30th June, 2015

I was nervous! This was my first day at a professional internship and I didn’t know if I would fit in or if I would be taken seriously. I had just finished my first year of college and was looking for work experience with a startup company. I approached iKeva as it is a one of a kind organization in India and seemed like a great place to work. They were instantly on board with me interning and were excited to see what I had to offer.

While on tour of the office I interacted with a lot of the core team of the company and quickly realized that they were all experienced in their respective fields and in professional attire. I looked down at my jeans and patterned T-shirt and instantly felt uncomfortable. All of that discomfort was put to ease as their friendly faces smiled at me and looked genuinely happy to see me there. I was excited to be working around young, focused people that seemed to sincerely love their jobs and were energized by their work.

One thing that made iKeva, keeping in mind that they are a start-up, stand out from all the other organizations in this space is that they offer community and other benefits for their staff and members. This was an interesting concept that I wanted to further explore and work on. One of my first assignments was to write article outlines for the iKeva blog and I was ecstatic that I could use my love for writing so soon into this internship! Having just lazed in front of the TV for a month before starting this internship, I started getting tired after working for three hours. All I could think of was how much I could use some coffee, which is when I realized that the office has a pantry stocked with free coffee and tea! After drinking a cup of green tea I was energized and ready to attack the Google community page that was created for iKeva members to interact with each other.

I brainstormed on how to make the page more interactive and some of my ideas were incorporated! I was thrilled that I was useful and doing actual work rather than fetching my superiors’ coffee, like some of my friends were doing at their internships. It was a great and productive first day and left me really looking forward to the rest of my internship with iKeva!

About the writer:

Rishika Reddy is a first year graduate from Boston University doing her major in Economics and is a classical dancer.