I was extremely excited when I was told by my friend, who is a proud placecommer that I have been selected to intern with Ramco Systems Ltd. That excitement turned into apprehension in a jiffy when I was told to pack my bags and head down south to Chennai, Tamil Nadu. My mom, having studied for a couple of years in Chennai speaks fluent Tamil, convinced me that Chennai would treat me well. Little I knew what was to follow in the next few weeks!
I am a student of Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSoM), IIT, Kharagpur. Being an IITian has its share of advantages! Apart from updating your facebook profile to studying at IIT, Kharagpur (Sample this. I had 150 likes for that status! Hell, even from my teacher who chucked me out every alternate class), we have the right to stay at all the other IITs in India. I had a room booked for myself in the IIT Madras, Chennai campus along with a few other guys from my college who were interning at Chennai as well, with other companies.
I hit the Chennai airport from Chandigarh at 8pm and with the little Tamil I had learnt from mom, I negotiated with a cab driver and pretended to be a Rajanikant fan (As lame as that may sound, it does WORK!). The IIT Madras campus welcomed me with a slight drizzle and a cool breeze as I spotted deer and monkeys! Amazing campus I must say!
Ramco Systems Ltd. is a cloud computing solutions provider and is keen on expanding into the Middle East and North African (MENA) regions. I was supposed to draft a logical categorization of Partners in the cloud computing domain and subsequently, categorize Ramco's existing and prospective Partners like Microsoft, Apple etc. After meeting with the HRs of Ramco and completing a few formalities, I along with a few other interns from top colleges were told to head to the meeting room for a session from the head HR followed by a briefing from the Global Marketing Services Head. As the six of us, one Chennai girl from the US and three guys from SJSoM, IIT Bombay along with two of us from VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur, thought the long (really long!) first day at work was over, we were told that the new CEO, Mr.Aggrawal wants to have a chat with us. The CEO was quite friendly and that kept us in good stead for the next two months.
I was a part of the Global Marketing Services (GMS) Team working on the top floor of the building. Since the systems were not allocated to us, we were asked to be seated in the Library. Right from my schooling days, libraries really haven't excited me! And am guessing the librarian there knew about it! There is something about these librarians I tell you! The Librarian was irritated at the sight of us being seated there. We tried hanging out in the HR room, but since we were done with the formalities there, there weren't ready to shelter us either! This is when the eerie feeling of being unwanted set in!
Summer Intern-The most unwanted person in an organization. True that!
The first week ended on a high note when we were finally allotted systems in our cubicles on the top floor along with the GMS team. We were stunned when we were told that the systems were allotted to us in a week not because we were IITians but because we were caught playing games in the library desktop! Like I told you, there is something about these librarians! Anyways, we were introduced to the GMS team and they welcomed us with a warm smile. Each of us was assigned mentors and our roles were clearly defined. We started working on our assignments right from the next day.
Wasn't all smooth sailing after that!
Having worked at Infosys Ltd. for a couple of years, coffee has become an integral part of work-life culture. The filter coffee in the pantry was something I got addicted to very early into my internship. In fact, the coffee guy too had a problem with us coming down to the pantry, thrice a day! Hey, we are affable guys okay? Trust me! Only the Librarian & the coffee guy were cross with our group. Apart from these guys, the complete male community had a problem with us; which brings me to the girl who is basically from Chennai and has completed her post-grad from the States. Needless to say she was pretty and hung out with us; hence the hatred from the male community! Anyways, the hatred from the male community hardy maters; if anything, it makes you feel better - typical male psychology.
Any write-up on Chennai would be incomplete without the mention of the soaring temperatures down there! Having done my schooling in Delhi, am used to temperatures hovering around 50 degrees; but this was something else! I am not the kind of person who cribs a lot; nonetheless, the Chennai heat is just intolerable. In fact, sometime in the noon when the power went off in our non-AC IIT hostel room; my friend said he saw the "white light" - an exaggeration ofcourse! Well, atleast I hoped so.
My mentor at Ramco kept me busy with work. He was an IIM-L pass out and had a very good understanding of the markets pertaining to the cloud computing segment. We all were assigned work in the morning and had to provide updates at the end of the day. Having not worked for a year somehow makes you work better; well, atleast for a couple of months, as me and my friends discovered. That felling of being unwanted slowly and steadily went away as more work was thrust upon us. The weekly parties and hang-outs along with the cake cuttings was a pleasure I would treasure all my life. The GMS team was indeed cooperative and helpful in every possible way and I would like to express my gratitude to them.
In hindsight, Chennai isn't all that bad a place and summer interns are not "unwanted" species! The beaches, the food (Hotel Saravana Bhavan-Dosas are God's food here), the malls and more importantly-IIT Madras are simply amazing and I hope to visit Chennai again in future. As far as my role as an intern goes, I guess reading blogs and stuff makes you really prejudiced. It's up to an individual to maximize his/her potential in an industry! Not vice-versa!
Thank you Ramco Systems Ltd. Thank you Chennai.
I am a student of Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSoM), IIT, Kharagpur. Being an IITian has its share of advantages! Apart from updating your facebook profile to studying at IIT, Kharagpur (Sample this. I had 150 likes for that status! Hell, even from my teacher who chucked me out every alternate class), we have the right to stay at all the other IITs in India. I had a room booked for myself in the IIT Madras, Chennai campus along with a few other guys from my college who were interning at Chennai as well, with other companies.
I hit the Chennai airport from Chandigarh at 8pm and with the little Tamil I had learnt from mom, I negotiated with a cab driver and pretended to be a Rajanikant fan (As lame as that may sound, it does WORK!). The IIT Madras campus welcomed me with a slight drizzle and a cool breeze as I spotted deer and monkeys! Amazing campus I must say!
Ramco Systems Ltd. is a cloud computing solutions provider and is keen on expanding into the Middle East and North African (MENA) regions. I was supposed to draft a logical categorization of Partners in the cloud computing domain and subsequently, categorize Ramco's existing and prospective Partners like Microsoft, Apple etc. After meeting with the HRs of Ramco and completing a few formalities, I along with a few other interns from top colleges were told to head to the meeting room for a session from the head HR followed by a briefing from the Global Marketing Services Head. As the six of us, one Chennai girl from the US and three guys from SJSoM, IIT Bombay along with two of us from VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur, thought the long (really long!) first day at work was over, we were told that the new CEO, Mr.Aggrawal wants to have a chat with us. The CEO was quite friendly and that kept us in good stead for the next two months.
I was a part of the Global Marketing Services (GMS) Team working on the top floor of the building. Since the systems were not allocated to us, we were asked to be seated in the Library. Right from my schooling days, libraries really haven't excited me! And am guessing the librarian there knew about it! There is something about these librarians I tell you! The Librarian was irritated at the sight of us being seated there. We tried hanging out in the HR room, but since we were done with the formalities there, there weren't ready to shelter us either! This is when the eerie feeling of being unwanted set in!
Summer Intern-The most unwanted person in an organization. True that!
The first week ended on a high note when we were finally allotted systems in our cubicles on the top floor along with the GMS team. We were stunned when we were told that the systems were allotted to us in a week not because we were IITians but because we were caught playing games in the library desktop! Like I told you, there is something about these librarians! Anyways, we were introduced to the GMS team and they welcomed us with a warm smile. Each of us was assigned mentors and our roles were clearly defined. We started working on our assignments right from the next day.
Wasn't all smooth sailing after that!
Having worked at Infosys Ltd. for a couple of years, coffee has become an integral part of work-life culture. The filter coffee in the pantry was something I got addicted to very early into my internship. In fact, the coffee guy too had a problem with us coming down to the pantry, thrice a day! Hey, we are affable guys okay? Trust me! Only the Librarian & the coffee guy were cross with our group. Apart from these guys, the complete male community had a problem with us; which brings me to the girl who is basically from Chennai and has completed her post-grad from the States. Needless to say she was pretty and hung out with us; hence the hatred from the male community! Anyways, the hatred from the male community hardy maters; if anything, it makes you feel better - typical male psychology.
Any write-up on Chennai would be incomplete without the mention of the soaring temperatures down there! Having done my schooling in Delhi, am used to temperatures hovering around 50 degrees; but this was something else! I am not the kind of person who cribs a lot; nonetheless, the Chennai heat is just intolerable. In fact, sometime in the noon when the power went off in our non-AC IIT hostel room; my friend said he saw the "white light" - an exaggeration ofcourse! Well, atleast I hoped so.
My mentor at Ramco kept me busy with work. He was an IIM-L pass out and had a very good understanding of the markets pertaining to the cloud computing segment. We all were assigned work in the morning and had to provide updates at the end of the day. Having not worked for a year somehow makes you work better; well, atleast for a couple of months, as me and my friends discovered. That felling of being unwanted slowly and steadily went away as more work was thrust upon us. The weekly parties and hang-outs along with the cake cuttings was a pleasure I would treasure all my life. The GMS team was indeed cooperative and helpful in every possible way and I would like to express my gratitude to them.
In hindsight, Chennai isn't all that bad a place and summer interns are not "unwanted" species! The beaches, the food (Hotel Saravana Bhavan-Dosas are God's food here), the malls and more importantly-IIT Madras are simply amazing and I hope to visit Chennai again in future. As far as my role as an intern goes, I guess reading blogs and stuff makes you really prejudiced. It's up to an individual to maximize his/her potential in an industry! Not vice-versa!
Thank you Ramco Systems Ltd. Thank you Chennai.