A fresher whose only experience of corporate life was limited to the suits and skirts worn by the big shots in ‘Suits’ series and probably the high top buildings showcased in movies.
A fresher like me was given an opportunity to step into the corporate life for the very first time and to witness if the mountain of expectations meets reality.
Dell is a prospective company for our college which is known to provide good learning opportunities to any student majoring in Finance.
After being a little under confident and bogged down with the failed placement selections in bachelors, I was a bit timid to sit for the internship selection process all over again.
Nevertheless, the never give up attitude within myself encouraged me to not crib, feel sorry but instead exuberate a confident personality in the interview. Thus, crisp with knowledge, confident and respectful in group discussions and most importantly honest when I was unaware of an answer helped me to bag an internship opportunity in Dell Technologies.
Sudden relief, happiness, confidence, excitement and finally an opportunity to prove myself, these bundle of emotions ended up forming one of the best days of my MBA life. The only emotion left now was patience till when the year ends and I get to step up in a thrilling working environment.
The month of April commenced and so did the internship in Dell Gurgaon. Being the only intern in the entire organisation, I was a tad bit nervous as the thought of not having a peer or not a team dawned on me. The meeting with my Project Mentor, Mr Puneet Punyani gave me a ray of confidence and as he was patient enough to explain me the projects he had in mind for me.
My project was based on a hypothesis that my mentor had in mind regarding the strategy involved in aligning accounts and planning of territories of the sales representatives working in three major countries of the EMEA (Europe) region namely - UK, France and Germany.
Ideally, Dell should follow a Rep-on-Account methodology to assign sales representative to different accounts where they should be eventually selling their products in. But, the sales leader seldom trusts his gut and assign sales member according to him and not the given methodology. This sometimes results in sales members being assigned to accounts with lowers potential or on the other hand being assigned to accounts that are overburdened with potential and needs re-assignment.
My job was to test this hypothesis by analysing the various revenue data, company financials and data regarding the quota and potential of the accounts assigned to the sales representatives and find some discrepancies. Throughout the project, my mentor guided me and supported with my analysis and if I could find any loopholes.
It was interesting as I managed to learn many summarising Excel tools and also realised that I actually like numbers and would like to further develop my career in this field.
Value added – I had the opportunity to share and discuss my project with top executives in Sydney and explain to them how we can capitalise on few territories and accounts and eventually increase revenue. It was a proud moment for me, as they took all the points into consideration and were impressed with me.
For me, I feel having a taste of the corporate life, discovering the practical side of financial analysis and having the confidence to communicate with top executives gave me a positive heads up with what opportunities lie ahead of me and gives me confidence as I look forward to it.
I cherish the last two month of my intern journey as it answered long awaited questions regarding my career, self-goals and making a mark for myself in the future.
About the Project Mentor -
Mr Puneet Punyani, Director, Dell Technologies an IIM-K graduate guided me throughout my internship journey with utter patience and confidence. I am thankful for being guided by him as I learnt a lot under his mentorship and look forward to continue in the field.