Students’ Speak: Project finished during internship is crucial for the final placements

By: Nimisha

IMI Bhubaneswar puts a lot of emphasis on the two-month internship and the project undertaken by the students during the course of the internship. Nimisha Sharma shares insights on the importance of internship and the project during the final campus placement drives.

With an aim to match the world-class curriculum of premier B-schools, International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar also gives students exposure into the corporate world by providing two months internship in the months of April-May.

It is compulsory for all the students to complete a two-month internship for which companies usually visit the campus during the months of September-November. Most of the companies offer different roles, responsibilities and stipend offers. All the students are required to take part in the Summer Internship Placement Process just like Final Placements. Companies from different domains visit our campus such as Naukri.Com, Dabur, Union Bank, Zee Entertainment, ACC Limited, Outlook, Networkers Home, etc.

During the internship, it is mandatory for every student to take up a Project. This ‘Project’ acts as a three-credit course in our curriculum. The project has a lot of weightage and importance in the final course assessment. Post completion of the internship, students require to submit the project along with the presentation. The project should comprise a proper objective and market research for the same. To successfully complete the project, you need to have a proper understanding of the organization you have worked in, problems pertaining to that organization, research related to those problems solutions and recommendation to the organization (if any). Different tools and techniques of SPSS, R language, Excel or Data Miner are usually involved in the project. Every student is allotted a guide from the faculty.

The project plays a very crucial role during companies’ visit in the Final Placements session. Many times, the whole interview revolves around the project accomplished during the internship by the student. Every company while going through the resume keenly scrutinizes the kind of project done by the candidate. Thus, it is very important that the project should be your strength during the placement drives.

Various subjects such as Marketing Research, Business Analytics, and Research Methodology are taught in the 3^rd semester, just before the internship. The primary reason behind this is that students can apply all the classroom learnings during the course of their internship.

Some sample topics of the projects are:

1. Satisfaction Level of employees at Reliance (HR)
2. Fluctuating share prices and its future trends at Vodafone Idea (Finance)
3. Understanding Consumer Behaviour towards Banking Products and Services at Rural Areas (Marketing) 

Students according to their specialization chose their topic so that it can help them during the Final Placements.

In order to prepare students for Summer Internship, inside campus activities and drills include practice for Group Discussion, CV drafting, mock interviews and aptitude tests. The training cell filters the students based on their intellectual and communication skills. Based on the initial assessment, the cell works accordingly on the students.

Off-campus placement activities are outsourced to Career Carve. They conduct a seven-day workshop and personality development session. They conduct various activities, work towards personality development, take mock interviews, put students in real-time situations, share real industry experiences and give positive feedback to the students. These activities help students to clear GD, PI and Aptitude tests with ease.

About the Author:

Nimisha is a second-year student at IMI, Bhubaneswar. She is currently a member of the Corporate Relations team at IMI Bhubaneswar wherein she deals with campus placements. She has also presented a research paper at an international conference.