22nd July 2020 I woke up to an email from the placements team.
“Congratulations! You have been offered a
Preplacement offer from Reckitt Benckiser based on your Summer Internship performance.”
And over the next few hours, as it sunk in, I realised just how lucky I was that everything worked out just right, from the project, to having a guide I was able to connect with to having a smooth presentation without technical glitches.
What follows is a journey full of lucky breaks. But you see, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. And of these two, there is only one we can control.
I have tried to capture the essence of the journey in 4 parts, my preparation for the summers process, my take on how I cleared the interview for RB, the internship itself, and my learnings from it.
So, whatever stage of this process you are at and want to get lucky at. I hope you find something of value.
How I prepared for summer placements:
Being a B.Pharm graduate and a fresher, with quite a few extra-curricular activities and PORs, I knew I had a realistic chance of getting marketing shortlists. I also happened to be interested in marketing and thought it would be a good fit for my personality.
I was not interested in finance and knew that realistically my chances of a top consulting shortlist were slim.
With regard to preparation, I spent a lot of time honing my personal stories and recollecting anecdotes of leadership, teamwork, asking myself why marketing, why sales, and dove deep into knowing everything there was to know about myself, and all the experiences on my CV. This is crucial.
You DO NOT need to have an answer known word for word that you want to regurgitate. You need to be well versed about those defining moments of your journey so that you can comfortably converse with your interviewer about them.
That is how you get lucky to have just the write story for what you are asked.
I did a short course on marketing basics. The best part of the course was the real drills I had to do as a part of it. That helped me understand the marketing basics. BUT the point was not the certification or knowing the right lingo but understanding why things work and operate the way they do. This helps, as in the GD and interview, it enables you to think in a structured manner.
I would not recommend spending hours and hours trying to know every product that belongs to every company. Every company can teach you that if you do not know it. (This is, of course, how I see things; others may have different takes. To each their own.)
The RB GD and interview process (& somethings that worked for me)
The GD
The process differs from campus to campus. For us, it was a GD followed by a group interview with three interviewers and, finally, an individual interview.
The GD topic was that the brand awareness and recall of Durex were very high, but the sales did not match this. (or something like that, it was a while ago)
In the beginning, they highlighted that the purpose of this discussion was to work together and come up with a solution. And, in the end, everyone was given 1 minute to summarise the discussion and present our view.
There are numerous ways to crack a GD, everyone has their style, and every interviewer looks for something different, so work your style through practice sessions with feedback.
The Group Interview
The focus on this was to understand the motivation for wanting to do marketing, asking questions related to the CV and other aspects about the individual and to see if they have values similar to the organisation ethos: of doing the right thing, striving for excellence, shared success and entrepreneurial spirit.
They lay a lot of emphasis on the fact that they always start employees in sales, and why I would want to leave more comfortable opportunities in marketing for other firms for sales.
But, by far, the most crucial thing they look for is honesty and genuineness. When asked where you see yourself in 5-10 years, I told them I would be wherever I got the best opportunity to achieve my goals. If RB could provide that, I would be there; if not, I would move on. That honesty was much appreciated. (Do remember they do this all day, multiple times a year)
All in all, for two people, this round lasted about 30 mins.
The Personal Interview
This was more of a relaxed conversation than an interview—an opportunity for me to understand more and ask any clarifying questions. And one more round of are you sure you want to leave other marketing profiles and take up a hardcore sales profile? This round lasted only about 10 mins.
I came out feeling confident.
A few minutes later I heard those words every first-year wants to
“Dhaval Patel, Signed out. RB”
The Internship
We had a week-long induction. The one thing that was obvious from the various conversations in this one week was, everyone in the organisation was approachable, anyone would be willing to help, and they all were proud of the organisation. A few points that would be even more obvious in the weeks to come.
I was assigned a project to create a marketing campaign for Veet Men and find growth opportunities for the same. This was a project that any SnM intern would be glad to have.
Working from home, we couldn’t network with the other interns, let alone people outside of our team. The HR team scheduled a biweekly catchup call for all us interns gave us other activities to do so that we would get an opportunity to interact with each other outside of work. Of course, we missed out on almost all the fun parts of working with other interns, the chilling with each other on the weekends, but it was nice to have some activities to do with the others regularly.
What I appreciate the most was how approachable everyone was in this WFH environment. A Skype IM or email later anyone I reached out to in the organisation would do what they could to help or point me in the right direction.
I had almost a weekly catchup with my project sponsor and even more regular updates with my project guide. This helped immensely with a few things.
1. I always had an opportunity to discuss ideas and get feedback into how I could dig more about the same and incorporate it.
2. It helped ensure I stayed on the right track and didn’t spend weeks on something unnecessary or something that’s already been done.
My Lessons (& Some Unsolicited Advice)
The big picture: No organisation gives a project that has no value addition to their current work. So, the first thing to answer is, “Why does this project exist?”
Story-lining: I learned the art of conveying a presentation in the form of a story, highlighting key takeaways for each slide. This ensured I had the attention of my audience and conveyed my point in a crisp and precise way.
Over-communication: It was always better to communicate the minutest detail, which I felt could be relevant to the project. It was a trade-off to being precise, but it ensured we were prepared for anything.
Ambiguity exists, deal with it: The nature of a marketing project is such that I’ll probably never know if I am right. So, waiting for an affirmative indication will just mean waiting forever.
The first draft of a marketing campaign is never going to be perfect. Period. You are going to have to spend time and keep making A LOT of iterations.
It’s okay to ask for help: You’re an intern, yes, it is important to work independently. But once you have done a bunch of work, it is perfectly fine to show it to some people you work with and get their 2 cents. Do not wait for mid-review to get feedback. Do it often and use it.
And most importantly. Be yourself: Interact with your co-interns and managers beyond the scope of work. If you are someone always making jokes, keep doing that. At the end of the day, if you get a PPO and work at the organisation, will you change how you are or suddenly realise you’re a misfit?
I am glad you made it to the end. I hope you found what you need to go out and make your luck.
PS: I really must thank my friends and seniors who patiently took numerous long calls to let me bounce ideas off them. For this, I truly am lucky.