Pradumn Awasthi is a Bachelor of Commerce (Program) student of Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi who has been continuously involved in beyond the classroom activities.
Here, Pradumn is sharing his experience being a Corporate Relations Coordinator of the Entrepreneurship Cell of his college. 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. Young Influxers go ahead and upgrade yourself!!!
What was your role? Briefly list the responsibilities associated with it.
I was a Corporate Relations Coordinator at E-Cell. And was responsible for handling a team of like-minded students with the main focus on bringing in funds as sponsorship, help start-ups in their marketing and collaborate with them for providing better working space to our students under the guidance of E- Cell, lIT Bombay. As an entrepreneurship cell, our main goal is to focus on startups and B Plans, we did the same. We had a few Business plan competitions as well for like-minded people.
What’s it like to juggle between leadership roles and academics? Pen down the challenges you faced.
The main goal is not just to develop yourself but also to keep a balance with the academic side. Initially, it was pretty hectic for me because there was a recruitment process and all going on so I was not able to attend the classes, not able to complete the assignments on time because we were busy with so many things at a single point in time. So you have to compromise with one or the other thing. If you have a particular seminar at a point in time and you have a class at the same time so you can attend only one. Now that becomes really tough but it comes to like you have to do it you have to give an extra part to your studies. Like if in my day I was in the college preparing for some kind of event, and you have an assignment schedule for tomorrow so you have to go back home and then completed then in there instead like without wasting any time and not focusing on are you tired or not. it’s not that difficult if you have the right mindset you can balance both and then it becomes very easy. The best part is that it’s up to you nobody is gonna pressurise you nobody is gonna bring you out of that scenario it’s all you and you have to do it on your own. And when we have things depending upon our decisions we tend to do it in a better way.
Did you also get a chance to connect with any other activity while working on this post?
Well, there is a National Entrepreneurship Challenge (NEC) which is held by the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Bombay so we were given the opportunity to represent our society at NEC. Last year we scored the 7th position and this year we were able to secure 4th position which in itself is really commendable and was very satisfying and it is a great achievement for us. I wasn’t able to be part of NEC due to prior engagements but our team took the charge and made it a great success.
What are the top learnings, skills and values that you acquired here?
The first and foremost thing that I learnt after joining the E-Cell was cold calling. We were supposed to have conversations with startups, conversations with restaurants conversations with multiple kinds of business chains. So it was a great experience overall because it helped me develop communication skills. It made me confident and because we were having the opportunity to represent in the events and doing our own event so my stage fears just vanished. This was very helpful for me apart from this came out as a better person as an understanding and more productive. I found out that I have so much potential but you have to explore it to know yourself better. This position gave me the opportunity to explore myself and I got to know myself better.
Do you feel your current role fills you with pride and gratitude? Illustrate how the experience gained will help you going forward.
When I was selected for this position, I was very excited, pretty nervous and amused. I knew that this is going to be a great journey, with probability many ups and downs but in the end, there were lessons to be learnt. And the same happened, now that I have team building, team management and leadership skills inculcated, I will be a better manager in my upcoming years and will be able to understand the corporate world in a much better way as compared to the unskilled ones.
I have managed a team of approximately 15 to 20 people working day in and day out. these people were specifically focusing on the finance department, which in itself is very prestigious and important. Without finance, I don’t think we can go anywhere like if you have to schedule an event you need finance if you wish to hold a ceremony you need finance, if you wish to give provide professional training, you need to have finance for that too. Finance is just a department it is moreover an operation. We cannot ignore this part because it in itself hold importance.
As when we talk about leadership we have a whole team with us. How do you persuade others to accept your ideas/ways?
Leadership is not just about being authoritative. Instead, it is more about being democratic. You have the last option to select what is right. But initially, you have to ask your whole team that is this particular idea, popped in my mind right, is this particular innovation of our gonna help us or not. See leadership is never about just persuading others to accept your ideas it is more about voting and opting for the best possible outcome which is acceptable by everybody in the team.
What we used to do, was to have a decision and go for the majority of votes, but while asking for their opinion you have to keep an eye on ethics as well. That is the particular thing that the students are suggesting is this really good idea, is it worth working or not. So you have to be the one making a decision but in the whole process, you have to include every member. This will give them the feeling of belongingness and thus will improve the effectiveness of the members.
What is your message to students, aspiring to the same or a similar role to do?
The first thing to keep in mind is not to fear. After taking interviews with people, I understood most of the people have this problem that they fumble. It’s not about that they are not capable enough or that they do not have the right skills but they lack confidence. According to me, confidence is the key to success and it comes from failures. So missing on to things and not going for them just because you are scared, just because you feel like you are not good enough, you never know right. You don’t even know how much potential do you hold. I have guided so many friends and now they come out to be a perfect blend of excellence and effectiveness. So it was never that they were not capable enough the main problem was there weren’t accepting the fact that their skills are very magnificent.
The second thing is having the right attitude. Having an attitude of learning will always help you. We will students forever and the classroom is not bound in those four walls we learn from each and everything. This learning-oriented approach always helped me out. I never ever failed. Either I succeeded or I learnt.
How can we (Friends, Family, YI Fraternity) encourage young students such as yourself to engage with co-curricular or extra-curricular activities?
If education was the only way to succeed all the toppers would have become Bill Gates. But you know Bill Gates was a dropout. It does not mean that education is a secondary thing. He was a drop-out from Harvard University, it’s a brand. Apparently, he was capable enough to earn a good amount of salary but instead, he opted for something of his own.
With this example, I just want to give a piece of advice to the people that learning is very necessary. In today’s scenario, customers are very educated. You cannot sell just anything you have to be as educated and even more educated or more enthusiastic than your customers are. So for that, you need to have extraordinary skills, you have to brush up the communication skills you have to brush up your other soft skills as well. Acquiring good hard skills is always a better option but working on soft skills help you even more.
Anything else would you like to say to the YI learners who’ll be reading your experience?
I would like to thank this organisation, Young Influx for providing me with the platform to share my experience. I love their initiative and wish them good luck. Thanks for steering your time for reading this. Hoping for your better future. Thank you 🙂
We at Young Influx would take this opportunity to thank Pradumn 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 the 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.
Good and insightful, should have to create these opportunities to every student across the world