L&T Leadership Development Academy – Aayush Sikhwal, IIM Ranchi

My preparation strategy for this coveted role was very simple – self-reflection and storytelling. I have always approached interviews with a view of marketing myself, and nothing sells better than a captivating story. The starting point is always about ‘Yourself’. A good introduction with small teasers of answers you want to give in the course of the interview goes a long way in providing a good head start in a direction you want. Next are the follow-up questions. I prepared myself by revisiting every point I had in my resume and thought about how to weave my story for the interview to present myself convincingly. The last and the most important – The Mirroring, it is always important to practice what you have planned by speaking out loud in front of a mirror.

On the day of the interview, I was prepared and gave my best. It took me some time to let the feeling sink in when the interviewer offered a new role to me. ‘Corporate-HR Larsen & Toubro | Leadership Development Academy’.

On the 5^th of April 2018, the enriching journey of my summer internship at Larsen & Toubro | LDA began. In the course of the two-day induction program, I was introduced to the culture and working of Larsen & Toubro through a series of experience sharing sessions with the current employees of the group. At the same time, the induction program provided me with an exciting opportunity to network with many brilliant minds from different prestigious campuses across India.

My internship work commenced on 7^th of April 2018, with an introduction to Team LDA, I was provided with my summer internship project which was to last for the next two months. The work at LDA was challenging yet very exciting and provided me tremendous learnings at every step. The entire experience not only added to my human resource management acumen but also taught me practical corporate lessons. The team at LDA is not just a professional team but a very close-knit family, who nourishes and takes care of their own.

Looking back at the multiple projects I worked on during the time spent at the academy, I learned how to design and create training programs, how to deliver them, conduct social research survey and draw conclusions with the help of tools like interviewing and focus group. In addition to it, I learned the application of hypothesis testing and regression analysis for identifying parameters affecting the utilization of facilities. I also learned multiple benchmarking techniques for one of my projects on benchmarking the academy, coming up with recommendations and action plans for the implementation of the same. I was faced with obstacles and challenges at every turn yet overcame them with the help of the LDA family, especially under the guidance of my immensely proactive and experienced mentor. To sum it up, my short stint at LDA provided me with a way to extrapolate my classroom HR learning in the corporate world.

Throughout the entire two month journey, my skills were recognized and I was entrusted with responsibilities and autonomy, but most importantly – Larsen & Toubro LDA made me feel that they believe in me. I can still recall the academy head always asking “How are you?” instead of “What are you doing?”.

Larsen & Toubro LDA is a beautiful place with all the facilities one can think of. No amount of words can do justice to it – “You have to live it, to know it”. Though the two months were hectic, every second of it was worth it.

I came back to IIM Ranchi with a learning of a lifetime and a great story to tell!

For the future interns of Larsen & Toubro I just have one thing to say:

“If you can dream it, L&T will make you achieve it”

Prepare well. All the best!