We have with us
Mr Sundar Ganesh C from
MDI Gurgaon. He is an avid reader and a meticulous dapper. He is currently in the second year of his MBA at MDI Gurgaon.
Sundar not only got selected for the internship with Aditya Birla Group but also displayed an impressive stellar performance during his internship, and bagged the PPO from Aditya Birla Group. Let's begin our conversation.
Tell us in brief about how you prepared for summer placement interviews?
I had relevant work experience in HR domain in my job. I was working on designing compensation and benefits for the sales force of my employer. I studied compensation and benefits religiously because I knew that not only was it an important area but also as I had relevant work experience in this area, the interviewer could ask me questions about it. In addition to compensation and benefits, I prepared other subjects as well such as organizational behaviour, HR systems and processes, Employment law, and Performance management systems. I had also got the opportunity to work on a live project before the summer placements, so I prepared regarding my work on that project too. Moreover, I prepared the behavioural questions really well. I spent a lot of time in introspection, digging deep into my past to create the most compelling story that I would tell during my interview. I also appeared for certain mock interviews so as to practice the art of taking interviews and I worked on the constructive feedback that I received from the interviewers.
What was the summer internship selection process like for Aditya Birla Group?
First, there was a CV based shortlist, after that the shortlisted candidates were asked to appear for a psychometric assessment of the candidates. This round was also eliminative. The candidates who cleared the psychometric assessment were called for group discussion. The group discussion was case-based. There were two rounds of interview after the group discussions ended. The interview revolved around my CV and my prior work experience.
What are the reasons you think you cracked the interview?
I felt that at Aditya Birla Group, the interviewers were looking for a candidate who would like to be associated with the company on a long term basis and I believe I understood this during the interview so I told them that while I was working, my intent was always to learn and grow in the same organization that is one of the biggest reasons I did not change my job ever since I started. After I said this, the interviewers looked surprisingly convinced about my candidature and the interview just took off and we ended on a very optimistic note.
Tell us about your day to day work as an intern
Most of my work during my internship was dependent on MS Excel. I also had to conduct surveys and personal interviews. This went on throughout the two months of my internship. I also had to work with the tech team as we were building a portal. Apart from these, I had to attend all team meetings even if they weren't related to my project so that took a lot of my valuable time, I learned a lot about the organization from those meetings none the less and I liked the organization and it inspired me to work hard and deliver my best on the project.
What did you do right to achieve the PPO?
I had broken down my end goals into deliverables with daily or two day deadlines. This made it easy for my manager and myself to track the progress. I analysed the reliability of the survey. This validated the survey and made it easy for me to tackle questions from the senior management during the final project review presentation. I worked on HR relevant subjects apart from my project which gave me ample opportunity to build my HR concepts which was very helpful in question and answer session after the project review presentation. Moreover, at the end of every week, I outlined my learnings to my manager in an email and made sure we were on the same page throughout the project so that we remained aligned throughout the project.
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