MBA Internship Experiences

CAREERS360
B-SCHOOL
MBA Internship
Experiences
WWW.BSCHOOL.CAREERS360.COM
B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES
Contents
Contents
Introduction
Internship in Risk Management and Audit Framework
Internship in Research
Internship with Start-up
Internship with I.T Systems
12
Internship in Banking Sector
14
Internship as Market Analyst
17
Internship in Consumer Durable Space
20
Internship in Finance division
22
Internship in Digital Marketing
25
Internship as Market Researcher
28
Internship as Strategist
30
Links for MBA internship E-book
32
Introduction
n our quest to bring all the information and student experiences

that helps you in achieving your B-school dream, we present you
everything you wanted to know about B-School MBA Internship
Experiences.
This E-Book by Careers360, is a collection of students internship experiences from various IIMs and Top B-schools. Their experinces will support
you in getting the mantras for a successful internship. Read this E-book to
know about the qualities that the recruiters look for and what stratergy you
should follow to complete your internship successfully.
How Kamal Tej Tallam acquired knowledge in Risk

Management and Audit framework?
n this special series of MBA Internship Experience,

Careers360 brings insightful experiences from Management students, who learned strategies and applied
theories to successfully complete their internship projects.
Kamal Tej Tallam of XLRI Jamshedpur completed his
Summer Internship from World Bank (IBRD), Chennai,
and learned the requirement of multitude financial needs by
the governments along with the understanding of how the
strategies are implemented in the real world.
Kamal within his short duration of the Internship, learned
about Risk management, process review and Audit controls framework. He also shares his experience of acquiring
knowledge on how the financial instruments are developed.
Careers360: Where did you complete your summer
internship from? What was the size of the company?

Kamal Tej Tallam: I completed my Summer Internship
from the World Bank (IBRD), Chennai. The organization
has a human resource of 500+. The International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) aims to reduce
poverty in middle-income countries and credit worthy poorer countries by promoting sustainable development through
loans, guarantees, risk management products, and analytical
and advisory services
Careers360: Please share your project summary.

Kamal Tej Tallam: The details of my project are confiden-
tial regarding the unit of work and nature of the project. But
broadly, the project was a risk management, process review,
and audit/controls framework development related.
CAREER IN REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION
Careers360: Were there any key challenges that you
Careers360: How did your corporate mentor at
faced while doing your internship?

Kamal Tej Tallam: Making me aware of the bank processes was the first challenge. I was expected to add-on to it. So
a working knowledge of the business units was an important
thing. Such things are not taught in curriculum of any course.
I began by reading up lot of business unit literature and bank
internal documents (process, costing, risk profiles etc.). The
workings are very different from what one might think to
know about banks in general (ICICI, HDFC etc.). The goals
and motives are very different and hence the approach and
the end result that is expected from you.
internship help you execute the project?

Kamal Tej Tallam: I got extensive help from the mentor
and the team. I was also provided with SPOC for any other
business unit, into which I wanted to enquire about. Even
small doubts very patiently attended to, and I was encouraged to ask questions. Team was very helpful in sharing
documentation, and their thoughts and learnings. Apart from
my own work, I was also told about the work they carried out
and challenges they faced on day to day basis.
Careers360: Share a memorable incident from your
internship days.
Kamal Tej Tallam: There was a specific audit framework
to be developed. I took it up as a thought experiment to see,
if such a framework could be implemented. Over a period of
15 days, I came with ideas and took the opinions of the team
in this regard, and made several revisions to the framework
document. I finally presented it to my mentor for feedback.
I was made to present it to the department of business unit.
I wasnt expecting this kind of platform to be given early on
and it was a highly informative experience. I got inputs from
various members, and also presented it to a visiting panel
from Washington (HQ) as part of my final presentation.
Careers360: What were your key learnings while
doing the project and overall learning after completion

of your internship?
Kamal Tej Tallam: I got a first-hand look into the projects
which involved governments, bureaucrats, large scale investments to support/build a nations infrastructure. There was
a gamut of clever financial instruments developed, to cater to
the multitude financing needs that governments may require.
Understanding how they came about, how they are implemented in the real world was a very enriching experience.
How Jayesh Surisetti captured vision of an organization

and learned the ground reality of Research work
ayesh Surisetti from IIM Raipur PGP batch of 2016

completed his Summer Internship from Power Management Institute, the learning and development centre of NTPC Ltd. While doing the research projects, he
learned about the real grounds for conducting any research.
Prior to his internship at NTPC Ltd., Jayesh has been
associated with various consultancies like Random House,
Pratham International, PT Education and Central Chronicle. He has completed his Bachelors in Business Administration (Corporate Management) from Symbiosis Centre for
Management Studies, Pune and has published 8 research
papers in a span of 3 years.

Jayesh Surisetti: I did my internship in Power Management Institute, the learning and development centre of
NTPC, Noida. One of the Maharatna Public Enterprises of
India, the sheer magnitude at which NTPC Ltd. operates
can be ascertain from the fact that this organization alone
accounts for 27.4% of Indias total power generation.
With the mantra of People before Plant Load Factor,
NTPC has a 26000-strong workforce traversed across India.
Jayesh shares his internship experience in this Careers360

interview:
Careers360: What project did you work on? What
was the timeline for execution of different stages of the

project?
Jayesh Surisetti: I worked on two projects; the following
are the project titles:
l Revisiting the efficacy of the year-long induction training
programme at NTPC
l
Leadership development at NTPC: A Study on sequential contribution of career-long activities towards leadership role preparedness
development at NTPC. Using the responses, improvements

or recommendations were made towards improving the current leadership scheme.
Careers360: How did you execute your project?

Jayesh Surisetti: I got the opportunity to visit two power
plants at Dadri and Badarpur, to understand the context
in which NTPC operated. Keeping this context in mind, I
designed the research towards two objectives capturing the
essence of the organization as it has existed, and capturing
the vision of the companys future.
Spread over a period of nine weeks, both these projects

were carried out simultaneously. Roughly, the first two weeks
were spent in developing an outline for the projects stating
problems to be researched, deciding the methodologies and
the samples, jotting down desirable outcomes etc.
The projects were then executed by sending out questionnaires to locations other than NCR and interviewing those
within the region. By way of such interactions, the data was
collected, analysed and recommendations made.
The next two weeks were involved in developing the questionnaires, scheduling interviews where required and dispatching questionnaires. Over the next three weeks, data collection and tabulation was done along with a holistic analysis
of the same. The final two weeks were allotted to preparation
of reports, subsequent approvals etc.

Jayesh Surisetti: Apart from the geographical limitations that were faced during the internships, there were few
key challenges which I had to face. Most daunting of the tasks
was to convince the people in a public sector organization to
participate in the survey without incentives of any sort.
Careers360: Please share a project summary.

Jayesh Surisetti: My Project on Induction Training
This NTPCs induction programme is a 52 week-long most
robust and holistic programmes. This study aimed to judge
the effectiveness of this training programme at four different
levels mainly, reaction of the participants, learning, and the
derived utility from the programme and the benefit for the
company.
Project on Leadership Development
NTPC realises its strength not just from the toils of its
employees, but also from the able guidance and acumen of its
leadership. Predominantly a qualitative study, the primary
objective of this study is to understand the perception of the
existing leaders towards the current practices of leadership
Careers360: What were the key challenges that you
Another challenge was to work through the bureaucratic

processes of an organization, which in itself could have led to
delays in the overall functioning. Power Management Institute, which is the training and development wing of NTPC, is
in itself not like a corporate entity, thus leading to significant
cultural differences.
Careers360: What was your key learnings while doing
the project and overall learning after completion of your

internship?
Jayesh Surisetti: The most important learning during
the course of my internship came from my corporate mentor.
She taught me how while doing research projects, researchers tend to forget that there is a huge world out there which
is supposed to be the real ground for any research. It was
this guideline which will probably stick with me for the rest
of my life.
Overall, I learnt two things one, the importance of preparation in an organization, which can be extrapolated to any
other setting and two, the key is in the details; it is the minute
things which can make huge difference in any work-related
situation.
overall. Throughout the internship, by way of email and

telephone, I was in constant touch with my academic mentor.
Careers360: While doing your internship, how were
ment study, I was to interview one of the Directors of NTPC,

Mr. Anil Kumar Jha. Since the interview was purely to gleam
out insights from the leaders experiences, Mr. Jha began
sharing some of his experiences in NTPC with me. During
the course of that 40-minute long interaction, I could see
a vital thing the zeal of a young man hidden behind the
veneer of maturity of a wise one. This interaction was something valuable, worth all the travails.
you connected with your academic mentor at your institute?

Jayesh Surisetti: As a part of the Summer Internship
process, IIM Raipur has two important procedure interim
report submissions to academic mentors and faculty visits. While the former was intended to benefit the overall
research process, the latter was aimed at improving the relations with the corporate mentor and evaluating the projects

internship days.
Jayesh Surisetti: As a part of the Leadership Develop-
How Abhineet Mittal executed key projects at a start-up

company to learn career lessons
bhineet Mittal, during his internship with WeMark

India developed a successful attendance system to
reduce the time and efforts. He also developed a pilot
project which was adapted as a base for future developments
in multiple processes.
He shares his role while executing two projects- Digital

Marketing and Business process Improvement during his
internship. He also speaks on the challenges he faced during
his summer stint at WeMark and how he worked out strategies to cope with those challenges.
Careers360: Where did you complete your internship
from? What was the size of the company?

Abhineet Mittal: I did my internship from WeMark
India, Delhi. It is a startup company involved in B2B business and is mainly a marketing audit company. The company
has a cost effective, scalable and innovative business model,

which provides flexibility for 24x7 operations. In its initial
stage the company housed approximately 100 employees.
Careers360: What project did you work on? What was

the timeline of the various stages of the project?
Abhineet Mittal: Being in a startup company, I had an
opportunity to have experience in diverse fields. But to be
precise I worked on two projects i.e. digital marketing and
business process improvement. Digital marketing covered
various media channels which were used to help the company to establish itself in the market. The company had
many unstructured process which were identified using the
business process improvement. Firstly, a study on various
processes was done and based on that study and analysis a
few recommendations were given by me. These recommendations were approved and implemented successfully.

Abhineet Mittal: My project was basically in two parts,
digital marketing and business process improvement. In

digital marketing, I was responsible for making the social
marketing strategy. Since I am the part of Public Relations
committee of IIM Rohtak, I had a prior knowledge of working on social media. I planned a strategy and established the
presence of the company on the social networks.
By business process improvement I tried to structure
various business processes of the company which helped the
company to increase its efficiency. Moving forward with this
incite I also made an attendance system to reduce the time
and effort involved.
Careers360: How did you execute the project? Did you
also get the stipend?

Abhineet Mittal: For the digital marketing I first identified various media segments which could be helpful in my
efforts of making the world identify the companys presence. The media segments identified were Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and google+. I made Facebook page, twitter
and manage the blog of the company. I also researched on
various tools for social media marketing and monitoring.
Among them was Hoot suite which is used for social media
management. Along the same lines is google analytics which
is used to measure the website traffic and hence helped me to
channelize my approach for media marketing.
For business process improvement, I interviewed various
employees of the company with intend to understand the
functioning. Based on my understanding I came up with a
model describing the functioning of the various processes.
This model could track the data at various levels of execution and helped in inferring meaningful incites. As per the
model, a pilot project was implemented on one team which
was highly successful. Later this model was adapted as a base
for future developments in multiple processes.
Yes, I was also given stipend for my work which was satisfactory.
10
Careers360: What were the key challenges faced during the internship?
Abhineet Mittal: Within the short time span of my
internship there were multiple challenges that came across.

Few are,
l Since it was a startup, it had some chaotic processes
which initially hindered my understanding of various
processes.
l Few of the process were not defined during their initial
stage.
l Since I had multiple opportunities , I had difficulty in
finding a prefect role for myself so that I can contribute
in the best possible to the company.
Careers360: What was your key learnings during and

after the project?
Abhineet Mittal: My Key learnings during the project
are:
l Time management- as a startup company we are not
limited and can try out many things; we need to prioritize
and manage the time.
l I also came to know about the real time challenges in the
field of social media marketing.
l Interacting with people of different temperaments.
Key learnings after the completion of internship are:
l View things holistically
l It is very satisfying to work in startups because you can
see the direct implementation of your projects and ideas
and hence company also values you.

Abhineet Mittal: My mentor was a very knowledgeable
and humble guide who use to share his insights and experiences. With his motivation I learned a lot. He was open to
ideas and had an entrepreneurial approach so I was more
comfortable in sharing ideas with him and implementing
them. He also guided me with current corporate policies and
functioning.
He always motivated me and supported me in my creative

approaches. He gave me full freedom in my work which
helped me learn new approaches and also provided relevant
information required for my analysis.
Careers360: How was your interaction with other
employees during your internship period? Would you

like to come back to the company for a job?
Abhineet Mittal: Being an IIM student, it was a great
experience for me to have a special attention. Employees at
WeMark were very cooperative, supportive and congenial
in nature. They were always ready to share with me the corporate information which was necessary for my analysis to
facilitate business process improvement. They were always
all ears to my new ideas. By the time I completed my internship we shared a bond of friendship and trust. I would surely
like to join the company again.
11
How Atit Shah acquired knowledge in the Designing

of IT systems during his internship
ow your internship experience helps you to develop

something from scratch? How your summer training lets you explore new possibilities and opportunities? How do you best utilize an internship to acquire
knowledge?
Atit Shah, a student of SIMSREE, Mumbai shares his
Internship Experience at Syntel Ltd., as a Business Analyst.
Prior to his summer internship, Atit has also worked as an
SEO Analyst at Craftindia.com.
As a key responsible person to analysis & design a web
based portal at Syntel, Atit prepared artifacts like database
model diagram, business process modelling diagrams, user
interface layouts and system architecture design, to successfully develop a new portal from scratch.
12
He shares different aspects of his internship experience in

this Interview:
internship? What was the size of the company?

Atit Shah: I did my summer internship at Syntel Ltd.,
which aims at delivering high end solutions to its almost
2000 clients in a more efficient and innovative way. In the
duration of my internship, i learned how to get insights
from the customer requirements and business and then to
apply innovations into operations. The company has around
25000 employees worldwide. Syntels Customers for Life
philosophy made me focus on hands on experience along
with business results.
Careers360: What were your learnings while doing

Atit Shah: A web based portal was required by the com-
Careers360: How did your corporate mentor sup-

project?
Atit Shah: I was fortunate enough that the Company
trusted me and gave me an opportunity to work on an important project, where I was a key responsible person. I was
working on an internal project to design a web based portal
for the company. The Analysis & Design stages of the portal
were expected to be completed in 2 months. In the entire two
months, the portal has to be developed from scratch and later
made functional on the front end.
pany to manage its routine operational activities. My key

responsibility was to analysis & design this web based portal.
As part of the designing, I was required to prepare various
artifacts like database model diagram, business process
modelling diagrams, user interface layouts and system architecture design. I also had to guide the developers with the
development of the portal. Being a part of the Designing and
Technical department, the only summary about the project
was to develop a portal for a company to maintain its daily
business functions.
faced during your internship?

Atit Shah: The project was quite challenging as the portal
had to be made from scratch. In the Analysis stage, I had
to engage with various stakeholders for understanding the
existing processes, which is important to know as you have
to work on the same business and functional models which
the company is following.
Within a short time span of 2 months, I had to learn, understand, develop and deliver the project which was challenging.
Also, translating the requirements fetched from the Analysis
stage into various design artifacts was a challenging task. But
the project was delivered to the expectations of the clients,
and that is all what matters.
13
the project and experince after the completion of the

project?
Atit Shah: I learned a lot during my internship at Syntel,
it was an experience, an opportunity and a challenge that
made me have more confidence in myself. During my internship the project gave me great insights on how to design IT
systems along with an exposure to IT project management.
After the completion of my summer internship, I was prepared to face the challenges and actually was more open to
accept them, work hard and achieve results.
ported you to execute your internship? How did you

connected with your academic mentor?
Atit Shah: My corporate mentor at Syntel was very experienced and cooperative. He guided me throughout the
project. If I use to get stuck somewhere, he was always there
to support, guide and motivate me. We had daily reviews of
my work which helped me to deliver quality output within
the stipulated timeframe. I used to connect with my mentor
via emails on a weekly basis and use to share reviews and
other outputs.

like to come back to the company for a job?
Atit Shah: We use to have both formal and informal interactions every week. My seniors and colleagues use to have
this interaction so as work burden could be shared, problems
could be discussed, and technical issues could be handled
along with other motivational talks. The work environment
was very good and supportive. I would definitely like to join
the company and work towards my aim, get challenging
opportunities and grow along with the organization.
XIMB student Anubhav Srivastava on his

2 months at HSBC Chennai
IMB student Anubhav Srivastava did his internship with renowned global banking company HSBC.
Anubhav Srivastava, a Second Year student of Xavier
Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) shares how
it feels to work among400 employees of a top global banking
company like HSBC. In this interview, he shares his meeting
experiences with MDs, CEOs and CFOs of potential clients
to understand their needs & the industry and to explore
opportunities for HSBC.
He does not forget to tell us that the invaluable experiences
were not the only take away from his summer internship, he
also took home a handsome monthly stipend of Rs 45000 for
the period he worked with the company. Anubhav also speaks
about the challenges faced by him owing to the cultural and
language barrier in the city of Chennai.
14
Prior to joining XIMB, Anubhav did Computer Engineering in Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) has worked for
a year as an SAP Consultant with Deloitte Consulting in
Hyderabad. His interests include international relations,
quizzing and classical music.
Careers360: What was your project on which you
worked for the past 2 months? How did you define the
timelines for executing different stages of the project?
Anubhav Srivastava: My project involved finding sector-wise business lending opportunities for HSBC in the
SME space in Chennai. To accomplish this, I first developed
an in-depth understanding of the banks policies and lending proposition. I interacted with my senior colleagues
and tried to understand the kind of work each of them
did. I devoted roughly a week for this. Over the next 3-4
weeks, I did extensive secondary research on the plastics,
chemical, manufacturing (mainly auto-ancillary), garments

and textiles industries in Chennai and tried to develop
an understanding of the business models of major players
and the operating cash cycles. I understood the macroeconomic trends of the industry and handpicked a few clients
for an in-depth study. I learnt to make working capital assessments and to map working capital requirements of clients to
HSBCs products. The last 3 weeks were completely devoted
to meeting MDs, CEOs and CFOs of potential clients to
understand their needs & the industry and to explore opportunities for HSBC. I also met senior executives from several
trade associations and manufacturing clusters and fixed up
joint events to help educate their members on the intricacies
involved in complex trade transactions.
Project Summary
In my quest to discover sector-wise business lending

opportunities for HSBC in Chennai, I prepared a sectorwise report on five industrial sectors plastics, chemicals,
manufacturing, garments and textiles detailing the
size, segments, export market, risks, working capital
requirements and top SMEs for each sector. Based on
industrial reports from credit rating agencies such as
ICRA, CRISIL and D&B, I was able to communicate with
senior executives from around 50 companies who helped
me in collecting the data. I identified gaps in requirements
where HSBC could step up and offer superior services,
mostly in the international trade arena. I learnt to assess
the operating cash flow cycle and make working capital
assessments and applied the same on a couple of live
cases that were being processed. In addition, I also
made a database of leading SMEs based on my primary
and secondary research, both online and offline. I also
struck joint educational events with industrial estates,
manufacturing clusters and industrial confederations
for their members.
Careers360: What was your plan to execute the project? What was the stipend amount offered to you?
15
Anubhav Srivastava: I started off by networking exten-
sively with my colleagues. Most invaluable and practical

knowledge about an organization is never found in manuals, but in people. All my seniors were extremely helpful in
teaching me the basics about the bank and its offerings. I
researched extensively on industrial reports published by
ICRA, CRISIL, D&B, McKinsey and also used the services
offered by the web portal of Ministry of Corporate Affairs,
Government of India. I travelled extensively within Chennai to meet potential clients and trade associations. I also
spoke over telephone to a vast number of people in different
businesses. I was paid a stipend of Rs. 45,000/- per month.
Careers360: What kind of challenges did you face during your internship?
Anubhav Srivastava:The biggest challenge I faced was
not having a cultural and lingual understanding of conducting business in Chennai. Although I had done my engineering
previously in Tamil Nadu and did know basic Tamil, language
was sometimes a barrier in establishing the kind of warmth
needed in a business transaction with a potential client.
Also, the theoretical knowledge of working capital financing,
which I had learnt in my curriculum and the actual manner
in which it is done, differed considerably. The actual world
of banking was lot more complicated and there were many
factors to be assessed, including those that required making
subjective assessments.
Careers360: What were your key and overall learning
during and after completing your internship?

Anubhav Srivastava: HSBC is one of the worlds largest banks, whichever way you measure and its expertise in
executing complex trade transactions and global presence
and potential is unmatched. Therefore, I had access to a vast
treasure trove of knowledge on complex lending requirements and payment transactions. I learnt exactly how to
assess the clients needs and provide tailor made fund based/
non-fund based solutions to working capital requirements. I
learnt all about letters of credits, bank guarantees and other
non-fund based instruments. I learnt the types of ways in
which payments are made for international transactions
and worked on a couple of live cases. But most importantly, I

learnt the basic soft skills speaking to clients, understanding and approaching the problem from their shoes and tiding
over the cultural and lingual barriers for the common goal
business.
Careers360: How cooperative was your corporate
mentor regarding the execution of the project at your

summer internship?
Anubhav Srivastava: I was extremely lucky to have the
best possible mentorship and guidance at each stage from
my mentor. He helped me settle down on the first day and
exposed me to only as much knowledge as was necessary at
each stage. The complexity of products and mechanisms at a
commercial bank can be overwhelming to someone who has
not worked in banking before but I was glad to be gradually
introduced to all concepts with live examples. My mentor
guided me to online repositories, existing clients and colleagues who helped me. My mentor also reviewed my work
on a weekly basis and pushed me harder to collect more
information about each industrial sector and motivated me
to go alone and speak to senior executives in the industry
and at trade associations. I gained immense confidence and
self-belief under his guidance.
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Careers360: How was your rapport with other
employees during your internship schedule? If given an

opportunity, would you like to come back to the organization for job?
Anubhav Srivastava: I had an extremely enjoyable two
month stay at HSBC in Chennai. All my senior colleagues
treated me well and took time out from their extremely busy
schedules to guide me. We often went out for lunch. The one
hour spent playing table tennis at office in the evening used to
be the most enjoyable. Given a chance, I would love to return.
Careers360: What are the memories during your
internship period which you would like to cherish?

Anubhav Srivastava: Being a part of IlluminatiX - The
Media & PR Cell of XIMB, I conducted an informal interaction with the juniors who were about the join in the college in
a months time. It was truly a refreshing and unique experience to be surrounded by an enthusiastic bunch thousands
of kilometers away from base camp, addressing the queries
and witnessing their excitement. We had a gala time gobbling
chaat and strolling around on Besant Nagar beach. Truly
made me miss college and I vowed to enjoy as much I could
in the last year of my MBA.
How technology enthusiast IIFT student Ashwani

Pasricha dug farmers insights for marketing analytics
shwani Pasricha, a student of IIFT Delhi shares his

internship experiences at Mahindra & Mahindra
(Farm & equipment sector) here. Prior to joining
IIFT, Ashwani has worked with Tata Consultancy as a Software Engineer for about 2.5 years. A technology enthusiast,
Ashwani who aims at implementing technologies of big data,
cloud computing, got an opportunity to explore market for
product category that is mostly targeted to farmers. In this
interview he describes his exciting field experiences during
his project execution and also shares how he was touched by
friendliness and Atithi Devo Bhav attitude of farmers while
interacting with them.
Careers360: Where did you do your summer internship and what was the size of the company?
Ashwani Pasricha: I did my summer internship in
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Mahindra & Mahindra (Farm & equipment sector), which is

a $16 billion conglomerate with the presence in sector ranging from farm equipment to the Aerospace industry. I did my
internship in Mahindra tractor division for Mahindra Swaraj
in UP west area.

project?
Ashwani Pasricha: I worked for Mahindra Swaraj division in UP west area, primarily Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.
My project was to analyze factors that affect the sale of tractor in this area and then to formulate strategy to re-establish
Swaraj brand in those areas. The whole project was divided
into 3 parts, including a market visit to Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and analysis, cross verification and recommendation
based on survey data.
Initially, a week was devoted to questionnaire design, test

runs and analysis of the data collected to reduce the gap
between actual and expected outcome.

Ashwani Pasricha: After the acquisition of Swaraj trac-
tor from Punjab tractor limited, Mahindra kept it as a

separate brand from Mahindra & Mahindra tractors. Swaraj
has a stronghold in Punjab and M&M in other regions. My
project was to study the market dynamics in UP west area to
re-establish Swaraj as a brand.
After initial briefing and guidance by marketing teams in
that region, I was expected to go to Meerut and Muzaffarnagar and do perception analysis of the decision makers i.e.
dealers, mechanics and farmers. Based on this survey, I had
to find factors that affected the sales of tractors. Later, with
the help of marketing team, we chalked out a strategy to reestablish Swaraj brand keeping in mind the factors.
Careers360: How did you execute the project of Mahi-
ndra Swaraj in the allocated division?

Ashwani Pasricha: The project began with the analysis
of tractor markets at macro level and then specific to the
target area. Extensive efforts were put on questionnaire
design, test run on Mahindra Swarajs salespersons and the
results were discussed with marketing team to reduce the gap
between actual and expected outcome.
After a 4 week stint of market research in the target area,
i.e. Meerut and Muzaffarnagar,analysis was done on the
collected data. Based on the discussion, feedback from the
marketing team and surveyed data, I started working on the
strategy for the overall objective. Two different reports were
presented to the management, one based on the industry
analysis and macro-level factors and other based on the
actual surveyed data and micro-level factors.
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Ashwani Pasricha: Since my task required a survey
of dealers, mechanics, and farmers, i.e. decision makers of
tractor sales, finding farmers in Kharif season in a market
like Meerut, where the main cultivated crop is Sugarcane
and Rice (Both Kharif crops), was very difficult as most of
the farmers were in their field sowing the crops. Though,
it contained some extra efforts to complete surveys in this
style, friendliness and Atithi Devo Bhav attitude of farmers
scored above everything.
Careers360: What were your key learnings while
doing the project and overall learning after completion

of your internship?
Ashwani Pasricha: One of the major learning from this
internship was understanding the requirements and perception of people. Theyre not much interested in traditional
models like Porters five forces or BCG matrix. The only
concerns are the survey findings, data analysis, customers
conversations and insights.
Also, though extensive research and test runs were conducted along with questionnaire designing, actual learning
was done on the field. The main focus was first on questionnaire design and then on analysis of the gathered data. Before
analysis, there was a proof reading session of the gathered
data by comparing it with the historical data and then moving
forward to the analysis.

Ashwani Pasricha: My mentor had rich experience
in Farm & Equipment sector since he was working in this
field for the last 20 years. As the project was very crucial, he
shared his insights, experience and expected great results
from me.
Because of the peak Kharif season, there were days when

the number of responses gathered was below expectation,
but my mentor motivated me, gave me quick tips and helped
me in achieving my targets.
employees during your internship period?

Ashwani Pasricha: The whole marketing team, involved
in this project were always available on-call. To get proper
insights, I also analysed the strategy of other areas where
Mahindra Swaraj is already established. For that, it was
required to talk to the marketing team of other areas who
were corporative and shared their insights, data and various
reports of their area. In my entire internship period there was
not a moment when I wanted a support and was not given.
19
How Soochna Sahu learned the importance of

collaborations during her Internship at Godrej & Boyce
n ex engineer with Tata Consultancy Services, Soochna Sahu who is currently pursuing her PGDM at
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai campus, underwent her summer training at Godrej & Boyce in
the Sales division. During her internship she worked on the
project on Consumer Durable Space. Read this interview
to know how she coped up with the challenges of working in
the Sales division and learned about the importance of collaboration required across divisions.
deliverables were made clear at the beginning of the project.

Soochna Sahu: My task was to meet the secondary sales

project?
Soochna Sahu: I worked on a project in the sales &
marketing domain. The project title was: Secondary Field
Force Management in Consumer Durable Space.The project
was spread across a span of 2.5 months. The timeline of the
20
The first month was spent in developing the questionnaire

and interacting with the respondents. Next month was used
for proper tabulation and analysis of the data. In the last
15 days, final reports were made for the presentations to
the senior management. In between, I was also involved
in managerial activities related to the project, training of
respondents and a new product launch for the dealers.
force team consumer which is durables team of Godrej and

its competitors LG, Samsung and Whirlpool placed at
the shop floor. The next step was to interact, observe and
understand them in order to understand the secondary
sales force management system in Godrej. This was done
through a carefully formulated questionnaire, which covered

all the criteria of the system. The project also expected me
to identify the problem in the prevailing system so as to give
a proposal for improvement. The market research was to
be carried out in 3 different places Bhubaneswar, Kolkata
and Durgapur on 160 consumer durable customer advisors.
I studied the placement of consumer durables in a dealer
counter and customer handling by customer advisors. I also
conducted below the line (BTL) promotional activities for
Godrej durables and organized a new product launch for the
dealers.
Careers360: How did you execute the project?

Soochna Sahu: I got the opportunity to visit as many as
25 dealer counters in Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Durgapur.

I did a survey on the consumer durable customer advisors at
these counters to understand the practices and problems of
the secondary field force management system.

Soochna Sahu: Sales and market research job involves
a lot of travelling and convincing skills. A major challenge
faced during the internship was travelling to various areas
which I had never visited. Another daunting task was to persuade the customer advisors to participate in the survey and
provide accurate data.
21

internship?
Soochna Sahu: Sales works in collaboration with different departments, so did I. Working across different departments was a learning itself. I got hands on experience of
working in the sales domain of the FMCD industry and thus
know the industry in and out.
Because I had a chance to interview new hires for customer

advisor post, I found that though they were not that qualified
academically but had apt knowledge about the industry. I
also learnt the art of being patient while serving a customer.

internship days.
Soochna Sahu: A life changing moment was when I
decided to a write an article for the in-house magazine of

Godrej. The article was about a customer advice who is
physically challenged but never let that be an obstacle in his
work. An interview with him taught me a thousand lessons
for life and gave me an inspiration which was enough to work
hard to achieve my goals in life. He proved that human spirit
and endeavor can overcome any physical disability and help
achieve great heights provided the individual has determination to succeed.
How Ashwath Krishna coped with challenges of Risk

management in Finance during his summers
shwath Krishna, currently pursuing his PGDM

Financial Engineering from IFMR Chennai completed his internship from IFMR Capital into Risk
management & Analytics. During his internship, Ashwath
worked on an independent project of Credit rating framework, and learned the necessity of in-depth knowledge,
dedication and commitment required to understand the
working of Finance as whole.
He shares his project summary and learnings which he
acquired from his internship.

Ashwath Krishna: I did my internship in IFMR Capital
Finance Pvt. Ltd. - one of the niche players in the debt capital
markets. IFMR Capital, known as IFMR Caps has its head
22
office in Chennai and has an employee base of around 60.
Careers360: What project did you work on? Please
share your Project summary.

Ashwath Krishna: I worked on an independent project
of Developing an Integrated Credit Rating Framework for
different asset classes. I worked for the Risk Management
and Analytics team. The entire project spanned for a period
of 2 months.
Credit Rating Framework is an integral part of IFMR
Capitals business functions. Only on the basis of the credit
worthiness, an entity is on-boarded to do business transaction with. Once the transaction is in progress, it is essential
to measure and rate the risk associated with transaction
accordingly. Also during the business phase, it is essential to
assess the stress associated with the entity periodically and
rate the entity on a timely basis. Credit rating framework is

basically cohesion of the aforementioned evaluation tools.
This project basically deals with understanding and

analyzing the different rating/grading framework used
by IFMR Capital to analyze the credit worthiness of an
entity, and streamline the existing rating methodologies
so as to help develop an Integrated Credit Rating
Framework. This project has been carried out in five
phases:
Phase 1: Understanding the key business functions,
Risk Management Functions, Key Risk Indicators, Risk
Management Systems and Processes of IFMR Capital.
Phase 2: Understanding and analyzing the different
Grading Tools used in-house for different asset classes
(MFI, AHF, and SBL), evaluation of parameters used,
their significance, and relevance to the asset class under
consideration. Similar procedure was carried out for
Transaction Scoring Tool and Stress Metrics Tool.
Phase 3: Research on the different Internal Rating
Framework used in different Rating Agencies and
Financial Institutions. Identification of similarities and
differences in comparison with the in-house tools, their
benchmarking procedures, rating methodology and
thereby identifying additional parameters and methods
to enhance the in-house tool.
Phase 4: Evaluating the consistency of different tools with
the Underwriting Guidelines ( for all the asset classes)
and also their consistency with each other. Identified
gaps were used to enhance the tool and its consistency
with each other.
Phase 5: This is the final phase and is essentially a
consolidation of the outcomes of all previous phases.
An Integrated Framework was proposed by enhancing
the different rating tools and by bringing in consistency
across the tools making it more reliable and robust.
23

Ashwath Krishna: Getting to know in detail about the
different roles that IFMR Capital played in the debt capital
markets was in itself a challenging and interesting experience. We have had good exposure to Financial Statement
Analysis and ratios as a part of our academic curriculum. But,
the way credit evaluation has been credit out in industry was
completely different. It not just involved analysis of financials but also variegated dimensions of business ranging from
Management philosophy, strategy to information systems
and best practices.
Another challenging task that I experienced was in convincing the senior management about the changes and
enhancements which I proposed. During the brainstorming
sessions I got to know that some of the enhancements that
I proposed were viable theoretically but would not be very
efficient practically. Over all, it was an enriching experience.

internship?
Ashwath Krishna: The most important learning from
my Internship is the necessity of in-depth knowledge, dedication and commitment required to understand the working
of Finance as whole. It is not one aspect you have to learn,
rather, you must acquire knowledge in all the working areas
of finance which will take you to a long run. This insight gave
me an essence of how I should prepare myself to confront any
challenging job in the financial services line.
Overall, some of my key learnings are:
l Understanding of Risk Management Systems and processes at IFMR Capital
l Basic knowledge on Portfolio analysis for credit risk
evaluation
l Fair knowledge on credit valuation of an entity, transaction based risk scoring and stress evaluation of an entity.

Ashwath Krishna: Getting to know in detail about the
different roles that IFMR Capital played in the debt capital
markets was in itself a challenging and interesting experience. We have had good exposure to Financial Statement
Analysis and ratios as a part of our academic curriculum. But,
the way credit evaluation has been credit out in industry was
completely different. It not just involved analysis of financials but also variegated dimensions of business ranging from
Management philosophy, strategy to information systems
and best practices.

like to come back to the place for a job?
Ashwath Krishna: Even though I was working for the
Risk Management and Analytics team, the nature of my
project demanded inputs and frequent interaction with cross
functional team members. Even amidst their busy schedule,
all the members whom I approached set aside time for me
and guided me in the best possible way they could.
IFMR Capital is definitely one of the best places to work
and the learning you get here is huge. I would love to work
here full time if given an opportunity!
Another challenging task that I experienced was in convincing the senior management about the changes and
enhancements which I proposed. During the brainstorming
sessions I got to know that some of the enhancements that
I proposed were viable theoretically but would not be very
efficient practically. Over all, it was an enriching experience.
24
How Subarna Mukherjee embarks her Summer

Internship Challenges in Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd
ubarna Mukherjee, currently pursuing her MBA (IB)

from IIFT Delhi completed her Summer Internship
from Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, and learned the
requirements and strategies of Digital Marketing.
Within the short span of her summer training, Subarna
analysed the current positioning of the company and identified the market gaps. She learned about developing digital
marketing strategies, need of customer perception for mapping and importance of positioning of a company in the
market.

project?
Subarna Mukherjee: My project was Establish positioning and formulate digital marketing strategy for selected Mahindra Partners portfolio companies. The project
required me to analyse 8 companies from diverse fields.
Hence, the scope was broad and drawing a rigid timeline
was a necessity.
I divided the different stages of project execution as follows:
Read the interview to know how Sabarna tackled her summer internship challenges.
25
WEEK
ASSIGNMENT
Week 1 & 2
Ascertained the intended current positioning of the companies (analysed various consumer touchpoints and interviewed company professionals)
Week 3 & 4
Identified market gaps by understanding customer/consumer perception and established the ideal
positioning
Week 5 - 7
Formulated the digital marketing strategies for selected companies
Week 8
Review and Presentation

Subarna Mukherjee: The project began with 8 companies in varied sector comprising of logistics, processed steel,
engineering consulting, vocational training, boat manufacturing, conveyor systems, renewable energy and retail.
It began with analysing the current positioning of the
companies in these given industries. This was followed by
competitor analysis and customer perception mapping to
identify market gaps. Based on this we arrive at an ideal
positioning for these companies. In the next part we design
exclusive digital marketing strategies to communicate the
positioning effectively.
Careers360: How did you execute the project? How

much was your Stipend?
Subarna Mukherjee: I began with taking up one com-
pany at a time. To understand the current positioning I would

interact with company officials, study various consumer
touch-points both online and offline along with previous
promotional campaigns conducted.
26
In the next step I performed a market survey to understand

customer sentiments towards the given company as well as
its competitors. Once I arrive at the required positioning I
formulated digital marketing strategies to communicate the
same. The final part was to perform a feasibility check as well
as a cost benefit analysis for the proposed recommendations.
I was paid a stipend of INR 60,000 per month. Any other
expenses incurred during the course of the project was reimbursed by the firm.

Subarna Mukherjee: My project involved interacting
with the leading teams of these companies at various points
to recognise the problem areas in order to formulate a positioning. I also intended to discuss my recommendations with
the concerned companies from time to time to provide them
with most desirable solutions. Owing to their busy schedules,
finding opportunities to interact with them seemed difficult
in the beginning. I overcame this challenge by planning
ahead and conducting frequent follow ups.

Subarna Mukherjee: I relied on my academic mentor to
guide me through the project at every step. Be it explaining
the various models I could use for measuring brand equity,
sending links for relevant reading material or fine tuning my
final presentation at every level, my mentor from my institute
did it all. We connected via mail or over telephone.
27

Subarna Mukherjee: I was in cordial terms with the
employees of the organization. Along with my mentor and
assigned seniors, various other employees came forward to
help and guide me in various matters. Yes, definitely, I would
like to go back to the place for a job.
How Pratik Raut explored market research strategies

during his Summer Internship
ratik Raut, student of Marketing at SIMSREE, completed his Summer Internship from BASF where he
worked extensively for a chemical intermediate-THF
and explored market research strategies for the product.
An ex System Engineer from Infosys, Pratik, during his
internship understood the value chain of the organization.
He further shares the significance of mapping the research
for a project to generate relevant data.
Read here to know about the overall Internship Experience
Careers360: Where did you do your summer intern-
ship from? What was the size of the company?

Pratik Raut: I did my summer internship at BASF India.
BASF is the worlds leading chemical company, which has
more than 112,000 employees worldwide. The company has
its customers in more than 200 countries.
28
Careers360: What project you worked on and what

project?
Pratik Raut: I worked on a project that involved market
study of recycling of a chemical Intermediate Tetrahydrofuran (THF). BASF is the worlds leading manufacturer for
THF. The project duration was 2 months. The first week
involved desktop research and getting acquainted with the
chemical Intermediate THF, studying its market and applications. The next 6 weeks involved field visits to all the major
buyers of the chemical. The third stage involved extraction of
various insights from the data gathered and making a project
report. The final stage involved a presentation to the company officials and presenting the findings of the study to them.
Careers360: Please summarise your project

Pratik Raut: THF is one of the most widely used chemical
intermediates worldwide. Many companies use fresh THF in

chemical reactions and then recycle it from the leftover waste
solvent once the process is over. The project involved finding
the total amount of THF that is recovered by the recycling
process per year in the Indian Market, the total capacity of
recyclers in India, the main reasons due to which companies
recover THF, the applications of this recovered THF and the
future trends of recovering the THF in India.
2.
A proper follow up through mail and phone calls is

an essential requirement in the success of any project
involving market study.
3.
Understanding the value chain of the organization and

analyzing how your project fits into this value chain is
very important.
4.
While carrying out a primary or secondary research,

research should always be mapped to the project deliverables. Finding relevant data should be the focus.
Careers360: How did you execute the project?

Pratik Raut: The first week involved getting acquainted
In the next 6 weeks, I interviewed all the shortlisted

THF customers in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gujarat and
Bangalore. I also interviewed the major THF third-party
recyclers in Mumbai.
with the value chain of BASF and the chemical intermediate

THF. I interacted a lot with BASF employees who patiently
answered all my naive doubts. I made a project plan and
shortlisted all the major THF customers that would be targeted for this study.
The last week was dedicated to insight generation and

research data accuracy testing, using various methods. I created a report of the findings and presented the same to the
company officials on the last day of my internship.
Careers360: Tell us about your key learnings while
doing the project. What was your overall learning after

the completion of the internship?
Pratik Raut: I understood and explored various market
research strategies in the course of this project. Some of the
key learnings of this project were:
1. For the success of a project, a proper execution plan has
to be in place. This serves as a sounding board to check if
the project execution is in process as expected.
29

Pratik Raut: The faculty at SIMSREE is extremely helpful. My mentor, Dr. R. K. Srivastava helped me in prepare a
questionnaire so as to get the best outcome from my field
visits and helped me strategize my field visits. He also helped
me to extract useful insights from the data gathered for the
survey.

Pratik Raut: BASF is a great place to work for. I found all
the employees very amicable and cooperative. They went out
of their ways to offer help whenever required. There are a lot
of employee engagement programs that are conducted often
at BASF. The work environment is very lively.
I would definitely like to come back and work for BASF in
future.
How Richa Mehra impressed Britannia with her

disruptive idea during her summers?
icha Mehra, an ex- engineer from Infosys Limited

is presently pursuing her Majors in Marketing from
TAPMI Manipal. During her 8 week long internship,
Richa designed a strict consumer driven FGDs (Focussed
Group Discussion) which helped her tackle the key challenge
of converting ideas into working strategies.
Read the interview to know the Internship Experience:

internship from?
Richa Mehra: I did my summer internship project in
Britannia Industries Limited. It is one amongst the market

leaders in the biscuits and food products segment with Tiger
as its flagship brand. The company has two broad divisions
which cater to the needs of each segment of the consumer, 1.
Bakery products 2. Dairy products.
30

project?
Richa Mehra: The title of my project was DEVISE
A DISRUPTIVE STRATEGY FOR TIGER CREAMS.
The project was divided into 2 phases during my 8 weeks
of internship. Phase One was Consumer In sighting while
Phase Two was concept testing. Both the phases was completed on time and as per the schedule, resulted in the successful completion of my Internship.

Richa Mehra: The aim of the project was to device a
disruption strategy for Tiger Creams for one market to stay
viable and competitive in the value cream biscuit segment.
Careers360: How did you execute the project? Did you

have any Stipend?
Richa Mehra: To design the disruptive strategies for
Tiger Creams the first step was to understand the brand
Tiger, what it stood for and what was its target segment.
Thereafter, FGDs were conducted to understand the consumer perspective, their consumption pattern, consumption
occasions, purchase patterns and pocket money analysis
of kids. The key learnings of these FGDs were then tested
with the consumers as concepts and rankings were taken to
understand the relevance and importance of concepts and
purchase intentions of the consumers.
internship supported you to execute the project?

Richa Mehra: My corporate mentor guided me through
the various phases of the projects to have a better understanding of the brand, its market and the present scenario
along with the necessary and suitable steps ahead. He provided me with some great learning opportunities and helped
me explore the current industry trends and practices.

Richa Mehra: My academic mentor helped me define
my problem in a precise way and helped me to get started
with the project. He supported me to connect the practical
31
problems with the concepts of the marketing sessions and

how to apply them for our and companies best use. He
constantly guided me throughout the journey of my project.

Richa Mehra: Working in Britannia was an amazing
experience. It bought me a wealth of practical knowledge
and experience that will help me in future. The superiors at
Britannia were very encouraging and supported learnings
at every step. If giving a chance, I would love to come back to
Britannia for my job.

internship days.
Richa Mehra: The most memorable experience of my

internship was the interaction with my colleagues at Britannia. The chance to know them and learn from them was a
great opportunity and experience in itself. Apart from that,
meeting fellow interns from different colleges around the
country was too fun and interesting. Getting to know them,
their projects and how they worked on them was a good
experience.
!!Careers360 Wishes You All the Best for Your Internships
Work hard and Stay tuned to bschool.careers360.com !!

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CAREERS360

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

Internship in Risk Management and Audit Framework

Internship with Start-up

Internship with I.T Systems

Internship in Banking Sector

Internship as Market Analyst

Internship in Consumer Durable Space

Internship in Finance division

Internship in Digital Marketing

Internship as Market Researcher

Links for MBA internship E-book

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

n our quest to bring all the information and student experiences

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

How Kamal Tej Tallam acquired knowledge in Risk

n this special series of MBA Internship Experience,

Careers360: Where did you complete your summer

internship from? What was the size of the company?

Careers360: Please share your project summary.

CAREER IN REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION

Careers360: Were there any key challenges that you

Careers360: How did your corporate mentor at

faced while doing your internship?

internship help you execute the project?

Careers360: Share a memorable incident from your

Careers360: What were your key learnings while

doing the project and overall learning after completion

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

How Jayesh Surisetti captured vision of an organization

ayesh Surisetti from IIM Raipur PGP batch of 2016

Careers360: Where did you complete your summer

internship from? What was the size of the company?

Jayesh shares his internship experience in this Careers360

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

Careers360: What project did you work on? What

was the timeline for execution of different stages of the

development at NTPC. Using the responses, improvements

Careers360: How did you execute your project?

Spread over a period of nine weeks, both these projects

faced while doing your internship?

Careers360: Please share a project summary.

Careers360: What were the key challenges that you

Another challenge was to work through the bureaucratic

Careers360: What was your key learnings while doing

the project and overall learning after completion of your

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

overall. Throughout the internship, by way of email and

Careers360: While doing your internship, how were

ment study, I was to interview one of the Directors of NTPC,

you connected with your academic mentor at your institute?

Careers360: Share a memorable incident from your

Jayesh Surisetti: As a part of the Leadership Develop-

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

How Abhineet Mittal executed key projects at a start-up

bhineet Mittal, during his internship with WeMark

He shares his role while executing two projects- Digital

Careers360: Where did you complete your internship

from? What was the size of the company?

has a cost effective, scalable and innovative business model,

Careers360: What project did you work on? What was

B-SCHOOL MBA INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

Careers360: Please share a project summary.

digital marketing and business process improvement. In