Ours is a highly competitive world, with a fierce job market. One vacancy will see thousands of applications and to shine amongst these numbers you must not only have the qualifications but also possess skills that give you the edge over others. Interning helps you train yourself for future jobs, gain work experience and makes you confident. You begin to create a professional network, get accustomed to corporate work culture before you become a professional. So here’s a great mix of interns whose internship experience will tell you how it is like to intern at government offices, private organisations and startups.
Vishal Kumar Sinha | Government Head Office
Internships are an integral part of an MBA programme and I completed a month and half long internship at the head office of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) in Patna. IOCL is a public sector oil and gas explorer company under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. So how was my internship? Well, it was a trying and a toughest one. The company staff are extremely busy. It took me three visits to meet my internship mentor in person. In my first two visits, I was sent back without meeting my mentor. Finally, on the third day, I met my mentor and he assigned me a project which was to visit nearby petrol pumps of IOCL and its competitors in order to find out the consumer perception about them and what IOCL can do to attract more and more consumers.
During my entire internship, I visited 15 petrol pumps, 6 of which were of IOCL and the rest of other petroleum companies. I used to visit the IOCL head office once a week to discuss the progress with my mentor. At the petrol pumps, I used to interact with the workers and customers and ask questions from a questionnaire provided by the office. Some of the workers and people were cooperative while some seemed disinterested. After I completed my research, I submitted my final report. My mentor appreciated my research and findings and after a week, I was issued my internship certificate.
Overall, my internship was good and I got to learn many things. Talking with people at the petrol pumps was very challenging. I noticed that as interns we were invisible to others. Me and other interns had to do everything by ourselves. I assume it has something to do with the government office work culture. But I did learn that - it is you who has to take the initiative, this is the toughest learning phase of your life, noone is going to leave their tasks to help you and if they do agree to, it will be at their will. So be ready for some hardships in the initial days of the internship
Also Read| How To Earn Money Online As A Student: Check Top 5 Ways To Make Money Online
Amit Goenka | Ad Agency
Currently, I am working as a Digital Marketer in an automobile company in New Delhi. My internship experience was good as I got to learn so many things there but of course, along with the pros there were cons as well. My two-month long, unpaid internship was at a reputed and well-known Ad agency in Gurugram. A friend spoke of the internship opportunity and I applied through the company website. One thing that I can say is that references help a lot in getting good internship opportunities.
While working there, I discovered the hard truth that appreciation evades interns, but criticism becomes your constant companion. We are the ones who will have to figure out what’s to be done, how to do it, problem solve, multi-task everything. My reporting manager explained to me about my task or work for exactly 15-20 minutes, after that I was on my own.
Another issue that puzzled me was that I was assigned to no specific department or work profile. I was doing random tasks like getting coffee or printouts, arranging or managing chairs in the meeting room. I had to literally hunt for productive work. However tough and disappointing this phase seemed, the fact that I received an internship certificate which in turn helped me get a job in one of India's leading automobile manufacturer companies made all those was the best thing I could get out of that one internship.
Goutham | Government Ministry
I completed graduation in commerce from Delhi University, where I interned on the topic of farming, which then made me do a fellowship in Ashoka University for one year. My interest towards policies, schemes of agricultural studies has increased gradually. During my fellowship, I got to know about the internships offered by NITI Aayog.
I applied for NITI Aayog internship program in June 2021 on their official website and received the approval in about two months. On-field internship started in the month of August. Usually, the duration of the internship is two months but, I have done it for a period of six months. After every 15 days, I used to report my progress and status of the research to the senior specialist. Young Professionals (YP) were the direct contact persons for interns to seek more suggestions and ideas to be incorporated into the research work and also to clear their doubts. Initially, for the three months, I met YPs to discuss the research progress and status. They hardly spent 15 minutes with each intern. So, I decided to clarify my doubts by myself. NITI Aayog library has the greatest collection of books you could ever see in any library. It has books beginning from the 18th century. I spent most of my time studying in the library and it also made my work easy. Through on-field and off-field I had collected a rich data and analysed well. In the last month of internship, I made a presentation of my research to the reporting advisor and earned a certificate.
The interesting part of my internship is that apart from the usual, I have got to know and learn a lot about many things like how the government actually works, how a particular policy is formulated and how it is executed etc,.
Given my experience with NITI Aayog, I have a piece of advice to those who plan to intern with government agencies. First thing is, every official working in the government sector is already held up with the heavy work. So, interns should keep in mind that you are on your own, nobody will come to their rescue. One should work hard and utilise all the possible resources to understand things first hand.
Also Read| Nailing Your Internship Interview: FAQs And Tips To Answer
Taniya Mishra | Ed-tech Startup
I am working as an English teacher in an international school in Hyderabad. Along with my job, I am also interning as an English language communication and personality development trainer in an Ed-tech startup in Hyderabad for over a month. I deal with people ranging from kids to professionals. I work online. My work involves creating content in the English language and making videos explaining the content. I receive direct feedback from the founders so it is easy to modify and employ different methods based on their feedback. The founders are very helpful. They are very open to considering my suggestions and ideas. The best part about this internship is that I have flexible working hours, good pay and no work stress. Since I have a good command over the English language, it all became quite easy for me to manage my job and internship. Analysing my internship experience so far, all I can say is that when you have a solid fundamental base along with a good skill set, your demand increases and you will be offered with many good opportunities.