In this article, Aditi ,a student of MDI Gurgaon who interned at RPG Group in the Sales and Marketing 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.
We first had a GD with a panel of 8 students. My GD went very well and I was called for an interview almost immediately. In the interview they asked me about myself, and why sales after CFA FRM. Post this they asked me about my expectations from my internship. All my answers were aligned with the companies vision and mission statement, which helped me crack the interview, and that was it! Within 5 minutes they decided that I was an ideal fit for the company and I was selected!
On joining the company as an intern, how has your onboarding experience been like?
The onboarding was really good. Ice breaking sessions along with informative sessions were held for the first couple of days for the group as a whole, followed by splitting the group up for the particular company allotted. Even now, catch-up sessions and coffee breaks are held every week to help us relax and network.
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 RPG Group follows an open-door policy where any employee (including interns) can approach anyone in the firm without any hesitation. In two weeks I have already interacted with over 25 people including the MD, Anant Goenka.
Networking being the primary method of creating a good impression, it is necessary to take ownership of your project and drive it yourself in order to deliver beyond what is asked.
Tell us in brief, about the project you are currently working on and how is this project going to help the company?
The project I am currently working on is related to the expansion of the dealer network for CEAT tyres in Kolkata. It includes identification and mapping of current as well as potential dealers with which the company can increase business in order to gain market share. Since this is a live project which will be implemented as I go along, it will benefit the company to understand insights from CEAT and non-CEAT dealers and increase penetration in the market.
Are You The Best Summer Intern Of The Class Of 2022? Share Your Own Internship Experience.
Give us an overview of how you prepared for your summer placement season.
I divided my summer placement preparation into various parts. First was the hygiene questions which are required irrespective of the domain, such as "tell me something about yourself", my strengths and weaknesses, and the likes. Next, I ensured that I had a supporting story and knowledge about each line mentioned in my CV. The third phase in my preparation was to get acquitted about the various domains and what would be required for the same. For example, a stock pitch for finance interviews, whereas knowing about different brands and ad campaigns for marketing interviews. This was finally followed by in-depth knowledge about the companies and the culture of the companies where I applied. Apart from this, I followed a few basic things throughout the process: staying in touch with current affairs and networking with seniors to understand their process. And finally, mock GDs, interviews, and solving case studies and taking feedback on these helped me learn through my mistakes and avoid these on the final day!
Based on your internship experience till now, what are some necessary skill sets one must be prepared with before starting an internship?
A skill necessary for an internship regardless of the domain is being well-versed with Excel and Powerpoint and other such software employed by the company such as Tableau or Python. One must be prepared to communicate and ask for help from various stakeholders to make wholesome suggestions
What are some new skills that you have developed while working in the company?
Coming from a finance background, I barely had any knowledge of working in Marketing. However I was blessed with a very helpful team, and all of them were willing to help. They let me make my own mistakes in order to learn better. Overall, since I was in close contact with various stakeholders, this helped me largely improve my communication skills and expand my knowledge base and include various perspectives in my final suggestions.
What are some of the challenges that you have faced in your internship and how have you overcome them?
My project was related to deriving insights from CEAT dealers as well as dealers who do not maintain an inventory of CEAT tyres. While it was comparatively simple getting data from the dealers, it was extremely difficult communicating with the non-CEAT dealers. However, I was able to overcome this by asking the present dealers for referrals and also getting in touch with the company's Territory Leaders to get in touch with and interview the aforementioned stakeholders.
Tell us about a situation where you were complemented by your Manager for your work.
My manager complimented me on the clarity in my thought process and on my enthusiasm. I was able to quickly grasp and understand information about the tyre sector, despite it being a niche segment, and delivered insights and suggestions even in the online mode. My proactiveness on social media such as LinkedIn and Instagram also helped me in getting noticed by people across the organisation.
What have been your major learnings during the internship?
Marketing was a completely new domain for me, after having studied for CFA, FRM, and having work experience in Valuation. Hence, as expected, my journey was full of learnings. Starting with working in a group as reputed as RPG, and specifically in the niche Tyre business, it helped me understand the workings of a corporate, along with the company culture. It helped me develop my communication skills and analysis of stakeholders. Finally, and most importantly, it helped me fine-tune my thought process and approach the problem in a very structured and analytical manner, which I believe are learnings for a life-time and will be helpful throughout my career.
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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!