Summer Internship is like a typical Hindi drama movie with two major differences:-
Instead of 2 or 3 hours duration, it’s about 720 hours (Considering if you are working for 12hrs/day) and it’s based on your story. Moreover, during your stint, you will come across multiple characters. Some characters will make you laugh, someone will make you cry. You gonna face your moments of flattery-be littleness, satisfaction-exasperation etc. But the one who could maintain a balance between egotism and altruism will be the real protagonist of the story.
In the end, only the survivor gets a chance to share the story. Thus, these are the few tips which I hope will help you to become the protagonist of your movie.
Planning
For any project, an intern has to spend a good amount of time to understand the internal process and for this purpose, he has to take innumerable interviews, focused group discussions etc.
Since time management is the biggest issue involved here, so I used to take interviews and FGD’s during office hours and at night I used to analyze the data and prepare for the following day. Thus, by this approach, I utilized my full day and saved my time.
Networking
Do you know, what’s the biggest advantage of being in a premier B school?
Placement. (It’s a myth) It's networking, you will make many contacts not only from your batch but also from your senior batch and sometimes their seniors too. Having a good alumni network always helps in doing benchmarking and you might find similarity in their projects also.
So be sure that you have a good network base and know how to leverage this opportunity. (Many a time this is one of the reasons of why Companies offer summer internship so the intern can benchmark the best practices).
Tools needed
Having some basic knowledge of Photoshop, Excel, Powerpoint, SPSS, Survey forms will not only save your time but will also save you from embarrassment. If you know how to use Photoshop and SPSS then you might get an edge over other candidates. (In the end, it is a competition where everyone is fighting for the limited seats, so you better have to be different).
Culturally fit (Don’t just do your work but also build a relationship with your team)
You might have noticed the difference in the number of Companies coming for summers and finals. It’s because just in a few minutes you cannot evaluate the candidate as a whole. It takes time to determine whether the candidate is culturally fit or not. So not only just do your work but also build a relationship with your team. Go for a team lunch with them or initiate a casual chit-chat in the break over any common topic. This will help to break the ice.
Also, evaluate that whether you want to work here or not.
Show them the Money
In the end money matters. If you have generated value out of this 2-month stint, if you are able to show good numbers then you are better off. Companies do a Cost-benefit analysis and if they will find profits in you then there will be high chances of getting selected. So whatever you do, think from a business perspective.
Many times during your stint you will feel frustrated and a thought of giving up will recur in your mind but I believe that the way to keep going was to repeatedly visualize what it would feel like if finished, never losing sight of the bigger picture, and breaking down each day into small milestones. Remember Manjhi movie, how he never lost the sight of the bigger picture and ultimately achieved his goal.
“Life has many big mountains but we have to be Manjhi to cut them short and make a way for ourselves”