Hello everyone, I am Pranav Savla, 4th year undergraduate in ChemE who was irking people out to write summer blogs not long ago 🙂. Anyway, intern Season forms an integral part of institute life as everyone looks to get their hands dirty with corporate bloodbath.
Fortunately I had an opportunity to intern at Piramal Pharma ( everyone in my family is a doctor 🙂) in the summer of 24. Let’s dive into the story !
( 15 days before resume deadline)
FEAR:
The word is so familiar to us, right? Like most people, I was nurturing this emotion in the backyard of my head. Prior to the intern season I was on my maiden international voyage ( A month across 3 East African countries). On returning, I felt that I had the best experience of my life amidst the supreme nature & peak of the 5th largest mountain in Africa, but also ensured that fear had grown up perfectly well.
→ Day 1.5 / 3
→ Summit!
(Post resume deadline)
RESPONSE:
I was very clear about the profiles I would not be able to target in the internship season Ie tech and finance. Those remaining were my options for fastest finger first, as I was not clear about what I wanted to do.
ACT 1:
I had signed up IAFs for every consulting firm and HUL, ITC, P&G. Thought (I still think) that I did my best in P&G group interview and almost celebrated getting a day 1 interview shot at least. Seldom, celebrations preceding results are deemed logical, and it turned out I had nothing on day 1. Felt a bit weird as I thought myself to be an underdog prior to the internship season , but when a couple of opportunities presented themselves I gave my everything (Lakhya,Vinesh,Sreejesh at olympics 🙁) and suddenly I felt the deserving one out of nowhere to again being crashed downtown with rejection. A sinusoidal curve feels nice to draw but when it resembles what you are going through it isn’t pleasant 🙁 〰️ ,
Long story short, not being alone and having your best friend/ mentor/ senior, parents, someone you trust on the ride and feeling it is probably the best way of learning through the season.
Jumping back into the story!
( A month into the internship Season)
ACT 2: (most unique thing you would read)
As the IAFs came along, my best next shot was at chemical branch specific ones. Signing up now, I had 1 GD, 1 group interview already in my bag which sort of ironed out creases of first corporate interview anxieties. I expected nothing, prepared well (resume /HR prep) by talking to seniors and passed all the assessments to have a very interesting conversation about summer travel in Africa and mountaineering in my HR round at 3 am in the placement office of IIT Bombay, a prohibited place in the campus 😂.
(Pro tip: I was the last person to be interviewed and HRs were working overtime, this is not a usual thing at all, but what might have worked out for me was being an INTERESTING person with whom those tired people could genuinely have a conversation and wind up their 36 hour long day with a smile!)
ACT 3 (Actual summer ‘24)
So, the much awaited summer internship started with onboarding at the head corporate office in Mumbai with interns from top 4 IITs assembled to raise the IQ of the room to levels pro max. From there we were dispersed to their sites all over India for our respective projects.
I was flown to Ahmedabad to their contract research facility for pharmaceutical molecules, which involves tonnage of chemistry that you might have encountered while solving the dreadful MS chauhan or any organic chemistry reference book.
(for context I am in Chemical Engineering branch and it doesn’t have chemistry in it)
→ Piramal Corporate Office, Mumbai
Very puzzled by the site and their work, I was lost and wondered what task would be expected of me in the chemistry R&D facility. Building up on that as expected they handed out an open problem statement about finding digitisation opportunities in their facility.
First 3 weeks, Boom gone! I had to understand the functioning of the site before I could propose something, and it wiped away my 3 weeks but at the end of 3rd week I accidently bumped into one of the R&D heads. While having introductory greetings they told me about an interesting development which was a new instrument that they purchased but were unable to function and thus I was already imagining it as my project. So finallyyyy I found something to work on accidently after 4 weeks into the internship!
I was a Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and an English speaking person amidst people who knew only 1 out of these 4 languages.
Cycling through the city & ranting to friends/ seniors on call was my coping mechanism for the summers where I was boxed in social remoteness.It was a hell of a ride with a lot of breakdowns, challenges and that’s when you realise who all form your support system to fall back on.
→ Royal Well, Ahmedabad
→ Riverfront, Sabarmati River
(Cycling paradise for me)
WISDOM 🙂
A few excerpts from my experience coming up in the next few lines, trust me it took a lot to curb my oversharing tickle. Networking and communicating with every remotely relevant person in whichever firm you land up your internship is something that can enhance your experience by a good margin.
Try to be the driver of your bus called internship (and life I guess??)). Onus is always on you to make your experience as valuable as possible during the internship. While it is imperative you would possibly not receive a perfect mentor, team or a company, but use this as an opportunity to discover your power to drive things where you want them to. This quality is what will make you a valuable asset (and better person I guess?)Credits: Muskaan Chandra 🙂
(I truly realised this exact same thing in my internship!!)
POSTSCRIPT:
Internship gives you a glimpse of what adulting looks like, managing your food, travel, social life in some alien place (if you are placed like me with no co interns) and then showing up at work for 5-6 days to get rewarded with some bucks and a professional experience.
While you figure out the above things, just sit back and take time off to reflect not just on career options but also what kind of environment is best for you, kind of people you would want to be around and lifestyle you envision yourself living while achieving your ambitious dreams.
Lastly,
Navigating internship season will be a ride, it gets easier if you have someone with you for it.
