Internship: A Placement Prelude

By

Pramit Das
B.Com(H), MBA, PGDJMC, Fellow-HRD, CSMT, AIMA
Faculty Member - Marketing
ICFAI
 

What is an internship?

An internship is a knowledge experience in where an aspiring MBA, the intern, meets explicit objectives which is required to be fulfilled in an organization. Internships supplement MBA academic curriculum by contemplating the intern hands-on-work experience that would not be prearranged in an entirely holistic class room academic environment. This exposure includes acculturation and socialization in specific corporate environment; and a unique chance to bridge the gap between hardcore academic and practical acquaintance and knowledge paradigm. Internships are a valuable tool in bridging the gap between the academics life and the realistic milieu by applying what was learned through LCD in classroom and relearned in practical corporate setting.

Benefits to Corporate

It is a win-win situation to both. The corporation benefits by socializing a "low value" investment. If the intern becomes a newcomer he or she has already been socialized and acculturated into the organization.

• The contributions of interns more than compensate for employer expenses.
• MBA interns frequently provide inspirational and exciting thoughts and creative insights in problem solving.
• The program satisfies corporate human resources requirements by providing a good source of well qualified people to meet high demand time periods or to handle special projects for which re- allocation of regular employees or full-time hiring is not possible.
• The Internship program ms provide a consistent and dependable source of future manpower. Time to time corporate evaluate the student's performance during the internship program with a view of permanent employment.
• By accepting interns from Business School, corporate can enhance the organization's profile and attract top students from premium institution for final placements.

Internship provide the essentials of basic management functions including economics, Finance, HR / IR, MIS, International Business, Marketing & Sales, Organizational Behavior and Statistical Analysis. Most of the B-school offer electives that allow students to develop further in these areas in the second year of their own choosing.

Immediately after the completion of their post graduation program in Business Studies most of the students move into roles which require some specialization in a particular business function. Internship thus provides students with a broad set of corporate exposure which streamline them to prepare for their future role. Let us discuss one of such model which lead B-school student into final placement.

Concept-Company Relevance (CCR) Model

CCR Log Book
|
Weekly Presentation from CCR Log Book
|
Linking CCR Log Book with Live Projects
|
Mini-Case lets / Article writing
|
Simulation
|
Linking CCRM with Management Thesis
(To be completed during Internship)
|
Sector Specific Report writing
|
Multiple Sector Specialization
|
Placement

CCR Log Book: What ever concepts are taught in marketing, students will find relevance of the concept with some companies in terms of concept application, strategy involved and marketing objective. It will be hand written in the log book based on a format. Weekly verification of such log book will be mandatory either by CH or faculty concerned. The source of resource material for CCR Log Book will be Internet, Business Magazine, and Business News Channels. Weekly operation workouts to students where they find relevant data from the field can also be a helpful resource.

Weekly Presentation from CCR Log Book: Students will present one concept from CCR log book on the weekly basis.

Weekly GD: GD topic will based on the one of the most happening marketing event on that week, so vivid discussion will be made on concept applications.

Mini-Case lets / Article Writing: For holistic intellectual development, students will be motivated to convert the material of CCR log book into Mini-Case lets / Article along with the concerned faculty. A particular concept can be picked by the faculty based on which students can do a Live Project by only adding the empirical elements.

Simulation: Cases of few companies will be picked up from CCR log Book, groups will be formed among students and they will be asked to prepare counter strategies, followed by a skit a skit performance.

CCR log book will be handy material for writing the Management Thesis / Project report during the internship. The CCR log book combining with the internship experience a particular student can start developing Sector specific report. Students can share each others reports and exposure to gain multi-sector specializations. This will eventually lead into very good placement.

Conclusion

Most internship programs are intended to provide the kind of precious, real-world experience that expedites groundwork for a future professional career. Most organizations collaborate with colleges and universities to offer work revelation program that offers students the unique opportunity to apply lecture theater theory to performance in the real life workplace.

A student employment assignment at an organization gives an intern a competitive edge when he planned to enter in his corporate life. Such employment assignments provide an unprecedented experience parlance and familiarity with organization's work style and corporate culture.

Such Co-op and internship programs day by day is becoming an pivotal recruiting channel for various organization because they help recruitment think tanks to identify high-potential probable human resources. As IBM  beliefs – "Internship Participating students are often considered for a long-term commitment of regular employment. Our philosophy is recruit once, hire twice."

Reference:

www.ajula.edu/Content
www.fuqua.duke.edu
www-03.ibm.com/employment
 

Pramit Das
B.Com(H), MBA, PGDJMC, Fellow-HRD, CSMT, AIMA
Faculty Member - Marketing
ICFAI
 

Source: E-mail June 26, 2008

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