Make the most of your summer internship

As the past few years have witnessed a rise in the number of recruiters offering pre-placement offers (PPOs), many students and institutes across B-schools are gearing up to maximise their chances of bagging PPOs through internships.

Institutes are encouraging the senior batches to brief juniors going for internships on what they should expect.“Summer internships give an opportunity to the students to work with organisations and check if they are fit for a particular profile there during the internship period,” says Professor DS Sengar, chairman – placement, IIM Lucknow.

“So far, 80 PPOs have been made for the batch of 2014-16, more companies are expected to join in,” Sengar adds. IIM Bangalore, too, is expecting one-third of the batch to receive PPOs this year. Students, too, believe that their internship gives them a chance to find out how an organisation works - something that’s not possible through formal job interviews.

Sanidhya Narain, a student of the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, loved her internship experience. “Our mentors made sure that we participated in every internal and external meetings related to their project. HR, too, made sure that we were a part of everything else happening in the office, be it a retirement party of an employee or a Friday outing with the employees.” ”

Some B-schools are also organising simulated exercises on how to crack summer internship interviews. This includes a dress rehearsals, assessment of students’ communication skills and interactions with seniors to get tips to impress recruiters.

Schools count too. Recruiters are also assessing the performance of B-schools as talent pools. “Of the several parameters in the evaluation process, we consider the overall internship hiring experience and the performance of the summer interns to gauge not just the calibre of education delivered at the school, but also the skills imparted to make students career and life- ready,” says SV Nathan, chief talent officer and senior director, Deloitte in India. Sumit Mitra, head – group human resources and corporate services, Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies, says, “Each year, we evaluate the campuses where we recruit from and the functions that we recruit for. For example, last year, we expanded the list of business schools that we visit and added XLRI and SP Jain Institute of Management Studies and Research.”