Before I dive into this let me acknowledge the role played by student-run placement committees over the years and across the spectrum. It is an extremely challenging task and I really admire people who have taken it up. However, as times change it is only natural that new ideas will emerge and systems set in place over a decade ago may need some overhauling.
Now that I’ve successfully arrested your fickle thoughts with this gimmicky headline, let me head over to discuss a most urgent matter. A lot of writers on this website have expounded on topics of trivial, or at best, tangential significance to B-schools like placements, resume-building, libraries(!!), professors(!!!), alumni networks, summer internships etc. It is high time we focused on more troublesome issues that are symbolic of the precipitous decline of our civilization. Like the brutal Birthday Celebrations in B-schools.
(Originally published on 19th June 2010 on ankit9doshi.com)
One of the most important components of a Post Graduate Program in IIMs is the Summer internship – so crucial it is in the grander scheme of things that fresh students are brainwashed into getting paranoid about getting hired by the best brands. Some of the institutes also have a component of evaluation for the summer project, making it a crucial part of their program to work for. So the basic intent of a summer internship is provide students a dry run of being in the role of their choice. By the end of 2 months, the student is in a position to take a call about his experience at work, his compatibility with the profile, company and stream. It also helps a fresh pair of hands get a feel of how things work in an office – outside classroom and how she needs to condition herself in the coming 12 months. For the organization these 2 months serve in unlocking the potential of the candidate. It also helps them get a small organizational problem solved. Therefore ideally it shouldn’t matter where one has interned as long as the experience in fruitful and students have enough to substantiate their CV claims in interviews.
