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Hello guys!
I am Pratiksha Pimpalshende, a fourth-year undergraduate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and pursuing a minor degree in Management. I did my summer internship with Piramal Pharma Solutions at their Peptide Synthesis site in Navi Mumbai.
Last year I was among those who would visit this blog often and read about the intern prep strategies and experiences shared by our seniors. And here I am, writing about my internship journey. It does feel good to reach this stage after the intern season and the internship itself. My branch mate, Khyati Jain, will also be sharing her Piramal experience at the Digwal plant, 80 km from Hyderabad.
Selecting a profile wasn’t challenging for me as I always wanted to get an experience in core through industrial exposure. Most of the projects I did were in core and I enjoyed them. I did not have a strong hand at coding or any background in profiles like finance. So, I decided to go for core and management profiles (specifically FMCG).
I was shortlisted for two firms for day 1 tech and non-tech, Goldman Sachs and PnG. I entered panic mode after my GS shortlist, as I realized that the profile was not something I wanted to do. Moving on, I was very selective in signing the IAFs to use my time wisely for preparation. Among FMCGs, I was shortlisted for PnG but did not get to the final interview round.
Now this is very important: It's ok to be selective with a profile, but do not be selective for a company. I wanted to work with PnG, and not getting selected for the final interview shattered my confidence.
Preparation and Selection Procedure
In core, I was selective for Pharma and did not want to go for Petrochemical firms. Only two firms come through PT cell for pharma, Piramal and DRL. I knew Piramal would be coming soon after Day 1 so I reached out to many seniors for insights.
You will get different opinions from different people and it's not necessary that the strategy that worked for your seniors will work for you. One should filter out the information according to requirements and not implementing everything.
The selection procedure for Piramal consisted of 4 rounds: Resume shortlist, Gamified Assessment, GD and Interview. The Gamified Assessment was similar to that of the PnG technical test and did not have anything related to the core concepts. If you google PnG technical assessment, you will get an idea about the test. The GD round consisted of around 10-15 people in each panel. We were shown 3 questions in the beginning and then each of us was asked to answer, following which we could leave the meet. Among the 3 questions, 2 were common. One was the introduction, the second was a case, and the third question was unique to each one of us. I was asked to justify the statement, “Trump was the best US President”.
One of my friends helped me a lot for GD prep. We used to have mock interviews as well. I prepared for the Piramal interview by revising important concepts from all the 2nd year courses.
About 10 of us were selected for the final interview through the GD. The interview started with my introduction, background and then the question - “Which is your favorite course?”. No resume-based or HR questions were asked in my interview. I was fired with questions from Transport Phenomena, Fluids and some from DIC.
After the interview, I called my friend to crib about it. I did not know the answers to some questions, so I thought I messed up badly. But in my opinion, they were more interested in the approach to a question and if I was able to link the theoretical understanding of courses to the industry than the exact answer.
I did not check the blog after the interview; my friend called and told me I was selected. I couldn’t believe it until I saw my name in the final selections. The one feeling I had at that time was that of relief.
About the Internship Experience
With things gradually heading offline, all of us were pretty anticipative of whether we would have our internships offline or work-from-home. All 14 co-interns (from different IITs) were scattered in plants all over the country. I was first allotted the Piramal site in Sellersville, US and it was a remote intern from the Corporate office while Khyati was in Digwal, a town 80 km away from the city of Hyderabad. The thought of work-from-home scared me. Luckily, they changed my site before joining. We were so relieved when we were informed about our locations and flights.I was allotted the recently acquired site of Piramal - Hemmo Pharmaceuticals in Turbhe, Navi Mumbai, specializing in Peptide Synthesis. I was hoping they would allot me a site other than Bombay as I wanted to explore a new city but went along with Bombay, had no choice :(
The site was small, and different from other sites, still in the process of adapting to the culture of Piramal. It was also the first time they had interns from Chemical Engineering. Everything in the plant had more of a chemistry aspect than Chemical Engineering.
I was given a project to optimize the production of one of the peptides to reduce impurity in the intermediate step and improve the nature of the material. It was an RnD core chemistry project, and I had no idea what to do. I got an opportunity to work in the RnD lab in Thane from the third week of my internship. It was at this point that things started falling into place. Everyone at the plant supported me in their capacity to help me complete the project.
On the first day, my mentor asked me to take a tough subproject as a challenge to find a solution to. When we achieved the target with the RnD team, he was impressed. My mentors did not expect me to complete the project as they knew it would require 6-8 months to conclude. They wanted me to give a direction to the problem and have a good learning experience, which was fulfilled. The fact that I worked on a problem in which I did not have a basic background boosted my confidence. I felt that one could solve a problem with just a lot of enthusiasm to learn new concepts. I think Khyati feels the same way. She said about her work there,
“My project was on solvent recovery, which is an entirely core chemical engineering topic. I had to understand the entire working of the plant, then go ahead and chalk out an action plan for identifying processes and products with scope for the same. I had to work on them both experimentally as well as theoretically, so I got to see a lot of implementation of what we are actually taught in courses, and could relate a lot. To be honest, I was also pretty fascinated whenever I used to find something new about a reactor or valve or distillation column. Towards the end of my project, I met a few seniors who had previously interned at Piramal and were now in full-time jobs. It was great getting to interact with them, get more insights about the company culture, and get them to listen to your rants about the same. 😉”
“While I usually got relevant support and assistance for my project, I also faced experiences of intensely rigid hierarchies and an indifferent attitude from many employees, especially on the shopfloor. Many a times, you’d feel lost and see your efforts not being acknowledged or not making much of a difference… That is when you start getting disappointed and don’t really like whatever you are doing. That’s the time when you have to take all these things as a challenge, as an opportunity to grow, to be independent, to find a way around your difficulties, and excel.”
“In the end, I was able to propose a prospective saving of around 1 Cr annually, which was a huge achievement and something which was obtained by simple implementation of general logic, some Excel skills, and an understanding of the company's core business and its requirements. Other people also had projects ranging from operational expenses and supply chain to business strategies.”
Plant culture and accommodation
Working at the Turbhe plant wasn’t as comfortable as a desk job, and I sometimes missed the luxurious corporate office. The weekly working days were different at every site. At the plant where I was posted, it was six days working and I traveled by local train every day as the office shuttle wasn’t available from our accommodation, which was exhausting.
It seems to be that way at most chemical plants. According to Khyati,” One thing I wish I had known before choosing the internship was that chemical plants are located on the city’s outskirts. I was not at all prepared for the 4 hours of daily commute complementary to the experience.
However, Though the tedious travel and 6 working days seldom leave you with time to spend with yourself, once you got your friends, you can have lots and lots of fun… The interns from Dr. Reddy’s had their guesthouse pretty near mine so we had a beautiful, explorative group to fully utilize weekends with. Be it Ramoji Filmcity, Durgam Cheruvu, Hussain Sagar, Movies, Museums, etc… everything becomes fun with friends. Even my guesthouse had board games and even cookoffs in the kitchen. I am really thankful for having made many more connections, even across colleges, with some of them being the sweetest of people I know.” <3
Back in Navi Mumbai, Piramal pampered us enough at the guest house. Three interns, including myself, were posted in Bombay and were given accommodation near the corporate office in Kurla. The apartment was very comfortable and way beyond our expectations. Each of us was given a double occupancy room and everything else like food and laundry was taken care of.
Ending Note
Hey guys, Khyati here. I’d like to say that the main learnings and aim of doing an internship is to:
1. Prepare yourself for a professional life ahead
2. To help you streamline your goals, aspirations and invest time in experiences that matter
3. To meet new people, form new bonds and socialize
And most importantly, to discover what you are interested in and what you don’t see yourself doing down the line, so it’s important to focus on what learnings and varied experiences you got rather than the BTs or difficulties you had to face. That’s all from my side, I’ll be handing it back to Pratiksha now.
That’s definitely true. Honestly, this internship was the best learning experience I have ever had. I think it was because of the stakeholders involved in the project, who provided me with everything I required at the right time. There were many roadblocks, but the continuous support pushed me forward. The experience I had in these two months motivates me to continue working in Pharma.
During the internship season, you will learn many skills, get new experiences, and inevitably, face rejections. However, remember to enjoy this roller coaster ride as you go along. Don’t be disheartened if you do not see your name in a shortlist. Trust me, there is something better that is worth waiting for you :)
I wish you all the very best! Feel free to reach out if you have any queries or in case you want to crib about the intern season XD.
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