Internship- The image this word brings to people's mind is a college kid, sitting in an office from 8 am to 1 am doing all the work the organizations thinks is too unimportant for their managers. In this image, the kid desperately tries to impress (and flatter) his/her (not-at-all-easy-to-impress) manager.
The cry of over two million eager, relentless and ever restless Indians to the overpowering might of TRAI and Telecom providers like Airtel is testament enough for change and proof that India in all its glory requires net neutrality now more than ever.
There has been a lot of talk about where is Kashipur , I mean sure it’s located in one of the most beautiful destinations of India , Dehradun, Nainital, Bhimtal and of course Jim Corbett is just a stone’s throw distance away from the college, But is it safe to be there?
My summer internship is all about B2B Marketing. Studying for one year in IIM Kashipur, having read 75% of Kotler. I used to wonder, without a specialisation in Marketing how will I be able to understand and excel in my summer internship. IIM Kashipur no doubt has got the magical marketing pixy dust, which even an Operations, Finance and HR enthusiast gets automatically. We don’t ask for any research papers or world famous case studies, because we get them all as a part of curriculum. Case study discussions are so much fun that you don’t feel like blinking even once. Professors tell you concepts and scenarios which are based out of their own industry experiences. At times it becomes difficult to understand whether it is marketing class or a strategic management class combined with finance pinch as well. The professors treat us not like students but as managers so speaking without prior knowledge, faking any concept, going unprepared for a case study discussion makes your class the worse. I think inspite of having spent little time, if I could perform good in the B2B projects given as a part of my summer internship, I really wonder what are we going to become after taking up the core marketing subjects in the coming trimesters.
By now, most of you would know that Flipkart has deferred the joining of new hires to December 2016. Graduates from across top schools in India are furious. Placement Committees across IIMs are seething too.
When I came to know of the so called “New IIMs” in 2009, I too was happy with the government's enthusiasm for opening up new institutions. Surely, a great move to provide quality education to a larger sect of the country. No one should be denied a chance to study from a prestigious brand like an ‘IIM’ or an ‘IIT’ just because there are limited seats in the existing ones because of infrastructural constraints. A lot of pessimistic people ridiculed the newly opened IIMs by calling them “Baby IIMs”. I am sure there were similar sorts of people who ridiculed a newly opened college in 1961 by comparing it with the “Top” Universities in India. Oh! It was IIM-A. Well, one thing is certain, babies do grow and sooner than you think.
If we say now the brand has diluted and there are n number of IITs and IIMs, so no point going to IIMs other than the older ones. I would say - NO. I will share my story, a very recent one. This happened while I had to meet some of the best Pharma companies in the country and more importantly when I got the opportunity to meet an Assistant Central Drug Controller of India(Central Authority, which has rights to cancel, sanction and inspect any Pharma facility in the country) UPSC qualified and PhD in Pharma. I cannot thank this person enough for two reasons. One is giving me more than 2 hours from his schedule just for my queries. And second for helping me pass the message that gone are the days when government officials were paper laden offices, with a remote AC and cranky PCs. This office was like a board room, completely westernised, and to my surprise minimal papers and files, fluency in English as good as any corporate. I asked him, I do not see any paper work. He started his PC and I could see how almost everything was on email, share point and properly sorted with of course, passwords.
