For ones looking for an internship packed with adventure, Tata CLiQ is the right place to be. It is a roller coaster ride that shall take you through posh four-star comfort, starting with the first day at work, welcoming you with a chocolate box, to the adventure of spending long hours in meetings with CXO’s and Business heads involved in the decision making processes.

I am Jeevan Rathod, Second Year post graduate of IIM Rohtak. I worked at Tata CLiQ as a summer intern in the Customer Retention marketing team.

Starting off with the preparation strategy of getting in Tata CLiQ as a summer intern, I would broadly put it two ways. If you are an MBA student with work experience, then be clear of the work contributed, value added by you in projects, and recommendations suggested by you to the company. The basic thumb rule of preparing for summer internships is to be thorough with your resume and confident of the things written in it. If you fall in the second bucket, i.e., a fresher with no work experience, you need to have good command over basics in the vertical you are applying to, and be strong with the theories and frameworks learnt in the classroom. A piece of advice to everyone - when they come to recruit you, all that Tata CLiQ looks for in a student is the enthusiasm to learn, commitment and the adventurous streak.

I will now shed some light on how my interview went so that it would give you better insights on cracking the interview.

My interview started off with introducing myself in a more creative way and also telling an interviewer about my achievements in school/graduation levels to remarkable goals in work life. Always leave a question when you are introducing yourself, rather than telling the interview panel everything in detail, as this will ensure you drive the interview, and it will also make you more confident of things. Next, the interviewer slowly moved onto testing my marketing knowledge and practical experience, which led to seeing my approaches, guesstimates, and strategies on real-life examples. The interview was followed up with the questions on my project such as how I would plan campaigns and engage customers with the product line identifying stages, and the backup plans I would have if campaigns won't perform well.

Let me give some idea of the work culture and office environment too. For the first day of office, as instructed by the placement committee, I reached office 15 minutes prior to the mentioned time, in well shaved formal attire. The first interaction was with the HR team who assessed me in joining formalities, and then IT team configuring my email and wifi to my laptop. I was made to wait for my mentor to come and introduce me to a team, and also brief me about the project and 2 months of work.

I would like to speak about the man behind my amazing experience and a note on my mentor of two months at Tata CLiQ – Head Customer retention marketing, Tata CLiQ. He was one complete package of smartness with hard work that I have ever seen. He was such a person who has been my inspiration and also a friend/senior to me rather a mentor. I really had a lot of learnings from him as an individual and also team, and it has been a roller coaster ride for me in these two months. Overall, he has been extremely welcoming and helpful by offering me terrific career advice. I really appreciated his willingness to let me explore other departments within the company. I was able to sit in on board meetings, which gave me a new real-life experience too. The best part of him was that he always gave me time out of his busy schedule to help me out when I was lost and stuck in the project.

Summing up, all I would say about the internship is that Tata CLiQ has definitely increased my determination in pursuing my career in marketing and I personally gained valuable insights into marketing field and E-commerce industry.

Jeevan Rathod

Summer CLiQ At Tata CLiQ - Internship Experience With The Tata Group