I am writing this article to share my experiences and heart breaks in my fight to find a good summer internship. All this just to give my resume the right content before, I go out to fight the battle royal of entrepreneurs in my final placements. Summer internship’s undoubtedly the most important part of an MBA student’s career, just like others I too had high hopes of developing a marketing strategy of a big FMCG giant or if that not worked out TATA’s have always been the Indian hot favorites. I had a clear vision, if I am going to do marketing I will start from this very moment by marketing me to these firms. As they say when you are young, you believe the opportunities are endless, going on the same lines I made a firm decision of not seeking any help from college placement cell or for that matter of fact from my parents. Calendars showed 1st February and it was time to put the pedal to the metal for me. I started bugging into my seniors to get the company profiles, project details and last but by no means least the STIPEND. I used to read articles on the internet where people were earning from 30-50 thousand per month in internship, students going overseas, people doing social service still earning. This was more than enough for a student to arouse the passion and pass adrenalin with a gush to find an internship that would do my pockets and Resume wonders. By the end of February when nothing specific turned out, what I was left with was the genie of modern era: internet. Time was the most essential commodity and it had suddenly started passing like a Japanese bullet train. I decided not to waste time and started approaching companies via e-mail with a heavenly loaded resume that could easily catch eyes of the reader. A week gone and I was approaching the end of February the inbox was still empty. By grace of god the replies started pouring in at the end of February, they were not from the big giants of the Indian market however ego was to be set aside as work was also a priority. I sat in for few interviews; most of them wanted a telephone operator, or a street roamer or a counselor what could come seven days a week and convince people to join something that was not even worth for them in education.
Then came the month of March nothing found in February, I had to do it this time or I was out for a toss and a heavy loss in my Grades. It was time for me to act; the general notion with e-mails is you should have an excellent cover letter to attract attention. Even an iota of mistake at this time could have proved harmful for me; I decided to take expert help in drafting my cover letter. My entire business communication faculty I knew, my English lecturers in Graduation College and internet were the sources I used to draft a cover letter, and one I must say if not the best was amongst the good ones. It was time to get back to work, e-mails were sent again and I must say the number of companies approached were at least 30. Spamming and repetition was the last thing I could have wanted to do to my employers, as 6 months later it was time for final placements. The internet which used to look like connecting the whole world looked limited to a Google, face book and a YouTube home page. The validity of people on internet was a big doubt for me, now LinkedIn started looking FAKE and Google had become more complicated than ever. The pat on back from friends had turned evil in nature as many of them had found one from college or from their family links. The night is darkest before the dawn; it started seeming a situation of endless eclipse in my life. It was time I decided to compromise not only with the stipend but also the brand name. The search was on but the faith and glory was lost in the dark. It’s an old great saying “perseverance is a great element of success, if you knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody”. Fortunes changed not by wonders, but at least they showed the silver lining. The 2 month long search ended on 4th April with Autocar India. Stipend was lost in heavens, project was good. The end was not a Hollywood movie story but I got 1 thing to say at my final interviews which no one could beat “the most difficult part of my internship was finding one”