Swapnil Agrahari is a B. Tech Mechanical Engineering student of Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore Campus who has been continuously involved in beyond the classroom activities.
Here, Swapnil is sharing his experience being a Designer and Content Writer for American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), VIT Chapter. His hard work has the potential to propel him ahead of the curve.
Go ahead and know what his story has to offer so that you can easily find a path of self-growth.
What was your role? Briefly list the responsibilities associated with it.
I was selected as a designer and content writer for chapter ASME-VIT. I had the responsibilities of designing Certificates, Banners, Tags, Tri- folds, Website, T-shirts and a lot more. Also, I was assigned as the manager for the event organised by ASME named Mechnovate where I guided coordinators to work efficiently and with less tolerance. I even worked in an Engineering Fest (E-Fest) as a coordinator where I coordinated in competitions like Student Design Competition and Human Powered Vehicle Challenge.
What’s it like to juggle between leadership roles and academics? Pen down the challenges you faced.
It was really a great part of my college life. I tried scheduling all my work to manage my college and ASME tasks. I got a great team of Juniors and Seniors to work with.
Academics do teach us technical terms but being in ASME I learned soft skills and that really helped me a lot in my whole journey. Major challenges faced were as follows-
- In the starting days of my work as a designer, I had to make a lot of iterations to come up with good designs.
- While going for external publicity I faced local language issue as people spoke Tamil in Vellore.
- It was difficult to mingle with new faces but eventually, we all became a part of the family and started working together.
Did you also get a chance to connect with any other activity while working on this post?
I got two internship offer while working as a Designer in ASME. And I was selected as a member of the Institute Innovation Council of VIT which was an Initiative started by MHRD, Govt of India. I was also selected as a student panellist in Smart India Hackathon because of my skills and learning attitude.
What are the top learnings, skills and values that you acquired here?
The top learning that I acquired was how to work together with a society with a great enthusiasm attained knowledge of graphic designing and blog writing.
I earned the following skills being in ASME-
- Leadership
- Written Communication
- Team Coordination
- Creative Content Creation
- Personal Branding
- Public Speaking
- Time Management
I earned the following Values being in ASME-
- How to help each other while working in a team
- Learn from everyone inside the team irrespective of the year the person is studying in.
- How to tackle the situations and coming out with innovative ideas to improve the work inside a team
Do you feel your current role fills you with pride and gratitude? Illustrate how the experience gained will help you going forward.
I can say it with great pride that this current role of mine as a “Designer” opened new doors of success in my life. At present, I am the Director of Design for Skillship Foundation, Vellore and the senior graphic designer and Trainer in a company named Voxytalksy. I was also assigned as a Graphic Designer for a startup named PayCrunch.
All these positions and achievements were achieved because of the role I pursued in ASME-VIT. Working with dedication and trying to learn new things really helped me a lot in building my profile. At present, I have got dozens of freelancing orders for designing and got a chance to work with great people and Team because of my role as a Designer.
As when we talk about leadership we have a whole team with us. How do you persuade others to accept your ideas/ways?
When I joined VIT I didn’t know anything about Graphic Designing. I joined ASME-VIT as a designer because painting and sketching was my hobby since childhood.
After getting into ASME-VIT I gradually got an insight about software like Photoshop and Illustrator and with consistent hard work and dedication started learning the workflow and generated good designs.
As time passed I got to work in different events organised by ASME-VIT which uplifted my work and I earned tonnes of appreciation for my designs.
At present, I am working as a Graphic Designer for 2 companies and a startup and being positioned as the Director of Design for Skillship Foundation, Vellore.
This all happened because I chose to pursue my hobby and tried improving at every step. I just remember the golden lines said by David Frost- “Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” I did the same and it taught me countless skills and more are on underway.
What is your message to students, aspiring the same or a similar role to do?
I would just want to say that if you feel that this particular work or domain gives you happiness and you enjoy learning it go for it. Just don’t seek appreciation or success in the beginning, it will come eventually if you stay focused and dedicated towards your work. Also, designing is a great field to learn. You can learn new things in your entire life and this passion for designing will teach you how to bring your ideas and thoughts into a picture. So just start learning and there is no turning back.
How can we (Friends, Family, YI Fraternity) encourage young students such as yourself to engage with co-curricular or extra-curricular activities?
We can tell them about the importance of co-curricular or extra-curricular activities. Unless we engage ourselves in activities apart from our technical background we can never learn the importance of Teamwork, Leadership and many more important skills which can never be taught inside a classroom.
Moreover, no one ever knows that what will we be doing in future so these co-curricular or extra-curricular activities will always act as extra credits for an out professional brand which will definitely help us in the long run.
Anything else would you like to say to the YI learners who’ll be reading your experience?
I would just like to say one thing-
Try not to sit tight for the right time; Work in the right direction, time, in the long run, will eventually become right; Don’t Just stick your mind in one direction. Diversity always brings a lot of experiences in the pathway. Earn it because this is a perfect time.
We at Young Influx would take this opportunity to thank Swapnil for taking a leap of faith and sharing his impeccable story. We are humbled and grateful, your efforts mean a lot for the youth seeking growth and development.
And hello, dear readers, we welcome you to explore the platform with an open mind. Help yourself gain most out of the experiences and opportunities listed here.
And before you bid us adieu, we would like you to know that you can read more such student stories here.
