My Internship Story: Summer with Skillsoft

Hi, my name is Sapna Giradkar, and I am a Corporate Marketing Intern here at Skillsoft!

I am currently pursuing my MBA from one of the premier B-schools in India, the Indian Institute of Management, Visakhapatnam, but I originally hail from a city in Maharashtra known as the Black Gold City. Huge coal reserves, one of the biggest thermal power plants, a renowned wildlife sanctuary, and a fort city founded by Khandkya Ballal Sah, a Gond king of the 13th century, perfectly describes my city — Chandrapur.

From aiming to be a pilot in the Indian Airforce to pursuing an MBA and finally landing up with an internship at Skillsoft, my life has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride over the last few years. I completed my bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in the year 2017. After that, I started working with Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) as a Programmer Analyst. Meanwhile, I was also preparing for the defense entrance exams and qualified SSB. However, sometimes destiny has a different story written for us, so I decided to pursue my other interest: business and management. After working at CTS for more than two years, I wrote the Common Entrance Test and made my way to IIM Visakhapatnam.

Attending my MBA virtually during the pandemic was something that I had never anticipated. It had many challenges, but then an assurance of being safe at home with my family superseded them. With all the academic work, competitions, projects, and presentations going on, the year seemed to fly by too soon. While I was adapting to the “new normal”, arrived the most awaited time for an MBA student — the summer internship.

Being a Marketing and Strategy enthusiast, I was thrilled to get placed with Skillsoft for my summer internship program. The Skillsoft family accepted me with open arms. Every day is a new opportunity to delve deeper into the industry and learn something new. Right from the onboarding sessions where we interacted with many prominent people from leadership to regular catchups with the mentors, the process is very seamless and intern friendly. The intern coffee breaks enabled all the interns across the world to connect and get to know each other. The “Bring your own lunch” meetings instill a sense of friendship and team spirit among the employees. I enjoy these video call meetings very much because we get to know the fun side of our colleagues. Although I’ve only worked here for a little over a month, this internship is providing an excellent opportunity for me to explore the areas of demand generation in the B2B segment, product marketing, and corporate branding. Most importantly, Skillsoft has helped me put forward initial steps towards my burgeoning interest in the marketing domain.

I am looking forward to another month of learning here!