I have always been interested in management; it is why I did my undergrad degree in business administration. After that, I decided to pursue my passion and teach piano for a year. During this period I realised that I wanted to study further and decided to pursue a post graduation in management. Getting through FORE School of Management, New Delhi was definitely the good news I yearned for.
Since then, I have has a a tremendous learning curve. I learned a lot in a short time. Ensuring a strong foundation to begin my professional journey, I feel, has given me the edge to succeed in future. I had the perfect opportunity to test this notion and to learn the practical applications of management concepts during my internship with Deloitte Consulting USI.
Life of a corporate professional
The typical day during the internship was quite different from the 9–5 setup I had envisioned. Deloitte offered flexibility in terms of when I went to work and when I left my workplace. The work culture was totally committed to job requirements and quality, which worked very well for me.
What made my internship an even bigger learning experience was that I worked on a specific project with a team leader. I was reporting to him directly and, although he had a lot going on with work, he ensured I got all the support and attention needed. There were several other points of contact at work and they guided me throughout the internship.
I was assigned two projects during my internship. One was an internal project in which I was required to design an instructional training program for a payroll software that is currently being used by the employees. The other was a client-based project. As my internship profile was under ‘human capital’, the project required me to acquaint myself with new tools that were going to be introduced in the client’s organisation and design training modules. These modules were used to train the client’s employees to efficiently use the newly-introduced tools.
Takeaways from the internship
We were taught everything at office and nothing was taken for granted. Deloitte even organised a couple of workshops on PowerPoint presentations. It reminded me that when you are in a professional setup, you leave nothing to chance and should be prepared for everything. If there is work to be done and deadlines to be met, it doesn’t matter what time of the day or night it is; yuo have to deliver and ensure high quality.
Another crucial takeaway was that networking cannot be taken lightly. At Deloitte, it meant interacting with peers and forming meaningful relationships. It was something the company valued highly in order to fit in the work culture.
Working at Deloitte was a wholesome experience and I loved every bit of it, largely because of the opportunity to interact with and learn from very knowledgeable and interesting people.
Life after the internship
The internship experience was so enriching and educative, that I remember not wanting it to end and return to college. But after coming back to the campus I can say that the internship complemented my classroom learning. Once you have an understanding of how real-time issues are handled, you gain more interest in a subject. It also helps you to focus on learning aspects in the classroom.
I look at the PPO as a big bonus, because the internship made me think seriously about my placement options in case Deloitte did not happen. Since I was looking for something in Human Resources but not in a conventional setup, I knew I didn’t have many options. The consulting, human capital profile perhaps would have been hard to find elsewhere. The realisation that ‘ this is it ’ made me push myself harder during the internship; it made things simpler and helped me set the right priorities. Of course, the experience was highly rewarding.