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Summer Internship Experience 2021 - CRED - Devesh Agrawal, XLRI Jamshedpur

Sep 9, 2021 | 14 minutes |

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In this article, Devesh Agrawal, a student of XLRI Jamshedpur who interned at CRED in the Human Resources Domain talks about his summer internship experience. Find out about how his onboarding process went, what his learnings are, and his experiences during this internship.

The hunt for India's best summer interns for the class of 2023 has begun! Summer Saga 2022 is now live! Participate here: https://bit.ly/3MLWtlC


Hi, Tell us about how you got selected for this internship? Take us through the moment you realized you had got the internship.

End-term exams of the first trimester had just ended, and before one could even think about celebrating that, the internship process notification was given to us. I remember someone saying, "Sleep all that you want to today, because starting from tomorrow, you wouldn't get any of it till the time you're placed!"
What followed next was waking up in the early morning and suiting up to sit in front of the laptop (Yeah, MBA had confined to that after attending the entire first term virtually). I had put several alarms and placed the phone away from my bed because the best alarm (mom waking you up) wasn't an option for me at that point since I was living away from home because of the COVID-19.
The procedure started, and the day was full of filling those company application forms, writing those elimination tests, getting into GDs with your batchmates & witnessing a professional side of them, not hearing from some company because they didn't want work-ex folks, processing endless communication on telegram or WhatsApp channels, and managing your emotions and food if the time permitted, all of this only to wake up again and repeat the same!
There were many steps to getting an internship with CRED. It had an initial screening on the basis of resumes which was followed by ppt & visume (video resume of 1 minute) submissions. The next evening, my interviews went on for hours, and then in the night, I got that one phone call, which made me realize how everything was totally worth the experience, and that's when I found out that I've made it to CRED!


On joining the company as an intern, how has your onboarding experience been like?

I was all set to join CRED in the offline mode, but then very close to my date of joining, the covid situations got worse, and I prepared for starting it off remotely. CRED was all prepped for the same as they reached out to me detailing the induction program and told me how they were equally excited about the onboarding! Everybody I met was super enthusiastic, and they made sure that the virtual mode of internship doesn't stop them from delivering the culture and the experience that they're known for. The best part about the virtual internship was that everyone in the company was just one click away, and I could reach out & talk to anyone! (Of course, family, food, safety, and shelter have been the best perks too). After getting familiar with the things around, as I proceeded with the project, my buddy stayed in touch and made sure that I feel connected to the team and the company.

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?

At first, I was a bit worried about the interactions since I was starting my internship virtually, but soon I realized how open the people here were for any quick connects to know each other better and talk about the cool things that they were working on! Basically, staying curious in the day-to-day approach has turned out to be a great experience! In hindsight, I can say that the best teams are the ones that not only talk about work, but they do it very candidly. Such meetings make people feel much more connected to the organization.
I think I'm going to approach and look at my project from an organizational perspective instead of seeing it as just an internship project because I believe that's when I would be able to solve for the vision that the company has. I am going to continue being curious in the interactions with my supervisor and ask questions that help me solve for the organization as a whole.


Tell us in brief, about the project you are currently working on and how is this project going to help the company? 

I am building a learning and development system for the organization. For the same, I am currently trying to figure out the employee development philosophy that the organization believes in by interacting with the leaders and by also capturing the market practices by connecting with the industry stalwarts. Based on these foundations, successful implementation of this system would translate into the company witnessing higher employee engagement levels, better retention, and boosted performance levels, to name a few.

The hunt for India's best summer interns for the class of 2023 has begun! Summer Saga 2022 is now live! Participate here: https://bit.ly/3MLWtlC


Give us an overview of how you prepared for your summer placement season.

Summer internships are a great way to apply and implement the conceptual learnings and see them to fruition and further develop the knowledge. As I got a project in Learning and Development, it was a subject that I hadn't formally studied in my first year's curriculum, so I started referring to the concepts from a textbook. I also invested my time learning advanced concepts on MS Excel and PowerPoint because these two are must-have tools to keep handy! Apart from this, I spoke to a few people in my network, some of my batchmates and seniors, to have some inputs and keep myself on track, and of course for a healthy dose of recreation too!

Based on your internship experience till now, what are some necessary skill sets one must be prepared with before starting an internship? 

Proficiency in MS Excel and PowerPoint is a must; the more you have it, the easier and better your work becomes! You'd be spending much lesser time if you're good at these!
Read up on your project topic beforehand to save yourself some time in the internship!
Talk to your seniors and friends to know and learn from their experiences, which would be very, very relevant! It would help you not make the same mistakes, of course you're gonna make mistakes, but they would be new ones, so that's alright!


What are some new skills that you have developed while working in the company?

Communication is a key skill that's needed in any domain; it's very important to be able to convey what you really wish to. The daily interactions with my mentor, team interactions, calling people from the industry on a regular basis, and talking to leaders in the organization definitely helped me develop and better my communication skills.
Helping Hand: With COVID-19 on the rise, I witnessed people at CRED making efforts to ensure that they check on each other, substitute for team members' work when someone wasn't doing alright in their personal lives. Also, I saw CRED deploying 100M liters of O2 as per their Oxygen Mission to extend help during COVID-19. I have been amazed by the results when I paid close attention to this practice and applied it in my real life too! If it was some survey that my friends wanted to be filled or anything else that they needed help with, I made sure that I walk an extra mile to offer help in such cases. I was really surprised how the help kept on pouring back to me multi-folded! In hindsight, this seems to be a greater takeaway for both professional and personal lives! So, ALWAYS HELP PEOPLE WHENEVER YOU CAN!


What are some of the challenges that you have faced in your internship and how have you overcome them?

One of the key challenges was the virtual mode of internship, because of which the interactions within and outside the team limit by default. So, I made sure that I reach out to people and request them for a connect as per their convenient timings. I learnt that people are willing to help you, but you have got to step up and make efforts to at least reach out and ask for it.
Another crucial challenge for me was a major change in my deliverables (because of some unavoidable circumstances). It kind of meant that I had to deliver a lot of new things now within half of the time. So, the first thing I did was accepting it instead of wasting any time cribbing about it. And then, I tried to identify the areas where I could make use of the work that I had already done so far. For example, the survey that I had floated earlier, I could still utilize some of its insights in my new deliverable. I also reached out to the people whom I had earlier spoken with and followed up with them for fresh requirements. So, making a great first impression with them did help me this time! I also synced with my mentor to calibrate the next steps so as to finish the deliverables in due time.


Tell us about a situation where you were complemented by your Manager for your work. 

This was when I had to gather some market insights so as to better drive the project. I created and administered a survey, reached out to my immediate network, and started approaching second and third-degree connections as well. I walked the extra mile and talked to many professionals telephonically as well so as to collect better insights as compared to the objective ones that a survey could capture. With all of these efforts, I was able to capture very rich data for 60+ companies where the manager had only been expecting some ten-odd companies' data. And that's when he complimented me for the efforts, the utilization of the network, and the knowledge base that I could create for myself, the project, and the organization.

What have been your major learnings during the internship? 

The very first one of them would be to communicate! I cannot emphasize enough how crucial this one is. The importance of this becomes multi-folded in a virtual mode of work. It helps all the stakeholders if they're apprised of what's going on, they might not reply as per your desired frequency because they're occupied with a lot of other things than your internship project, but you should give them an option to check your progress and stay updated with it whenever they have the time to have a look. It also makes your presence felt and conveys that you're committed and well invested in this project! This communication is best done in written form when you're providing timely updates as frequently as necessary about your work to relevant stakeholders.
Secondly, get the deliverables and the timelines approved by the manager at the starting of the internship itself. This is even more crucial when there isn't a lot of clarity already.
Third, start making the ppt from day1. It not only gives you a fair idea about your progress but also helps a lot during the mid-review and the final ppt as you don't have to worry about missing out on any detail that you had worked on. Also, writing down things helps give you much more clarity.
Fourth, reach out to your network, the batchmates, the seniors, find out the people who are working in a similar domain. Staying in touch with them definitely helps, as many projects would require market research to be conducted, and being on a similar boat helps widen your perspective about the problem that you're solving.
Fifth, get proficient with MS Excel and PowerPoint before the internship begins.
Sixth, help as many people as possible. It would definitely come back to you in some form or the other!
Lastly, take some time for yourself and stay grateful.


Tell us about your final presentation of the project to your manager in brief. What was the toughest question asked during the presentation and how did you answer it?

The final presentation is the day when most of the interns get pretty nervous as it is the day when their two months' work is going to be judged. But, I was able to calm myself down as I looked back and realized how far I had come, from being clueless in the beginning about how to proceed with the project to actually having an output to present! I also reflected upon my progress from mid-review to the final review and saw a considerable difference in terms of how I presented my findings, and I was also able to make use of the feedback given to me, which helped a lot!
The project was regarding Learning & Development, and the toughest question that I had to answer was how I would ensure that the employees would adopt the suggested learning interventions?
This was a tough question because it included the last-mile detail, as the organization would definitely want to evaluate the adoption metrics for any new system that they'd be launching!
Now, instead of just a theoretical approach, I made use of my findings from the primary & secondary research to substantiate the answer, and I talked about why the employees do not adopt the L&D programs, what can be done to address that, and how should that be implemented! So, essentially, I made sure that my answer addressed WHY, WHAT, and HOW!


Some advice that you would like to give to your juniors based on your internship experience.

One of the most crucial inputs that someone who's starting off can follow is to communicate well! Verbal and written both the forms, right from day one! It would not only increase the visibility of you and your work but also, you'd come across as an individual who's very responsible - and that's something that the organizations love! Keep taking initiatives, be it taking up a new deliverable or seeking feedback from your guide. Please don't wait for them to come back to you for these things. Networking cannot be emphasized enough! Stay connected with your batchmates (especially the ones who're working in the same company, similar project domain), seniors (They've literally been there, done that). It would not only help you with your market research or benchmarking, but you can stumble upon great ideas by talking to them. Also, make a few friends in the company too. Make sure you're preparing your presentation from day one. It would help keep track of your progress. Don't be a "YES" guy! Many people get scared about disagreeing with what their manager is telling them. You should question something if you think you have a different opinion about it. You'd be respected more, and they might seek your opinion in the future as well if you have an approach of curiosity and a way around asking genuine questions. Lastly, help whoever you can! This one is lifelong learning indeed :D

What was one of the best moments according to you during your internship?

It has been a great internship experience, and I have had some memorable moments too. One of the best moments for me was when I was able to see the final output of my project. It was so fulfilling to realize the hard work put in the last two months come to fruition. There had been times when it felt as if it was impossible to achieve the end goal of the project, but, in hindsight, when you keep going, you end up finding the answers that you are seeking! The icing on the cake was when the mentor loved the output too! And appreciated how I had made use of the feedback given to me!
The other key moments from the internship include surprise gifts from the company, meeting the team for the first time, and getting that salary credited message!