Internship!!! Those 2 months of MBA when you think you will get a break from the hectic college schedule, you will get to party and will also earn for that. But for me, soon that dream castle was shattered when I was given the daunting field work in AMUL in the month of April and June with sun chasing you through out the day.
It started on 9th April in the A/C conference hall where I was given my project and for next few days was traveling with my mentor to meet the various distributors but the actual work started the next week when I was made to roam the roads of Pune all by myself meeting clients after clients, thankfully my project was concerned with the corporate clients. At that point of time, my head was banging with the thoughts which were there in my mind when AMUL visited my campus; “I already have sales experience in IT Company lets have some experience in FMCG sector too”.
With each passing day the hot shot marketing job dream of high profile meeting started diminishing and I started realizing the truth of a SALES job (“Rocket Singh”, the movie, was not just a story at all).
‘The’ Job[/b]
After early hiccups I was finally on to the work and was assigned to meet the various purchase managers and distributors where I was supposed to gather some information which could be useful to the company (At least that’s what I thought). Thinking that information gathered by me will be crucial for the decision making in future I started working and when my reporting manager received my interim report he was like “Very well done, keep doing the good work[/b]”.
“Marketing or No Marketing”[/b]
Working with a company like Amul makes one believe that he/she will be doing a top marketing job, meeting the top of the pyramid clients but while working I realized that internship was that time of MBA where it is best to learn “the tricks of the trade”. Knowing how the sales force work helps a manager to take tactical decisions and implement them, this is where meeting the distributors and clients helped me to grasp the know-how of the Dairy industry and not just Amul.
Few Extra Miles[/b]
Being motivated I completed my 2 months of assignment in 5 weeks and this resulted in me getting another one (actually I asked for that). This project was same as the previous one just the client base (earlier it was STAR hotels and now the busiest restaurants in and around Pune) was different so completed the project in 3 remaining weeks and I realized that finally I was able to achieve my prime goal of interning with Amul, which was to learn a about the retail network for a FMCG company.
Although I was not paid even a penny (company policy) the words of appreciation from my company mentor, college mentor and reporting manager were precious enough to give me a sense of pride that I did achieve what I wanted. [/b]
Conclusion[/b]
[/b]
When a professor says “Class, I am not talking bullshit, so listen to me carefully”, he/she is right. All the management concepts have got practical application in the field.
I had always thought that being experienced in IT sales I will easily do the sales work here too but with these two months behind me I realized that its something new we learn each day and for MBA students internship is the best time to get the practical knowledge of the concepts we learn in the first year.
It started on 9th April in the A/C conference hall where I was given my project and for next few days was traveling with my mentor to meet the various distributors but the actual work started the next week when I was made to roam the roads of Pune all by myself meeting clients after clients, thankfully my project was concerned with the corporate clients. At that point of time, my head was banging with the thoughts which were there in my mind when AMUL visited my campus; “I already have sales experience in IT Company lets have some experience in FMCG sector too”.
With each passing day the hot shot marketing job dream of high profile meeting started diminishing and I started realizing the truth of a SALES job (“Rocket Singh”, the movie, was not just a story at all).
‘The’ Job[/b]
After early hiccups I was finally on to the work and was assigned to meet the various purchase managers and distributors where I was supposed to gather some information which could be useful to the company (At least that’s what I thought). Thinking that information gathered by me will be crucial for the decision making in future I started working and when my reporting manager received my interim report he was like “Very well done, keep doing the good work[/b]”.
“Marketing or No Marketing”[/b]
Working with a company like Amul makes one believe that he/she will be doing a top marketing job, meeting the top of the pyramid clients but while working I realized that internship was that time of MBA where it is best to learn “the tricks of the trade”. Knowing how the sales force work helps a manager to take tactical decisions and implement them, this is where meeting the distributors and clients helped me to grasp the know-how of the Dairy industry and not just Amul.
Few Extra Miles[/b]
Being motivated I completed my 2 months of assignment in 5 weeks and this resulted in me getting another one (actually I asked for that). This project was same as the previous one just the client base (earlier it was STAR hotels and now the busiest restaurants in and around Pune) was different so completed the project in 3 remaining weeks and I realized that finally I was able to achieve my prime goal of interning with Amul, which was to learn a about the retail network for a FMCG company.
Although I was not paid even a penny (company policy) the words of appreciation from my company mentor, college mentor and reporting manager were precious enough to give me a sense of pride that I did achieve what I wanted. [/b]
Conclusion[/b]
[/b]
When a professor says “Class, I am not talking bullshit, so listen to me carefully”, he/she is right. All the management concepts have got practical application in the field.
I had always thought that being experienced in IT sales I will easily do the sales work here too but with these two months behind me I realized that its something new we learn each day and for MBA students internship is the best time to get the practical knowledge of the concepts we learn in the first year.
