I remember the small burst of pride I felt in myself the first time I successfully navigated through the local trains of Mumbai, the stations and the shared taxis, finally locating my office and walking in through the gate of the building. It was huge, towering, all chrome and glass panels, and the inside equally shiny and alien. I remember feeling very small at that moment, but nonetheless keeping my back straight and my chin up and my gait strong.
I had never been inside a corporate office before.
But somehow a month there just passed in the blink of an eye. Now I have a fixed routine where I arrive at the office every day at around 8:30 am, wish Dolcie (the receptionist) a good morning, get myself a cup of tea and settle down with my notebook and laptop. And so the day begins.
It is almost the end of my one-month stint of fieldwork. Fieldwork, for the reader’s reference, is a unique feature of TISS, HRM&LR, where each student gets the opportunity to work in an organization for a month in an internship, at the end of each semester. There are four semesters, so we get a total of four fieldworks in different organizations. Add to that our summer internships and an NGO stint (also a unique feature of TISS), and we have five different Industry experiences in our arsenal. This equates to five distinct industry experiences over the course of our two-year program, spanning across sectors like FMCG, IT/ITES, BSFI, and consulting, to name a few. This diversity is a unique offering that sets TISS apart from other business schools.
People who aspire to study management and Human Resources may have already heard about fieldwork as being one of TISS’ USPs. What I want to share is my experience of fieldwork as a fresher, and myself realizing just how valuable it can be in terms of learning and personal growth.
My first fieldwork was in Birla Estates Private Limited. I had the good fortune of working in an organization with an exceptionally good work culture. The people in the organization have always gone out of their way to make me feel at home and recognized me for my work and contributions. They also gave me that much-needed space to freely ask questions. My manager had, throughout the internship, given me a lot of freedom and scope in terms of my project, and she never had a policing approach. Instead, I found myself taking ownership of my work and myself taking on extra responsibilities.
My project was around examining the policies of the company regarding campus recruitment and providing end-to-end plans for revamping their campus recruitment process and campus engagement activities. I was also engaged in the live project of campus hiring that was ongoing at the time. I got to be an active part of all the internal processes, including the establishing of contact with college placement cells, negotiations for slots and number of candidates, designing the detailed selection processes for candidates for different roles across the company, and so many other details that need to be meticulously arranged for. I had myself gone through these as a part of our Summer’s selection. This time, I got to see it from the recruiter’s perspective, and I saw the kind of stakes involved in the work that I was a part of.
Interestingly, I also got to observe the expected norms of behaviour and interaction within a corporate space. There is a certain way that people talk and behave, certain etiquettes to be followed, and it was definitely an experience to be part of that and find myself getting integrated into that culture.
I met people across departments and each one of them turned out to be a great source of knowledge if I could ask them the right questions. For instance, mine was a real estate company, and apart from the HR department, I also spoke to people from the business development team, a civil engineer, a person from finance, another from taxation and so on. These people also came with a diverse set of experiences from their previous organizations, and each had a unique perspective to offer on the business and the sector. We were also taken on a site visit once to one of the company’s premium residential projects and I saw the worker’s and the contractor’s side in the business as well.
Regarding my personal growth, I learned:
a) The importance of taking ownership of one’s work
b) How to manage time and deliver under pressure
I learned discipline and commitment in a work setting. I could test out the concepts that I had learned in class or come across in case competitions. Most of all, I learned how to deal with ambiguous situations – when you may not understand at first what your manager expects from you, or how to even begin to go about the work that you have been given. But that is the thing about fieldwork – it gives you the space to learn, and try, and fail, and then try again. And quite honestly, I lose count of the number of times I thought to myself, thank God for this before the Summers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poushali Pal is a student of HRM & LR at TISS, Mumbai. She holds an undergraduate and a postgraduate degree in English Literature from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. She has a passion for reading and enjoys sketching in her free time.