Page 102 - PPO Diaries

PPO Diaries

❖ What are the challenges faced during Internship?

Time was the biggest constraint, there just didn’t seem to be enough of it. Project took major part of the
day, but I had to somehow carve out time for initiatives and proposals. Along with all this, there would be
calls from various individuals to help them do research or build a presentation deck, and I couldn’t say no, I
wanted the experience and wanted to learn as much as possible. Then came along mid and end term
presentations, they had to be made on a single slide, with multiple Deloitte format rules, they had to be
authenticated by points of contact and scrutinised by counsellors, managers, more the criticism, the better
and then rehearsed for presentation.

Even the tools that we used, in my case they were SQL, Tableau and some other proprietary Deloitte tools,
they were to be learned and used in minimal time. There could be no mistakes in any presentation, or
research or data analysis, everything had to tailored to meet client needs and delivered within the deadline.
But the fast pace also meant the learning curve was very steep and there was never an unproductive hour.

❖ What did you do right and what did you do wrong?

Did right: I double checked and then triple checked anything I did and made sure I had at least one review
with my point of contact before submitting my deliverables. This made sure there was no error, it showed
that I was cognizant of the deadline and that I cared about the quality of the deliverables. I was also clear in
communicating, when I was well versed with the task at hand, and when I was completely new to it, it helped
establish the right expectations, this also made sure we were all on the same page.

Did wrong: I was not able to network with as many people as I wanted, there was just not enough
bandwidth, but looking back at it, I realise that I could have done some things more efficiently and could
have found time to talk to individuals and learn from their experience as well.

❖ What are the things to keep in mind in the internship?

First and foremost, you will be monitored at every stage, every single move make will add to your feedback,
make sure you don’t give anyone any reason to reject you.

Build trust with everyone you work with, if you promised a specific quality of deliverable in a specific time,
make sure you overdeliver, that is, you should deliver better quality in lesser time. Interact with everyone
on the floor, not just your team and your department, demonstrate that you can be a great person to work
with in a team, ask about everyone’s experience and their career journey, there is always something you
can learn from everyone.

Find ways to automate wherever possible and finish the task given to you as soon as you can and then ask
for more work, this will show that you can be entrusted with additional responsibility.
Communicate well, make to the point remarks and ask questions only when you genuinely have doubts, not
just to get brownie points, people figure that out and it becomes a negative mark for you.

Admit when you don’t have the skill or require assistance. No one knows everything, and you are not
expected to know everything either, but don’t make wrong assumptions or silly mistakes. You won’t be

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