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Hello All, I hope you are doing well. All late-night thoughts of learning something new tomorrow so that you can add them to your resume, a morning full of sleep, an afternoon of procrastination and an evening of regret.
Don’t worry!! If you are in this cycle because that’s the lifestyle of almost every instizen in summers. I also went through the same.
So advice #1, get stressed only if you want anxiety.
I’ll divide my blogs into three parts, 'pre-day-1 process', 'intern selection process’ and ‘intern experience’. First of all, something about myself. I am Divyansh Natani, a forthie in Chemical Engineering :) Let’s go ahead! 🙈
Pre-Day1
Resume Guidelines:
First things first, there is no such thing as a good or bad resume. But, if you still want to bifurcate, the resume you are confident of is good, and if you are not, then it's a bad resume.
The resume process will show that resumes that you think are ‘Machau’ may get rejected, and ‘Not Machau’ may get selected. The resume is your first impression to the employer but not the only impression, and you can cover up your resume in the interview if you are confident. Take reviews from seniors, but not too much, “suno sabki karo apne man ki”.
Choosing Profile
Many profiles are available during the internship season, and you might find it overwhelming to decide which profile to choose.
Don’t worry. Start listing all the profiles and basic information about each of them, then cut away all the profiles you are not interested in. If you are confused about a particular profile, gather more information to decide whether to cut off or keep it on the list.
The next step, divide all these profiles into two columns: ‘Would love to explore’ and ‘won’t mind working there’. You may use the following parameters for division: interest, opportunities available, stipend, work hours, lifestyle, and any other thing that you feel is very important in your lifestyle.
Use your five templates carefully. Make a targeted resume considering your ‘Would love to explore’ category and keep 1-2 templates for the ‘won’t mind working there’ category.
The following section is about my interview experiences.
Before the resume submission time, I didn’t prepare much for the tests and interviews for some reason, and I regret this decision. So, advice #2, do prepare for tests (give IPTs and all) and interview(at least make an HR doc). These will help in pre-tests and interviews.
Resume Guidelines
I got a few tests, and interview-cum-test shortlists on day 1 -tech but couldn't make it to the final interviews.
Similarly, I got shortlisted for six interviews in Day1 non-tech. (Consulting - ¾, finance - ⅓, FMCG - ⅔ )
One problem with too many shortlists is that you don't get time to prepare each profile. So, if you are adapting to the 'Apply on all' strategy and are sure about shortlisting, start preparing for each field very early, as there is significantly less time available at the end.
For Day1
Consult tips:- start preparing early and try to do as many cases as possible. Try making different case groups(with friends of varying field expertise) and do at least two-three cases with them. Generally, buddy cases are said to be informal and not counted in the selection process, but it does informally make a lot of importance. So, try doing maximum cases with buddies. Do ask for improvements from them and focus and improve them.
Finance tips:- They generally prefer people with some finance background but are enthusiastic about new faces. The fact that you do not know about finance is not a problem as long as you can make them believe that you like this field and are eager to learn more. I had zero experience in finance (except that I am generally interested in financial news and columns). My interview went on Puzzles and Resumes(Projects and HR).
FMCG tips:- Day1 FMCG companies have different selection strategies and look for different types of people for these profiles. GD for ITC is a mini GD type(only two people are asked to speak at a time), while HUL is entirely online on their portal(and only you are voice answering questions displayed on the portal). ITC looks for a little technical background(but focus on 'little', I messed my interview by taking it too technical). HUL(I filled for RnD role, looks for deep chemical interest compared to on-the-surface chemical knowledge).
Apart from these, I was also involved in the Intern process at the University of Michigan, which used to come on Day 0 for ChemE students. I mainly was interested in this internship opportunity, but the procedure got delayed due to the health issues of Prof Fogler. So, I was half-heartedly giving Day-1 interviews wishing for selection in this.
After completion of Day-1, I was sure(almost) of selection in Univ intern, though results were still delayed. I didn't apply for Day-2 companies mostly because I was tired of giving a lot of interviews, and I wanted no complications in univ intern selection. But, life had different plans. Prof Fogler passed away on Aug 24th, 2022.
I was dejected and almost depressed. Highs of getting a lot of shortlists to lows of not having an intern made me more anxious.
And I stopped applying for further interns, which were equally good as Day 1s.
A crucial piece of advice here: Don’t feel dejected by continuous rejections, and never stop applying because of this. As the process continues, the stipend (which is generally the deciding factor for the 'Apply in all' kind of people) decreases and further demotivates you to apply. So keep applying in all these rejections. You learn far more things than getting selected, i.e. what not to do in an interview xd.
I had a good coding (software) profile from my second year, but I wanted to explore things other than coding and didn't apply for any coding IAF.
Here comes another piece of advice, "Don't be too choosy" (one of my seniors said this to me before the start of the intern season). Internships are generally for corporate exposure, and one should not be too picky about profiles while applying.
Another tip is that if you think you have a 'week' resume(though I don't know the exact definition of a week resume) and can’t compete with others, this is not the case. Internship season and interviews are focused on your strengths and not weaknesses. Find the thing that you are best at and express it to your best. Not everyone you think has a wow resume and has everything will get selected, and he/she is as insecure as you are.
I was interested in exploring chemical core and was keen on Aping in Univs (mainly, this was for myself and my dreams that I built around Michigan). But I was practically doing nothing for it, creating more pressure in my head regarding Internships. The following month passed, and I did nothing. The frequency of companies coming reduced, and so did stipend. I had a lot of discussions with my friends and family, and they supported me in every kind of decision I took and kept me motivated.
Post midsems, I got WA notifications about Citi IT/Software profile, and a sudden urge came in me to at least apply (most of the MNCs had already recruited, and I knew it was one of the last good ones left). I filled the IAF with my 2-page resume, which I rarely used.
The test for Citi was a mixture of aptitude and coding. Coding questions were not as tough as in good IT/Software companies. I was not giving the test full heartedly, but the questions clicked to me as and when it was required. I remember changing my code when the last 5 minutes were left as it clicked to me that the question was supposed to be solved by the recursion technique.
I got shortlisted for the interview, but I was not nervous this time. I knew what I didn't have to do this time. There was no performance pressure this time, and I was sure this rejection wouldn't affect me. This attitude helped me a lot in the interview. My first DSA interview was just par, but he was impressed by the projects I did in my POR. The following interview was an HR+Tech round which I believed I aced.
And voila, I finally found my name in the selection list! I was unsure whether I was very happy or just happy cause my dream of univ intern was almost over. But I was relieved of the intern season, and this was the most comfortable thing of all.
My Experience
As Citi was an international bank, they had many formalities and forms to be submitted before the intern. They informed us in-around Feb that our intern would be offline and in Pune city but was shifted to online for a predicted Covid wave in May-June(which never came xD). I came to my hometown for this internship. They sent us Laptops if we required them, but I didn't take them because of some logistical issues.
My internship started on May 16th. It was a great experience. Introductory sessions were planned throughout the internship as many interns from other countries joined on different dates. Most of the sessions were common for the APAC (Asia Pacific) region, and we had international speakers and students in these sessions.
The timings were quite relaxed as there were no working hours. Meetings were scheduled somewhere between 10 AM to 7 PM, but we could do work anytime. And we received invites to the meetings three to four days in advance.
I was allotted a project manager, mentor, senior, and junior buddy. I mostly had meetings with my mentor, which were bi-weekly. Meetings were scheduled on Zoom, and we used VDIs to access our system.
The project was supposed to be completed in the eight weeks of the internship, and a final presentation was held at the end.
I was allotted a project in FX (Foreign Exchange) APAC dept, and my project was a Proof of Concept project shifting an existing Java-Springboot API system into Python API.
Apart from this, Citi organised learning sessions for technologies used in current dev and dev-ops systems, and we were asked to create any project based on applications of these technologies. This was a team project; each team consisted of 6 members, mostly from different colleges. We had a great experience working together. We were given four weeks to complete this project and had to present it at the end.
Overall, the experience as an intern was good. Though interactions were limited due to the online nature of the intern, it was in good amount (better than an online semester :p). I used to hang out with my school and hometown friends in the evening and at weekends and did all those things that I would do on a summer vacation without an intern(major being going to my grandparent's house).
Conclusion
All in all, it was an excellent experience for this internship season. The ups and downs of the selection process to corporate exposure and making new friends. This teaches a lot and adds a new chapter to life. And as they say, it's just the beginning, and life has just started now :)
Thank you for reading. Feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss anything related to the intern season or otherwise. If you are depressed from rejections, ping me, and I might be able to lift your mood!
Best of luck for your intern season!!