When I was selected for the prestigious Aditya Birla Group (ABG) Internship Programme, I was naturally very excited, and was looking forward to the summer experience. Unfortunately, the unprecedented situation due to Covid-19 and the lockdown resulted in a two-month online internship. However, the management took care of easing out our apprehensions and planned the online internship seamlessly to ensure that our experience was not compromised.
Along with our respective project commitments, we were kept engaged in regular social media activities that pushed us out of our comfort zones and made us explore our creative side. We were provided with ample opportunities to interact with senior leaders of ABG through regular webinars. We engaged with co-interns every week and bonded with them during an interesting three-week-long business simulation game.
ABG provided us the opportunity to choose our area of your interest, and I got to work for Birla White in the Marketing division. My manager was an IIMB alumnus. He was extremely supportive, and I learnt a lot under his guidance. I worked on live projects, which were well structured and relevant to the business. Right from the outset, I was treated as an employee, and my opinions and ideas were valued.
Despite not being able to visit markets, the interactions with various stakeholders and working with cross-functional teams and creative agencies added a lot of value to my experience. Timely feedback sessions and evaluations helped me improve and deliver better. The takeaways from this internship will definitely help me a lot in my career.
At the end of the stint, I was extremely glad to receive a pre-placement offer. Receiving the ‘Intern of the Year’ title was another proud moment for me, and I am happy that I could bring the title back to IIM Bangalore. I owe this to a lot of people, and I am really grateful to everyone who supported me during this wonderful journey.
(The writer is currently pursuing her MBA from IIMB. She is a Computer Science graduate from BITS Pilani, Goa. She has worked for Morgan Stanley for three years before deciding to pursue a career in management. She is an avid reader, a travelling enthusiast and a football buff. Her areas of interest include Marketing and Product Management.)