Touching the BASE :)

Generally students have the opinion that either you do nothing in an internship or you work like donkeys and get paid in peanuts. Surprisingly I was blessed not to fall on either of these two categories.

Few weeks before our internship I received an email from the company inviting me to the induction program for summer trainees. I thought that it would be a boring day where we would listen to a lengthy presentation about the company and come back but I was astonished by the way the day went. All our mentors along with the HR team were present there and we formed teams and played games and learned a good lesson about team work. The way induction was done said it all. I was highly impressed by the involvement of the company and the seriousness they displayed towards summer trainees. I was really motivated and was happy that I won’t be wasting my very important two months in this company.

The company recruited six people from our college and four of us were put into the Central Supply Chain team. We were excited and nervous on the first day in the company wondering about what our projects would be and how would be the culture of the team. We were greeted by a lovely lady who was our project guide. She made sure we are comfortable and asked us to occupy our cubicles and wait for our mentor, who happened to be the General Manager of the Supply Chain platform.  Later that day we all were assigned multiple projects based on different areas of Supply Chain.

We started working on our projects from the very next day. While our projects were reviewed every alternate day our peers in other companies were struggling to know their projects. We were blessed to get the best project guide in the whole world. She was an alumnus of our college. She used to spend all day clearing our doubts. No matter how silly a doubt I have she would always entertain. She was always there at the office. She was very dedicated and hence loved by all in the Central Supply Chain team. She was an inspiration for us and because of her good work the company has a very good image about our college.

Internship is the time when we should learn as much as we can and this actually happened for us just because of our guide and mentor. Our projects also involved interaction with different heads of the Supply Chain Team. I was amazed to experience how grounded they are and in spite of having tremendous knowledge, I never felt insignificant while interacting with them. It was a great feeling when what you do in a summer internship matters greatly to the organization.

The internship went well and during these two months we grew professionally as well as personally. The last day we had to present our projects and the learning outcomes to the Asia Pacific head of the Central Supply Chain. Everything went well and our mentor, project guide and the Transport head took us to a grand lunch treat. It was great to be treated so special.

We were told by the HR that there would be a felicitation program where all the summer trainees from different institutes would be given the completion certificate and the best summer trainee would be given an award.

It was a great day of felicitation where we all spoke about our experiences during the two months. The guest of honour was the Vice President of Marketing who shared some great experiences from his life and also gave some insights on the company. Everyone was waiting for that moment when one among the eighteen summer trainees would receive the very prestigious award of the best summer trainee. Within the next few seconds they announced a name which sounded very familiar. Suddenly my friends started patting my back and then I realized that it was my name. It was a great achievement in my life being honoured by such a giant organization.  A wave of satisfaction ran through me making me realize that my contribution is valued and appreciated.