This post was written by Senam Biddah who interned as a Content Marketer and later as Digital Marketing Lead

My life’s goal has always been to inspire and impact purposefully, the lives of people I come into contact with. I mostly do this by offering to others any help and support I can in their work, and any impactful thing they choose to do.

This is also the mission of Sesi Technologies; to develop and provide affordable technology to farmers all over Africa, to help them reduce post-harvest losses, and increase revenue. This is a mission geared towards achieving SDG 2: Zero Hunger. And I am happy to have been part of this mission for the past eight months because it aligns with my life’s goal.

My Journey

My journey began in October 2020. After an interview, I was offered the interning role of a content marketer with responsibilities such as developing resources on post-harvest loss management into full lessons and courses for our app, developing and managing the company’s content strategy and editorial calendar for the company website, and work with our Graphic designer to repurpose content into ebooks and infographics.

To effectively execute my responsibilities, I’ve had to move away from writing what’s on my mind to researching and writing about facts and figures. I’ve also had to work with every single person at Sesi Technologies and this speaks to the fact that it’s always teamwork for the dream and mission to work. A typical week at Sesi Technologies begins on Mondays with a team accountability meeting at 9 am for each of us to share our to-do list for the week. On Friday, we end the week with the same meeting at 4 pm to report on our achievements for the week.

In my third month, I was allowed to intern as a digital marketer in addition to the content marketing role and I grabbed it with both hands. I must say that my journey for the past eight months has been awesome but not without challenges.

Challenges

It is true that nothing worth having and doing comes without challenges and I had my fair share. For the past 8 months, I worked remotely for my internship and remote working came with its own challenges. Although some of the challenges I encountered had only to do with my lack of confidence because I was doing something I hadn’t done before. Moving from writing what’s on my mind to researching facts and figures was quite a challenge.

However, with a supportive team like the one at Sesi Technologies, I was able to take one day at a time while gaining expertise and confidence. Other challenges came due to lack of proper internet connection and the frequent power outages which often lead to missing deadlines. Another significant challenge was changing my writing style to suit the company’s brand.

Lessons And Achievements

Despite the challenges encountered, I achieved some goals. These include developing a total of 4 courses and 30 lessons (you can find them on our GrainMate App), writing and publishing a total of 20 blog posts consisting of thought leadership and product posts, repurposing existing content into infographics, and successfully managing our social media handles.

The first lesson I learned was that no one writing style works for all occasions and the importance of optimizing your blog posts continuously. I’ve learned to be more proactive and innovative to overcome the challenges of remote working. I’ve learned to seek help and support when I’m struggling and I’ve also learned that bosses don’t bite.

Conclusion

I have to emphasize that my internship experience at Sesi Technologies has been awesome. I have met wonderful people who have been the best teammates I’ve ever had. Right from my own marketing and media team, to the operations team and the administration team. Every turn has been a learning curve and I must also add that Isaac Sesi is an amazing boss, who is always encouraging and giving us avenues to be better. I’m grateful to everyone at Sesi Technologies for giving me an awesome internship experience.

Connect with Senam Biddah on LinkedIn