"Dhaval Patel, Signed out Reckitt Benckiser." Listening to that announcement early morning on 25th September 2019 was just a surreal moment.
Bagging one of the most coveted SnM internships was just a dream come true. The next few months were spent being excited about the internship, getting loads of gyaan about how to carry yourself in an MNC. Listening to statements like becoming an excel wiz is an absolute necessity to survive.
Fast forward a few months to March, and all of us were being sent home before the semester ending and there uncertainty around internships changed from what project will I get to will I get a project at all? :O
They say, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." The actions of RB in the days to follow spoke volumes about the organization.
We swiftly got a mail from the HR that we shouldn't worry, and our internships would be two months just as planned, with the only change being that the joining date would be delayed by a week.
As I got this email, lots of news started coming out in college groups about cancelled internships, truncated internships. At this moment, I felt blessed.
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. But, the HR 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 regularly 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.
I learnt a lot from the internship.
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-telling: I learnt the art of conveying a presentation in the form of a story, striking the right balance between data and a narrative.
Over-communication: It's better to share the smaller details that seem unimportant. That might just be the missing piece of the puzzle combined with information from others.
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're 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's perfectly fine to show it to some people you work with and get their 2 cents. Don't wait for mid-review to get feedback. Do it often and use it.