This Is How An IIM Trichy Student Got A PPO

If it is meant to happen, it will, at the right time. This is the story of one of my seniors who got her summer internship and converted it into an offer. For easy understanding, I am writing this from her point of view.

“I always had an interest in the field of sales and marketing and applied for companies that came with of sales and marketing domain during my summers. I tried for some of the high-profile companies that came for summers during the day process but could not convert it and was desperate to be placed. This is when the company I got selected to come for summers with a profile for sales and marketing.

The company conducted three rounds of group discussion during which the competition was very intense and group members were highly energetic and contributed a lot. The final discussion did not turn out as I had expected but I still believed that I contributed my part to it. And true to my fear, I was not shortlisted for the first set of candidates for the interview round. So, I took the long walk back to my hostel room trying to suppress my reaction about yet another rejection.

To my utter surprise, the gods decided to show mercy on me and ten minutes after I got back, I got a call from my placement team saying that I got into the second set of shortlisted students and asked me to report back immediately. So, I dressed up again and ran back to the location sweating in the process. During the interview, they asked me many hr questions and they asked me whether I could have done better in the discussion and I said there is always a space to be a better person as the top place is always empty.

At the end of my interview, they gave me the offer letter and I came out of the room with mixed emotions. A kind of relief that I got placed in a very good company and was very happy about it. I was also engulfed with the thought that whether I will be able to cope up with the company as I was from a non-technical background and a fresher. I asked my super seniors who were in the company about it and got insights about the job, the people who the left job there, why they left, people from my college and other colleges. Everyone told me to give it a try as this was summers and I always had the chance to go to another company during my finals.

So, my job location was in Hyderabad and the first week of my internship was onboarding in which they taught us about the culture of the company, its hierarchy and all. Everything was new as this was an IT company operating in a B2B environment and I was a fresher and a non-engineer. I was motivated to learn everything from scratch as I knew I would be compared with my co-interns from other colleges. To my relief, my managers and teammates were very supportive and helped me learn the basics and all fundamentals were taught during the onboarding week of my internship.

After the first week, each one of the interns was assigned to a team representing geography and I was given the Europe team. I don’t know if I was lucky as my overall internship experience was amazingly good thanks to my team, my manager and co-interns. They were already into this stream and had prior experience. They were willing to answer every single question and made me understood how everything works and also, everyone at the company was approachable including the CEO. It is a twenty-one-year-old company but they work like a start-up. Being in a sales and marketing role, you should be able to approach anyone and talk to them. The more you talk to others in your workplace, the more you get help from them.

There are abundant places to dine in Hyderabad, and being a foodie, I used to go to different places to try out different varieties of food during weekends. The food culture in Hyderabad was excellent. There were also lots of places to visit and shop in Hyderabad. I also went for team outings, team lunch, and parties. So, for me, the internship was not just about working but a complete experience. I used to work five days a week sometimes for extra hours too as I didn’t want to work on weekends. I don’t think an internship is all about getting a PPO. We should learn as much as we can during that time. The learning experience for me was tremendous as I knew nothing when I started and now, I am aware of a lot of things. This learning also helps me to correlate with my second-year subjects. My manager gave me the compliment that I adjusted quickly to that industry.

They had two reviews, one mid review and one end review for which I had to make a lot of ppts and learned how to present and sell myself. During the final review, my manager asked me why they should hire me and they were content with the answer given by me. I made sure that they understood that it won’t be a problem for me and I am open-minded and will do whatever job assigned to me without any complaint and am eager to learn and I believe that there is always a scope to perform better.”

The summer internship is not about getting a good paycheck or working alone. We need to put as much as smart work along with the hard work we put in. Our focus should be on learning during the internship and should be keen to learn new stuff every day. So, concentrate on learning and don’t worry about anything else, put your maximum effort and PPO will automatically come to you.