Staying Hungry to Learn with Dilesh

Hindsight is 2020 (#HI2020) is a ground up initiative founded and led by a class of 2020 graduate - Jessica Lee Yi Ling from Singapore Management University (SMU). In this series, she uncovers personal stories of resilience, courage and love amidst this crazy year we call 2020. Through the reflections and learnings shared in #HI2020, she hopes to empower internship and job seekers to improve their status quos and encourage aspiring entrepreneurs and volunteers to pursue their passions in 2021.

Staying hungry to learn with Dilesh

Helping brands grow, getting that yes from customers and embracing a creative mind - those are three of the many reasons Dilesh Kumar, a SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business Class of 2019 graduate, is in love with marketing. While his journey after graduation in 2019 hasn't been the smoothest, he continues to persevere and value every available opportunity to learn. Afterall, grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint. Let's check out what this marketing enthusiast has been up to!

Here’s 3 key things you will learn

1.      There is no failure except in no longer trying.

2.      The magic happens when you step outside your comfort zone.

3.      Lifelong learning is no longer a luxury but a necessity for employment.

When did you graduate and what plans did you make upon graduation?             

I ended my last ever exams of my university life in April 2019 with the official graduation in late July 2019. Shortly after my exams, I went on two graduation trips; first to Korea and then the second one to Bali. Those were also the last time I travelled given 2020 said no to travelling.

Upon graduation or rather after my exams ended, I started applying for a full-time job which was around March/April and was hopeful about securing a job by July or latest, August. Unfortunately, the reality was that that did not happen. I applied for more than a hundred full-time jobs from March till June, but zero replies for an interview. I was disappointed and also frustrated. I began to think that it may be this was the case due to a lack of experience on my part.

After sending over a hundred applications and getting zero responses, it occurred to me that getting an internship was a better approach.

Share with me your internship application experience as a graduate.    

Well, applying for internships was a better experience, in the sense that I at least had calls from companies for an interview. However it was not all good.

When I went for the interviews, most of the interviewers asked me for one thing that you wouldn’t really find in an intern, and that is, experience!

I believe many others would be able to relate to that feeling, of hoping to get the internship for that very experience and skills.

I went for over thirty interviews before securing one at a start-up called digitus.sg, a digital agency for B2B marketing. Despite my lack of experience, they took a chance on me. My supervisors took time out of their busy schedule and taught me all the important skills from scratch. They gave me hands-on experience on how to use different systems such as Hubspot and Google Analytics, etc. all the skills that companies generally look for in marketing graduates and even interns for that matter. I am very grateful to them for the opportunity that they gave me.

What did you do upon completion of your internship? 

Similar to when I graduated, I looked for full-time jobs towards the end of my internship with digitus.sg. The internship gave me the confidence of finding a full-time role but again received no reply. This was mainly due to Covid-19 circuit breaker measures which was expected.

In June, I started applying for traineeships when the government launched the scheme. It started when a friend sent me the job description for a SGUnited Traineeship position.

I thought why not. There is nothing to lose.

Then I continued to apply for other traineeship positions and received calls for interviews which was great given the situation!

Do you think that traineeships are the way to go to mitigate the rise of unemployment in Singapore?

Traineeships are good when the economy is down and jobs are being lost and graduates are unable to find jobs to get that head start in terms of experience and an income to support themselves.

The traineeship will help especially the newly graduates to stand on their own feet. The timeframe of 1 year for the traineeship is sufficient to gain the necessary experience to find a full-time job after the end of the traineeship.

What was your interview experience for the traineeships and how did that work out for you? 

In the first round, the interviewer from Moovaz asked me what I wanted to learn, if I was okay with her working style and company start-up culture. For the second round, I was asked to do a competence test-create a content calendar.

Roughly over a week later, I was offered the role. Oh man I was extremely happy! At the point I was already pretty deep into the job search which was a long process.

I was excited to start in August 2020, to learn new skills and meet new people especially my team especially after being at home for months given the virus was raging in Singapore. My expectation was that this traineeship would give me the opportunity to gain more experience and learn more skills in marketing such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media and much more.

I am glad that my team is a supportive one and we help each other a lot.

I really am learning what I wanted to learn and I am glad I am growing professionally and as a person.

Give us an idea of what a day in a life of Dilesh is like these days.           

Facing the challenges which will put me outside my comfort zone because is what gets me up every morning. One learns the most through these challenges.

When I start work, I would normally check my email, my team's group chat and Trello (task management tool) to see if there are any ongoing tasks to complete or are there any new ones or any new notification. I would then go about completing them.

Also at the moment, I have new interns, so I am guiding them on how to do things as they are similar to how I was when I started my internship with digitus.sg in 2019.

What are 3 things you have learned since taking on this role?

1) I have learnt that I need to be more detail oriented. Its the small details that make the difference and messing the small issues could have a huge negative impact.

2) One must be open to learn from others. Not just my direct boss and my team but also from other teams. Doing this has helped to grow and become better at what I do.

3) I am learning how organisations function. How different teams play an interdependent role and how I can help those teams which depend on my team to do our part before they can do theirs.

What do you plan to do to make the most of the 8 months of this traineeship?     

The company has a few business units. My team which is the growth marketing team, is being shared amongst the units.

I aim to expose myself to the different business units we have, continue to improve my skills and grow and also hope to build even stronger relationships, not just as colleagues but going beyond to establishing friendships.

What is your boss like?

I would say that she is invested in my learning by asking me what I want to learn and gives me the opportunity to learn that.

She also makes the effort to expose me to other departments and projects and learn how things work there. This is something that one might not find easily in other bosses and I appreciate her effort for that.

Is there anyone else you would like to give a shout out to?        

My family was very supportive- they remind me that there's a reason for everything and that it’s not about getting the job in the quickest time.

It's important to see every rejection as a redirection to something better.

Before we wrap things up, what would you say to other internship and job seekers today?

Keep an open mind, don’t give up. Be hungry to learn and improve yourself. Keep on improving yourself. Learn new skills and even take relevant courses.

This shows your hunger to learn and improve which employers like.

Never ever stop learning even when you have found an internship or a job.