About me:
Hello everyone, I am Bhavana a fourth-year undergraduate in the Chemical Engineering department. I like dancing and reading books, but sabse jyada I like scrolling Instagram reels 😂. I like Chemical Engineering and was sure that I was going to do an internship in core and FMCG was the first target as they were day 1 companies.
Internship preparation and interviews:
I started my internship prep by listing down all the target companies, roles offered, and selection procedures, and then the most important part of the internship season came that is the resume submission deadline. I started making my 1st draft 15 days before the deadline and got it reviewed by n number of seniors which I am sure you all would have done already.
After submitting my resume, I had about one week before the IAFs (Interview Application Forms) of FMCG companies opened. During this time, I reviewed my resume multiple times to ensure I was thoroughly familiar with every aspect mentioned, as interviews often focus on these details. This is my advice to anyone targeting FMCG companies in particular, and any company in general: be absolutely sure about everything stated on your resume. I also reviewed key concepts of chemical engineering and prepared by going through various common HR questions like introduction, why chose XYZ company, what are your positive and negative qualities, etc.
The selection process for ITC involves a gamified test (which they introduced from our batch), a group discussion round followed by two rounds of interviews. I was shortlisted for interviews with both ITC and HUL. All the interviews were scheduled for the same day. I first interviewed with HUL and felt that I performed well. However, I noticed that I occasionally diverted my answers to unrelated topics, which was unnecessary. I made sure not to repeat this mistake during ITC’s rounds.
My interview with ITC was scheduled towards the end of the day, and I was concerned that this might reduce my chances of being selected, as potential candidates may have already been identified. Despite this, I focused on the interview and avoided overthinking these concerns.
We received the final selection list for Day 1 after two days, and those days felt incredibly long. The only thing I could do during that time was repeatedly checking the Insti app to see if the results had been announced. And then comes the result and I was selected in ITC 🙂.
Internship experience:
The internship started with a 1 day induction at ITC Sonar in Kolkata where all 41 interns from various IITs and NITs joined. The one-day-long induction was filled a lot with gyaan about ITC and yummy food 😋. After that, we all dispersed to our allocated locations. My project was in Aashirvaad Atta in their Foods Division Business and my allocated location was the Head Office in Bengaluru. But they often send their interns to factory locations, only 4 out 41 interns were HO, so don’t think that you will get a city as your location as most of the factories are in remote areas, and the experience there is completely different.
The first two weeks of my internship were spent understanding my project, learning about various aspects of wheat and atta, and meeting with stakeholders. ITC provides its interns with a lot of freedom in planning their experiments. Most of my experiments needed to be conducted at LSTC (Life Sciences and Technology Center, the research center of ITC). During the initial weeks of my internship, the equipment I needed was occupied, so I had to travel to their lab in Trichy, Tamil Nadu to use the necessary equipment for my experiments.
We should be ready to learn a lot of new things and adapt quickly. Even though my domain knowledge helped me secure this internship, my project involved a lot of food technology and very little chemical engineering. However, the people there were curious and eager to teach me, providing valuable insights from their expertise.
Excel and PowerPoint are two essential tools you will use during the internship, as you will deal with a lot of data and need to create appealing presentations for final reviews.
Engineering skills, problem-solving skills, and management skills are the most important at ITC, and these are the skills you will improve throughout the internship. Apart from these if you are dedicated to your work and can give the results they expect then you are a good fit for them.
One fun fact about my internship is that I learned how to make chapati as it was an important step in my experiments 😆.
In the last week, all the interns who were placed in the Foods Division Business gathered at the Head Office, Bengaluru for the final reviews. The company gives a lot of importance to final reviews as they are the deciding factors for PPOs. Our internship then ended with a social evening with all the senior managers.
If you are interested in core engineering, AI/ML, management, supply chain, industry 4.0, sustainability, or any related fields, ITC is an excellent place for you. They have plenty of work in all these domains, and you will absolutely enjoy working there. The people are approachable and helpful. One thing I particularly liked about ITC is that the company always strives to be the best in the business.
Rest assured, ITC will arrange all your travel and accommodation throughout the internship period.
Final words:
My final advice is to be confident in your interviews, as they are a crucial part of the selection process. Trust your preparation, learn from your mistakes, and you will be able to navigate this period successfully. Have backup plans, you have a lot of opportunities ahead. Best of luck with your internship season 😊.
