Students’ Speak: Your internship performance can land you a pre-placement offer

Internship is a kickstart to an MBA student’s professional life. Students generally begin an internship in their first year itself, preparing themselves for the placements that will happen in the second year. Bisharah Saeed of Rajagiri Business School shares why an internship is important, the kind of projects one could take up and his own personal experience.

Q: Is there any internship required in your course?

A: Yes, an internship is required in our course. It is most commonly referred to as a summer internship and is done when you complete your first year at Rajagiri. You are free to apply for internships through the companies that visit the college or find them on your own outside the campus. If you intend to find internships on your own, then you have to make sure that the company that you have chosen fulfills the conditions laid down by the college. The internship is done for a period of two months and no classes will be scheduled for the two months. The location of the internship can depend on the company in which you will go for your internship. Students can also apply to a company according to the domain of their choice. Sometimes, students also get the opportunity to go abroad as part of their internship process. It is also to be noted that not all internships offer students stipends or accommodation facilities. It is up to the students to find accommodation facilities on their own.

Q: What projects are undertaken during the internship or otherwise to benefit placements?

A: Projects undertaken during the internship can vary depending on the type of internship and the domain chosen. For example, in the case of marketing, students may have to increase the sales in various stores by visiting them. Deadlines will also be given by some companies. In the case of HR, students may have to deal with scheduling and sourcing of candidates in the HR department but as I said earlier, this can vary depending on the organisation. However, except for one or two organisations, students will have to do a profile-centric and problem-centric study on the organisation.

The college organises some programmes for improving the skills of students in GD and PI. Also, some companies may offer students pre-placement offers so that the students get opportunities to work in the same company after the internship. Of course, this will be based on the performance of a student.

Q: Is there any off-campus placement activity?

A: Yes, there are off-campus placement activities for some companies. But I would like to point out that these opportunities are really hard to get as students from all over India or Kerala might participate in it. So, unless you are really sure about it, don’t simply participate in it and waste your time. Also, when you plan to go for such drives, keep an eye on the CTC and job description and decide for yourself to see if it is really worthy or not.

Q: Share your internship experience.

A: The domain in which I did my internship was HR. The activities that are undertaken in HR area are already mentioned above. One thing that I would like to remind everyone is that in Rajagiri Business School, the chances of you getting an internship in the domain in which you are interested are 50/50. Sometimes, a student may have to undertake an internship in which they are not interested. It all depends on which company you are being selected by. Also, sometimes you may not have any work at all in the company that you are chosen for. Also, sometimes you may end up doing some work that is completely unrelated to your internship. In short, everything depends on the company that you work for during your internship.

About the Author:

Bisharah Saeed is a second-year Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) student at Rajagiri Business School. He has a Bachelor's degree in Automobile Engineering. Bisharah has over 10 months of work experience at Amazon.