As soon as one enters the world of Management Education, we hear stories of summer internships which are touted to be experiences that are remembered for life. Experiences filled with functional & personal learnings, lasting friendships, and impromptu parties.
Summer Internship is an important milestone in one’s learning journey during MBA. I was excited and nervous for my summer internship with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Pharmaceuticals. Excited to be a part of one of the largest healthcare companies in the world and nervous to be all on my own in the city of Mumbai.
The internship started off in the month of April with an Orientation Session at GSK House, Worli, Mumbai. The day-long orientation session was to induct us (summer interns) into the organization which contributes immensely to the purpose of helping people do more, feel better, & live longer and, introduce the values of Transparency, Integrity, Respect for People, and Patient Focus that every GSK employee follows.
The reason for listing out each of these things was to emphasize on the fact that GSK does live up to what it says and that was evident from our interactions with the top leaders and senior managers. We were encouraged by the leaders to push ourselves to the maximum, be brave and ask questions, approach people, and visit the field to get the true understanding of the business. The orientation day ended on a good note with all of us excited to meet our project guides & mentors and start off with our projects.
In the Human Resource function, I was one of the 4 HR summer interns. With my project charter as my guiding light, I had a discussion with my project guides about the expected project track and the deliverables. We also met my project mentor who is a Human Resource Business Leader (HRBL) at GSK and discussed the project, objectives, and deliverables. I was fortunate to have been assigned two guides who guided & supported me to their best throughout the 2 months
(Never did I feel that I was lost as I could go up to them anytime and discuss my thoughts, ideas, & apprehensions).
My project mentor always challenged me to think big and not limit myself, because the idea matters!
Also, there was high emphasis on proper research methodology being followed as data integrity is critical to pharmaceutical business and that trickles down to every part of the organization. I was able to interact with the entire HR team due to the nature of my project which led to us interns actually feeling that we were a part of the team. We were not treated as just interns but as an extension of the team. My guides would involve me in their ongoing projects and would take my inputs in certain aspects. These little assignments besides my project helped me broaden my horizons, think with keeping business impact in mind, and manage my time efficiently.
My project was on Employer Branding with focus on Early Talent (B-school talent) which required me to interact with various stakeholders ranging from my counterparts pursuing MBA in the top B-schools of India, to, business leaders of GSK, to medical representatives, to global GSK functional leaders. It was quite a learning to manage appointments with everybody, ask the right questions, and elicit the most information from them. GSK talks of its people being open and respectful; I experienced this when I was given the requested time from a packed schedule and respected as an important contributor to the company by the top business leaders and global leaders of GSK
Looking back on those two eventful months, I believe I can speak for all the interns that one activity that we engaged in is a lifetime memory and experience. GSK as an organization believes in being socially responsible and therefore, the interns were given the responsibility to plan out a day to liven up the child cancer patients at St. Jude’s Childcare Center. This childcare center is a full-time shelter for children who have >70% survival chance of cancer and who hail from poor economic backgrounds. We conducted a fun session for the young kids with games and gave out chocolates as prizes (it was their cheat day and were allowed to have chocolates). We gifted all the individual centers within St. Jude’s board games for children and their parents. To see such young children ranging from 1 year old to 14 years old with high levels of infectious energy was amazing.
Towards the end of our internship, all the interns were invited for breakfast with the GSK India Management Team which was quite an opportunity for us since we were meeting the MD and other top leaders. As expected, we were a little nervous as to what do we speak about with them but they recognized our nervousness and guided the conversation. Each one of us was given a chance to speak about our project, our experience, and present our perception of GSK (the highs and lows). They were very interested in knowing our work in depth which made us feel valued and proud of our work.
The internship ended on a high note (quite literally for a few of us!) with an amazing party for us in Juhu (Special thanks to one of our co-interns for getting us the best deal in town).
I would say that I have made the best of friendships through this internship (As even after the end of the internship, we keep our WhatsApp Group very much alive).
We will forever remember our chats about everything under the sky, helping each other with projects, going out for food & house parties, and Mumbai darshan!
About the Author:
Chaitanya Sudha is a student at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and currently pursuing Human Resources Management & Labour Relations. Her hobbies are sketching and skating.