Summer Internship At Deloitte

I was given a tech-based research topic where Deloitte looks for an opportunity. I was to research the topic and present it in front of a senior panel. I am a person who is optimistic about tech and it helped me navigate through pages of google to search for the data I needed. I followed a strategy here too. Any person who will look through a presentation will also look for a story. To build a story you need the correct data. So, I looked for data first. I collected all the data related to the topic in a place and formed my story with the help of these connecting data points. I did a lot of courses on various research skills and data presentation skills to help me with it. There were allocated guides and mentors to help us, Deloitte interns through the whole process. I will forever remember the research and report presentation skills I learned through this internship. Maybe the learnings were a bit different than I would have in case it was not a WFH, but it will always be valuable to me.

Now, I will explain below the good and the bad parts of the experiences I had in these two months.

In the office, I could otherwise get access to only a few people in leadership positions present in the same office as mine. Could I get a 1-2-hour one-to-one discussion time with the MDs and senior managers? No. Could I end up knowing so many cross-located senior executives, and made my mark? No. I could reach out to anyone at any time with just a mail. That is the leverage that the WFH internship gave me. The flexibility of reaching out to anyone removes the barrier of hierarchy and if they end up liking you, you are set for life. I could never have imagined otherwise having the kind of discussions I ended up having with these people. I tried to make the best out of the opportunity I had.

Now, the bad part. You don’t have a canteen or a desk or a face time other than the virtual video calls. You don’t get the good parts of having a peer group (Other than the knowledge share). You can’t sit with your friends you make during internship and gossip about others. Also, you cannot make alums pay for your coffee. Just kidding. I missed all of these and more. Probably in the coming years many, like us, will miss all of these. We might get used to this. We might not.

Would I choose an internship from home over an office internship? I would not. Sometimes certain situations are not in our hands. We should be adaptive and make the most of what we get. Though I did whatever I could in this situation, I would forever crave the experience of two months that I lost due to COVID.