I am Rajat Chouksey from PGP 2018-20 Batch of IIM Raipur. I was an intern in Key Accounts department in UltraTech Cement. The recollections of the first day at UltraTech are still fresh in my mind. I met the rest of the interns from JBIMS, NITIE, IIM-Shillong and the likes in a banquet room of Radisson at Andheri, Mumbai. We were energetically welcomed by our HR Manager who took just minutes to make all of us feel at ease and before the day's over, I had understood that it was the start of a voyage to recollect for a lifetime. In our orientation, we were informed by the various Top leaders and HR Head of the organization about the different assembling offices, forthcoming brands, senior initiative group and lastly our projects and our locations. Luckily, I got my preferred location Mumbai and an exciting project to work on. After two days of interaction with senior leaders, it was my first day in office in Ahura Centre – Ultratech’s Head Office. With a lot of anxiety and excitement, I was introduced with my mentor and was given a brief on the project assigned. From that time to the last day in the office, there was not a single day when I didn’t get to learn something new. All that what was taught to me in my first year in Sales & Marketing and Operations subjects was being practically implemented in the organization. From weekly visits to plants in Mumbai and Gujarat, to be a part of the discussion in the board room with seniors and to presenting ideas to clients, everything that was part of our job never made us feel like an intern. All these were really useful in understanding the crust of the actual market. For all I know, you can never be a true marketeer if you are not aware of your actual market. The amount of responsibility and ownership given to each intern made us feel like a part of the Ultratech family. For me, the best part of my internship in Ultratech was the continuous feedback I got from my manager and other senior colleagues. The amount of knowledge transfer I had from my seniors especially the feedbacks from Mr. SV Patil sir taught me something which I can never find in books. The environment in the organization is best for a person who wants to learn, I was always encouraged by my seniors to interact and learn from my peers and colleagues. During my stint, I got the helping hands of so many people from various departments, which I could never imagine at any other organization. People would literally stop their own work to help me out.After all those long working days for 2 months finally came the day of my final review presentation. To be able to put across all our ideas in the stipulated time frame, we all made small presentations. But to our surprise, all 6 of us interns working in the same department gave presentations for 1.5 hours each. It was more like a detailed discussion with the top-level management. The Department head and our assigned mentor critically questioned each of our ideas for the 6 long hours. My biggest achievement out of this internship would be some ideas of mine which the project head, asked his team to implement giving a sense of satisfaction to me.Through these 2 months of experience, I have realized that at this very moment in India, Cement Industry is the most challenging industry to work in. The extent of unpredictability that is present currently due to several recent activities has made this industry the best one for any newcomer who is enthusiastic about learning. Also, the rare opportunity I got to work in a project which is related to both Sales and Marketing domain and Operations domain, has given me the exposure which any intern dreams of.
- Rajat Chouksey, IIM Raipur