In this article, Sakshi Poddar a student of IIM Kashipur who interned at FarEye in the Product Management Domain talks about her summer internship experience. Find out about how her onboarding process went, what her learnings are, and her experiences during this internship.
Hi, Tell us about how you got selected for this internship? Take us through the moment you realized you had got the internship.
The offer was floated by the Placement Committee of the college and it was a 3 phased process starting from CV shortlisting, PI rounds, and an online Product Management questionnaire. The process was very exhilarating and smooth. The moment I got my selection email, my happiness had no limits.
On joining the company as an intern, how has your onboarding experience been like?
Virtual Onboarding seems very unusual but FarEye has left nothing untouched in making the experience a smooth one.
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?
Fareye is a great place to work, the growth and learning are exponential, and its people and culture are a testimony to this very fact. Throughout this journey, my manager Kunal and buddy Abhishek have been very supportive in helping me understand the products we specialize in, and the vision of the company. With my efforts and dedication, I feel I will be able to leave an impact on the team.
Tell us in brief, about the project you are currently working on and how is this project going to help the company?
I am being assigned work regarding the implementation of new service offering in an already established domain. This is in line with what organization can offer to differentiate itself in the market and on the track of continuous improvement.
Give us an overview of how you prepared for your summer placement season.
The first thing which is very quintessential for any placement season is CV shortlisting. So I made sure that my CV mentioned my skills and unique talent accurately. Also I was quite regular with business and everyday happenings to be prepared for GD rounds. And the last thing was being thorough with whatever I have mentioned in my CV and subjects being taught to me at IIM Kashipur.
Based on your internship experience till now, what are some necessary skill sets one must be prepared with before starting an internship?
I guess one should do proper research about the company they are interning at and the industry. This helps them have an edge when they join as they are already aware of the space. Also basic tools like Tableau, Powerpoint, SPSS help you in any internship to make a powerful presentation and insights.
What are some new skills that you have developed while working in the company?
As I am interning in Product Management Domain, I learned about Prototyping tools like Figma,Draw.io, Visio, Framer. Also, I learned about Market analysis, need gap analysis, Product Ideation, Product Design, Formulating use cases.
What are some of the challenges that you have faced in your internship and how have you overcome them?
When we speak about challenges,I feel the only hindrance is the virtual mode of Internship which is unavoidable due to the prevailing circumstances. Though the culture at FarEye is a very open door and I was able to communicate with anyone at any time still I always missed going on office as there are many things which we learn when we see or hear people doing it.But yes other than that,the team has provided me substantial resources to equip myself with the domain and product we expertise in.
Tell us about a situation where you were complemented by your Manager for your work.
During my mid-review, My manager and buddy congratulated me for putting effort in so many details.That made me more pumped to work diligently for the next month to come. My buddy has functioned as a pivotal aspect in guiding me throughout as it's his guidance that has made me acquainted with the Product Management domain in this detail.
What have been your major learnings during the internship?
My major learnings have been:
1.Perseverance - This Internship taught me that things won't come easily and it requires a lot of research and patience to develop the right solution.
2.Discipline-Work from home was challenging but the amount of learning that was in store for me made me stick to my goals.
3.Great Domain Knowledge-I learned a lot of new skill sets and tools for prototyping. Post this internship I see myself a lot equipped with the product-driven world.
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?
My final review lasted for an hour and was by far the best review I ever had. I was told to give a walkthrough of the task assigned to me in these 2 months. It involved designing a proactive Exception Management module for the Visibility Domain, Capturing Product Adoption metrics through tools like Mixpanel, Heap, and Product Discovery.
I was mostly questioned about the challenges I faced while developing and working on the tasks and the rationale for the solution and how it will impact FarEye's business going forward. As I had worked on the project from scratch I was confident in answering all of them and backed it with relevant data.
Some advice that you would like to give to your juniors based on your internship experience.
Some advice and tips to ace summers would be:
1. Proper vision of Project Deliverables and Timeline
Get clarity on expectations and final deliverables upfront. Sketch out a project timeline. Then get your manager’s reaction to it shortly after starting your new role. Set a cadence for regular one-on-one check-ins with your manager and ask who you should speak with to meet micro-goals.
2.Prepare in advance
One month before your internship begins, start reading and understanding the various new initiatives your company is taking up. If you are aware of your project beforehand, start researching about the industry, the breakthroughs made in the same, the best practices involved relating to your project. This would ensure that you have some meaningful initial conversations with your mentor giving you some brownie points at the beginning itself.
3.Take Reviews Seriously
Mid-Review of the internship helped me understand the senior leadership’s point of view regarding my project and its progress. I took their inputs very seriously and made sure that I have answers to all their queries before the final presentation.
What was one of the best moments according to you during your internship?
The summer internship was a great learning opportunity. I was put into a totally new area and learned a lot over the two months. The interns were treated at par with the other Product Managers and our opinion was valued. We had multiple opportunities to interact and connect with fellow product visioners. This helped us in getting good clarity about the organization and the type of work and projects it deals in.
Also, the company's culture is great and it offers a lot of opportunities for the interns to learn.
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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!