Summer Internship Experience At Bain Capability Network

Luck helps those who help themselves. While I would say I feel fortunate and lucky to have interned at Bain & Company (BCN), the support and help I got from my friends during my preparation cannot be undermined. Like many of my friends, I wasted no time when the applications for the same were invited after the Pre-Placement Talk. I was elated when I found my name in the shortlist. Meanwhile, I had been talking to my friends and seniors about the entire selection process. The selection process consists of multiple interview rounds. The MBBs have their signature ways of testing a candidate by taking them through a series of interviews ranging from HR rounds to Guesstimates and Case style interviews. It was my first-time experience at such unique methods. I had been preparing myself by trying out similar challenges through some online material and with the support of my acquaintances in the industry.  The interviewers made sure to make me comfortable first before jumping into the actual interview. It was both fun and challenging to solve the business case that was given to me. After a day-long process, the results were announced, and my joy knew no bounds. While there were a lot of internships offers being rescinded due to the pandemic, Bain honored all their offers. Although the joining was rescheduled by a couple of weeks, the onboarding team ensured to keep us all engaged by organizing interaction sessions, competitions with our fellow interns, albeit virtually. One may think that in a remote setup, we miss out on the opportunity to network and meet people at the office. To bridge this gap, there were numerous sessions and e-meetings setup with the leadership where we could gain insights and a broader perspective regarding the projects and the organization as a whole. While choosing to work with an organization, one would want to understand the kind of work culture that is prevalent there. I would say you wouldn’t want to worry about this parameter when you are at Bain. It’s an entirely open forum wherein everyone is approachable at any point in time regardless of their designation. All of your ideas and thoughts are always welcomed. The project and the deliverable were very well-structured right from Day 1. We were a team of 4 interns being guided by 2 mentors. The direction, objective, and expectations were made very clear to all of us. My most favorite part of this engagement was the extent of flexibility and ownership that each of us was given for our respective workstreams. I believe that if one’s being made responsible for a particular task, he/she must be given all sorts of support and resources that would enable them to bring out the best. At the same time, we had regular check-ins and meetings periodically, where we discussed our progress with our mentors. These feedback sessions were beneficial and useful in identifying any roadblocks and suggesting timely course corrections. A segment of my work required me to study and comprehend the annual reports of the companies that we were working on. Fortunately, the finance courses I studied in the first year came handy in understanding and deriving insights from the financials. A common and very useful motto I have found instrumental is “Ask, don’t assume.” We are encouraged to ask questions and keep the communication open. I found this useful because it avoids any kind of miscommunications or misinterpretations and would help us achieve the output in the very first go. The discussions and the interactions I had with my co-interns from other campuses were terrific. It was great to see how each of us brought in different perspectives and thoughts to the table that added value to each other’s workstreams. All in all, I thoroughly valued the entire experience and the learnings both on the technical front and on the softer skills. I would say one can only give us a platform for learning, it is our proactiveness, keenness that must be brought out so that opportunity is best leveraged.

***