Page 52 - PPO Diaries

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www.flipbuilder.com ©®
PPO Diaries

I used to reach the office by 11:00-11:30 AM and on most days still managed to reach before my manager, every
day I had few meetings planned out because my work required inputs from multiple teams like the Warehouse
team, Ekart Team, Vendors and Advertisements, and Sales team. Between those meetings, I used to arrange a
few meetings with the Product team and Data analyst teams to understand requirements and gather the
required data.

I had to give bi-weekly presentations containing project update to my Manager and Director so once all the
daily meetings and tasks were done; I used to prepare a report for the upcoming bi-weekly review.

It was a lot of work but there was something new to learn every day, new excel tricks, R studio, Supply chain of
FMCG, Vendor negotiations, Cross-section between safety stock, in-stock and working capital and how does an
eCommerce giant manage its Big Billion Days Sales.

❖ What are the challenges faced during the Internship?

Being an eCommerce giant Flipkart had a lot of data and that data required a lot of cleaning and pre-processing;
having no previous idea on how to handle such big data it was a challenge at first.

Also, I had to negotiate with vendors for better products, deals and it wasn’t easy to get good deals when the
vendors are aware of the fact that you are just an intern.

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

I made a lot of mistakes, but the best part was the bi-weekly review, all of my mistakes got identified at the
early stages and hence I did not waste time due to them.

I made a lot of connections, thanks to the meetings I had to do because of my project with various stakeholders;
I was able to make a connection in almost all the departments of Flipkart.
I made some really good friends in fellow interns as well as my teammates and almost all of them helped me at
one point or another during my internship.

During the starting of my intern I was too dependent on the data analyst team for availability of data which led
to unnecessary delay in my work, this could have been easily avoided if I knew R beforehand.

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

1. Make sure you know the requirements well.
2. Do not commit to anything you are not sure about.
3. It is okay to say no to something you don’t know, you can always ask time to learn and do it.
4. Ask help whenever and wherever in doubt rather than just sitting on it.
5. It's okay to fail given that you have put in your 100% effort in the right direction.

❖ What pre-internship preparation do you suggest for juniors?

1. Go through company values, connect with alums and past interns and ask about previous years' projects and
expectations.
2. Go through basic Supply Chain Jargons and definitions.
3. Have an above basic level knowledge of Excel and R studio.
4. Go through lingo used in eCommerce in the retails sector for various input and output.

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