“The line of swanky Mercedes at the gate, large French windows, plush furniture in the reception lobby, VIP like security and a huge green campus with scores of trees encircling each building greeted me as I entered the premises. The first hour at the office where I am interning seemed to be too much- too soon to absorb. It was nothing like the image that I had imagined for corporate offices in my mind”
I am Ankush Arya. I am currently pursuing the PGP program at IIM Udaipur. Professionally, I am a qualified chartered accountant and I had joined the MBA program almost as a fresher (without any corporate exposure in the past). On the campus, I took part in a case study competition and won a PPI (Pre-placement interview). Was interviewed with other applicants who underwent the GD process and finally landed an internship at General Electric (Financial Management Program), the Aviation behemoth and the seventh largest corporation in the United States (Market capitalization wise).
All the interns were asked to report to Holiday Inn, Whitefield one day before the internship was to start. I reached Bangalore around 8 pm. I am sure Bangalore features somewhere in the Limca Book of world records for its legendary traffic. I reached hotel around 10 and went to bed after a quick dinner. In the morning, we (all interns) left for office at 9 sharp and reached there at 10. Jack F. Welch Technology Center is the second largest research centre for GE after the first one at Crotonville, US. Spread over 50 acres, the centre employs more than 5300 scientists.
MNCs apparently have a 15-minute entry process the first time you come in as an employee. You are photographed and given an ID card which becomes a part of your everyday wear for as long as you are in the company. Post that we were walked to one of their large conference rooms where many tables with names of each intern written next to one chair. We scrambled to find our seats and on one of them across the room, my name was written on a piece of paper. Next to it was a folder, a black GE embedded t-shirt and a cool selfie stick. Hah! I said to myself,
‘Everyone wants to look young, even the company’.
Enroute, I had been warned by fellow interns who have had a corporate exposure that inductions are basically boring with all sorts of legal jargons thrown at you and PPTs over PPTs that you must endure for the day! Prepared for that, I look down at the gift like a consolation prize! It began with everyone introducing themselves. Now the first twist of the day started here. We were asked to introduce ourselves and say one whacky thing about us in the intro. Moreover, one’s introduction was to be delivered by the person sitting next to him/her! All sorts of crazy things were narrated – 49 countries travelled at the age of 25! Served in the Marine forces! My Skydiving become commonplace in that room of extraordinarily whacky people!
Next, we were divided into teams of 8 each and we set out to play a game of treasure hunt! We were literally running all over the campus in our quest for answers. This was the company’s way of getting us acquainted with the mind-blowing campus they had built. A beautiful arc bridge over one of its many gardens (with several bonsai trees) left me awe-struck. The names of the buildings were appropriately referenced to some of the major aviation advancements of our times. Once the game was over and winners awarded (My team was apparently too lazy and was too slow :P), we headed towards the sumptuous feast that was laid out for us.
Post lunch we had a tour of the Medical research facilities. This tour guide was a senior person in the healthcare division and we saw the various equipment that GE manufactures. Post that we headed for the star event of the day – the Aviation tour. The instructor was one of the most experienced people on the aviation team and had the aura that pulled your attention towards him when he spoke. He told us some crazy facts about GE Aviation that left our mouths hanging open in amazement. I googled many of the stuff he narrated to be sure he isn’t bluffing! We then walked into a room that had two gigantic Jet-Engines on display. He explained how they work. What is the scientific principle behind it and how GE was doing better that all others put together? The mighty open engines looked like an invention from a sci-fi movie.
We then headed back to our conference room. We signed our offer letters and did some small talk with each other and the HR team of GE. We had tea and then all of us left for the party that was planned for all the interns at a chic brewery!
As I lay down on the bed that night, I began to think about all the HR classes in which the professor talked at length about how “Company Cultures” shaped the companies and became one of the distinguishing factors for a company’s success or failure. I don’t know how it is done in other companies but this 125 years old company feels very young and exciting to me.