One of the most important components of a Post Graduate Program in IIMs is the Summer internship – so crucial it is in the grander scheme of things that fresh students are brainwashed into getting paranoid about getting hired by the best brands. Some of the institutes also have a component of evaluation for the summer project, making it a crucial part of their program to work for. So the basic intent of a summer internship is provide students a dry run of being in the role of their choice. By the end of 2 months, the student is in a position to take a call about his experience at work, his compatibility with the profile, company and stream. It also helps a fresh pair of hands get a feel of how things work in an office – outside classroom and how she needs to condition herself in the coming 12 months. For the organization these 2 months serve in unlocking the potential of the candidate. It also helps them get a small organizational problem solved. Therefore ideally it shouldn’t matter where one has interned as long as the experience in fruitful and students have enough to substantiate their CV claims in interviews.
These 2 months of visibility are more effective in gauging the candidate than an interview, which is why some of the best companies have a strong Pre-Placement Offer/Interview Policy (PPO/PPI) and get the best hires – the motive behind good organizations having a structured program, a rigorous evaluation process which helps them choose the right people for the job.Since quite a few students have prior experience in IT and aspire to make a move across to other streams, a stint in their area of interest again makes sense. It helps them erase any preconceived notions about their line of work.
However the grind of summer-internship suffers from a few fatal flaws:
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According to me an intern should be selected on the basis of his performance in Year 1 of MBA + his previous achievements. To the dismay of many, the Summer interviews are carried out after the 1st term. The interviews are mere formalities because the students are not expected to know much because they just have a spent a term. Considering this it might even be all the same if the process is conducted on the first day of college. Root cause – A structural shortcoming
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Seniors play a part in spreading panic amongst the new batch by over emphasizing how important summer internships are. As a result herd mentality sets in and despite set goals to enter specific streams, all these plans fall flat and the entire batch typically ends up applying to every good brand that comes for hiring interns rather than focusing on their preferred roles. Essentially it is another battle where brand wins over rationality. This results in a scenario later where students are not interested in their projects which means lesser PPOs and more pressure on the placements committee during the final placements. Not to mention it has the potential to ruin relationships with companies. Root cause – Senior batches
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After a grueling first year, a few lazy souls consider these 8 weeks as an opportunity to chill out(read: lose focus), forgetting that they are the ambassadors of their respective institutes. Instead of being proactive, they fritter away a great chance to network with the organization and its people & to showcase their capabilities thus defeating the purpose of an internship Root Cause – The Students.
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Organizations who see interns as just temporary labor-force to get mundane tasks done are the ones who use their interns poorly. These organizations end up taking heat as far as perception of the company goes in campus – this is in an age where HR departments have a separate function for Campus engagements. These are one of the key points discussed by 2nd year students when they orient the joiners about summer-internships. All in all companies end up wasting cash and raw talent! Root Cause – the Talent and Campus teams of organizations with such policies
My suggestions
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For new joiners: Students need to know the importance of learning in life. Most of us will have to keep on learning all our life at work for just survival and a summer internship is just the beginning. One of our alumnus, who started out at a lesser known organization like Zensar and now a very senior personnel at Mckinsey. said something interesting, “No matter how small an organization you may work in, there are always some really brilliant people who are present and it is up to you to reach out to them , learn from and build relationships with them”. Being a good brand-ambassador is also such an important quality of an intern. Just as one expects to reap the rewards of brand IIM, it is up to each individual to work hard towards building the credibility that one wants the organization to see in her and her institute.
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For senior students: Guys, just because you blew it don’t get that negativity into your junior batch. Before any venture, one is always advised to keep a fresh mind. Therefore I don’t see a reason to burden the eager and enthusiastic minds of the new batch being killed by the sardonic orientation of the senior batch. Friendly advice/gyaan is appreciated but should be tread with utmost care because we have our own biases. Remember, there is a thin line between advising and influencing.
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For companies: Short-term vision has never brought prosperity to any organization and it applies to campus engagement (read: summer internships included). HR managers will surely understand the benefits of having a structured internship experience. An apprehensive mind of an intern is made at ease with such a program with an assurance that assignments will be given on time, reviewed periodically and assessed fairly. From various discussions with B-school students, it seems quite evident that for an intern who doesn’t have enough time to adjust to an alien environment a structured environment proves more efficient and brings about positive association with her experience. Slotting of the internship interviews could be better arranged and interviews could be more relevant. All of it requires a grand overhaul of the current arrangements.
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For institutes: As a concept, winter internships are more appealing and make more sense in terms of selection process because the students absorbed in companies are generally final placements. This results in more serious involvement from both the students and companies – not to mention the increased industry exposure. The flipside is reduced classroom time but then quite a few companies anyways have their own training programs and require students to unlearn what they learn in B-school. A winter internship may or may not be a replacement for the summer internship but certainly can be a worthy addition
- Charan Iyengar
(The author is an alumnus of IIM Kozhikode – Class of 2011 and has worked as a Technology analyst at HSBC and JPMorgan in the past. He is a consultant with Wipro Consulting Services)
