September 13
th, 2016 - Curfew is imposed in Bengaluru as violence erupts around the city over Cauvery Water Dispute. The city is at standstill and so is our placement for summer internships. By this time, I have applied to three firms and none of them have yet visited the campus. By evening of the same day I receive a mail that one of those firms will be visiting our campus tomorrow. I walk in for the first round, carefree, without even putting on a blazer. Looking at 100 other desperate applicants and an engrossing pre-placement talk made me realise what it would mean to be a part of this organisation. I rushed back to my room, climbed 7 floors, dashed into my room and reached out in the cupboard for that freshly dry cleaned blazer. I walked back into the interview room with a clearer head, and as destiny would have it, by the end of the day I am offered an internship at Fidelity Investments which I wholeheartedly accept. A year has gone by and I still thank God that I ran for that blazer!
When I am asked to share my internship experience, I wonder what aspect of it should I share. The engrossing sessions with my seniors on learning myriad tools, or those conversations at coffee, or the amazing parties in the heart of Bengaluru on Friday nights. Well, for the sake of this audience, let’s focus on the learnings part.
I interned with the Digital Analytics team at Fidelity Investments. Being a complete novice, I had no clue on how to take my project forward. Three days of small sessions of a few hours with my seniors did what 30 sessions of Analytics couldn’t. The picture was much clearer and I had a hint of how to go about it. The timely, structured program that was mailed to me in the first week itself and clear mindedness of my mentor made sure that I was right on track.
When an intern has the freedom to walk in at 1.00 P.M. and leave at 7.00 P.M., which speaks a lot about the organisation. I was given clear objectives with dedicated timelines (and not deadlines) so that I can work at my own pace and deliver without being micromanaged.
I have seen students giving feedbacks like - “We weren’t treated like interns and more like regular employees”. Fidelity was not the same. Every single day we were indeed treated like interns and that means being treated like the youngest one in the family where everyone is willing to take care of you. My mentor was there to help me at every step and right before my presentation when I was a bit nervous, he boosted my confidence by giving me the ‘Gyaan’ I desperately needed - “Nobody knows about your work more than you do, so relax!”
While I was leaving, I said 60 days is a very short time for anyone to learn anything significant and yet I have. But what matters more than my learnings is the awareness that this internship has given me of how to make the most out of my final year of MBA.
There will be many jobs to come and many projects to do but this shall always be the closest to my heart for this is the place where it all began.
About the Author:
Shubham Kala is a native of Uttarakhand with last 5 years in New Delhi. He has done his graduation in Electronics from Delhi University, post which he worked with Squared Monitoring, a media monitoring firm. He joined SIBM Bengaluru in 2016 where currently he is pursuing his second year of MBA in Finance. Coordinator of ‘SymBeat- the official web magazine of SIBM B’ and SIBM B Toastmasters Club, his interests lie in reading- almost anything and everything, public speaking and writing.
In a nutshell, Shubham is an electronics undergrad, with an internship in Analytics, now pursuing Finance with interests in geopolitics. According to him, he is trying and failing and failing again to figure out where his calling lies.