“Why MBA?”
“What are your expectations from MBA?”
“How do you see yourself in 5 years, down the line?”
These are few of the frequently asked questions to us in our MBA admission interviews. Nobody has a definite answer to such questions at that time but most of us get an answer of that during our internship while working in a real corporate environment.
Being a fresher, I knew, a roller coaster ride awaits me and I got myself ready for it. So, sit back, relax and enjoy reading my ride experience for the next few minutes.
My general preparation strategy included reading a bit about the company, their social media handles and current affairs and I did the same for TIMES OOH as well. But been gone through the same process 6-7 times, the placement pressure started to take a toll on me. But then also, I tried to keep my mind afresh & gave my best shot.
GD topics were based on current affairs and after the results, I figured out that they required confident freshers and people with out of the box thinking. The interview went pretty smooth, I tried to leave some loose ends in the usual “Tell me about Yourself” question so that the interview revolves around that & does not go beyond my control. Apart from normal questions, they wanted to check if I have read about the company or not. I asked a few questions related directly to them & I guessed that worked in my favour.
Then, our Internship started in the first week of April. The first 3 days had induction sessions about the company and its properties. Then, all 8 of us were allotted different project in the domain of market research. Some were travel heavy, some analytical. One thing was pretty much clear to all of us that TIMES OOH takes summer internship projects quite seriously and the projects are related to the latest issues within the company. I was personally very excited that my end results will be used in deciding the company’s strategy.
My project was heavy on primary and secondary research both. It involved revenue estimation of the company’s properties in the next year and developing a Go-To-Market strategy. Being a B2B sales firm that sells advertising spaces in OOH, it has clients covering almost all the sectors. Initially, I faced the challenge in developing a road map for the next few weeks. But, I took help from my peers and seniors and they gave me the right direction. Even after completing my secondary research, it was very difficult for me to set-up clients meeting just for asking a few questions. But, gradually I enhanced my pitch because all I got was 30 seconds in the first shot. I did that and then eventually, it became easy.
I was fortunate enough to meet industry experts in sales and marketing in companies like IndiGo, Reckitt Benckiser, IndusInd Bank, Airtel, Voltas to start with a few. I learnt about the client’s thinking of the market, their marketing strategy and OOH as an advertising medium. For example, meeting with the marketing head of Reckitt Benckiser gave me an idea about their preference and advertising strategy and what they think while developing a 20 seconds TV commercial for their TG. Not only that, I learnt a lot about the client’s buying behaviour and purchase strategy from my seniors in the company. For example, I got to know about PSU’s advertising strategy in this market which is quite diversified from my seniors.
My internship ended with the presentation that went well and above all, I was extremely satisfied that did my best in those 8 weeks.
In the end, I would request every first year MBA student whoever is reading this article to please clear your marketing concepts before going into internship if you really want to work in Marketing domain & do as much as you can in those weeks because you will not only learn about the corporate life but also learn about yourself will be able to think about your future and make calculated choices.
Thank you for taking out your time and enjoy my ride experience. I hope you liked it!
Suyash Somani
Class of 2019