In this article, Devyani Bhardwaj , a student of IIM Kozhikode who interned at Coca-Cola in the General Management Domain talks about her summer internship experience. Find out about how she prepared for the summer placements, her onboarding process, her experiences & what her learnings are during this internship.
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Hi, Tell us about how you got selected for this internship? Take us through the moment you realized you had got the internship.
I had sat for the summer placements converted by my institute. After CV shortlisting, about 50 students were selected from the entire campus. I was one of them. We had two rounds based assessing your brand knowledge and marketing skills while looking at you from a HR POV as well. Following which 8 students reached the final interviews. It was Day 0 of the placements. I was nervous, but confident because I had gone beyond and read in depth about the company, analyzed their advertisement, initiatives, brands, markets etc. I had formed opinions and comments about everything. The interview honestly, seemed to me like a conversation, where the interviewers and I sat and gelled well by just discussing about Coke. My interview got over and the placecommer made me wait in the meeting till all interviewees got done with. While waiting I talked to all the candidates and shared my interview experience. People came and went, while I just waited. Finally the placecommer congratulated me and informed, I have been taken up by Coca-Cola
On joining the company as an intern, how has your onboarding experience been like?
The induction started with an informal session with the HR. It was all new so, all the interns were just nervous and shy. Formally we started out n 19th April, with a few opening sessions. Well, the entire organization had undergone a leadership and organizational change, hence the onboarding was a little sparse and slow. We had interactions with the top leadership and as Coke hires just 19-20 summer interns the sessions were a lot more interactive and personal. We were explained about the working of different departments, the history and evolution of Coca Cola, the different brands, partners and extensions of the organization. We also got a chance to talk to the President of Coca Cola INSWA (India and South West Asia) and ask questions that we like. It was truly inspiring to talk to him as just summer interns because of his amazing journey and struggle.
How has your interaction with the team members and colleagues been like? How will you make sure to leave the best impression on your supervisors by the end of the internship?
The interaction with the team members has been great. With colleagues and interns there were efforts put to increase the bonding but it couldn't happen because there were a lot of uncertainties like Covid, impending exams and assignments and ofcourse the summer project. The people in the organization were also a little busy due to the organizational revamp hence the week felt slow and low key futile. There was a feeling of vagueness and confusion because I wasn't able to get in touch with my leads as much as I had liked to
Tell us in brief, about the project you are currently working on and how is this project going to help the company?
So the project is a little confidential, but I got the chance to work in the Nepal market and look over the opportunities to step into the new category. Nepal, is a small market and currently has a small brand portfolio. I have been given the task of identifying opportunities to expand it, conduct FGD, do a consumer deep dive and set a long term strategy for Nepal. This will act as a road map for the company to work towards product launch or re-tweaking the portfolio (if results reflect growth opportunities). Currently, my work is research related but it will be switching to strategy soon
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TIMELINE, PROCESS AND RULES
- You don't need to register on InsideIIM.com or on the Kampus App to take part in Summer Saga Season 8. Simply share your experiences in the Digital Diary. To maintain standardisation, every Digital Diary will have a few questions that you'll need to answer.
- Access all the Digital Diaries forms from here: Digital Diary 1 | Digital Diary 2 | Digital Diary 3 | Digital Diary 4 | Digital Diary 5
- Your overall submission will be evaluated on the following parameters:
-Completeness: This depends on the number of Digital Diaries you have filled.
-Value Addition: This depends on how in-depth your answers have been. The score for this parameter will be given by our Judges.
-Reach: This depends on how many unique people have read your internship experience once we publish the article. We maintain fair play, we will publish all the articles on the same day, so that you can also share the same in your network.
- There is also a title called, ‘Campus With The Most Interesting Interns’ that will be awarded to (a) the campus that submits the maximum number of entries and (b) the campus that submits the best quality entries (based on the score given by our judges). The minimum entries from campus to be considered for this title is 10. So, if you want your campus to win the title then make sure your classmates and other students from your b school share their experiences in this year's Summer Saga Competition.
This competition is broadly divided into four categories. Refer to the table below to know more about prizes in each category.
Prize Money
|
Category
|
|
Banking and Finance
|
Sales, Marketing and General Management
|
Operations
|
HR, Consulting and Others
|
| 1st Prize |
₹ 10,000 |
₹ 10,000 |
₹ 10,000 |
₹ 10,000 |
| Runner Up |
₹ 5,000 |
₹ 5,000 |
₹ 5,000 |
₹ 5,000 |
The 1st Prize winner will also get a one-hour 1-on-1 career guidance session with an industry stalwart, from our panel of mentors in Kounsel.
ABOUT THE JUDGES
Every year, we have Campus Managers from some of the top companies (such as Reliance, HSBC, Flipkart, ABG, HUL, TAS, etc) judging the annual Summer Saga competition. We will release the details of the judges of Summer Saga Season 8 soon!
Check out the previous year's
winners!
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Maybe this will help you reflect and recall these two months as well (which can come in handy when appearing for interviews in the future). InsideIIM is the perfect platform to chronicle your experiences, your highs, your lows and everything in between.
So guys, what are you waiting for? Start writing! You have a voice. You have the experience. Make the best of it!