Tale of an Average Summer Internship

 

I had my joining in the second week of June so that gave me some time before joining in which we made a trip to McLeoadganj which was a perfect way to end our respective internships. I arrived in Bangalore early, to spend the weekend with my friends and to acclimatise myself to the wonderful weather of the city. In the first weekend itself I noticed that this place is full of breweries, too many to visit all in two months.

 

The first two days of internship were induction and it turned out to be as mundane as expected, with customary GAS on the company and its wonders. The most interesting parts were filler ice breaking events that at times felt almost like ragging sessions because one of your friend could nominate you to show your talent on stage. The day ended with a small gift and laptop distribution. The second day was more interesting where we had to build a giant Lego structure within a time frame as part of the team building exercise.

 

The third day was the first day of reporting to our project locations. As it happens in laaaaarge organisations, small things take a lot of time and the whole day went in getting the laptop configured. I met my team and my point of contact but wasn’t able to contact my guide. The initial days were turbulent because they thought me of as a technical intern and gave a project on “one touch search using text analytics” but before I could decipher what that meant, I met my guide who turned out to be the most humble and wonderful person. He gave me a project on Digital Marketing which I was very happy to work on.

 

The first month passed like a breezze with mostly research and study on the topic completed. There was nothing much to show on paper and nothing was organised. It turns out that it takes a lot of time to study and know a new subject. In the meantime we formed a very cohesive group of interns and the foodie in me explored a variety of local delicacies. Andhra meals, bisibele bath, chow chow bath, akki roti, appam, hyderabadi biryani and an insane variety of dosas were my meals in office where I made a point to try everything on their menu out.

 

The second month was the actual grind. Almost everything had to be organised and presented in that short span. It was also the time of mid review where I had to run after my guide to get his suggestions while all I got was “OK”. I finally managed to get it all completed somehow with changes being made on each iteration. The final presentation day saw us interns dressed in suits while others in the office wondered what we were up to. It is a difficult task explaining a large team what summer internship really means and that we are not permanent employees but we are being paid for sitting there in front of the laptops thinking of opportunities for the company and making PowerPoint presentations about it. The panel however knew what summer internship was and they were very receptive to our ideas.

 

This was followed by a one day closing ceremony where the top interns presented their works and were rewarded for their effort. And just like that two months were over. Probably the shortest two months of our MBA life. I made new friends, experienced the new culture and learnt a lot of new things. I had such a great company with me at all times that I hardly felt the pressure of the job. It is important to enjoy this experience and make it memorable rather than burdening yourself with pressure. Like I always say, it’s just a summer internship and not the end of the world.

Ishan Arora is a student from IIFT who has had a very regular life- an engineer, an IT professional and now an MBA student. He is very passionate about writing and writes on a personal blog A Vent in the Delirium. He is also in love with music and plays on internet radio in his college.

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