"Do the right thing, keep your calm and it will all fall in place" was THE advice that sailed me through the eventful 8 weeks of my Summer Internship at Amazon.
People who are currently in the workforce and are looking to start a 2 year full time educational program will be able to relate more with the fact that the stakes are higher when you make such a big career decision- sacrificing your income, bearing the opportunity cost of not earning and diving into the challenge that
Yes, I will come out better once I am through the program- is scary sometimes. It gets worse when you start the program in one of the best B-schools because you realize the quantum of risk you are floating in, in terms of placements? -yes, but more importantly getting yourself back to academics and challenging yourself to excel once again in a class room setup. Well thankfully an MBA program got lot more to do besides the classes. Coming to the internship part- my batch was also experiencing the event of the century (The tiny living being that has locked us down) and it was sure a thing to get nervous about as it started just when our internships were just about to begin! Corporate houses of course were not used to having "Virtual Interns" and we were there- not escaping from the fact that these internships from home, were meant to decide our PPOs with our dream companies (they would now have to make a decision of taking/not taking us -Online!!)
Coming from a non-Ops background I was unnerved to land with a role in Ops at the end of my Summer placements. I opened myself to the new experience and decided to give it my best shot with the limited skill set I had at this domain. A lot of other friends of mine also shifted domains during their summers, trying hands at things they had never even been related to. (This is the glory of internships in a way- being part of a world you never earlier belonged to). Guess how it turned out to be? It was beyond my expectations- despite being virtual! While most of my batch mates were craving for more meaningful projects, Amazon made the experience so worth it by not just letting me make an impact (thanks to their startup culture) but also letting me lead one of their pilot projects. I was awed to see their commitment towards the interning cohort and how the firm made it a point to not let the pandemic affect our experiences. Each day working to keep experiencing Day 1 and not letting Day 2 set in because "Day 2″ is a stasis, or worse- the reversal of “Day 1”, followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. - and this became my favorite line of 2020! Experiencing first hand Operations at the best logistics company (yes it's a data company actually) after Investment Banking was crazy at the first thought- exciting and unnerving at the second- and by the time I realised, I was through it! Coming from a different background helped in bring a different perspective on the table and in bringing better integrations. Turning back, I feel fortunate to have experienced this twist in my career - something I could not have received without an MBA!