I was fortunate to have secured a three-month internship at Tata CLiQ in August 2020 during the pandemic when companies were rescinding offers and deferring joining dates. Being a fresher, the opportunity to begin my career in an e-commerce company’s high-velocity start-up was a call to gear up.
Since the world was battling the pandemic, my internship experience lacked the usual office tittle-tattle and water cooler conversations. Though I was onboarded virtually, I was prepared to raise the bar even higher.
Strong mentorship
From day one, I hit the ground running. I had to pick up anything that I could learn on international business — the brand architecture, category portfolio, and recent developments. Not only were the opportunities ahead exciting, but my marketing manager Prachi Gandhi involved me in every stage of the process, letting me in on the various Teams calls, and ensuring that I was introduced to a range of business functions from digital marketing to visual merchandising. In less than two months, I felt a sense of ownership for the international business — managing operations, learning while executing marketing strategies, category management, and the e-commerce website.
At the end of my internship, I not only held the privilege of taking with me an abundance of e-commerce knowledge, having grown the international business from the ground up, but also got a chance to experiment and work as a business owner, even as an intern, something other organisations may have regarded as a ‘lowly.’ During my final review, I was given an opportunity to present my findings to the leadership team. My recommendations were valued with constructive feedback, which helped me improve and raise the bar higher.
Lifelong learnings
Virtual internship in every way turned out to be a great experience for me. A month into my internship, to my little surprise, I was greeted with a call from both our CEO Vikas Purohit and CPO Behram Sabawala. They were keen on making sure my time at Tata CLiQ was filled with fun and fulfilling, which only further underscored the thoughtfulness of the leadership team. The advice which helped me through the internship and receive a PPO at the end was from CPO Sabawala, who taught me three ways to say something critical in terms of ownership and responsibility — a) If it is to be, it is up to me; b) I and I alone am responsible; and c) Whatever happens to me happens because of me.
Success is a multiplier of many factors, the credit for which I would like to extend first to SP Jain for facilitating an internship opportunity for a student during the pandemic, and then to Tata CLiQ for providing immense opportunities for me to explore as an intern. This, of course, sealed for me a career with Tata CLiQ that I am so looking forward to doing great things through.
(The writer is an MBA graduate from SP Jain School of Global Management (2019-21). He is currently working with Tata CLiQ Luxury and managing their international business portfolio. His area of interest lies in the field of marketing. He also is a fitness enthusiast who likes to meditate.)