My first tryst with Mahindra and Mahindra happened in BECon 2018 at IIT Delhi when I was attending the conference as a delegate. I had an opportunity to drive their AI-based simulator of the actual Formula E car where Mahindra and Mahindra was the chart-topper. Since my UG degree was in mechanical engineering I have always had a penchant for Indian automobile companies. When it comes to Mahindra and Mahindra, they never bat an eye when it comes to progress through innovation and technology in all fronts and even during the time of this pandemic. It is a company that has valued its employees and have taken a great deal of effort in understanding the skills possessed by the employees. Being there was a dream come true. Receiving a mail id with my name followed by mahindra.com was a moment of pride.
Since the lockdown and the Covid-19 era pushed everything to go digital, the company conducted an aptitude test and a telephonic interview with my mentor, post the acceptance of my resume. For an interview, the concept remains simple - know what is written on your resume and if you are not having sufficient knowledge about a resume pointer, avoid putting it on paper. Furthermore, understanding the peripherals of your nature of work before the interview process can be the best thing since sliced bread. Domain knowledge plays a significant role when it comes to manufacturing companies. I have been through the company's annual reports to recognize the company's methods and trends. This would get us a great deal of confidence rather than missing out the same while we approach an interview panel.
When I retrace my journey, day 1 at Mahindra and Mahindra, Insights and Analytics involved an introduction to my team by my mentor. I was assigned to the Swaraj division of Mahindra for my first project. I was imparted a concrete base of the nature of work and the involvement of key stakeholders when it comes to insight generation. There were regular knowledge sharing sessions and practice adaptations based on several rubrics of my internship. One interesting factor of Mahindra and Mahindra, Insights and Analytics is that the intern gets to interact with several managers and gain knowledge from their respective domains. I have been assigned a set of major projects and a series of minor projects during my stint at the firm. There was a very sophisticated system where there would be multiple reviews with the mentor and other senior managers before finalizing a project. This helped me to visualize my projects better and constantly improvise the output. All the major tools of data analysis (R,Python,etc) were used and the visualizations were carried out with BI tools. The ‘art of making a PowerPoint presentation’ is a gift that I could truly master from my mentors at Mahindra and Mahindra. The subtle equation of project output depiction through digital tools indeed fostered adaptiveness. There were periodic knowledge sharing sessions conducted weekly and I have had a chance to share my project concept on such an occasion. Also, I was lucky enough to present one of my projects to the Vice President of a division and this was a personal milestone. Apart from this, we had engagement activities like an online tambola event and a digital fireside chat where the department heads shared their viewpoint on the post-Covid-19 world and how the business would undergo changes. The company offered several opportunities to work with other interns on combined projects which fostered coworking chemistry and combined inputs to better the results. Also, the company capacitated all the interns to be constant learners. Mahindra and Mahindra made sure that the overall aura set for an intern remained friendly and fruitful. The power-packed three-month tenure at the company would be a good leap in my foreseeable future.
When I landed at the doorstep of Mahindra and Mahindra, the panache that I gathered from the hustles of my Year 1 at SCMHRD, Pune accompanied me. Be it the length and breadth of creativity in the depiction of the research instincts provided by the projects from our esteemed faculty members, these value additions minted the backbone for the internships. Our senior batch had one excuse for those late-night assignments and those not-so-relatable tasks - the internship. The epiphany of them being right happened on the very first project and the dossier creation periods after the project. The pedagogy of the college filled with experiential learning and industry interaction set the stage for a very progressive and productive internship at Mahindra and Mahindra, Insights and Analytics.
When it comes to the next generation of MBA batches, I would say that the rudimentary aspect of an internship is domain knowledge associated with the tools which would substantiate your findings. The world is getting attached to data science on a galloping rate and preparedness by keeping this in mind is necessary. Constant learning strategy and a mentality to burn the midnight oil would get you far ahead when it comes to your internships. Asking your peers for help and suggestions would indeed help you to gain better results. The very final and the most important point to ace your internship would be consistency - that keeps you going. And, make LinkedIn your newspaper!