Getting the hang of the shipping industry with my internship at A. P. Moller - Maersk | Shivani Gola from IIM Kozhikode

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My internship journey at Maersk started with a simple Google search and by the end, I developed a product for the end-to-end logistics for a particular domain. By the time I was done giving my final review to the area leadership team, I was already in love with the organization. Even after my end review, some team members approached me for understanding the product in detail. To tell you more about my rich internship experience at Maersk, here is my story.

Maersk is a leading shipping company in the world and I was always interested in knowing the ins and outs of exports/imports and the shipping industry because of my own family's export business. Unfortunately, my internship was virtual because of COVID 19 mayhem, however, I am very grateful that even during the pandemic, Maersk did not revoke its offer. And it’s one of the reasons my trust in the company became stronger, such that I would love to work for them in the long run!

The selection process, roles and responsibilities

The process of getting selected for an internship at Maersk was simple, all it needed was clearing a GD and a personal interview round. After successfully cracking the selection process, I was offered the role of a sales intern, where my project required to create a value proposition for a particular customer segment in the chemicals industry. This involved gathering customer insights, pain points, challenges, expectations, and a deep understanding of the market.

I made hundreds of cold calls to customers to know their needs, interviewed them about their customer journey, gathered their will to buy the value proposition I was creating, and lastly made the financials of the impact this value proposition is going to create.

When feedbacks and fun go hand-in-hand

Review sessions were all about not limiting to the types of customers I was talking to. My mentor always pushed me to talk to every type of customer segment under chemical i.e. major, medium and minor players. The feedback included how to gather information without creating doubt in their head because sometimes a few customers were also the competitors of Maersk.

Adding to my roles, responsibilities, review sessions, I would say that Maersk is not just about these. It has a balanced work ethic and equally pays attention to the employee’s well-being. Even when it was a virtual internship, it made sure to keep us engaged and energetic instead of bogging us down. I would also like to mention some of the incidents that made the virtual mode memorable, like sharing the wrong part of the screen such as my youtube page, managing weird background noises while making calls, meeting my fellow interns on zoom, clicking pictures with them, and much more.

Strongly imbibed values of the company

Talking about the origins and value of the company, it was founded in 1904 in Denmark. Undoubtedly, Maersk is one of those few companies due to which exports and imports took big turns in many countries. Being this old and well-experienced company, Maersk has been the leader in the shipping industry. While fulfilling the commitments to its stakeholders, it very well maintains the positive work culture among its employees.

I remember how during my internship at Maersk, I approached one of its employees for understanding one of the factors of export and we ended up discussing the general hiring process of Maersk, which focuses on core values of employees and maintains a legacy of its strong culture. One such value that I genuinely observed was that everyone was so helpful, they would go out of their way to help in any manner. Another such instance was when one of the team members left Maersk for a break just after one week of the commencement of my internship, but she explained the nitty-gritty of the project during her break time to fill the gap and maintain a smooth functioning.

When I say values, another significant one that Maersk strives for is that it lives by its name. With my own experience, I could say how its employees are proud of being a part of Maersk. Even I am proud to say that I did an internship at Maersk, which honored its offers even during the unprecedented times of COVID. 

If I had to describe Maersk in one word, it would be "Awesome!"