I am a first year student of M.A. in Human Resource Management and Labour Relations (HRM and LR) at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai and this is a story of what an internship in a corporate can teach us about our own sense of importance and how the typical management school worries are just a matter of perspective.
Every programme in TISS has a fieldwork component, which is a salute to the founding values of the Institution as a social intervention based educational institute. This sense of real fieldwork action is instilled during the years spent at TISS itself.
Being a student of the HRM and LR means that you get to do six internships.
Yes, you heard that right- six.
Four fieldwork internships, one summer internship and one NGO stint.
Along with being a valuable experience in terms of learning, it is also a great way to network with people from some of the biggest companies in India, the list of which would make anyone envious.
I interned with Kalpataru Ltd., a real estate company, which has diversified into project management, power transmission and logistics. I interned in the CSR department of Kalpataru and we had our work cut out in trying to research and deliver a plan to setup an educational and vocational training institute for specially-abled students.
While my classmates got different projects cutting across the verticals of HR like training, policy making, attrition and so on, I had an entirely different segment and sector. However, I received great help from my friends outside HRM and got a chance to visit NGOs like NASEOH, NAB Mumbai and Ali Yavar Jung foundation. What you see in places which work towards creating a difference in the lives of people who cannot speak, cannot see, cannot hear, changes the way you look at life.
At some point in all the rat race, you forget that the real difficulty in life is not getting the dream slot zero company or the A on your mark sheet. The real agony is never knowing what your parents look like, or what your classmates are saying, or never being able to dance or sing. People who were disowned by their own parents because they were not like us i.e. they were specially-abled. It is only when you see the problems of people like these you realise how trivial your problems are.
As Carl Sagan wrote, pointing towards the inflated sense of importance we often have,
“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”
Being a fresher, my internship was an experience which introduced me to the corporate world. It was my first experience in an office setting, and I feel that the system at a place in TISS makes you ready to perform well in your job at the end of your two years.
However, it is the ethos of a place that makes you ready to perform well personally in life. And if you are lucky, you might get an internship that goes beyond teaching you. It adds a dimension to you.
You might also get a Fieldwork Placement Offer (FPO) in the second year, and the faculties make sure that the sectors you work in are highly varied.
My experience made me value what I have better and put things in perspective. I would have understood this very late, perhaps never, or perhaps with a lot of pain. But that is the benefit of not being in just a B-school, but a lot more.
This famous image encapsulates it better than I probably did -
The famous Pale blue dot.
About the Author:
Parth Khare is a student of Human Resource Management and Labour Relations programme at TISS Mumbai. He loves to read poetry, play basketball and learn as much as he can by looking at the stars.