Summer Internship with Goldrush Sales and Services Ltd. — Aishwarya from St. Stephen’s College
Wildcard entry for: – 19th August 2012
Name of the intern: – Aishwarya
Institute: – St. Stephen’s College
Organization interned with: – Goldrush Sales and Services Ltd. (Ventura Airconnect)
The 2nd semester of our first year in college began with one great wave of excitement for us economic students, internships! Come the month of February and all the majority of us could think about were the coming internships.
In our college we have an internship fair that works to invite start-ups as well as established corporate names to hire interns from our college for summer internships. With my CV prepared and my formals on, I sat for around 4 to 5 interviews with some very well established names. It felt really wonderful to be able to clear the mark for 3 of them, 2 of which were like “dream come true” opportunities!. Alas! Dreams came shattering down when I couldn’t take up either of them as I had to get back home for some personal reasons.
I spent sleepless nights trying to convince myself that I would find some opportunity back home, but the loss felt even more when I actually had to confirm my refusal of such hard to come by opportunities. With bags packed and the 2nd semester exams behind me, I came back home to a dull start of the summer break from the university. For a month, I was idle, looking for online as well as office internships on the internet. As time passed, more and more of grudge as to what I had missed kept gripping me, tighter and tighter. I was aware every minute of what I had missed, and what my fellow classmates had gained. I would not be able to stand in the same league as them when applying for internships the next year. Moreover, placements would be a big problem if there was no prior work experience on my CV. But there is a saying, “Whatever happens, happens for the best”, and so it did.
There came a day when the black clouds swept away. I was able to grab an internship interview with the financial head of Goldrush Sales and Services Ltd., who knew my uncle. On the 15th of June, after an interview with him, and another with the CEO of the company, I was hired for an internship with the company. The work given was something I had never done before, but I knew that I had the potential to do it. The CEO of the company, Mr. O.P. Havelia, was working on the Gujarat tender to start intra-state aviation connectivity in the state. The tender was about to open in 3 days time. He wanted me to assist the company in further research in the same area.I was more than happy to do so, but what struck me was that since the company officials had already done a lot of research in the area, as Mr. Havelia showed me, would they be willing to entertain more input from an intern who had just joined work ? Would there be anything substantial that I would be able to contribute as this was project in its final stage now ?
With these thoughts, I ventured to ask the boss if there was a possibility that the company was planning to bring up similar projects in any other state. For the answer I got, I still thank my guts for having asked the question, nervous that I was that day! Mr. Havelia told me that Ventura Airconnect was looking into a tender with the state of Orissa as well. When I presented to him my rationale for the Gujarat project and why I wanted to pick up a different area, he seemed quite pleased with my urge to do something new and different. By the end of that first meeting, I was heading the research for the feasibility of the state of Orissa for intra state connectivity.
The coming 5 weeks saw me rushing in and out of the Goldrush office on the 7th floor of the building every alternate day or so, seeking help from the employees there, looking into various other researches conducted by the company’s IT officials, taking guidelines from everyone who was ready to spare a first-year intern some time. Mr.Havelia himself was my primary guiding light, enabling me to be more efficient at every step I was taking with the research, opening more doors to be explored. From tourism to investment, airport connectivity to minerals in the specific areas, no stone was to be left unturned. I was working late into the night at home as well, researching on every small detail possible, and then converting the collected information into PPTs.
The research I did consisted of some of the major industrial areas of Orissa. The final step was to map out hypothetical air routes for the whole of the state, connecting those major areas where the traffic would be enough for a 9-to-17 seater aircraft to fulfill a day’s work. The company planned to start with around 5 such air crafts in 5 different locations, with each aircraft connecting at least 3 major areas. Dead ends were met at several points when the research work was on, with me rushing to the CEO for help. Two days before my research was due to be submitted, I was able to map out a potential route for the state of Orissa, connecting the major ports of the state. By the time I had completed the work, I was an expert with PPT. I had learned so much about research work and aviation, as no amount of reading could have ever taught me. I finally submitted my research on the 20th of July; the CEO was impressed when he learnt that I had done all the computer work on my own, without taking any help from anyone else. I walked out of the office at 12:15 pm, a letter of appreciation in my hand for the amount of dedicated work that I had done for the company.
As I was coming down the elevator, my thoughts drifted back to the time when I was looking desperately for an internship, with dead ends all around, and the sudden pangs of sullenness that gripped me at that time. I could not help but reflect that whatever happens, happens for the best. Every cloud does, after all, have a silver lining. Back in the car with my dad, I could think of only one thing, the amount of stuff waiting to be packed into a huge black luggage that would be rolling down the railway station 28 hours from then, with me by its side, out for another wonderful year at college.
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