How I landed at IZE Creative!

As I have told you earlier, I spent 4 years in an engineering college. They were supposed to teach me some Abra ke dabra hand's on stuffs in Electronics and Communication (or rather I thought so before enrolling myself), but my College experience's....ah let's not talk about it !
Typical Indian Parents believe that B.Tech./B.E is the 'best' option to choose after 12th and every Engineering College guarantees job.
You wanna know what's actually happening!?
1.6 million Indians are enrolled in Engineering Colleges each year, out of this 0.4 million are awarded with a BTech/BE degree certificate after 4 years. Out of this 0.4 million, majority are jobless!
Ah whatever. Leave all these. I don't wish to worry you. If you are an Indian, I bet you know someone very well who have wasted their 4 years....
Or may be even you are a B.Tech. victim....., like me!

The reasons why I spent 4 years in that College were Practicals, Projects and IEEE activities.
Of course I was blessed with lot of duty leaves and I attended lectures seldom.

Final Semester, Dec - April 2013
I had arrears and so I didn't mention in my resume that I will get graduated in 2013. A few HR leads who came to pick students from the so called Campus Placement Process, didn't like it though. While most of them were happy that I'm being honest with them. As expected, I flunked some electronics&electrical based technical round quizzes. 
Nope... I didn't care much. Because every BTech/BE victim is well known for flunking 'Viva Voce' questions during Lab Internals and Externals.
From then on, I started mentioning that I'm not interested in usual BPO and coding jobs. Which gave me plenty of opportunities and finally started attending the final round of interviews but none were interested in picking up a BTech boy. 2 of them even asked me to reach them after completing MBA.
( Yeah it's another custom seen nowadays. If a boy/girl thinks they are wasting their 4 years doing BE/BTech, then he/she will do the best to enroll for MBA courses and aim managerial posts. )

TWIST
One day while scanning my own Facebook timeline, I found a post that IZE Creative's hiring Social Media and Marketing Interns. I shared it a few days back from my friend Vijay's timeline. Vijay.S.Paul founder - CEO of 2 year old IZE Creative Digital Media Marketing LLP is one among my IEEE acquaintances. We have met once or twice before, in Sub-section and Section IEEE meets.
( FYI: The basic benefit of being an IEEE Student volunteer is networking. It's world's largest professional community with over 4,00,000 members. "Each IEEE member is a part of the knowledge network for you and your career".
In short, if you are an IEEE member then you have open access to 4,00,000 contacts of Engineering Professionals. )

Ah let me get back to the point. I shared the post to help him gain more reach for the same. That means, in some way I was doing the basic duty of a Social Media Strategist. After all, who is not a Social Media Enthusiast in this Era?
I thought, I should give it a try. I sent him my resume at the earliest.

Researched a bit and found that Social Media Strategist transform complex/technical information into concise, easily digestible content for social audiences.
Interesting right!?
Oh come on...
Even big shot companies and military agencies hire Data/Intelligence Analysts to get the gist of Big Data findings.
Similarly, in a digital marketing firm we will get hell lot of data on clients. We will have to research even more on the topics mentioned in it and what their target audience are in need of. Finally we are supposed to form a Gist of the whole collected data and pass it to the design team to present it with a visual impact.
IZE provides a unique way to be creative and I had no better plan till next summer. More over at IZE one can earn and at the same time learn more about internet.

I was asked to fill in a few questions online, to study my take on Social Media. Next phase was Telephonic interview and the session went well along with my final semester exams.
In couple of days, I received a mail asking me attend their direct interview at IZE's Cochin office.

May 4th,2013 - Interview
Facing an interview's like fishing. Your resume and your answers should act as the bait and attract interviewers. If you are prepared to state a point, you should make the interviewers ask about it.

Spooky theory. I decided not to act in front of them. I didn't prepare for the interview at all and I couldn't perform well. I have done way better than this case back in college campus placement sessions, but still for unknown reasons I was rejected thrice. So I had no hope at all.

After the interview, I boarded Kerala Express Super Fast Train.
I was devastated when the TTR caught me for travelling in Sleeper Class of Super Fast Train with a sleeper class(Express) ticket. I had no money to pay the fine either. But that old man was very kind and decided not to charge me.
Yeah miracle.

It was followed by a series of miracles. Two of us were selected for the same post and the other candidate let down the management and opted not to join IZE, as her parents were against resigning her current job. One champion opted out and hence I was awarded with the gold medal unanimously!
I received their official Acceptance Mail soon!!

Life at IZE Creative, United States of Cochin
Working in a start up is much better, because one get's the freedom to think out of the box and become a Jack of all trades. Yeah, you will have to wear many hats in a small team.

A corporate job has got much stricter confines and we are forced think with in the bounds.

I'm happy that I made right decision!

Phase 1 (as Social Media Intern):
Being an intern I was asked to manage various Social Media accounts of numerous clients and was given an opportunity to convey my thoughts to the design wing. I was surprised when they even gave me an opportunity to share my opinions in each crucial staff meet.
I felt sorry for those friends who didn't apply, believing the myth that intern is the code name for slave!

Phase 2 (as Social Media Strategist):
I was promoted soon after the internship period of 2 months. The data analyst job, about which I have mentioned above.
I was given opportunities to study our clients and their rivals. I was asked to find optimum ways to market the services/ products of our valuable clients. Now I was given the responsibility to directly assist marketing team in pitching business and at the same time to improvise the current strategies. More like a market analyst huh?

Phase 3 (as Digital Media Strategist):
I was asked to dive deeper into the core of Digital Branding and Content Marketing.
'Value for money' thought is drawing hell lot more of clients to Digital Branding and at the same time, 93% of companies out there are utilizing Content to market their service/ product.
Yeah great Power, greater responsibilities. Much busier work schedule, but company culture let's you love your work. Well knit and scheduled working calendar even gives a lot of free time after the office hours.

What makes IZE Creative special?
I can write an essay on this topic. I don't wish to list out every point, this post is already long!

One thing for sure, we are blessed with a Boss who thinks patiently in the company's point of view. May be that's the secret of our success. He encourages us (his staffs) to counter his decisions, when he is not so sure of them. It helps a lot in forming well refined decisions with no demerit.

No I'm not being offered with special perks for publishing this post!
Why should I lie fellas, this is my Diary!? Scroll up and read this blog's title once more!! ;D

PS: I still wannabe a Filmmaker and dream for living.
"Miles and Miles to go before I sleep!"
God Speed.