After sweating for months you finally got into your dream college or dream-adjacent college 🥲
So, now what? is it smooth sailing from now onwards?
It’s like that time when your parents said “get good marks on the 10th board and your life will be sorted” and then again the same thing after the 12th board, and again the same thing for bachelor, so you know where we are going with this!
Getting into a good B-School is just the beginning of that race, and the first hurdle in this race is the coveted ‘Summer Internship‘
Summer Internships
The moment you are inducted into the college, you will be pitched about the importance of Summer Internships in MBA. Therein starts the competition and aggressive profile building exercises and the mad scramble for Case Competitions and quizzes!
I am well aware of the significance of the Summer Internships. But, due to some of the misconceptions and misguided information that keeps circulating around in the MBA channels, the whole experience of the Internships has been tarnished.
I will try to systematically demystify some of the myths and mysteries behind the Internship process.
The shortlisting process
The Shortlisting Process could easily qualify as the Bermuda Triangle of MBA where no amount of exploration or information can decode the logic behind the process.
Some common pitfalls to avoid are:
- My senior with a similar profile got the shortlist for XYZ, and I will get it too: The shortlisting process is not a hard science and hence this logic doesn’t work
- That company is not going to take me anyways, so I’ll tank: Please never do this. Give your hundred percent for every shortlist you get.
- Last year this company only took one intern, so I don’t have a chance: The intake is a very dynamic number, and it can change any moment, so don’t make assumptions
- I have to pursue a thousand online certifications to get a shortlist: Online courses are helpful but they need to be consistent with your profile. Pursuing random certifications adds no additional value and doesn’t help with shortlisting either.
- I have an IT background I will never get any other shortlists except IT companies: Even though it is a sound assumptions, we still need to be prepared for contingencies. The filtration criteria for each companies is very different and you never know which one is going to shortlist you.
- I have a very bad profile, I will not get any shortlists at all: I understand that all of us are insecure with our profile, and where does it stand relative to our batchmates
The Pre Placement Offer (PPO)
The next hurdle in the MBA race is the elusive PPO. For people not well versed in MBA slang, PPO is a full-time job offered to some of the Interns post their internship with the company.
Just like the shortlisting process, the PPO criteria are also pretty much non-standard. It is quite dynamic and is probably a function of the following:
- The number of openings for the company
- The employment goals of the company
- External factors such as COVID and recessions also affect the PPOs offered
- Alignment with the culture of the company
- Your Performance
Our performance is one among many factors determining whether or not we will get PPO.
But, more often than not, every student who doesn’t get a PPO assumes that she/he did not perform well and that they screwed up.
While, it could be one of the reasons, but it’s not the only one, so relax and don’t take it personally!
What do you think of the Internship process!
How was your journey? please share your views in the comments below!
That brings us to the end of this segment!
See you in the next one✌🏽
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Read parts 1 and 2 below:
Part 1 here
Part 2 here
3 C’s to Ace interviews and land that dream job
“𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬
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