SOFTWARE

INDUSTRY INSIDER

LOGO NEWSLETTER
MARCH 2019 EDITION
FORUM FOR INDUSTRIAL INTERACTION

IIM BANGALORE
FII@IIMB.AC.IN

IN THIS ISSUE
BEING YOUR VERY BEST FOR
THE SUMMER INTERNSHIP
PG. 2

Acknowledgement
Give us a blurb about a story on page 2. Tell us
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to
what to expect and what the headline is.
the PGP2s and alumni whose experiences and
takes on their summers and jobs (respectively)
PG. 3
have helped us shape this Industry Insider issue.
Give us a blurb about a story on page 3. Give a
Note: This is a compiled collection of opinions
quote from the story to get interest.
from seniors and alumni, and is not an IIMB
published official guide.
PG. 4

Contents
Give us a blurb about a story on page 4. Make
this your own!.
Insights for Consulting, Operations, Product
Management, Finance, General Management,
PE/VC, Analytics, Marketing & Sales Internships
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FROM THE FII EDITORIAL

TITLE GOES HERE
The summer internship is a crucial point in an
Have other images you wish to use? It is simple
MBA’s journey, where one gets the maximum
to replace any of the pictures in this brochure.
exposure to the industry one is aiming to make a
First, double click in the header. Then, click on
mark in. Every IIMB student’s professional efforts
the image you wish to change. Some images may
within the first year of the PGP programme are
need an extra click as they are part a group of
directed towards securing their dream internship,
images. Keep clicking until your selection handles
starting from polishing their resume, applying to
are around the one image you wish to replace.
organisations daily, preparing for cases or group
Once the image you wish to replace is selected,
discussion right down till holding onto their nerves
you can either select “Change Picture” from the
during the behavioural questions during the
short cut menu, or click on the “Fill” option and
interview.
choose the option for “Picture.”
However, the journey to the handshake sealing
If you replace a photo with your own and it’s not
the deal for the next summer is just half the battle
a flawless fit for the space, you can crop it to fit in
fought. Putting one’s best foot forward to make an
almost no time. Just select the picture and then,
impact in the business one joins briefly for two
on the Picture Tools Format tab, click Crop.
months enriches not just the students’ MBA
experience but also enriches the organisations
FII &HEADLINE TITLE
INDUSTRY INSIDER with fresh and meaningful energy. Industry Insider
has interviewed multiple past year summer
The Forum for Industrial Interaction (FII) is the interns and individuals from the industry for each
business club of Indian Institute of Management, major domain and collated insights from them for
Bangalore (IIMB). This group, which consists of both your consumption. This edition is here to answer
first and second year students from the Post your questions about the domains you’re going to
Graduate Programme at IIMB, is dedicated to join and how you can make the most of your
bringing as much industry exposure to the student summer experience.
community as possible. Although FII conducts events
the year around like TEDx, Nexus (Public Policy
Symposium), Corporate Conclave, EVOLVE Workshop
Series, Speaker Series and Vista (the flagship business
summit of IIMB), the club feels a need for a more
regular contact to keep up with the fast pace of the
changing realms of the business world.

One such initiative of FII is the Industry Insider which

is a bi-monthly magazine that highlights the ongoing
trends in the various fields, their subsequent impact
on businesses and other major topics to form as
touchpoints to the thoughts of the reader. Hence the
Industry Insider aims to be an in-depth knowledge
publication that piques the interest of students in the
current industry scenario.

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LIFE ASTITLE GOES HERE
A CONSULTING INTERN


• Your stakeholders include your manager, buddy, clients and
your other team members.
• It is possible that you might be working on more than one
project during the 8-week period. Do be cognisant of the fact
that every team’s style of working will be different.
• People skills are of paramount importance- your internship
helps prepare you for life as a full-time consultant where you
will be in close interaction with your team members for long
hours during a stretch of few months at least. Most team
members are approachable and will help you when in a fix.
Having a great rapport with your team can help you execute
your project to your very best for your client.
• You get the opportunity to interact with top management as
clients face-to-face. Use this summer as a path to get to
expand your horizon regarding sectors that you probably
were unfamiliar or uncomfortable with.
• Excel and PowerPoint are your best buddies when it comes to

delivering your tasks to your supervisors. Although you would
find yourself at ease with these skills by the mid of the
internship (some firms also have training for the same), it
would be of great help to practice both before the start of the
internship.
• There is no industry specific prep you can do beforehand. The
basics you learnt in Term 1 and Term 2 as a PGP1 student can
come in handy, rest of the learning is pretty much on-the-job.
• Be ready for a steep learning curve. Most people make the
most of the challenges thrown at them and use it to help grow
themselves as professionals.

CONSULTING • Clarifying the tasks expected from you beforehand will greatly
bring down any chances of miscommunication between you
and your supervisor.
• Sometimes you may find yourself asked to do tasks that might
be very different from what you expected. It’s important that
you stay motivated throughout your internship.
• It’s imperative that any red flags that appear in your assigned
project are escalated at the right time. This can help your
supervisor address any concerns and prevent any threat to
goodwill or the deliverables to the client.
• Use this opportunity to network with other B-school interns
and support each other formally or informally through the
summer. Do take the chance to meaningfully network,
knowing who you are talking to and what you have to say to
them.

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LIFE AS AN OPERATIONS INTERN

• Internship projects in the area of Operations are highly

delivery-focused where you will be expected to efficiently
convert inputs to output for an organisation. Here, the
inputs could be any resource that the company possesses,
ranging from materials, equipment and technology to
human resources.
• Projects in operations would usually entail interns to work on
cost-saving or process improvement objectives for the
company or its client.
• The important stages to the internship include: Process
Understanding, Data Analysis, Defining Recommendation,
Implementation
• Ideally, you should start the 2-month internship by using the
first week of your internship just to understand the complete
Value Chain, for you might have to work in an industry which
is completely unknown to you. A good way of doing this is by
meeting relevant stakeholders which can include
Seller/Supplier, Plant team, Logistics, Project Finance, Sales or
Channel development team, etc. to understand various facets
of the process. A good amount of time spent here will help
you identify a list of probable root causes of the problem.
• In some cases, it might also be possible that some of the
stakeholders are present at different locations hence,
planning your visits efficiently becomes very important to
save time for remaining part of the project. Your manager
and/or mentor should help you guide in meeting the relevant
stakeholder.
• Today, data is the major driver on which companies base their
decisions. Hence, the next stage is to look for relevant data
which can help you to either confirm or reject your hypothesis
OPERATIONS of root cause of the problem. It is very important at this stage
not to get inundated with irrelevant data.
• Most organisations also have a mid-term review for the
interns - use this opportunity to get feedback on your
approach so far, any aspect which you might have missed
from Senior Executives which will help you base the future
course of action in your internship.
• During the recommendation phase, the meticulous nature of
your solution and how well it addresses the problems of all
stakeholders will be looked at. It is equally important to
define KPIs and drawbacks of your recommendation (if any)
which shows that you thought the consequences of your
recommendation from all angles, and connect the analysis
and recommendation of your project to your company’s
objective as a whole.
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LIFE AS A PRODUCT MANAGEMENT INTERN

• A product manager is like the CEO of his own product/feature

that he/she takes up.
• Your stakeholders include your technical team, design team,
manager and mentor.
• 2 months is a very short period of time to be given the end-
to-end responsibility of a product. However, your passion for
the company and project reflects truly in the effort you put
into the feature or part of the product assigned to you.
• There are 3 broad stages to the internship: ideation, analysis,
execution and feedback phases.
• You might be making a product specification document,
somewhat like a blueprint of your feature. The ability to
ideate, just like an entrepreneur, along with market analysis
backing your analysis (where your MBA skills come into play)
will help you buy in your stakeholders in your internship.
• You can expect multiple sprints (true to the Agile method of
software development) or multiple releases of your feature
to be held during the internship.
• Some projects might be solving a broad problem using
technology. Narrowing down your focus in the right manner
keeping your stakeholders in mind is imperative.
• During the execution phase, your passion will show in your
ability to defend your idea, talk technically with your
engineers yet apply project management skills (like a
manager would be in a General Management role) to balance
stakeholders’ interests.
• To evaluate how well your feature is doing, the ability to
define, understand and analyse metrics is key. Your users will
be crucial to interact with at this stage. KPIs can be developed
accordingly that will act as indicators of ownership, even if
your product is not completed after 2 months at the
PRODUCT organisation.
• Staying in touch with your manager and mentor can help you
MANAGEMENT ensure that you are heading down the right track to delivering
the project, even if it means that the communication is
initiated from your end.
• It is possible that your project might entail interacting with
colleagues or clients based in different time zones, hence you
might have to adjust your schedule accordingly to collaborate
with them after work hours.
• Understand the industry you’re heading into, and whether
you have prior technological background or not, go the extra
mile to understand the product in its context (think big
picture), how it fits into the company’s business. Knowing
what goes into building the product as a whole beyond your
immediate team, and developing an understanding of the
company’s product portfolio can help you make the most of
your summer internship.

LIFE AS A FINANCE INTERN



• Your internship might not consist of just one
overarching project, but rather might have you
involved in understanding multiple teams’ role in the
business and consequently smaller, multiple projects
under different people. This would be in order to make
the most of your internship and learn about how your
division fits in with the business.
• You may not get the opportunity to work on
Bloomberg or on trades directly. You’ll be helping
teams out with back testing and client requirements.
• Networking a lot will help you make connections that
will last beyond the summer. Setting up catch-up
meetings everyday can help you explore other teams
and even divisions. Ask them about their work, their
opinions about particular sectors, stocks or markets in
general. Do prepare before you ask them and give your
opinions too to strike meaningful conversations.
• Your opinion will be held in high regard. Just being the
intern doesn’t mean that you don’t have that big an
impact. Your team may count on you to provide fresh
insights and perspectives.
• For derivatives, you can read Nathenburg beforehand
if that is relevant to your role. Reading about the
current market status and catching up with sector
FINANCE knowledge will help you navigate your internships and
conversations with other people.
• Your team might be very busy at times compared to
your schedule. Don’t be disheartened if they don’t
respond back immediately.
• Don’t hesitate to reach out to your buddy and mentor.
They will help you navigate your summer and give you
career preparation guidance, which although beyond
the scope of your projects, will help give direction to
your plans about the future regarding a career in
finance.


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LIFE AS A GENERAL MANAGEMENT INTERN


• Spend your first couple of days understanding the culture
and working pace of the company and its people. Try
figuring out how your project fits in with the business.
• Understand the basic drivers of the industry in this first
week (or maybe 10 days) and get to know all the people
who are critical and important to get clarity on the problem
statement for the summer project.
• Use the 10 weeks to determine if there is a cultural fit
between you and the company. Your people skills will come
into play as you navigate the job to find the people who are
important to the execution portion of your project. As a full-
time manager, the projects assigned to you will be more
execution oriented hence getting to know that aspect
inside-out will work to determine your fit as a full-time hire.
• Communication whether verbal or non-verbal is crucial to
the delivery of the project. Being able to articulate the
problem, find executable solutions and being able to
communicate the execution part to all important
stakeholders will help you contribute positively to the
company’s business.
• The pace of execution of your project might not always
match what you had in mind, hence its best to keep some
room ready in case of timeline adjustments.
• If information asymmetry happens to occur while you
execute your project, have patience and pursue your
project diligently as you will get the information eventually.

GENERAL • Keeping your manager in the loop will help him/her know
the ground situation of your project’s progress and will be
MANAGEMENT very helpful to get feedback from him/her, even your other
colleagues.
• Be firm on your analysis but be open to suggestions and
improvements. This will indicate that you are willing to
learn from shortcomings and a great addition to any team
in that sense.
• As an intern, you will be working with industry leaders.
Building your network, if you want, will help you beyond the
summer itself and expand your horizon as you learn from
others more experienced than yourself.

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LIFE AS A PRIVATE EQUITY INTERN


• Acquainting yourself with recent deals as well as proposed
deals will give you some great context about the industry,
especially if you are new to it.
• You will be looking at a lot of data regarding companies as
your organisation is evaluating which companies to invest.
Your understanding of the businesses and their competitors
will be on the job.
• Polishing your Excel skills will be of immense help as it will
help with your day-to-day work.
• Your team size will most likely be small, and you will be
assigned responsibility for a small portion of the overall
project. Hence do be cognizant that your work speaks for
the quality that you bring as a top MBA student.
• Having said that, your team will be of immense help when
you get stuck as they will be willing to help you and see you
grow.
• If you don’t have a finance background, fret not as your
courses’ knowledge will be enough to sail you through the
job; the rest of the skills you will pick up during the summer
itself.
• Your comfort with mathematics will, however play a role in
how much you enjoy doing your work as the work does
incline a bit more towards the math side.
• However, the learning curve is steep and your ability to
understand things like investment memos among many
others will be imperative in order for you to drive maximum
PRIVATE EQUITY impact as an intern on which project you’re working on. You
will learn and grow a lot during these 2 months. Having your
viewpoints vetted and changed due to interactions with
your stakeholders and team members will be something
you can expect from this summer.
• You will essentially be treated as a full-time employee and
would get to know a lot about live deals, which is exciting.
You will get the opportunity to be a part of meetings with
investment committees, and have targets to hit as well.







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LIFE AS AN ANALYTICS INTERN

• A career in the analytics space is challenging and rewarding as

well. There are immense learning opportunities as this
industry has seen a lot of disruption.
• Interview insights from one of our alum reveals that there are
various profiles in a firm specializing in data analytics which
one could look out for ranging from an operations manager to
a consultant. As a lead operations manager, one could be
responsible for streamlining the client delivery schedule from
a production standpoint and as a consultant, one would be
responsible for bringing business sense to the client
requirements and see through the problem in and out.
• Microsoft Excel is a must-learn tool for anyone working in the
analytics space.
• Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence are not just buzz-
words in this space but actual client delivery projects.
• The projects are diverse and exploratory in nature, until and
unless the firm already has a product in hand. A few examples
of projects in the analytics space include deriving the pricing
strategy of a utility firm via Excel models to creating an
effective marketing strategy of an insurance firm using SAS
coding.


LIFE AS A MARKETING/SALES INTERN

• Your team would be willing to get fresh ideas and opinions
from your end. You will be given ownership of your work as
well.
• Your PowerPoint and Excel skills are imperative, hence polish
up on these as they will help you conduct your analysis and
present your findings.
• Your work and effort you put in is important but it’s even more
ANALYTICS AND important that you are able to communicate your work and
execution well to your stakeholders. People skills do play a part
MARKETING/SALES here.
• Use this summer as an opportunity to determine if you have a
cultural fit with the organisation. Make sure that the way you
interact with your colleagues is reflective of your passion for
what the company does and how invested you want to be in
its future success.
• It is possible that your internship may be driven by the
manager you get to work under, like most other sectors. Keep
a good working relationship with your manager, and make
your passion for the project visible to him/her and the team so
that the team knows that you’re dedicate to the tasks.
• Take this opportunity to network well as these relationships
you will build can be of great value in the future whether you
plan to join the company as a full time hire or not.
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