Disclaimer: My story is neither sad nor brave, but just a small piece of struggle.
I am a first-year MBA student at the Great Lakes Institute of Management. As a part of the curriculum, we have to intern in companies for two months, the chase for which started in September. Being a bright student, I was fortunate enough to secure a good internship in September itself and was happy to be the first to get one, unaware of what the future held for me.
The internship was supposed to begin in April. But, on 25th March at 11 PM, I received an email regarding the cancellation of my internship due to the outburst of coronavirus. There was no scope of postponement, as according to the company's predictions the lockdown was there to stay till May, which we now know was true.
With the help of my college, I could secure another internship within a week. But as the lockdown extended, this one got canceled too. The internship was in Mumbai and there was no chance I could travel there.
I was quite disheartened. These internships give us a chance to secure a Pre-Placement Offer, and both the companies were worth working for.
But, I didn't lose hope and resorted to LinkedIn. And there, I realized 'I was not the only one, in fact, I joined the party quite late'. Students from the country's topmost institutions were in a similar situation. Almost one-third of students of our Batch lost their internships.
Luckily, I got another internship but there were many who couldn't. They were allowed projects from college to be marked on. But internships are not just to gather grades, they provide corporate exposure to freshers. Students with no work experience learn a lot from internships.
But what's commendable is how the student community handled this. Everyone has been really supportive. Even the ones who had their internships intact helped others to get placed. Because somewhere we all know that a degree like MBA is a huge investment. Many have student loans on their heads which have to be repaid.
In my opinion, the future holds a lot of uncertainties. But, this could also be a time for budding entrepreneurs to come up with new solutions. Maybe that's what MBA is all about!