Ten tips for converting your internship offer into a pre-placement offer (PPO)
Today, my friend Yugadhya Mathuria and I are delighted to share key insights on how to grab a PPO through your summer internship. I interned at Nomura, Powai in their Investment Banking Division, and Yugadhya interned at JP Morgan in their Investment banking division last summer. We both secured PPOs through our internships with respected firms.
- Focus on the process - Give your best effort if your manager assigns you some work. Stay calm about the result. The process is more important than the end result. Learning from one task after the other during the process will give you the best results.
- Keep track of your work and never wait for the deadline – Sometimes you may get multiple tasks at a time; hence it is essential to keep track of your work and update your progress to your manager so that if he requires any additional or alternation in deliverable, you can manage work within deadlines.
- Learn from your mistakes - It sounds cliche, but practising it during internship is vital. Whether you have work experience or are a fresher, an internship gives everyone a chance to work on themselves. Companies are looking for resilient individuals. Everyone makes mistakes, but your reaction to it and action after it counts.
- Rule of 80:20 - If you are in the front office role, soft skills (80%) are more important than hard skills (20%). In the back office, hard skills are more important than soft skills. So you need to understand your role and use your skills accordingly.
- Internship is not only about work-work-work - Work hard, party harder? An internship is a 360-degree exposure to the work life of a full-timer. Capitalising on the skills one can build even outside of the office is crucial. Socialising with your team outside of the office is essential to build not just better bonds with them but also the body language and etiquette required to face your future clients within and outside of the office.
- Reflection more than retention - Internship is a limited-time engagement with the company, and everybody wants to leave their best impression. Your manager will remember you for a longer period based on your reflection - your final project presentation, client meetings, etc. Give a clear reflection of your knowledge and understanding to your team.
- Make a good impression on everybody - Your manager will seek feedback about you from your peers, his colleagues and clients. Thus, leaving a good impression of your work, behaviour and knowledge on all is essential. Also, maintain good relationships with your team members.
- 3 meetings with your manager - Spend 30 minutes with your manager after every 20 days to understand your performance and where you need to improve. It will give you confidence in your work and a chance to redirect for the remaining period.
- Desired sector/department - Many a time, you land a role in a sector/department which wasn't of your liking. Don't be disappointed and throw away the chance, instead look at it as an opportunity to learn something new. All leaders at the top have an understanding about every sector/department and this contributes to their success. Internship is the first step on that ladder and a different sector/department could be your key to unlock that success.
- Final Advice on final project - Start your final project early. Engage with your managers/mentors/alums. Listen to their feedback thoughtfully. Incorporate their suggestions into your project. Work on the presentation delivery part and kill it on D-day.