During the months that preceded my internship experience, there was a lot of uncertainty in the air and at the same time, everyone was trying to gain as much knowledge as they could from their seniors. But looking back I felt that I took the right decision of only talking to a few numbers of people that had done internships in the same industry. My internship project could have been in any domain of HR and especially since I was going to work in the consulting domain, cluttering myself with too much information would have taken away the clarity I had in my mind. But on the other hand, I was constantly reading a lot to keep myself updated about what was happening in the HR world. This, in fact, helped me in my internship in connecting the dots a few times.
When talking about the actual internship, the 6 weeks were designed to provide an exceptional learning experience. The one word that comes to my mind for the time that I spent with EY India would be challenging.
My project consisted of various activities ranging from studying Learning experience platforms to designing dashboards with a focus on upskilling & reskilling of the workforce. I had an internship of a lifetime as the team at EY gave me many diverse opportunities to apply my knowledge and experience wherever possible. Even with the current situation, my mentor and buddy used to take time out to consistently nudge me in the right direction.
The one key learning from this internship was to always have an open mind and to constantly think if something can be done better, while always questioning the purpose of a task as you are going along with it. EY, as a company always wants an individual to think of why first and then how and bring your individuality on the table. Because of this belief, I was able to learn better and grow as an individual.
Another element that helped me perform well in my internship was perseverance, something that I have learned during the first year of my MBA. SCMHRD has instilled ‘an always give your best, no matter the circumstances’ belief in me. Even the ongoing pandemic and the internship being virtual, I used to go on with my day thinking that no matter what happens, I will give it my best each day of the 6 weeks that I was working with EY.
After having completed a year of my MBA and my summer internship I believe, no matter which company one does an internship with, one should always question the why before one jumps into it. Asking the right questions at the right time provides more clarity in terms of the direction of the project and better results at the end. The approach that I followed during my internship was to talk to others that have worked or interned in the same domain and at the same time to reach out to experts of any subject matter, relevant to my project, on LinkedIn.