Recollecting the memories of a few months back at IIM Jammu, I still clearly remember the moment when I received my internship offer letter from Schneider Electric India Private Limited. I had always heard people talking about Fortune 500 companies and their work culture. When I was pursuing my undergraduate from Miranda House I always had a strong desire to have my first corporate experience in Global Fortune 500 and Schneider made my dream come true.

Being a fresher I had a lot of expectations from my internship and Schneider Electric gave me an experience which was more than what I thought. I got the opportunity to work with the ‘credit management department’.

The first phase of my exciting journey began with the Induction process. During induction, I was a bit hesitant yet very excited. Induction was like a mini virtual tour of the organisation. We got exposed to various business units of Schneider India and their work culture. Most of the day went by in a flurry of presentations and introductions. We were also provided with stationary, laptop, I-card and other important things to make internship experience more smooth. After having the ice-broken I was introduced to my manager and credit management team.

When I first met my manager, I never imagined that managers could be so humble (blame my preconceived notions!). He made me so comfortable that it did not take me long to feel like a member of the team. Later came the real challenge when I was assigned my internship project “Credit Insurance and Risk Mitigation” but the whole team made my journey so smooth by patiently guiding me at every step. During my internship, I realised how real-life experiences can accelerate the learning curve by exposing you to a practical situation faced by the companies.

I won’t bore you with the work that I did at Schneider but I would love to share the various other experience that fascinated me.

If I had to choose one key learning from my 2-month experience it would through the kind of importance I got there. Even though everyone in the department was extremely busy with their work but they never neglected my queries and enthusiasm. Every member of the team taught me everything so patiently that I never felt I was an outsider.

With the tag of IIM comes the responsibility too and same was felt by me when everyone in the organisation believed that students of IIMs are best from the crowd and the way they wanted to hear my point of view and took all my suggestions seriously even though I had no practical experience. I learnt that ‘No matter what your age is the student inside you should never die.’

Second would be the way my Manager handled the whole team. He has a big role in shaping up my first corporate experience. Although he had a very busy schedule then also he made sure that he spends at least some time with the whole team. There was not even a single day where the whole team did not have lunch together. Those informal discussions and sharing of food not only connected the whole team together but also encouraged everyone to share their opinions irrespective of the position they hold in the organisation. My manager taught me that, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.”

Lastly, I understood that “it takes only one smile and one question to break the ice”. There were so many people in the organisation who started recognising me and started to have a conversation with me even though I was not part of their team. It all became possible because of the exchange of smile while crossing each other or by showing the courage to ask a question while refilling bottles, taking coffee or by just simply saying ‘hi’ for no random reason.

I can’t believe my two-month journey got over so quickly but I’ll always cherish each and every moment spent in Schneider. I’ll for sure miss my desk and the amazing friends I made over there. But right now I am going through those goosebumps moments where I am also not aware whether I could get a full-time opportunity in one of the Global Fortune 500 companies.

Let’s wish everything turns out to be positive.

AASHI TAYAL

With Schneider Electric, Life Is Truly On! - My Internship Experience