Internship at Zee News – Puru from Manipal University

Confidence is when you enter a room full of strangers and come out with bunch of best friends, it’s when you are new to the city  but when you leave, you have fondest of memories stored in it, it’s when  you learn a broader perspective of world and are willing to adopt positive changes in you, it’s when you learn to appreciate honest critics and accept your flaws. 

You have completed your first year and summer holidays have started; you are all prepared to do something productive and interesting in the coming two months and the best way for you to do that is to go for an – “Internship”! But suddenly a serious thought pops into your mind that where would you go for an internship? What work do you want to do? How will that be beneficial for you in the future?  This is what happened to me, and it was one hell of a ride for me.  So let’s go through my this year’s internship story.

It was all dispiriting for me at the start, being a media student I wanted to work in Electronic Media, i.e., a news channel; but it was as tough as bending old leather boots for me. At first I was rejected by all the news channels, some didn’t take me in because I had just finished my first year, some shunned me off in the interview rounds, and some even hung up on me on the phone before even I could say “thank you for your time” to them. But after some disheartening attempts to get the internship, I gave my last shot at Zee News and applied for a one month internship program via mail and after being rejected by all others I had very pygmy of hope that I would get in here; but to my surprise after a day they emailed me back and told me to report after a week for the interview.

And here I was in Zee Media, all nervous and excited with some hope of finally getting to work, finally getting to new people, writing a new and exciting chapter of my life. While running my ‘imagination horses’, I got called in for the interview and during my way in various questions started impending in my mind like, “How would my first interview go?”, “How would I answer their questions?”, “Should I talk in Hindi or English?”, “What if I get frightened and spoke nothing?”; and when all these thoughts were coming into my mind, here I was sitting on the Hot Chair (I know it is a bit over exaggerated but it this is actually how I was feeling that moment.) waiting for them to fire their questions at me. During the interview it was confusing for me as I had no idea whether they were impressed or all disgruntled by me, but I maintained my calm and answered them the way I thought was appropriate (and yes I answered in Hindi). Few days later, I received the mail reading “”Puru Agarwal we are pleased to tell you that you have been selected to work with the Zee Family”” and you couldn’t just explain the feeling you have that time, that feeling is just “”Enigmatic””! This is how my journey of internship started.

I packed my bag, booked the tickets, searched for a Paying Guest House and here I was in Noida for my new adventure. On 22nd June 2015, standing in front of the company gate, all dressed up in formals, I stepped into the company with my aim to work hard, getting to know new people, glamorous and open environment (like, seriously), fellow interns, free coffee; I knew the very same moment that it was going to be one memorable ride. The first day, I befriended a girl (joined the same day) and we both were introduced to our head and another staff member by an another intern who had been working here from last twenty days. Within a week, I made new friends, learned how to “actually” work, how to get your work done and with all the support I was able to get hold of the work being done there in a week time. There was also this girl (an intern too) I had developed a crush on and tried very hard to talk to her because she was working in another department.

Within the second week I was able to break the ice with her and it sparked a friendship between us, we even developed soft- corner for each other and some romantic connection was established between us but it couldn’t go further as she didn’t have enough time as her internship was completing soon and she had to go back to her hometown. But I was not upset, as I got a new friend who will always is there for me.

If I had to summarize what I learned and experienced during that period, I would say that throughout the whole internship I have made new friends (some who would now stay forever in my life), I have learned how to talk to people, what is the importance of work in your life, I have learned that these little experiences develop your personality, it helps you to understand the world, be more open and practical in life, you learn how to handle money, how to handle the criticism and appreciation from your bosses and how to share a ‘room’ with three other people who are “ten” years older than you.

So this was my internship story which helped change my life in many ways and gave an adventurous and memorable experience and moreover I think that Internship is the only way through which you can work into the real field with free mind and be more productive and get hold of the skills you possess.

If Puru’s experience motivates you, you can check the latest internships in Noida and latest Media internships.

Editor’s note- Have you got an internship story to share? A chance to win cool Internshala T and other cash prizes by sharing your internship story here.