The Quick Lead: Almost all firms require you to understand the industry, the firm, the customers, the department, modus operandi, primary stakeholders and other generic stuff. Most material is either available online or printed documents are provided by the firm. In my case, I could get it all on one of the partner’s annual reports. In the next few weeks, you get a sense of the business and you begin to feel really good about yourself. We saw many of us talking endlessly about our businesses with family and friends with endless enthusiasm till people stop cutting our calls. This phase lasts usually until the end of three weeks.
The Deadlock: If you have ever been on a trek, you will know that getting stuck is an integral part. A point comes when you don’t see the road ahead, or maybe you don’t want to walk an inch more out of exhaustion. A place where you know the ‘what’ but don’t have an iota of clue about the ‘how’. My project being an extremely confidential work, I wasn't allowed to discuss much with outsiders with whom I was supposed to interact to get the job done. At the same time all the company email ids, visiting cards etc. sometimes fail to get the outsiders to give you the required insights.
The Stalemate: Everyone I spoke to during my internship did fall into this pit for a while. It's like a little bush on a sunny trek. It doesn’t give you enough shade to rejuvenate but gives a sense of relaxation. The danger is, the more time you spend under it, the more exhausted you get. The idea is to get out ASAP. I lost a precious one week because of deadlocks with multiple outside agencies who never replied to emails or took calls. Waiting for their emails and sending endless reminder emails became a new pass time. GET OUT FROM THERE ASAP!
The Angel: Four years ago I was on a trek with six others. The google maps we were relying on seemed to be slightly older and a flood changed the entire topography of the area. After wandering for over three hours, we met a kid shepherd, about ten years old. You can add two and two now. Exactly the same happens to most junta in an internship. A totally unexpected person you meet in the cafeteria, a casual chat with a senior from another team, some senior who wants to carpool with you will give you insights that will change the game in ways you cannot imagine. Make sure you are actively looking out for this Angel. In my case, there were two of them both from the ABG LEAD/LEAP program. That speaks enough about the program I guess.
The Bonfire: No matter at what stage of internship you are, there will be parties. Parties sponsored by seniors, parties thrown by your company, parties with your co-interns and most common are the parties with friends from your college and school as well. Make sure you party really really hard. These are the times when you will recall the most and cherish for a long time. I explored the historic Mumbai from Elephanta Caves to the Ultra New Mumbai and got myself trolled in the laugh clubs.
The Breakthrough: Overlap the Angel and the Bonfire and you have your breakthrough. This is probably the beginning of the 2nd month and you start working vigorously on endless data and start working on Mid Reviews. I had my potential partners sorted by then and started preparing business plans for them. Your skills with spreadsheets and presentations tools will be tested like never before. Most firms have a formal mid-review, but if your firm does not have one, make sure you get one arranged. It was this mid review that gave the direction and final scope to my entire project.
The Sprint to Glory: The time post mid-review is probably the most productive. You have a very clear vision of your goal and this fuels you to run like never before. It was this phase where I had about four to five people from different firms who were interacting with me on a daily basis and I could see things moving forward every single day.
The Sweet Spot: The best part of a trip is often some minor event or place or a conversation or a view which you never think would be consequential while you are at it. By the time you come home, you realise that it was not the pinnacle that mattered as much as that sweet spot. At an internship, some insights become your guiding light of how you want to go about working in your final job. Having conducted 146 semi-structured interviews in a mall with end users changed my perception in profound ways which no research article could ever give. It was these interactions lasting over 50 hours that became the cornerstone of my final presentation. Make sure you interact with end-users at an early stage. Floating google sheets and asking your friends from B-Schools to fill it is can be absolutely misleading!
The Pinnacle: The final presentations which are often delivered to CXO level executives gives a sense of pride and accomplishment. Presenting my recommendations to the CEO of the firm gave a sense of faith, the firms have in graduates from B-Schools. This is the little window where you get to know how a CXO level person thinks based on the severe grilling you go through. The questions tell it all on what matters the most for the firm and what the belief system of the firm is.
The Reminiscence: Few weeks post the internship, away from all biases, you nurture the process more than anything else. Most trivial discussions over lunch, the personal relationships built, honing networking abilities and ability to deal with uncertainty seem to be the most critical aspects of summer internships, much more than abilities to crunch data or prepare presentations.
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