Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Summer Training

You guys had started screaming your heads off for summer training barely couple of months into your MBA. Now that the time has come, most of you are at sea. The following should give you an idea of the whole funda:
Ideally summer trainings are learning platforms designed to allow the student to gain exposure to the actual workings of the industry and build a bridge between the theory and practice. The summer training should allow you to make a decision regarding the following:
1. Industry of choice (to target for a job if you need one)
2. Ability gaps if any (abilities and skills that will be required for a good career and your current state)
3. Behaviour of theory in the field (obviously only for serious career seekers)
Unfortunately summer training (especially for regional b schools has degenerated into disguised employment events, where companies use cheap (often free) manpower to drive sales for a couple of months in return for a certificate and pipe dreams of "a job if you do well". Even the b schools are unable to formulate policies and practices to maximise the benefit for students.
So what you should be doing as summer trainees:
1. If you are lucky enough to be in summer training in the industry of your choice, build networks (human!!), learn about the major players in the industry, their sizes, product lines, market shares and more importantly the market structure (the company, intermediaries till the end user, their interrelationships).
2. If you are not in industry of choice (or dont have a choice) then look around hard, do what is given in point 1 of the industry you are in and the one that you want to be in. Of course you will have to work harder in this case. The logic of learning about both the industries are that you never know of the employment scenes an year from today.
3. Get to grips with the lifestyle in the real world. Most of you come from insulated protected environments to the college which again is anoth artificially protective environment. If at all you do land a job, the shock of transition sometimes is quite severe. If you are good enough, you will learn the ropes (as much as you can) during the summer training itself.
4. Keep in touch with your teacher in charge regularly (even if for no reason).

4 comments:

Upinder Dhingra said...

That is a typical ashish pillai kind of advice....Sir...i thought building networks would be an easy task..but its the otherwise in industry...nobody talks to you unless n until u hv something to offer thm which could make thm some money..
Sir i have been wondering in markets for days now n realized that earning money is damn tough...hats off to my dad who has been doing this for 25 yrs....

Anonymous said...

Here I would just like to share my experience for Summer Project....
Was finding it difficult where go for my Summer placement, our placement officer helped me with one of his references, I went their (not mentioning the name of the company), met the person in charge, he simply took me to the library and showed me the rack where piles of summer training reports were lying and ask me to help myself and also told me you need not come daily as well...I was disheartened, went back to college told my placement officer that this was not what I want...he gave me another reference this time of a small consultancy..I went there they asked me to do an assignment, visit 10 different service industry and get 100 references...then they will think about hiring me..I did that, went to various banks met some known ones and some unknown ones got 45 references with address and contact numbers, but still got the Job...oops did I say Job...yes my summer training was like a job only and by the way if yours is also like a job u have to do for free then let me congratulate you for starting getting the exposure....I got part time job with another consultancy...got entry into good IT company.... just because I worked for 9-10 hours...listened to my boss who just wanted a profit or was ready to throw me out! felt each day was hell...but now I thank them for making my future....stop whining and start moving in the right direction...you will definitely reap the best fruits later in your life without a single regret!

Ashish Pillai said...

Gurinder is right!!
You gotta go through a lot of *&^& to make it in life. It is like this: Hammer strikes steel, swords are created. Same hammer strikes glass, it shatters!!

Whiners are the glass, people like Gurinder are the Steel..... Thank you Gurinder.

Anonymous said...

I am really obliged Sir.
Your words of appreciation works like a Great Motivator!
Thanks.