Summer Internship in Mumbai – the fun-filled work, the excitement and the lessons learnt
Visiting the YRF office, getting passes for the premiere of Vicky Donor and meeting Mika – what more could an intern had asked for?
About Author: – Lakshmi Apurva is a final year PGDM student at Somaiya. She discovered her creative side from her internship at Business of Ideas, Mumbai. She shares with us how the internship transformed her into a professional.
Summer internship is probably one of the most important aspects that a management graduate experiences in a B-school. When I entered B-school, all my seniors told me – “Your final placement interviews will majorly concentrate on your summer project”. At that time I used to think, OMG!!! This seems very tough. The day I got placed in Business of Ideas (Marketing and Media consulting Start-up), I had mixed feelings. I didn’t know if I was happy, relieved, anxious or anything else. But I knew that whatever it is I need to give my hundred percent. My summer was not like a two month process but we were working on and off from January itself. For a few events we were just viewers, and for a few others we worked our heart and soul. In a nutshell, I learned a lot beyond my project. Writing about my project, I need to tell this – I never had anything called one project. In fact a lot of you will relate to this, when everybody else was doing one project, my organization clearly told me – “We will not consider you as an intern. So pull up your socks get your hands dirty and work on the field with every project that comes and give your best”.
Since we were media consultants too, sometimes we met people who were under the limelight. Let me describe one day of my work to you. This particular day, I went to my office as usual when by boss asked me what I doing for the day because we were doing multiple projects. That day I didn’t have work. So, he said – “Then we need to go to a meeting. I didn’t know where, for what or anything else. I just left. On the way he told me that we were going to meet the CMO of Yash Raj Films (YRF). For a minute I was silent because I was confirming to myself if I had heard the right thing. Then, we reached YRF’s office. I guess it was one of the best interiors and best offices I had ever seen ( the best cold coffee too). During the meeting, all I was thinking was – Ohhhhh!! So this how high-end meetings happen! I still feel proud that I pitched to the CMO, and I felt like I was doing something useful in my summer. After the meeting, my Boss said that we had a meeting at Eros. We went to Eros and again sat in a meeting with their marketing people. Here we got passes for the premiere of Vicky Donor. I was already happy with the day, that now I thought we will go for the movie, when my boss said that we were not finished yet, we needed to meet Mika Paaji. After all this, I felt that this one day taught me how meetings happen at higher level, how are we expected to pitch in our concepts to them, how to be a professional in front of your favorite Celebrity despite the fact that your inner self says – Oh My God! You need to control it and say – “Hello Sir, It was great meeting you. Do let us know if you like our proposal.”
During the course of my internship, such meetings became common. We used to meet a lot of people and learn a lot of things in every meeting. Apart from meetings we also used to break our heads sitting in our office for IMC, Brand integrations for events like Femina Miss India, Communication Focus of Tata Nano, Positioning Strategies of Reliance Jewels, Destination Marketing for Times of India and many more. We also did a lot of execution of our own ideas. For instance, I was a part of the Communication Focus Video Shoot of Tata Nano. Right from pre-production to Shooting and post production, I was almost like an associate to the team who directed the video. Got a chance to manage things from being the light boy/ Spot boy to directing the junior artists how to act and what to act. This really taught me how to strategize by understanding the current situation and how to implement those strategies.
Summer internship is the time when one proactively learns a lot of things and moulds oneself. During my internship, I learned a lot beyond marketing and strategies. I learned how to meet deadlines, situations tickled the creative side of mine, learned how to respect others ideas, learned that every stone has to be turned and every corner has to be checked. Today I can proudly say my internship has made me into a better professional and a manager who can handle any situation and give out the best results with limited resources.
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