My Summer Internship Experience At Wipro | Sohini Basu, IIM Indore

“Looking up at the stars only proves you admire them, but shining your light proves you are like them.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

Being a BSc Honors in Economics from Loreto College, Kolkata, and having received offers from multiple Indian B-Schools and admits from LSE and Columbia University for their Masters, I wasn’t initially sure if IIM Indore was the way to go forward. However, the two years at IIM Indore involved:

• A fantastic internship experience
• Winning case competitions
• Insightful case-based learning
• Developing a good network
• Being a part of the Economics and International Business affairs Club

Wipro’s MBA internship hiring process comprises a resume shortlist followed by one GD round and two interview rounds. After an intense morning of discussions, the knowledge of bagging an internship with Wipro in its Summer Experience Program 2020 with the Strategic Marketing division was a feeling wrapped in ecstasy. After that, the focus shifted towards the preparation for the summer internship. Based on numerous interactions with seniors, I figured that working on my Excel and presentation skills and undertaking basic research on the initiatives undertaken by the organization in the 3-4 months before the commencement of the internship program 2020 would yield benefits during the upcoming 2-month period.

Wipro hires interns for its WiSE program – the “Wipro Summer Experience” program, a 2-month intensive program aimed at building future-ready managers. During the induction, not only were we provided with an in-depth understanding of the different business units and service lines of the organization, but we were also given an insight into the culture of Wipro and what helps a WiSEan transform into a Wiproite. The best summer projects go on to win the WiSE Cracker Award, which in turn gives the intern the honor of presenting to peers, guides, and company leaders in the Grand Finale.

Wipro assigns individual projects to its interns and encourages them to take complete ownership of their projects. Considering that WiSE 2020 was taking place in the virtual mode given the times of the Covid-19 pandemic, my project title underwent a slight change. The objective was to devise marketing strategies to establish Wipro as a thought leader in the emerging field of 5G. This involved research on marketing channels, platforms, industries, and geographies, followed by establishing a marketing plan and campaign design. The internship was ably aided by weekly calls with my mentor, buddy, and my teammates. It was indeed a pleasure being a part of a wonderful team that guided me at every step of my internship.

The internship comprises a mid-review and an end-review where the project needs to be presented to the business head. An intern is evaluated based on their internship performance, unique insights, the creativity of output, and the organizational impact of their project in the short-term as well as in the long term. Based on my reviews, I was awarded the Best Intern Award 2020 (WiSE Cracker Award) for Strategic Marketing. This award is usually a sure-shot way of getting the coveted Pre-Placement Offer while also making a positive impact on the organizational leaders by means of the presentation during the Grand Finale.

Certain factors that attributed to a successful 2-month internship at Wipro:

1. Starting the research and getting in touch with my mentor and buddy upon receiving the project title 2 weeks before the commencement of the internship. This helped in getting a better understanding of the project and gave me ample time to conduct in-depth research on every aspect of it.
2. Given the online mode and the busy schedule of senior leaders in the organization, I believe that it was useful to send daily updates to my mentor, buddy, and teammates via email to keep them updated about my progress while also ensuring that I don’t go off-track when it came to the execution of my deliverables.
3. Timing and flexibility - Creating a project timeline for timely execution of my project while making space for last-minute issues that could crop up.
4. Focus on taking a structured approach towards the project and the research that accompanied it to yield a feasible solution from a marketing and an implementation perspective.
5. Setting up bi-weekly meetings with my mentor or buddy to ensure that my project was headed in the right direction and to account for minor changes that needed to be included.
6. Bonding with my teammates while networking and reaching out to as many people as required to better understand the project and the organization. I use to send an email to set up meetings and interactions with seniors with more than ten years of industry experience.
7. Focus on designing a compelling presentation with flow and clarity similar to that of a story- Watching Nancy Duarte’s videos helped me understand how to establish the structure of my final presentation.

The internship experience is usually an individual’s stepping stone into the corporate world. Being a fresher and a non-engineer in an internship program surrounded by engineers, the world of IT services was daunting at first. However, the support of my team and the organization helped convert this internship into a memorable experience.

I hope that my internship experience at Wipro will be able to help you chart out your journey during the summers of 2021 and thereafter.

Best of Luck!

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TIMELINE, PROCESS AND RULES

1. 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.
2. Access all the Digital Diaries forms from here. You will receive Digital Diaries from us on the following dates:
   -Digital Diary 1 - 02.05.2021
   -Digital Diary 2 - 09.05.2021
   -Digital Diary 3 - 23.05.2021
   -Digital Diary 4 - 06.06.2021
   -Digital Diary 5 - 20.06.2021
3. After 20th June, we will collate your entries as a single article and share the same with the same.
4. 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.
5. 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.