Did You Face Summer Internship Blues? Hear Prof. Elkana Explaining Tricks To Make Your Name In The Corporate World

This is that time of the year when first-year MBA students are preparing to step into their Summer Internships. For many without prior work experience, it will be a first taste of the corporate world which will be home for another thirty-five years. Making the experience memorable and valuable is what all students hope for. Many will have an excellent two months thanks to a welcoming and supportive environment at their host companies. Others may struggle.

As I teach at a Business School, many students seek my advice as they navigate the summer minefield. Here are some typical challenges and how I think they could be handled.

Creating a well-thought project

A common issue is a vaguely crafted project brief that has been put together by the firm, probably with limited internal discussion. No offense intended to my friends in the corporate world. There is just not enough time going around to do it all. Executives are always overloaded and have to juggle multiple demands on their time. It’s easy for something like this to fall off the radar. In these cases, I always encourage students to take the lead and with help from their B-School faculty mentor proactively create a brief for their industry mentor’s feedback. From my own experience, I know this can be a great relief for the overstretched executive who will find it easier to refine a proposal rather than create one from scratch.

Some project briefs, though well written, may outline an unrealistically long list of deliverables, of which some are open to interpretation. For example, the firm may expect a fully validated Go To Market strategy. If the finished product is not ready for launch, it may require working with semi-finished prototypes. Naturally, a full-scale test market is completely ruled out and the firm would instead revert to an appropriate market research design. These issues need discussion and clarity at the start of the assignment and students must work to build a consensus, which will test their interpersonal and negotiating skills. Great learning by itself.

How to make your project valuable for the firm?

Another way to keep a laser-sharp focus on deliverables is to ask what a successful project would look like for the company. This, again, needs to be agreed upon at the outset. Companies, generally speaking, have a broad idea of what they want to get out of the internship, but at times there may be differing views on the details. As an intern, spend time agreeing with your supervisor on what would be needed for the project to be truly valuable to the firm and then plan your work around it.

Getting hold of your mentors

Interns struggle to get adequate time with their supervisors who are burning both ends of the candle. This is where a proactive and confident approach works. Instead of waiting to get answers to nagging questions that might hold up your next steps, identify multiple solutions or alternatives and leave them on your mentor’s desk in the form of a single-page document. Yes, a hard copy!! In a world dominated by email, a printed page might break the mind-numbing electronic clutter and be noticed faster than one more blip in cyberspace.

The fine filling of gaps!

Some of my students have found themselves delivering their final presentation to a roomful of senior leaders with whom they have had little or no interaction. Nothing can be more unnerving for the intern than a top executive saying “This is not what we were looking for” when the presentation is in full swing. It might happen as all those attending the final review do not have the full background of each individual project. Such a scenario needs damage control which is best achieved if you have an agreed brief, aligned with the industry mentor. Gently reminding everyone in the room of the agreed deliverables is appropriate. Equally, though, explore what is being called out as unfinished business and offer to close the gap, provided it is within reasonable limits.

Final word for the restless souls out there. Some students call me to complain that the project they’ve been assigned is not meaty or impactful or exciting, etc. The fact is not all of you will be invited to formulate a business strategy or launch a new product. Most internships are in mundane but business-critical areas. Sales rep route planning or inventory control may not give you a James Bond-like self-image, but areas like these represent solid avenues for sales and profit growth. So, anything is exciting if it results in a healthier P&L. That’s where your bonuses and stock options come from, so buckle down.

In conclusion, extract as much as possible from the project. Explore all departments and dig into as many details of the business as your company allows you. These are the stories and experiences you will narrate with gusto a year later when you appear for Final Placement.

Good luck!

From the author's desk:

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3. Is marketing & finance the best combination of specialization to do an MBA?