What I learned during my internship at OYO -By Mandeep Singh Makkad from KJ SIMSR

We had frequent interaction with the HR, and she assured us that our internship at OYO wouldn't get affected in such tough times. We were informed of everything related to the internship well in advance and received regular updates from the company. There were a few prerequisite onboarding steps, such as uploading various documents and their verification. Everything was seamless, and the team was there to provide support in times of need.

Initially, I thought that there wouldn't be a proper framework, considering OYO being a startup. But I'm surprised to see how strongly the organization has built a core. It's just been a month with OYO, and I have already worked on numerous projects, special thanks to my Mentor Alok Sir and Shramani Ma'am, who are there to help me out and just a call away whenever required.

I was somewhat sceptical regarding my internship as it is my first corporate experience, and it turned out to be a virtual one. So there were some obvious questions in my mind - How will I get the required corporate exposure? How will I learn from the projects? What kind of projects will they offer me? Whether I will get any practical business learning or not?

But now post one month of my internship, I can say that OYO has provided me with the required business exposure by frequent interaction with the CEOs, business heads, and daily meetings with my project team.

A 4-step selection process 

The selection process of internship at OYO included these steps:

1. CV shortlisting
2. Case discussion on OYO's business based problems
3. Technical interview
4. HR based interview

Technical Interview was the most interesting one. Since I love playing with numbers so it was like a cherry on the cake to get a guesstimate based situation and the interviewer liked the way I solved the problem. HR interview was based on the questions related to my background, hospitality sector, the business of OYO, my thoughts on new ideas I can bring in for the company.

On-boarding and Induction process

My internship started with a virtual induction, wherein we were asked to introduce ourselves to our peers. Furthermore, they asked to share any quirky traits or characteristics. It was like an ice-breaker for us and even helped us to understand each other well. The session was followed by a brief explanation about the company's products and business models, which I believe was an important step taken by the organization as it provided us with a clear understanding of OYO's business. Moreover, it even helped in getting a better understanding of our projects during execution.

Further, the induction changed my perception of the company's operations. Now I know that the company's business model is not that simple as it seems like, there are so many things happening in and around the business.

Active engagement and connection with interns 

This is the most exciting part of our internship at OYO. We had an interactive session with Mr Rohit Kapoor, who is the CEO of OYO. He explained the things we can do to ensure better learning from this internship. We also talked about the post-COVID effects on our final placements and what all we can do to secure a better job during these dark times.

Moreover, OYO offered Virtually Unplugged sessions to the teams, and these sessions helped us understand all the new initiatives taken by the company, post-COVID effect on the hospitality sector, and other industries.

What went on during my internship at OYO

As a virtual internship, OYO ensured each intern had a project along with a Project mentor assigned to him. The mentor was always available to ensure the smooth handling of the project assigned to the intern. It has not just helped us in clearing our project related doubts but even helped us to make sure we learn various aspects of the corporate culture.

Furthermore, the company provided us with an opportunity to work across divisions. Even after being a supply intern, I  learned every other aspect of the business. We also had an interactive session with Mr Mayur Hola who is currently the Head of Global Brand at OYO.

A journey of building business acumen

OYO being my first corporate experience has been a fantastic journey. I've always wanted to work in a culture where we get to work with the firm's leadership. Leadership ensures that we get first-hand corporate exposure and helps us to build our business acumen, which will be helpful going forward.

We had the leverage to share our views on different problems pertaining to the business or the hospitality industry. We also discussed the changes that the company can adapt and the top-level management ensured we get proper validation or credits for our work. 

Moreover, I would like to highlight one of the important events organized by OYO to make sure interns participate in decision making. It organized OYO FRUGALATHON where anyone can come up with ideas to reduce various costs associated with the business and a plan that can help sustain the business in the long run. The teams with the best ideas will get to present their solution in front of the founder of OYO, Mr Ritesh Agarwal. It was a great initiative taken by the company and to prove their ideology that an intern can do equally well as an employee.

Roles and responsibilities

I'm interning under the Supply domain wherein I get to interact with various stakeholders involved in operating properties that are associated with OYO. Also, I am working on a research paper where I interact with different operators of the properties and try to understand their modus operandi of the business. This information will be used to make a proper tool for the analysis of these operators and areas where they can improve their operations.

Major takeaways

Regular meetings and interaction with different stakeholders have immensely helped me to improve my soft skills. One learning that I would like to highlight is the practical application of all the concepts taught in MBA lectures. Be it those interesting classroom Marketing lectures, Excel classes, Presentation skills, or Data Analysis; everything is applied in the internship. There are so many tools that I was not even aware of, but at least now, I know the primary application of those business tools and how these tools can be used to ease the operations.

Let’s prepare ourselves for the worst 

To all my peers and MBA aspirants, ensure you move ahead in such times by gaining some new skills, extra knowledge, and more experience. We should utilize it effectively not by following what other students are learning but by learning those things that suit you well for your career.

We all are in a dilemma regarding our future placements scenario. Still, the least we can do is to make ourselves ready for tough times. Try to speculate on the type of industry you want to work with and gain as many insights as you can regarding that industry or sector so that you are placement ready. Also, don't have stubborn choices with any specific industry. This is not a year to perform such a stunt. Make sure you have a backup as well.

And the most important one: It doesn’t matter what you do in life, learn Microsoft Excel!