If you have recently graduated and are thinking of joining the corporate world, there are many factors you may want to consider, such as:
– what are the learning opportunities?
– what are my growth prospects?
– will my work have an impact on the Company?
– what skills will I develop?
– will I be allowed to take initiatives?
– will I get the opportunity to work in multiple roles and explore different functions?
Post my graduation in Business Administration and Finance, I was faced with the same questions. I wanted to work in a Company that would give me myriad opportunities to learn and fast pace my growth in understanding and implementing not only my core skills but all dimensions of business and entrepreneurship. While searching for the answers, one advise I received was to work within a startup ecosystem!
And when I got a 6 month internship opportunity in the Growth and Strategy team at SugarBox Networks, I jumped on the possibility.
I was excited and skeptical – all at the same time. Excited, because SugarBox Networks is a technology startup that aims to innovatively disrupt the market by making the internet accessible and affordable, for one and all. And that it is the world’s first Hyper-local CDN, using the technology of Edge Computing. But at the same time, my mind played tricks – because of my limited exposure to technology, terms like CDN and Edge Computing – new additions to my dictionary. So, technology as we see in its simplest form otherwise, was presented to me in a new avatar.
However, my skepticism was overcome within the first week of my internship. The HR team had organized an induction process and ensured all the interns got to interact with each team/ department and stakeholders, within the Company
The Growth and Strategy team, lead by Ishan Choudhary, works towards constantly reimagining how SugarBox can grow in the domestic geography as well as scale to global markets, in today’s dynamic business environment. This involves ideating, planning and implementing varied strategies, collaborations, business roadmaps, and lots more.
For my internship, my projects involved using Primary and Secondary research to understand the scope of Edge Computing and IoT (Internet of Things), across various Indian B2B industries. My focus areas were transportation, hospitality and retail. This included preparing a GTM (Go to Market) Strategy, finding collaborative opportunities and connecting with potential partners.
My mentor, Varinder Singh, guided me throughout the whole process and ensured that I had all the resources, knowledge and guidance needed to carry out the tasks assigned to me. Both Varinder and Ishan acted as pillars to my personal growth, during this internship period. Varinder’s constructive criticism and feedback and Ishan’s scientific approach to decision-making and business planning, gave me various invaluable lessons and insights in management. For any intern, its very important to have the support and guidance within the organization, because this helps any student understand the reality of the job world, beyond academics. And this was wonderfully undertaken by the team at SugarBox Networks.
With each project and task assigned to me, my learnings in strategy and business planning were enhanced, along with a knowledge bank on Edge Computing and the future of Internet of Things (IoT).
The highlight of my internship was when I was given the opportunity to connect and communicate with various IoT and Edge Computing based start-ups, evaluating probable partnerships. This exercise helped me better my communication and presentation skills and also helped me get hands-on exposure to IoT and Artificial Intelligence Industry.
SugarBox Networks, with its disruptive technology and motivated team, is looking to transform our consumption of the internet. I am grateful and fortunate to have been a part of this future tech giant.
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