My internship journey at Mondelez as an iTaster -By Vanshika Sharma from XLRI Jamshedpur

Growing up, I was always a Bournvita kid (still am!) and even today some of my all-time favourite snacking brands are Cadbury and Oreo. So when I received an offer to intern at Mondelez during the summers, it was nothing less than a dream come true. I had always wanted to learn more about the brands that I have cherished over the years and just like its snacks, my internship experience at Mondelez was also a sweet, salty, and wholesome ride.

Beginning of a sweet journey

Even though my journey as an iTaster (that’s what summer trainees are called at Mondelez) started in times of extreme uncertainty due to the pandemic, the onboarding team of Mondelez maintained constant communication with its interns which made us feel welcomed even before the start of the internship. I can certainly say that the induction process at Mondelez was one of the smoothest and most engaging among organizations. 

Since ours was an internship-from-home, I was very apprehensive of how we’ll be able to connect with our fellow interns over the next 2 months. However, the fun and interactive activities organized during the induction (and throughout the internship as well) helped us interact among ourselves even outside the professional domain. Apart from this, the 3-day online onboarding process was one of the most insightful experiences as it exposed us to the different fields in the organization from sales to marketing to HR through detailed sessions with senior leadership members. To equip us with the norms of the 'new normal', we were also introduced to the online platforms that would be essential throughout our internship, well in advance.

The thrilling project and its valuable learnings

My project at Mondelez was based on live marketing and was an enriching experience as I got to interact with employees from different domains. Having received a live project I had to deal with real-time problems in a given time constraint, but the constant support of my guide and mentor kept me motivated. 

Having no prior experience in marketing, a lot of the concepts and processes were new to me but my guide was always ready to clarify my doubts and guided me in the right direction. The weekly project team meetings gave me an insight into the working and coordination of different functions within the project. Since these were unprecedented times, my guide also scheduled weekly casual catch-up sessions to ensure that I was able to cope up with my responsibilities and was in sync with the project deliverables. This was one particular meeting that I eagerly looked forward to every week. Apart from getting an in-depth and practical knowledge of marketing, I also got to understand the importance of knowing whom to approach for a certain task to get it done efficiently since different people in a team often have different priorities. The focus on consumers and understanding their needs was one of the major philosophies at Mondelez and it helped me in challenging myself and coming up with innovative solutions for various consumer demands.

Though the pandemic greatly impacted our internship experience by not letting us work in our offices, the entire team at Mondelez, from the onboarding team to my guide and mentor ensured that this one of a kind 'internship-from-home' was no different from an offline experience. It has left me with a sense of accomplishment and pride as I got to associate myself with some legacy brands and a better understanding of the story and journey behind their success.