LeanAgri Software Development: Ayush Jain
The Intern Fair to be conducted during Udgam 2020 [ 17 to 19 January 2020] is a great platform for students at IIT Guwahati to land an internship role for the summers of 2020 at a startup. Team Udgam is conducting a CV building workshop for the campus on Tuesday, 12 November [ more details to be announced soon]. All interested students are requested to attend!
Overview
Working in a start-up like LeanAgri was an exceptionally amazing experience that helped in conditioning our understanding of the overall functioning of the organisation and the entrepreneurial sector as a whole. For a young mind like mine, working with creative minds and professionals I got to acquaint there was an insightful learning opportunity. The workplace and the co-workers at LeanAgri made me feel immensely welcomed and at home. We were working until late hours, but no complaints, because the feeling of working for a goal beyond just meeting the clients’ requirements, that is, contributing to the bigger good out there; kept us going. The art of communication, they say, is the language of leadership. And another reason I’m glad to have worked with LeanAgri because it indulges in extensive 360-degree communication. Considering the fact that I had only a two-month-long association with LeanAgri, and it indeed is a very short time to get hold of all that it has to offer, but looking at the brighter side, the fact that I’ve brought back some strong relationships and associations back with me, and that they have become an imperative asset to me and the numerous skills that I learnt and developed there just makes all of this worth it.
Executive Summary
I was privileged enough to be a part of the jobs done by the technical team, consisting of around 8 people. The major areas of work that I was assigned included Backend and Database Management. At the very initial phase, I was allotted a mentor who assisted me in understanding the blueprint of the system. Being a startup, the code wasn’t well documented and hence it took extra effort and time to understand the workflow. But, while developing this understanding, I also developed a strong connection with my excessively hard-working teammates. As we moved further in time, New tasks and assignments were rolled in which were updated on a weekly basis and Saturdays were occupied by the sprints. Oh yes, it was a Monday through Saturday job with office timings of 9 am — 7 pm. The best thing according to me, about working with a startup was that every individual is aware of each and every move that the teams would make. They partook in every decision that the teams made. I was learning from each problem we faced and dwelling on my weaknesses alongside.
Another advantage I think, was the one on one interaction between various teams. I actively took part in the meetings of the Product Research Team which gave me a very distinctive idea of how things proceeded. And I think it’s safe to say that if you are a young entrepreneur or you wish to be one someday, you ought to witness such a professional yet inclusive experience at least once.
The next and the final take away for me from the entire enterprise was the fast pace of work culture. You will literally see your startup grow every week. The pace drives you to work harder and smarter, completing each task in a given time window.
Job at glance
Responsibilities and Description of the job
1.Brainstorming
As a Customer-centric agency, at LeanAgri, our most important task was to brainstorm and generate exceptional ‘out of the box’ ideas for different solutions to create an easy to use interface for the dependent branches of the organization. For instance, to search for a farm by the owner’s name or ID was easier than to search by ID only.
2. Team Work
Employees are divided into teams. So it is really very significant that a good working relationship. Intra-relationship is needed, along with strong Inter-relationship as it is really important while you work in the human work sector. it was another challenge that came my way. But I’m glad I made good relationships with people inside my department and in other departments within a very short time which I believe is the result of my communication skills.
3. Day-to-day Operations
As an Intern, there were day to day tasks which I was expected to complete.
Inter-departmental follow-ups for Advance Calling, Plan Reports, Optimization by pagination etc, were the most common ones amongst the day-to-day tasks.
4. Query Management
I was accountable for each task I completed and the responsibility to clarify and explain the changes made to the other team members was thus obviously mine. To pass on my knowledge to new joinings to help them quickly understand the system and start contributing was another responsibility which I sensed.
5.Follow-Up
Regular follow-ups with the Agronomy department was also another regular job. Follow up was done so that the task can be done within the deadline and also keep our proceedings on track through their requirement so that we can complete the work according to the brief. It was again really tough to do follow-ups. So, a friendly relationship with them helped me to build a great rapport with them and deliver the assignments in desirable formats without any flaw. Follow-ups helped me a lot in enriching my leadership and public speaking skills.
6.Research & Development
During the last few weeks of my tenure, I mainly worked on the R&D to help the organization take crucial decisions regarding the weather services necessary to scale up the business. As I was an active member, it was my responsibility to generate comparison reports from different vendors and conclude important statements.
Experience shared by Ayush Jain. Editing by Jaikishan Mansukhani; Senior Executive at E-Cell, IIT Guwahati
This is a brand new content initiative by E-Cell IIT Guwahati where we cover the experiences of student internship at India’s most exciting startups.
