My summer internship experience doesn't begin from day one on the job but from day one in the IIM Lucknow campus. I would like to share it in the episode format of my favorite TV series, Friends.
The first day of my internship, I woke up quite early (not because it was my first day, but because of the time difference), got ready and left for office. There I had my first embarrassing moment: I fell down in the tram, not being used to the turns and breaks of the tram. Finally, I got down at the right stop but still I was lost! Then came my first shot at conversing with foreign strangers for asking the route. After first few attempts I realized I was in a majorly French speaking country where people write R but pronounce it as ‘Kh’, meaning they write something and speak something else. I managed to learn the odd pronunciation and finally reached my destination that was my second home for the next two months – International Trade Centre (Joint agency of WTO and UN, Geneva).
(Vikram Sodhi, PGP UAE student from IIM Indore, shares his internship experience with PwC Dubai and his key takeaways in this amazing journey)
No prior work experience yet eagerness for the working experience! The sector where majority interns from the elite B-schools would not like to intern with, but that provokes me to pen down my two months summer Internship experience- Insurance industry and the company - IDBI Federal Life Insurance Co. Ltd. – The Bad turned Good Part.
Mahabharatham begins
The title of my story, notwithstanding its embarrassing nature, is inspired by an off-hand remark by one lesser known member of the tinsel town which gained overwhelming popularity by the sheer juxtaposition of two such poignant terms – Sex and Shahrukh Khan. A few years back when I had first heard it, I perhaps laughed it off, found it lame or could have even fount it witty – I really don’t recall. Today, somehow the significance of the statement is screaming out to me. I owe it to the two months exercise in ‘Branding and Positioning’.
Brief outline of the project
It was time to wrap up, stuff things and head back home. A forty minute ordeal through the 'local', fighting to get in, fighting to get out and then finally home. Tired I would be, but never enough to relish Mummy's Kitchen and finally the day would end. And then looking for another day, another week in Mumbai - my home. Family, friends and a city that literally breathes, a place which does not have time to pause and opportunities that no one wants to miss.
