Internships in SIES

Introduction

Just like a typical B-school, SIES COMS ensures that all its students get internships in reputed organizations at good profiles, across various sectors. The placement committee works tirelessly to bring as many recruiters as possible on board for the summer internship process (SIP) and assures that maximum students are being placed as soon as possible. The SIP usually begins in September and goes until March. Every student pursuing a full-time MMS and PGDM degree must undertake an internship offer, which usually goes on for two months during May and June when the college has its annual summer vacation time. Some internships may last for about three months too, depending upon the sole discretion of the particular company. While the summer internship is mandatory for every student, one can even opt for a winter internship, which is optional. Students have an option to search for internship opportunities on their own as well if required. The alumni network is also leveraged by the college as and when required. Traditionally, the internship opportunities have been based in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and across India as well.

Internship Process

Most of the recruiters at SIES, more or less follow a similar interview template for the final shortlisting of the students during the internship process. Before the SIP of a company commences, there may be a Pre-Placement Talk (PPT) conducted by the company itself, wherein students get a chance to directly interact with the recruiters and resolve some internship-related queries. A SIP may comprise multiple rounds such as an initial shortlisting based on CV, Aptitude test, Psychometric test, group discussion, and personal interviews. In addition to the aforementioned rounds, companies may conduct their own ways of assessing and shortlisting students too. Depending on the number of rounds as well as the students applied, the duration of a typical SIP ranges from a couple of hours to over an entire day. Predominantly known for its good marketing placements, one can easily expect more internship offers in the Marketing domain as compared to the others like Finance, HR etc. in SIES COMS.  

Statistics

When compared to the executive placements, SIES COMS witnesses a higher number of start-ups than the larger recruiters from various sectors. Owing to the pandemic, students of the 2021-23 academic batch received more work-from-home (WFH) based offers than the traditional office-based ones. In the MMS batch of 2020-22, students bagged internships across various organizations such as GEP, Aditya Birla Capital, Sterling Bharat Petroleum, Outlook Group, L&T InfoTech, Glenmark, Blue Dart, and Reliance Retail to name a few. Students have received stipends over a range of zero to INR 50,000 per month. The average stipend for the 2021-22 internship season for the PGDM course has been about INR 15,000. Over 70 companies participated in the SIP of SIES for the academic year 2021-22. The college has also published a comprehensive list of the internship projects received by the students pursuing MMS in the 2020-22 batch on its official website.  

To conclude, SIES COMS strives to place all its students in good companies across various domains every year. Students should make the best use of an internship opportunity and try to convert it into a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) if possible, to avoid the stiff competition during the executive placements later. Since a majority of the companies coming for internships are either mid-size or start-ups, students have a very good chance of working in an ever-dynamic environment and perceive if they are a good fit for that particular sector and/or job profile. Working with an open and flexible mind while simultaneously grabbing whatever learnings are available to their full potential is the key to curate a good internship experience.

About the author: 

"I am Abhishek Desai, and I'm an Welingkar alumnus of the 2018-2020 batch. I take keen interests in writing, reading, trekking, outdoor sports, and listening to music." 

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha