Avani Gupta's Internship Experience At Dell International Services Ltd. - SIBM Bengaluru

Internship Diaries

Dell technologies was a dream company for me to intern at. I had my apprehensions before joining, wondering if interns at such a large MNC are assigned projects which are worth and have any impact. But, from the very first day of our induction, I realised that Dell has a very structured internship program. We were allocated different teams and each one of us was assigned a project, which was being assisted by a mentor and headed by a reporting manager. Each one of us got a project which was derived from actual problems faced by the team. We were told that if the senior managers find our solutions feasible, they would be implemented.

I remember being awestruck at the sheer size of the office campus. I was assigned to work with the India CSB (Consumers and Small Businesses) Finance team. Every single member of my team was extremely helpful, and their insights and guidance helped me decide how to further approach my project. As it was a cross functional project involving information from various other teams, I also got an opportunity to interact with other team heads and managers.

Dell has a great working culture. Having an open door policy (there is no concept of cabins) and a culture whereby we can approach absolutely anybody, from any team, it became easier to get guidance and information. We, interns, had various tools of learning namely – ‘Lessons in Leadership’. Every week a different department head in Finance would tell us about their department, their experiences in the industry and give valuable insights. We were also part of ‘Brown Bags’- meetings with Global managers and leaders visiting our office. Dell also included all their interns in a program called ‘All Hands’ which was a discussion of the latest developments and news in Dell. The ‘1X1 – one-on-one’ helped all the interns feel comfortable and important as we were given an appointment with senior managers to discuss our project and its progress.

At the end of 7 weeks, we presented our projects to the CFO council. They gave us their valuable feedback and encouraged us to implement our suggested solutions in the remaining one week. It was a great feeling to have successfully contributed towards the improvement of processes in our teams.

Although we were interns, we felt like part of the team since the very beginning. We were also encouraged to participate in all the meetings and activities. I was part of quite a few dinner outings, CSR activities and team building activities that were held during the course of those two months of my internship. We were also taken for an ‘Interns Mélange’ - an outing with fun-filled activities.

The entire summer that I spent in Dell was an amazing learning experience. I learnt about the industry, the working of the MNCs and the practices that make them successful, team dynamics, and contribution of various functional departments. I also learnt how one should approach problems and work on continuous improvements to succeed in my projects. To summarise, my Summer Internship at Dell was a fine balance of work and fun.

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