These words of the Pre-placement talk "Be flexible about the role that you expect from us"- lingered in my ears till the end of the third trimester. Still unsure whether I would get the role I wished for or will I have to settle with the available roles. Subject line stating "Private Equity Project- Tata Capital" pops-up in the notification bar from the HR of the company and there was no boundary to my happiness. I remembered this quote- "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience"- and felt this was apt for the situation. Initial celebrations aside, the project domain was into areas which I was never familiar with. A quick call to my university mentor showed me the reality that the journey is not easy. With Lower Parel Mumbai as my office location and Vile Parle as my accommodation location, western railways came into rescue. In Mumbai it was important that you get used to the commutation and accommodation first and then the work, and that really helps.
I remember that my interview went well in spite of questions that I couldn't answer. May be the honesty to accept that I don't know and the zeal to learn helped me to clear the interview. With an engineering background and knowledge of basic corporate finance I entered into the project of "Business Due Diligence for the evaluation of a prospective investment ". Due diligence and framework? An instant google always helps but really doesn't answer you to the point that you get convinced. But over time I realized that it is the knack of "Whats and Whys". Certainly the industry analysis project in the first year of MBA gave a feel of déjà vu, but a lot had to be learnt and a lot had to be done.
The project initially involved a lot of research work in getting the data with respect to Players in the market, competitive edge, product lines, Business model, customer inclination etc, Along with the quantitative data like sales numbers, value, Revenue generation, number of manufacturing units, production capacity and some data about future ventures. It was a herculean task to get the data which was close to the reality as I had nothing to compare with. My mentor guided me very well, his words " Give me the next best answer. I don't need the right answer but the next best answer" showed me the approach to the uncertainties in the work. I expanded my LinkedIn connections by 200 during the internship, and around 20 connections were in fact my project partners. And yes I understood that "LinkedIn is a powerful tool".
By the end of the internship the scorecard for the attractiveness for investment and qualitative assessment were done and it was concluded well during the presentation. It is always a great feeling to know that a summer intern's work really helped the company to take decisions. I think I cleared every stage of this program from selection to refinement of the acquired talent. All in all, it was a great experience at Summer Program to acquire Talent and redefine Knowledge (SPARK) at Tata Capital.
