Karnika Dubey Shares Her R&D Internship Experience At Tata Consumer Products Limited (TCPL) Exclusively With Unstop

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Experiences of internships play a key role in helping students transition into professional life. Even though interns have a limited role to play in a team, they get the opportunity to network and gain valuable professional experiences. As a result, students tend to jump into every good internship opportunity that comes their way.

However, in order to get into top companies as an intern, thorough preparation is needed. For Karnika Dubey, a PG student of Food Technology and Management, everything started with preparation. Speaking to Unstop, Karnika shared her journey of interning with Tata Consumer Products Limited (TCPL).

Also read: IIM Ahmedabad Student Shares his Product Management Internship Experience at Airtel

Let's take a sneak peek into her journey as an intern at TCPL. 

Preparing For The Summer Internship

Stressing on the importance of starting early, Karnika explained how she had begun her preparations long before even the application process started. A dedicated long-term approach helped her not only land the internship at TCPL but also get ‘some extra edge’.

“During my B. Tech, I learnt that I needed to get some extra edge for better placements,” she said. “So, my preparation for summer internships began as soon as my course started. I brushed up on the basics from my course, prepared for aptitude & reasoning for preliminary rounds, and started noting any current trends in the food industry,” Karnika said.

Karnika’s preparation was exhaustive and it involved brushing up her knowledge on relevant topics, participating in competitions, and trying to constantly upskill herself. She also said that reading about the internship and job experiences on Unstop gave her a lot of ideas.

“I also started participating in all relevant competitions & hackathons like – Nestle Agri Challenge & Mondelez Mavins, Wagenengin Food Systems Innovation Challenge, Dupont Nutri Scholar, and Virtual Post Harvest Hackathon, to name a few. I was constantly upskilling myself by going through different courses and reading interviews & experiences of other students on Unstop for guidance. Trust me; it gives you a lot of ideas!” she added.

The Interview Process & How To Crack It

In order to land the internship at TCPL, Karnika had to go through a simple three-step process. It started with shortlisting of profiles, followed by an HR interview and a technical interview round. However, is it always this simple? Karnika says, “The process was quite simple, mainly because it was towards the end of the placement cycle.”

Speaking about her interview process, Karnika said that the technical interview was based on her resume and past experiences. She also gave a broad range of topics based on which questions were asked in the interview.

1. The competitions and hackathons she participated in - her strategy and approach in them.
2. The projects she has worked on previously and some technical questions associated with them.
3. Her learning from her previous internships and work experience and how they will help her in her current role.
4. An instance when she failed to do something and how she improved on it later.
5. Reasons behind wanting to be a part of TCPL.

As a word of advice for students who are planning to get into an internship role, Karnika said, “hard skills are ones the company can teach you. They are mainly looking for a candidate who has the zeal to learn & has a positive attitude towards their job.”

However, she added, “I think my background & experiences, other than just my academics, were why they chose me. Just be sure that you know what you've done in the past and that your basics are strong. I made sure to stay interactive in the pre-placement talk by asking them relevant questions about the company & the research & development facilities.”

The Nature Of Work For An Intern At TCPL

“I did not have a very "defined" scope of work. It included almost everything – from secondary research, keeping track of current trends, proof of concept studies, benchtop experiments, product benchmarking, collaborating with external stakeholders, coming up with new ideas, and supporting other R&D activities and whatnot,” Karnika said.

In fact, it was the broad range of experience that she gained while interning at TCPL that made it all the more fruitful. Instead of focusing on a highly specific domain, the company allowed her to work on multiple areas and she got a chance to experience the full research and development lifecycle.

Furthermore, Karnika said, “I also had a chance to visit the production plant of some Tata Products. They don't pressure you for anything during an internship – it's all on you how much you want to work. Nobody is going to come to you to give work – you must be active & ask them to provide you with more work.”

Facing Challenges At Work And Overcoming Them

Karnika said that she was given a free run during the internship. Her boss at the job would tell her, “see, I can tell you what to do and how to do it, but then you won't learn much. Go figure out how to get it done and you can come to me for help wherever you feel stuck”.

Although it sounds pretty cool now, Karnika says that it became difficult as it was a new domain for her, and she had very little knowledge about it. However, with time, she was able to figure out how to navigate the challenges at the internship and found a way to get the job done.

“Most of my work was research, there have been many days where I have brain fog, so I make sure I have some, or the other no-brainer work – like documentation – that I save for those kinds of days,” she further said. “I used to think that everyone knows what they're doing. But the reality is – nobody and literally nobody exactly knows it all – be it the CEO & MD of the company – they make decisions based on their experiences & hope for the best,” she added.

Also read: From Tata Imagination Challenge 2020 To Brand And Marketing at Tata Sons - Aiyush Bahl, TAS 2021

Major Learnings During The Internship

An internship is a learning curve and students who have the mindset to learn can really gain a lot from any internship.

“An internship is the place best place to build long-term professional relations. When you're an intern - everyone sees you as a student and they're always ready to teach you, so always be open to learning. There might be days when you would feel if anything you do even matters - but trust me it does. No work is small,” Karnika said.

Summing up her experience of learning during her internship at TCPL, Karnika had five points to mention.

1. Many technical skills and how to put it into something much bigger
2. Importance of Networking & talking to people – discuss their work & projects with them
3. Understanding the workplace culture
4. Maintain good relations with people – you never know when you will cross paths with them again in the professional world
5. Work hard & with complete dedication, especially at the beginning of your career, because the dynamics are ever-changing & the industry is very competitive

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