An internship experience, much like that of a job isn’t restricted to the hours spent in the comfortable confines of the office. It includes the flavour of the new city you might get to explore- the local traffic problems and the cuisines which are as colourful and diverse points of comparisons as any other when it comes to India.
The summer internship is one of the most important phases if not the most important phase of MBA life. For some, it is the first ever venture into the corporate world, for some, it is their first venture into a domain that they aren’t sure of and these are just some of the expectations that people have from their internships. Whatever be one’s expectation, one thing is for sure, everyone wants to put their best foot forward, with the best of their smiles. I too planned to do the same but with the fate had other plans for me.
“No dream becomes reality through magic; it takes grit, determination and hard work.” Although Colin Powell’s words here can’t be disagreed with, however, magic is what you feel when a dream actually becomes reality. And this is the magic I felt when I heard, “Congratulations and welcome to BCG!”.
“Yours is the most critical and difficult project and the company has no idea how to go about things” – this was the first thing my mentor said to me during our first 5 minutes interaction. Yes, this what you get – a 5-minute interaction, when you enter the real corporate world after spending few good days in one of the country’s best hotels where everything right from your travel to your accommodation is being taken care of by the company. No elaborate explanation about the project, about the department or about the expectations of the company from the project, just a two line project statement and a poor intern is left to solve some great challenges on his own. During that first interaction, I asked my guide “Sir, with all due respect, how can you expect an intern to solve a problem to which people with 20+ years of domain experience have no solution”. At this, he just grinned and replied, “We are looking for a fresh perspective”.
I am Madhulika Sharath, a 5th year IPM student at IIM Indore.
My journey at Pidilite started on 3rd April 2017 with the induction program which was conducted in Mithibai College. I embarked on this exciting and adventurous journey along with 100 other interns from different management colleges around India. The first day of the internship was equally exciting and anxious as the first day of the job. The induction program went on for 2 days during which all the interns got to know each other and this helped in building bonds. The interaction session was followed by a brief presentation and more interactive sessions from the Heads of different departments. The two days was informative as well as interactive.
It was sometime in the evening when my friends aired the news of my selection in Robert Bosch as a Summer Intern in Marketing. This was the time when I had a very limited awareness of how and what I was going to do for my internship in a World Class Organisation. Here, I will be sharing my experiences and key learnings at this summer internship. I believe this will be helpful to all, especially those who are interested in pursuing a career in the Marketing domain.
Finance internships which are opened in a business school are usually of two types, banking or corporate finance. Within banking, some lucky few get to work in the glitzy investment banks and burn the midnight oil for eight weeks. These were the roles I assumed I would intern in, before joining IIFT and before sitting through summer placements. Contrary to that, however, I got an opportunity to intern in the Chairman’s Office of RPG Enterprises and personally get involved in wealth management planning and strategy for one of India’s foremost business houses, the Harsh Goenka group.
