Students’ Speak: Internship offers, industry exposure and knowledge on how companies function

By: Athira Anand

Internship provides industry exposure and knowledge about various functional areas within a company. Athira Anand shares her internship experience and delves on how a good internship can become a foundation for a solid career.

Summer internship is a mandatory three-credit course right after 3^rd trimester in Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management. Students during their first two trimesters have to choose a domain. The course electives are classified under sectoral and functional areas and a student has to select a sector where they wish to weave a career in. The sectors are namely real estate, transport and energy. Functional areas being finance, policy and strategy. During the first two trimesters, students can choose any of these sectors and functions where they wish to get into.

Adani group provides internship across different business verticals wherein students ought to take a personal interview and work for two months in office. Students can also apply for off-campus internships in companies that do not approach college for students. Most of the students do their internships on the basis of referrals or by applying on their own. The projects on which students work depend on their interest in different sectors. I interned in the real estate sector with L&T Realty. It was basically regarding the construction of high-rise buildings in heart of the city in Bengaluru. My friends also interned for different projects such as green energy, supply chain, HR, etc. There is usually a wide range of projects available and many companies come to my college to hire interns.

The benefits of doing internship are, primarily, industry exposure and knowledge on how a company works. Other benefits include working in a team that helps you become a team player, helps in documentation, understanding reports and contracts, getting to know various aspects of the project & dealing with meetings, making presentations and working with top-notch officials, etc. The internship also taught me different learnings that I wouldn't have gained otherwise, some of them being mentioned above. A good internship also means that the student might get a "pre-placement offer” which is nothing but getting hired before the end of the college session because of the exceptional work done in the company. The officials have a liking towards you and they will like you to stay in the company further. In my college, one student is almost certain about an offer the company has made to him.

In order to increase learning in different sectors, off-campus activities such as workshops and seminars, conferences, etc. are great. They also help to increase the basic understanding on certain topics which in turn will help to crack an interview. Adani institute also organizes workshops and sessions where experts come from different industries to enrich students with their experience and learnings. We have very recently had an HR conclave where the best people in the industry came together to share their views on "HRs of tomorrow" topic. These seminars and workshops have helped me through my internship and I have successfully completed it recently with a good score and positive feedback from both people I worked with and my faculty members.

About the Author:

Athira Anand is a student of Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management and is currently pursuing PGDM in Infrastructure Management. She is a civil engineer forged by learnings in infrastructure and is keen to build a career in the consulting domain. She is very passionate about exploring more in Techno-Commercial sector.