Going beyond the obvious with my internship at Nestlé -By Manish Kumar Mishra from NITIE Mumbai

From late-night brainstorming sessions to presentation iterations, from listening to industry leaders to being provided an opportunity to work at the interface of Supply Chain and Sales functions, I can genuinely say that my internship at Nestlé has been an experience of a kind. The virtual format and the unprecedented situation presented such challenges that seemed intimidating but pushed us to go beyond our limits and come out with flying colors, contributing to our skillset and Nestlé.

The selection process for an Internship at Nestlé 

Nestlé is one of the most coveted companies for all the B-Schoolers. The selection process started with an initial CV based shortlist, followed by a group discussion round on non-technical business-related topics. Post the GD, there were two rounds of interviews, one of which tested our business acumen and understanding of how Supply Chain functions. The other PI round was to assess our personality and judge our cultural fit with the organization.

Standing up against the season of lay-offs

With COVID-19 starting to gain ground in India in late March, several organizations had begun to defer internship offers. We were blessed to be a part of such an organization that stuck to its promise of an incredible internship experience. 

Even before the onboarding process started, the HR team ensured that they kept us engaged through various activities, small group meetings, and a lovely surprise gift hamper for all interns. The virtual onboarding process was a real challenge for the HR team. Still, they went about it in such a calm and composed manner, it became a lesson for us in terms of how to perceive every challenge as an opportunity and maintain our composure when trying to conquer it. We had several test calls, ice-breaking sessions, fun quizzes, and group activities. When the big day itself arrived, and we were officially starting our internship at Nestlé, we felt like we were already a part of the Nestlé family.

Marching ahead with a perfect induction

It felt like a dream come true, when on our first day, we got the opportunity to interact with the CMD himself, Mr. Suresh Narayanan, and all senior leaders at Nestlé, and listen to their thoughts and vision. When it comes to learnings, I genuinely believe that the entire Nestlé team's efforts to get us acquainted with various functions are unparalleled. These extensive sessions helped ensure that we were thorough with the ways Nestlé functioned as an organization, even though we were not physically present there. 

Starting my internship at Nestlé and going through my project brief, like most of my friends, the fear of being in a situation that no previous batch of MBA students had an experience of, crippled me. I can never thank my project guide, Mr. Atul Kumar, and my mentors Mr. Amit Vira and Mr. Rakesh Nair, enough for the support and guidance that I received regularly. On the very first day, Atul sir advised me that the only way to win in this format of the internship was to "Go beyond what seems obvious." These words echo in my ears even today. The close interactions that I had with my guide and mentors and the entire team at Nestlé started imbibing formidable traits of responsibility and passion. 

When I look back at what I learned and how I grew as a person in those eight weeks with this team, I firmly believe that the pandemic's additional challenges helped us go beyond our expectations. While it is true that in the physical format, it would have been much more fun to interact with our co-interns and the Nestlé team, still, given the constraints, the steep learning curve helped me learn and grow much more as a person in this format too.

The journey of learning, unlearning, and relearning

For my project, I worked with one of the most sophisticated and strategically important teams at Nestlé, the Customer Facing Supply Chain team. The project required close collaboration with various Supply Chain functions and the sales team at Nestlé. In the supply chain domain, it gets challenging to understand the entire process and formulate a solution in a virtual internship. But the level of coordination between different functions made it easier for me to interact with people, understand and analyze the problem and finally, through my efforts, make a meaningful contribution to Nestlé.

Perhaps, the most important learning from my internship at Nestlé was that one should not get restricted merely to one's assigned team or function. These challenging times test our ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn the ways of working; hence, one should always try to go a step beyond and build relations with other teams and people. Apart from the benefits in the project, it also aids in building a personal brand, which goes a long way in shaping one's career. 

Bagging a PPO at Nestlé

The talent acquisition team at Nestlé kept a close watch on our progress in our respective projects. We went through several mini-reviews with the HR team before and after our mid-review. After our final project review in front of the Supply Chain leadership team, we received a call from the talent acquisition team that our respective teams have recommended us for a PPI. The PPI consisted of 2 rounds, one each with the HR team and the Supply Chain leadership team, to again understand our learnings from the internship, business acumen, and aspirations for our career. Based on our PPIs, the much-coveted Nestlé PPO results were declared, and that day is one of the best days of my life to date.

Words of wisdom for the young guns

As my 2 cents to the upcoming batch of interns who will be facing the wrath of these unprecedented times just like we did, I would like to offer three small pieces of advice which I found useful for myself: 

Firstly, be prepared to learn new things, and in some cases, that can only be done by unlearning what you already know. Secondly, go beyond your expectations, talk, interact, discuss, brainstorm, and ask questions to as many people as possible, never shy away from learning through others' experiences. Thirdly, break down the end goal into small steps of success early on in your project, but always have the end goal in your mind.

All in all -

"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits, we don't grow when things are easy but only when we face challenges."