I was going to Delhi for the first time. I remember when I was a kid, I used to ask about Delhi a lot to a cousin of mine who was working there then. Fed up with my questions, he used to say “Go to Delhi when you grow up and see it for yourself how it is!” All intrigued, when I landed at Delhi Airport, the first thing I saw was a baby held by her mother looking at me and smiling. There couldn’t have been a better welcome to Delhi than this. Wait a sec! Let’s talk about how it all came to this.
My B-School life started on June 16, 2017. We were yet to get habituated with the flavour of MBA when companies started pouring in for Summer Internship Programme. Anticipation was at its peak. One evening in November, tired of academic obligations, I fell asleep early at 8 pm. At around 9:15 pm, I received a mail from Placement Committee which said Vedanta Group is coming for hiring Summer Interns. I got up extremely excited and without wasting even a second I applied for it. Later, I got in touch with a relative of mine from Vedanta to understand their work culture.
The list of shortlisted candidates was mailed to us and my name was there in the list. The process was scheduled the next day and I just had a night to prepare. I went through all the businesses of Vedanta, read all the Success Stories on their website and made notes for revision before the interview.
1st December 2017: It was the day Vedanta’s process was scheduled and it was the birthday of my little sister. I suddenly realized in the morning that I hadn’t called her yet; I dialled her number and wished her. I was apologizing for calling so late when the 11 yr old said “it’s ok Nanu(big brother), I understand you were busy. All the best and do well!” All pumped up, I returned to the room where we all were waiting for HRs from Vedanta to come and give us the Pre-placement presentation. The presentation was followed by QnA. The process for Summer Internship hiring comprised of Group Discussions (GD) followed by Personal Interviews. The GD groups were announced and everybody in the room was looking forward to getting a chance to work with one of the biggest conglomerates in India.
Tips on Group Discussion: If we break down the roles played in a GD then, there are 4 major roles, namely; Initiator, Out-of-the-box Thinker, Moderator and Concluder. The initiator is the one who starts the discussion; it conveys the leadership quality of a candidate. Out-of-the-Box Thinker is the one who brings in a different dimension to the discussion; generally seen a lot when the topics are abstract. This showcases your unconventional and distinct perspective of approaching a topic. Moderator is the one who keeps track of the time and makes sure the discussion isn’t getting distracted. This shows how well you manage time and in addition, shows your leadership skills. And finally, the Concluder is the one who notes all the points put forward by all the members and concludes the discussion. There is a plus point for each role played during the discussion. Every GD in the world can be cracked if one masters each of these roles because you never know when a role might get snatched from you by another fellow candidate. So, it’s better to be prepared for playing any role. For my GD, I played the roles of Moderator and Concluder in the discussion.
I was elated to have made it to the next round but I was tensed too. If I could measure the tension level then, on a scale of 10, my score would have been 20.
Tips for Personal Interview: The interviewer was really at ease and talking like a person I had known for a very long time. We were talking about my hometown and how life was at XUB. I was curious to display my knowledge of Vedanta which I had gathered from my homework. Then the question came “Why do you want to join Vedanta?” I said everything I read about Vedanta while answering this single question. Do your homework well and read about the company as much as you can. Good communication skills and smart answers help a lot.
When my interview was over, I was quite satisfied with it. Then, immediately the results were declared, I was one of the selected students from Xavier School of Human Resource Management (XAHR).
It was the evening of 14th June 2018 when I received a call from Cairn Oil & Gas (Vedanta Group), Gurgaon Office asking for my details. My joining date was confirmed to be June 18 and the location was Gurgaon. I along with my classmate landed at the Delhi airport on 17th June, booked a cab and headed straight to the Hotel where we were supposed to stay.
The first day: Super excited, we reached office right on time. The office was a 5 storey building called Atria. The entire area was constructed by DLF and I could feel the corporate energy. We entered the office packed with the State-of-the-art technology. We were asked to sit in a conference hall where a full day briefing session was planned for us. People from HR, Operations, Finance and Security took enlightening sessions on the company and how it operates. When the IT and Security teams were done with our access cards and laptops, we were fully armoured to start with the project.
Fit right in: The transition phase gets really smooth when you get a co-operative, friendly, hardworking and competent team to work with. I am an ambivert and was having the meant-to-be-here feeling all the time. People worked really hard and also loved to party harder once in a while.
Do’s during the Internship:
- The ultimate motive of an Intern should be to provide solutions to a problem that the company is facing.
- Gather as much knowledge as possible about the company for better analysis and subsequently, provide an effective and detailed solution.
- Never say “No” to tasks that are offered just because you are too busy or you don’t know if you can do it. Work harder and deliver results because the more you deliver, the more you will justify your presence in the company.
- Maintain a good rapport with the Employees.
- Adapt to the culture of the company as soon as possible.
- Try to deliver more than you are asked to.
- Have a backup plan for every unplanned challenge and surprise.
- Always remember you carry the image of your college. The company judges your institute through you.
Finally, it was time for my final review. Worried about my presentation, I was trying to take inputs for my presentation from every person I come across. Later, I was informed that I will have to finish my presentation in 20 minutes instead of 30. I quickly hid 2 slides to save time and went in. I got out of the conference room with a big smile on my face for it went quite well.
These 2 months have been the best part of my MBA life till now. Like I mentioned above, it was all like a dream-come-true for me. It even adds to the happiness when the work that you do stays in your company forever. The last sign out on my laptop was tough. I met all the employees I had worked within the past two months. It was especially hard to say goodbye to my mentor.
You come to a premier B-school with a bunch of big dreams. All fascinated with the corporate life, you take a deep breath and say to yourself “someday”. Summer Internship motivates you the most by letting you be there and experience every inch of your dream so that you get all charged up to get all the skills required to excel in the corporate world post your MBA.
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About the Author:
Sushmit Senapati
XAHR (formerly XIMB-HRM)
2017-2019
