I was delighted when informed that I had made it into Swiggy!
Particularly because the sector really interested me, and given my technical background, I was always so captivated by the workplace culture, and pace of a startup. And finally, here was my chance.
I started daydreaming about my to-be Bangalore days. So much so that, I even decided which pubs I will be frequenting on Fridays! Then came the news of a virtual internship and I had to scrap my plans. It was heart-wrenching I must say!
But that trend did not follow at all when the virtual internship started:
The TA team of Swiggy made all the arrangements amicably and we had a smooth onboarding (I even learnt that Swiggy was also working on drone technology during my orientation.)
The day after, I interacted with my Swiggy Mentor, where he put forth his expectations and, my expected deliverables. And once I got my brief, I knew that my workdays have finally started!
A major part of my project involved defining HR effectiveness for Swiggy:
Therefore, as I started my work, I took immense care in understanding all the stakeholders involved in the project, and went above and beyond, the premise to research on the brand, their people strategy and initiatives.
This bent of research, inculcated at TISS helped me a long way, and I could not only evaluate and analyse multiple frameworks and matrices for appropriate impact, I could also gather my year-long learnings to develops multi-faceted solutions for the project question.
I customized each and every element of my project to suit Swiggy to the T; and when the results came back for my surveys, for my framework analyses, I was able to see the big picture!
And I knew the moment I could see that, that I was not too far away from the sustainable implementation of my solution.
Swiggy is as how you might imagine it to be – A new-age startup, that is just so welcoming!
The culture is such that it encourages people to approach anyone, and by anyone, I mean even the senior-most leader!
And typical of a startup, it was sometimes tough to get time from people, but Swiggsters always made sure that they reverted to our requests, be it late in the night or even weekends.
The two months that I spent as a Summer Intern at Swiggy were some of the most special to me: the exponential learning curve, the navigation through ambiguity were some of the most influential factors that led me to adapt to, and develop an agile, world and mindset respectively. (among other things). If I had to pick my biggest learning, I’d say it is how I have learnt to overcome my hesitation to ask for help, and ask questions.
For those reading this article, I want to say that, always do what you must do, and give your best – and leave worrying over the results to later – for speculations, and doubts will only get us so far.
About the Author:
Pralay Khan is currently a 2nd-year student at TISS HRM & LR Batch 2019-2020. On days when he is alone, he would gobble dessert and dance to burn calories. His newfound interest is perfumery.
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