My internship at TechnoServe was a perfect stint! -By Monalisa Mohanty from Xavier School of Rural Management 

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Based in Washington, D.C., TechnoServe is a non-profit organization that has prodigious plans for the developing world. It works with enterprising individuals and promotes business solutions to poverty in developing countries by linking people to information, capital, and markets. Certainly, working with such an organization is dignitary. Here is an excerpt from my internship experience at TechnoServe.

To get into the internship program offered by TechnoServe, one has to clear its selection process which consists of,

• CV shortlisting

• Interview rounds

The selected candidates after the CV shortlisting underwent two rounds of interviews. Both the interviews were telephonic. The first round of interviews was conducted by the Project Manager, where the focus was majorly on the questions related to our course curriculum. After getting through the first round, the candidates faced an HR interview round. During this round, the questions centered around family and educational background. And that's it, after passing these rounds, we were ready to embark on the journey of internship at TechnoServe.

All about the induction and a targeted project

Due to the ongoing crisis, we started our internship a bit late. However, we did have an amazing induction with the entire Programme team and the Project Manager. This was conducted through a zoom call. After everyone’s introduction - we were briefed about the organization's expectations from us. They also talked about the work they did and the project that we were all a part of. 

After a combined session we were allotted teams and I was given my first task to collect secondary data on the impact of FPO on the farmers of Madhya Pradesh. Currently, I am a part of the Monitoring and Evaluation team along with four others. Our job involves calling farmers - especially women who were part of the 'Prakriti' project launched by Technoserve. We needed to assess the impact that the project had on these women's lives. I am involved in assessing the impact of the 'PACE' program.

Powerful life lessons

Our mentor was very understanding and she helped us whenever we called or texted her. She taught us so much beyond work - starting from the importance of keeping track of progress to having a plan for the day. Some of the other major learnings during my internship at TechnoServe are as follows:

• I enhanced my analytical skills and Excel knowledge.

• I learnt about data cleaning, coding, and basic office etiquettes. 

• I understood that honing skills is equally important as learning sincerity, punctuality, and presentation of work.

• Having a plan to finish work is critical.

• No single person knows everything and it is important to ask what you do not understand and take help whenever needed.

During the entire stint to date, I can never forget the calling experience when we were talking to farmer women and they were so friendly even to strangers like us. They asked us to visit them and welcomed us to stay over. All of this was very heartwarming!