Congratulations to the Class of 2019-21. You guys got it tough! Just a few months ago, we were all going through the grips of adjusting to a global pandemic. And your internships, exchanges, campus life, all took a heavy blow. And yet, like every year, InsideIIM’s Summer Saga 2020 was a resounding hit! With a star-studded panel of judges from Edelweiss, GE, Mars, Titan and Alvarez & Marsal, the competition was tough. Despite most internships being online, there was a lot of learning, unique experiences and new methodologies! But the verdict is out! The best summer internship stories we received have been selected by the judges and the winners and runners-up gain their prize money! In this article, read the winning entries, find out what made these stories unique and why the judges chose them! Also, revealed the campus with the most interesting interns! Read on to gain insight into some interesting sales & marketing, consulting, HR & Ops, and BFSI internship stories!
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The 7th Season of InsideIIM’s Summer Saga came at a time when internships changed as a whole. While many internships were withdrawn, here are some stories meant to inspire you and help you prepare for your own summer internship interviews or final placements! First, a snapshot of the panel:
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Our judges have chosen the best internship stories sector-wise. And at the very end of the article, there’s a surprise! Our judges have also chosen the campus with the most interesting interns! But first, the best stories! Let’s glance at them!
Winners of Summer Saga 2020 - Sales & Marketing
My Internship Experience At Hindustan Unilever Limited || Summer Saga 2020 - 1st Prize Winner!
“It has been a month since my internship ended and it is absolutely fresh in my mind. I thought of penning down my journey, as I know there would be many out there who would climb aboard the same train as I did and maybe make it to the same destination as I did.”
- Read Raahul Saxena’s (IIM C) HUL Internship story here!
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“For any marketing major, Britannia Industries Ltd has always been a dream company to work with. During January 2020, we got a communication from the HR of Britannia that we would be undergoing a week of orientation at the Bangalore office and post that our respective projects at the allotted locations would be assigned. The batch of 2021 became the first-ever set of students to undertake the Virtual summer internship in the history of mankind.”
- Read Manasa Bharathi’s (NMIMS) Britannia internship story here!
Winners of Summer Saga 2020 - HR
Summer Saga 2020 | Long Distance... SI Experience At Dr. Reddy's In The New Normal! - 1st Prize Winner!
“If you are told you are not going to be physically visiting your internship organization, you will be locked at your home with only Email, Zoom/ MS Team, Phone calls as a way to communicate with your mentor and other stakeholders and yet you are expected to work on a live project...Ummm I guess you got my point! It would seem daunting, frustrating, irritating, and all of it. That was precisely my state when I got to know about it. After a lot of crying and cribbing, I did what any logical person would do. I accepted this as my current reality. And then if you think about it, “It was still a level playing ground. All my fellow interns were doing SI through a virtual setting like me, all of us largely faced the same constraints, all of us were facing a pandemic for the first time, and so I realized none of us were really at a disadvantage.”
- Read Adiba Ahmed’s (TISS) Dr. Reddy’s internship experience here!
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“Around 2 months ago, I concluded my internship with Aditya Birla Group as a part of its coveted leadership program, where every year plethora of future leaders are shaped SEAMLESS-ly, in the mould of COMMITMENT, keeping INTEGRITY at its core, enriched with SPEED and PASSION! Being able to explore a world of opportunities in long-term association with this mammoth multinational conglomerate is like a dream come true for any B-school rookie like me. The idea of exploring the diversities of the corporate world fascinated me a lot, and ABG, being globally active in 14 diverse industry sectors, is the best platform I could get to do so.”
- Read Soumya Jain’s (MDI Gurgaon) ABG internship experience here!
Winners of Summer Saga 2020 - Others
A Summer Full Of Googliness - 1st Prize Winner!
““So, what’s different now?”
This is Eric Schmidt’s favourite opening conversation as quoted in one of the first chapters of ‘How Google Works’, which also defined the motivation to write this piece. As I reflect on the 8 weeks of my blink view at Google, I will always be short of words to even touch upon all the aspects that our intern cohort was able to experience and what we missed on. But, my curiosity to take a stock of what was different before and after the Googliness filled summer gets me to go down the memory lane and write a first-hand experience.”
- Read Vinayak Garg’s (IIM Shillong) Google internship experience here!
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“Like for any B-School graduate, the opportunity to interview for Swiggy was presented to me during the Summer hiring season on campus. I remember taking them through my work experience, CV elements and scenario-based guesstimate questions strolling across the corridor; for on-lookers it presented a picture of two friends meeting after a longtime, coming together and engaging in an intense conversation. Large portions of the questions were to determine the cultural fit, thinking on the feet, how one addresses failures and willingness to learn – Something that unfolded over the course of the interview rounds. After 3 rounds, the final interviewer asked me this question with a grin on his face, “Can I finalize the name, you will be interning out of our Corporate Office in Bengaluru. That’s ok? I hope you wouldn’t say that it's a startup, meh!” I burst into laughter and said “Absolutely not, I’m excited to intern with Swiggy and visit the garden city - Bengaluru”.”
- Read Sreejith Menon’s (TISS), Swiggy internship experience!
Winners of Summer Saga 2020 - General Management
A FanTAStic Summer Internship | TAS - Tata Steel | Summer Saga 2020 - 1st Prize Winner!
“TAS, previously known as the Tata Administrative Services is a unique leadership development programme envisioned by the legendary JRD Tata back in 1956 to identify and groom leaders for the Tata Group. I was always fascinated with the TAS program and it was a dream even before I stepped into the Red Building of Dreams, FMS Delhi.”
- Read Moinack Shaikh’s (FMS Delhi) TAS internship experience here!
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“I am Jaskirat Kaur, I did my undergraduation from IIT Bombay. Won national beauty pageant 'Gladrags Megamodel' in 2013. Have a soft corner for giving back to society, especially empowering women which led me to found LeanIn Mumbai under the affiliation of Sheryl Sandberg. I have 3 years of work ex in Marketing, Content & Game Designing. I think enough of the intro, let's get to the business.. Internship Experience.”
- Read Jaskirat Kaur’s (IIM B), Mahindra internship experience here!
Winners of Summer Saga 2020 - Operations
Lifetime Experience: Journey To Internship With P&G ( Product Supply) | Surabhi Gupta- 1st Prize Winner!
“Hey Guys !! I am Surabhi Gupta! One of the lucky ones who completed her Summer Internship in the year 2020 – Digitally and will be pursuing almost 50% of my MBA online. My enriching Internship has been with Procter and Gamble ( P&G ) – Product Supply ( Digitization ). I am sharing my journey so far with you – all the ups and downs not with expectations for acknowledgment, but just to relieve some of you from the thought that going ONLINE is “ BAD”. Let me take you through the preparation first!”
- Read Surabhi Gupta’s (NITIE) P&G internship experience here!
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“I remember the time when Philips came to our campus for the Pre-Placement talks; I was quite impressed by their work culture, their value system, and aspirations. Adding to that, positive footnotes from the seniors and based on research that I had done, I formed an unequivocal view about the organization. Once you bag the internship it’s all about partying and also a bit of prepping oneself to get set to work with some of the brightest minds in the country!”
- Read Pranav Hari’s (NITIE) Philips internship experience here!
Winners of Summer Saga 2020 - Banking & Finance
Summer Saga 2020- How I Experienced Investment Banking With JPMC In The Virtual World- 1st Prize Winner!
“When I had decided to do my MBA, I was very clear that my specialization has to be finance as I had a background of commerce. When I got admission in IIFT Delhi, I checked out all the companies in the BFSI sector coming to IIFT and I had set my target to get either into JPMC or Goldman Sachs.”
- Read Nikita Tayal’s (IIFT Delhi) JPMC internship experience here!
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“After graduating as a computer engineer, I worked as a technology analyst at one of the largest banks in the world. It was during this 2-year stint that I found my interest in the banking and financial world. When I started my MBA, it was very clear to me that finance would be one of my focus areas and I’d like to pursue a career in banking. When I learned that RBS was going to recruit summer interns from my campus, I was very excited and slightly nervous at the same time. The bank offered an 8-week internship in Portfolio Management. I recognized that the role would be perfect for me to learn the credit business of the bank and add to the basic banking concepts I had picked up during my previous job. I applied for the position without any hesitation.”
- Read Rohan Kamath’s (IIM Rohtak) RBS internship experience here!
Winners of Summer Saga 2020 - Consulting
Enriching Summer In Consulting At Korn Ferry | Nayonika Datta, TISS Mumbai- 1st Prize Winner!
“When a B-school student thinks “consultancy”, the mental word cloud that emerges would typically include “diversity of experiences”, “out-of-the-box”, “brainstorming”, “frameworks”, et al. What differentiates Korn Ferry is that besides delivering on all the usual perks of working with a Consultancy, they go above and beyond to ensure that the proper human infrastructure to enable their employees is also in place, even at a time when the global economy is still caught in the snares of a pandemic.”
- Read Nayonika Datta’s (TISS) Korn Ferry internship experience here!
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Summers At Bain & Company | Ruchira Arora- Runner Up!
“I got an opportunity to do my Summer Internship at Bain and Company, as a Summer Associate. My preparation and internship journey was a rollercoaster ride! I started my preparation for consulting around two months before the placement process. I was shortlisted by McKinsey, Bain, and Kearney. Ironically, I didn't get a BCG shortlist in spite of having worked there as an analyst for a year, which was a bit surprising for me.”
- Read Ruchira Arora’s (IIM C) Bain & Co. internship experience here!
And now for the big reveal.
The Campus With The Most Interesting Interns Based On The Number Of Entries
Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune!
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The Campus With The Most Interesting Interns Based On The Scores By The Judges
XLRI Jamshedpur!
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Methodology of selecting the campus with the most interesting interns: Given the entries per campus, we came out with the average score for every b-school based on the scores given by the judges.
And with that Summer Saga 2020 is a wrap. Meanwhile, have things to say to your future recruiters and employers? Fill this survey and tell Day 0 and other recruiters what’s on your mind!
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You can also go through these internship interview experiences:
