- Abhinav Anand(2020)
As much as I fancy to write for someone, to my dismay I barely get chances to do so. At least the Chemical department was benevolent enough to ask. I am Abhinav Anand, a fourth-year undergrad and this is about my summer internship experience at TATA projects limited. Summer interns are much anticipated by the undergrads, mostly by the third-year students. The season brings much hype and anxiety in students’ lives. It is dawned by the big and famed firms with a fat pay check, which we all have on the get-to list. Anyways it was the same for me, like most of the students, I applied to most of these. I filled JAF of the FMCG companies but I couldn’t make it. I restricted myself to core and related companies, not because I had planned it prior, but my perception of being a little unskilled and unprepared for other sectors i.e. consulting, finance, data science etc. As the rejections increased and interviews got spoilt by my feverish disposition, I grew tough and bold in my approach with some amount of fear and consternation always beneath. I now focussed on the core companies entirely. I blew a few core companies as well, finally, it was TATA Projects. I anxiously filed the JAF and I was shortlisted. Their selection procedure was rather brief, just shortlisting and an interview and you don’t need to prepare much, just follow conventional wisdom and guidelines. Even though senior firm employees were present, I was asked some basic questions, related to the resume and a few general questions to check my promptness. It went well and I was out of the whirlwind of rejections. It was extremely relieving when I didn’t have to go to any more internship sessions. With the joining letter in hand, I was waiting for the semester to get over, surprisingly it ended quite soon and abruptly. Pandemic has been a kill-joy for all. In coming days its consequences unfurled, the suspension of classes kept extending and in no time the semester was over. To our concern, it did not augur well. I was no exception with the foreboding of internship getting cancelled looming around. I would say that I was lucky, internship commenced, even though late by almost a month, in June. Still, it was a two-month internship, curtailed only by 10 days, as per the initial timeline. I liked that they put me in the execution of a live project, under operation in Andhra Pradesh. The development Project, undertaken by TATA Projects Limited as an EPCIC contractor (i.e. Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation and Commissioning will be done by Tata Projects Limited), has a very broad horizon with immense work and I was working on a small part of it. The Project is related with recovery of Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG) from the rich MEG coming out from Oil & Gas field. Other companies were also involved, India based and one from Norway, and numerous other players. All this work was for ONGC, offshore, 25-30 kilometres from the nearest land. The fields discovered in the area comprise of a number of oil and gas discoveries, are spread over a large area, and ONGC intends to develop the new exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), in deep waters off the east coast of India. In the first month I was primarily reading the documents related to the MEG recovery unit which was to be augmented with new equipment and packages. There were bidder lists, inquiry & requisition documents, technical bid evaluation (TBE) sheets, purchase orders (PO) and some detailed renderings of the packages and the plant. In the second half as the execution resumed, which was at halt for some time, I was involved. My task was to observe and understand the procurement process. The project manager, my guide, whom I was assisting was fairly experienced, he formally and friendly explained all my doubts and informed me of everything required in his capacity. The internship ended on 30th of July with submission of work report on the same. I had an unparalleled experience. Pandemic and work from home made it unique but I was left pretty appalled at the end. I was not given the job in which I could contribute effectively, it was a study and I felt rather like an onlooker with everything passing under my gaze. The work was not anything of my capacity, surely there should be no doubt in that but I would have been happy to work on anything small with my knowledge involved in it- this is a generic statement, made by every student, yet this is our basic expectation. With the pandemic on spree and unexpected adjustments I should be thankful to whatever experience I obtained but I can’t be content with anything. Everything was done in haste, the adaptations from the company side must be respected, still I would say more could have been achieved. The slow and tedious job could have been rewarding, on-ground job would have been fulfilling, there could be an endless charade of have and have-nots. COVID holds excuses for everything and anything which went wrong yet I surmise it could have been better. I can go on but I wouldn’t say that it was not worthwhile. In the seventh semester, the courses are practical and I find it much natural to grasp the working of industry. It did provide me with knowledge which I otherwise would not have gained. I got to know about the operations while sitting at home, had I been onsite, it would have been more giving. If someone wants to gain industrial experience then I would recommend this internship.
I must append something at the end. The internship was not one which I hope anyone has to do in the future. If a task has to be done on-ground but is done from home, it will leave the participants unsatisfied. It was peculiar but it should not be held as a metric to judge the ensuing internships. Good Luck!