Fieldwork Experience At National Stock Exchange Of India - Apoorva Mahajan, TISS Mumbai

In mid-June this year, I joined the Human Resource Management and Labour Relations programme at TISS Mumbai with a lot of excitement and enthusiasm, it was not only the start of a new chapter in my life but there was also a sense of achievement as only a lucky few get to be a part of the prestigious programme every year.  The first few days at the institute were marked not just by new friendships, an orientation session and introductory lectures on HRM but also by guest lectures and a field visit to Larsen and Toubro. However, with June nearing its end, we eagerly waited for our Fieldwork Companies to be allotted and as soon as the companies were announced most of us beamed with joy as people were getting to intern with big corporate names like Reliance, Vodafone, Aditya Birla Group, Tata Power, Godrej, Axis Capital and even PSUs like BPCL and HPCL.

I eagerly waited for my mail and the company I was allotted was the National Stock Exchange of India, the country’s leading stock exchange and also one of the largest in the world. To be working with such a huge name in the first three months of college was a dream that I’m now getting to live.

The concept of a fieldwork internship must be confusing for many management students as well as aspirants and many would think as to how we get this huge opportunity. For all those, fieldwork internships are a unique component of the course curriculum. Having the advantage of being placed in the corporate capital of India - Mumbai as well as the benefit of a small batch size of about 60 students, each one of us is allotted different companies to work with in the four semesters along with the standard summer placement and the final stint at an NGO. So in total we have five stints in the industry. Another great aspect about the fieldwork internships at TISS, Mumbai is that the student necessarily gets to intern in companies in four different industries among FMCG, Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consulting, E-Commerce and Conglomerates. The basic idea behind the wide exposure is to give the student on the job experience in a variety of work and business environments.

Talking about my own fieldwork experience at National Stock Exchange of India, one of the best aspects of the fieldwork is the exposure to real corporate environment, being able to assist or work on the company’s policies and presentations and simply being able to observe the human resource processes of the organization. In fact, I would say that working two days every week in the fieldwork organization gives me immense understanding of the Human Resource domain that would be difficult to gain in a classroom setting. Also, a fieldwork organization gives us a chance to interact with business leaders and if you’re lucky enough you might also get an opportunity to attend important meetings which provide a great level of insight both into the company as well as the human resource challenges in particular.

And at last, being a commerce and economics student, to be a part of a strategic company like the National Stock Exchange of India, where you can see huge screens flashing the Indian stock market’s live performance gives me a feeling unmatched. Moreover, to retain our experiences, we are asked to make a journal entry on a weekly basis and to be able to see your journal entries develop into a long story every passing week gives me immense joy and a chance to put my experience in a tangible form.

Treading through the first semester, I’m excited and hopeful for the rest of my fieldwork internships which I believe will be very different in terms of business exposure as well as the workplace setting. But I believe all the experiences would sum up at the end of two years and provide me with an understanding of the people processes and most importantly the business which would have been very difficult to achieve elsewhere.