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Summer internships are quintessential in the life of any B-School Student, for multiple reasons. It gives you the flavor of working in a company with compensation, even though it is for a couple of months. It gives an opportunity to expose yourself to a wide range of business units and functions; to see first-hand how the so-called theories of marketing, motivation or management come to life in the real world. Of course, the stint adds to your resume, helps you build a story for a subsequent interview and also provides an opportunity to get your feet wet in a function or industry – The earlier we know what we want as a career, the greater the conviction we will have on our abilities.
I hail from a small town called Palakkad in Central Kerala and did my graduation in Mechanical Engineering, I have close to 5 years of work experience predominantly in project management, operations and consulting with organizations like Saipem, Fragomen and EY in India and abroad. Currently I’m pursuing master's in Organization Development, Change and Leadership (MA-ODCL), at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The program admits individuals with a minimum of two years’ work experience and is meant to create a cadre of people inclined, process-oriented leaders with business acumen who question the status quo! The learning is heavily tilted to the experiential side with a great mix of multi-disciplinary courses and live projects. My background, work experience and the take away that we have to look at the business holistically with due weightage to people and processes from the first year of my master’s course has helped me immerse myself well in the Summer internship opportunity.
Alright, let me take through my journey which has been quite different!
Like for any B-School graduate, the opportunity to interview for Swiggy was presented to me during the Summer hiring season on campus. It was in September 2019, Mumbai rains, early morning buzz and business formals, skipped meals and running around the campus; a typical B-School hiring imagery. The fond memories of the interview include the very nature of it and the chilled-out interviewers. I remember taking them through my work experience, CV elements and scenario-based guesstimate questions strolling across the corridor; for on-lookers it presented a picture of two friends meeting after a longtime, coming together and engaging in an intense conversation. Large portion of the questions were to determine the cultural fit, thinking on the feet, how one addresses failures and willingness to learn – Something that unfolded over the course of the interview rounds. After 3 rounds, the final interviewer asked me this question with a grin on his face, “Can I finalize the name, you will be interning out of our Corporate Office in Bengaluru. That’s ok? I hope you wouldn’t say that its Startup, meh!” I burst out into laughter and said “Absolutely not, I’m excited to intern with Swiggy and visit the garden city - Bengaluru”.
Jotting down few things I did below, which worked for me to crack the interview;
(a) If the company is visiting the campus for the pre-placement talk; feel free to ask all the questions that pops up in your mind about the internship, role, projects or the company itself.
(b) On the day of the interview, have a handy one pager cheat sheet which speaks about the company – The Founders / CEO / Board, lines of businesses, Industry presence, Competitors, Products, Your Observations about the products (Services) and company per say. Notes from the pre-placement talk would suffice. Any interesting recent news about the company or industry would be great too.
(c) Be prepared to narrate the good and bad times of your life / career. Questions revolving around your life decisions, your failures, learnings can’t be read upon from Quora! Be honest.
(d) If asked upon the concepts, along with the definition if you can provide simple real-life examples / application of the same; it creates a great impression. Helps the interviewer recognize your level of understanding.
(e) It’s OK to say “I don’t know”. Openness to learning and integrity are highly valued.
(f) Finally, visualize interview to be a conversation between two people, it’s not a ‘Gun on your head’ Q&A. Smile, Breathe and be confident.
Early February 2020, the campus team at Swiggy reached out to me start with the on-boarding process - Collation of personal data, travel and accommodation where all agreed upon. I had informed my friends and cousins in Bengaluru about stint, we had made some plans too to go around the city. In second week of March, the discussion around lockdown started and the interns were informed about the virtual internship. With national lockdown being imposed, the physical presence at the Corporate Office in Bengaluru became impossible. We started off virtually and were assigned with projects, mentors and reporting managers.
The first week, I solely spent upon knowing the members of the team; collecting data on the projects assigned to have absolute clarity on the problem statement, expectations and deliverables. As I was being managed remotely, speaking to the stakeholders and keeping them updated on the project was something I deliberately did every two days. The work culture and relatively young work force (Average age of 27 Years) in Swiggy was a huge support - You could reach out to folks with a question or seek inputs; they are more than happy to say ‘hello” and help you with open arms. The VP and reporting manager introduced me to the larger HR team in the bi-weekly call and it was helpful later during the stint. My assumption was that Swiggy is an on-demand food platform, wore off as I came across the different business units and the on-going projects. Delivering unparallel convenience to its customers is the larger vision for the company now. Access to Swiggy learning academy in which had curated course content from Udemy, Harvard Mentor, Abstract.com etc was an add-on along with bi-weekly "Meet Your Business Leaders" session, where the interns could have a one-on-one interaction with Senior VPs, BU Heads of all the Swiggy Businesses.
Swiggy employees are addressed as ‘Swiggsters’. As time passed by, I realized the key values of Swiggy, which was exhibited by everyone I had interacted with. Extremely high sense of ownership, entrepreneurial mindset, professionalism, extreme passion, customer centricity and high regard for ethics were the values I could resonate with. It made perfect sense to me now, why the interview process comprised of those specific elements and why it was conducted the way it was done.
The portfolio of projects I worked upon gave me immense insights on employee compensation and benefits. The manager I was reporting into also had a consulting background, which actually made the communication seamless. I was given great amount of freedom to experiment and drive initiatives, even though the business was going through great uncertainty due to Covid-19. It was ok to fail with the idea, but you had to fail fast! I had the good fortune to have end-to-end execution of couple of HR projects, which actually had the whole of Swiggy workforce, their families and external vendors as beneficiaries. If not for the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and the projects largely around Compensation & Benefits with sensitive data of Employees, I haven’t explained much about the projects.
Slowly and steadily over the days, I bonded well with the larger teams – Other verticals and business units. Employees started having individual level communication with me, reaching out to me for queries and help, foregoing the fact that I was an intern. Involving all the stakeholders and constant communication is something that helped me in driving the initiatives.
(a) Gain clarity on the problem statement, deliverables and expectations. Ask as many questions you want; be shameless, be polite.
(b) Keep the stakeholders informed about the progress / status of the project. It’s ok to say there has been a delay, or change of plans; but if you keep them in the blind, they might not be able to help.
(c) Insist on feedback and do self-reflection. It’s imperative to know where you stand over each week in attaining the goals and most importantly as a person too! Take the feedback on the stride and device plans to get better.
(d) At any point in time, you need help – Ask! Be vulnerable; all the stakeholders are human beings, they understand you. But only if you tell them your challenges and seek inputs.
(e) It’s OK to make mistakes. Acknowledge and Own it! Tell it to your manager and how you intend to fix it. Learn from the same and get better the next day.
(f) Be pro-active! Be willing to go that extra mile and take part in company events – I made friends over couple of workshops I attended and games I took part in. We need work and fun.
(g) Its OK to have a bad day. Tell yourself that it’s natural for people to get overwhelmed, overthink and get lost. The earlier you accept this, the faster you get to be back on track. There’s no point worrying about things beyond your control.
"All I ask is that today ,you do the best work of your entire life" - Steve Jobs
While my internship stint was ending on second week of June 2020; I was given an option to extend the stint until end of July 2020, as the company wanted to allocate adhoc projects. With the campus was re-opening weeks from the original schedule, I took up the same and now I have been given an opportunity to work with a different set of stakeholders, learn more and liaise with more connections at work. I was happy to hear from few teammates that they were glad to have me around for a longer tenure – These subtle statements tell you that you have made a meaningful contribution. I was fortunate to receive a commendation from my reporting manager and larger HR team!
While I write this article, I continue to intern with Swiggy on the extended stint and it’s a new learning experience every day. The pace, the out-side box thinking and above all the spirit to get things done is something that excites me at Swiggy. Now, the weekly reviews and catch-up calls extend beyond deliverables to OTT series recommendations, food blogging and pets. The time I have spent here (Which’s close to 3.5 Months) will always be cherished forever in my life; for I have had the flavour of the life of a Swiggster!
Thank you for your time. Stay safe y'all! Have questions or want to say "hello", feel free to reach me at sreejithmenon92@gmail.com or on LinkedIn Sreejith Ravi Menon
Note: The Author gives due credit to the images / quotes used in the article to its creators.