In the book of Career of a management student, the internship has always been an important chapter. But since one chapter doesn’t complete a book, it has to have more chapters to form a story. Similarly, there are few phases before and after internship which completes the experience story.
The first chapter of my book began with the 1st Year of my MBA, where two things played a significant role in my learnings.
The first is Marketing classes by Prof. Vijay Tandon. Throughout my college career, I have come across statements like - “Classes are a waste of time, PPTs are sufficient to get grades.”; “It’s just an exam, doesn’t decide your future.” But in reality, those classes are the reason why I am able to speak and understand the typical business language easily and the depth of the terms like umbrella brand, line extension, penetration, skimming, cash cow and so on.
The corporate world is a race, you won’t get enough time to put your point of view, and this is the time where these terms help us to express our opinions in a shorter and simpler manner. It is because of the stories and examples given by our lecturers that I am able to connect with real-market so easily.
The second major source of learning in college is my Club, Universal Business School’s Innovation Club (UIC), the best and the topmost club of my college. Again for other students, their college club is just a part of the syllabus to get credit points, but for me, it’s more than just a formality; UIC is my pride.
UIC and its patron Prof. Elora Basumatary, through projects like R4R, Trending, Director’s cut, SkillPits etc., helped me in realizing my potential and passion, made me confident, enhanced my personality and taught me to take into account even the minute details of the project which proved to be the most beneficial during my internship where we deal with the projects of the clients. These daily routine activities provided me with small learnings which ultimately came into my habit but played a huge role during my internship.
The Bottom Line - Never underestimate the daily small learnings. They never exhaust the mind, keep us motivated to go a long way and somehow make us win.
The second chapter starts when the internship season comes around, typically March-April. Though we were being prepared for aptitudes, GDs and Interviews throughout the year through competitions, classes, workshops, mocks etc., but, this is the time when we should become serious.
I started reading about the companies, kept myself updated about the market, gave more and more mocks. I kept re-working on my CV, sent it for proof-reading to the placement team, again and again, to get a perfect CV as it creates the first impression about us.
Again, one common wrong practice followed by students is giving more importance to the stipend, rather than the company profile. Before choosing an internship, I clear about what I expected to gain from it in terms of learnings and not in monetary terms. Prospective employers during final placements look only at how we perform during your internship and they don’t care if we receive any stipend or not. I am getting zero stipend but feel proud to say that I have got the profile (Brand Activation & Experiential Marketing) I love, and where I find my true passion. I stretched my internship duration and even work overtime because I enjoy working and learning there. Don’t be too choosy about the company name and the stipend; look for learnings.
The Bottom Line - Prepare well for interviews, GDs, along with your CVs. Read about the companies in detail. Money isn’t everything and it’s not a good idea to eliminate unpaid positions before you do your research about the company.
The third chapter started when finally I got a call for an interview from my dream company i.e. ARC WORLDWIDE (PUBLICIS COMMUNICATIONS). I always wanted to be part of PUBLICIS GROUPE, one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing companies.
Be on time interview, be confident, go well-groomed, listen carefully, ask questions, take care of body posture and so on - these are some of the common and very important tips for interview which should be definitely followed but we can get these from internet & manuals very easily. Since here I am talking about my experience, I would like to say that one of the most important things that I have learned and followed in my interview and cracked it successfully. That tip is - BE TRUTHFUL TO YOURSELVES AND TO THE INTERVIEWER AND BE YOU.
I was asked the situation based questions in the interview about a Dabur product, Pudin Hara, and I answered on the basis on my learnings till that time. Right or wrong doesn’t matter. I was asked to put a point of view and not to give a Google-ish answer, and so I did. The interviewer corrected my mistakes and he explained how to think about the situation. Luckily I got selected and with this begins one of the most important chapters of my life.
The Bottom Line - Be You, Don’t pretend to be someone what you are actually not. You will automatically get motivated and confident.
The fourth chapter and the most important phase of my career started with my Internship Period from 7th, May-19.
Again, throughout my college life, I heard statements like “Don’t go for field work. It is useless.” In fact, when I was given my first field job, my colleague interns asked to avoid it, to go and sit in a CCD, do 1-2 phone calls and prepare fake data on the basis of those phone calls and submit it because no one pay heeds to an intern’s work, so there was no point in wasting time and energy.
But my philosophy was different. It has always been said that look for opportunities and grab opportunities but according to my experience, we cannot get any opportunities lying somewhere. Instead, we have to create opportunities; we are not going to get any ladder to take our first step. Instead, we have to build our own ladder.
I completed the field job with full honesty and integrity. I used to roam around in bright sunlight and got my work done. And all my hard work paid off. The project I worked upon was Dabur Academy Fem Project. I became the eyes of that project and my office team became the brains. The Vice-president, Vice-associate president and my Mentor- Ms. Shreeya Soni appreciated me and asked me to join me in their official meetings when they discussed the projects, and gave me full authority to express my opinions and to interrupt in between if anything goes wrong.
My mentor helps in boosting my confidence; she rejects my reports and presentations and asks to prepare them again because she wants me to learn the correct method and approach to do a particular work. Now I have been given more prominent projects of Dabur to work upon like - Dabur Red Toothpaste, Odonil, Odomos, Ayurmedha, Chyavanprash & so on.
This is how I built the first step of my ladder on my own and didn’t wait for an opportunity to come. I converted a normal activity, which was a wastage of time for others into an opportunity. I am not treated as an intern but my company treats me as an employee.
Bottom Line - Build your own ladder and keep building, rather than looking for a new ready-made one. Never underestimate any job.
This is how I learned the brand activation and experiential marketing and earned the chance to work with two companies simultaneously, one with PUBLICIS and the other one is Dabur. Unfortunately, only two weeks of internship are remaining and I wish it would never end. But to reach to the final and the most important phase - the official work life, it is required to keep stepping up and add more interesting chapters to life.
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