, I was made responsible for handling Internshala’s social media channels reaching out to nearly 50,000 students pan India. It was an awe inspiring feeling to see what I wrote affected so many students across the nation.
I was starting to get a hang of handling the social media when one day sitting in a restaurant in Gurgaon, Sarvesh offered me the role of lead co-ordinator for InternSaturday 2013. I had attended InternSaturday 2012 as a student participant, so I knew the concept and the aim behind the event. And considering InternSaturday happens at national scale my obvious question was who ALL would I be working with? Separate dedicated design, sponsorship, marketing teams etc. may be? But I was told that I will have to be a one man army (with support from the Internshala team). And the first thought that came to my mind was – is it even possible? At that time I had no idea what I was getting into. I was warned that these will be testing times and would require pushing the limits. I accepted the challenge and from then on there was no looking back.
The next two months were a frenzied mix of phone calls, designing, brain storming, pitching, ideating, co-ordinating and what not! I always found myself occupied with either inviting corporate leaders to the event or publishing posts reaching out to thousands of students inviting applications. Each day went by with the deadlines approaching and race to complete the tasks within time. The whole experience involved great emotional highs and lows ranging from Dr. Kiran Bedi agreeing to keynote the event, to repeatedly being bumped by speakers and sponsors.
With all the help from rest of the team, InternSaturday has been one of the most intense and varied learning experience for me. From writing a tactical email to writing a Javascript code, I did it all. And it was also fun! From Maggi making ceremonies (an Internshala exclusive :D) to hanging out with the team for lunch and movies. There was not even a single dull day during the whole 2 months period.
As the date for InternSaturday 2013 approached, the pieces of puzzle started falling into the place and the anxiety and nervousness of not making any mistakes increased. Though InternSaturday 2012’s experience helped a lot in identifying what all could go wrong , there was always scope for improving upon it and making the event flawless. Into the last week before D-Day, with support from the whole Internshala team, all the arrangements were made and we were set for the event.
On 29th June morning , all I could think of was that this is it! This is what we had been preparing for the last two months. This is what had kept me awake for last 1 week! As soon as I reached the venue, I could see groups of students standing outside the National Science Centre, eagerly waiting for the event to start. Yes! It is a mesmerizing feeling watching your hard work show its colours.
The event started great with Dr. Rahul Ram’s witty talk. Then one after the other panel discussions were conducted successfully and soon it was the time for Dr. Kiran Bedi’s keynote speech. Dr. Bedi gave just the perfect end to the event calling out students to introspect and lead better lives. The heavy rain at the end of the day gave the InternSaturday 2013, the most dramatic ending possible – as if the heavens were showering us with their love for a job well done!
Without a doubt I can say that InternSaturday 2013 left me wiser, more confident, more determined and somewhat richer! ;)
Want to join Team Internshala yourself? We currently have an opening for an Editorial & Marketing intern – could you be the one?
