Again from the CenterStage (Junie Blogger)

PAID HOLIDAY OF MBA- 'INTERNSHIP' - Excuse me!- I beg to differ.

We are extremely important to the organization. Read why!!

Have you ever had those moments where you are doing something and pop! There is a thought in your head, completely unrelated to the work you are doing or at least useless..?

Well that happens a lot with me, especially when I am in class and the prof is teaching, pop goes the thought in my head and I am like, why don’t the professors have a fashion session, you know, everyone should know what would make them look good. I mean what is the point of wearing your pants up till the chest, or rather looking like ‘Supandi’?( character from Tinkle comics).

Something like that happened to me today while I was just trying to wreck my head into the excel sheet that I had been working on for a week now, trying to crack some figures that I could present to the management. I thought, where did the word – Internship come from? :P 

Yeah yeah.. I know. Very silly question.. but I kinda have a lot of these silly questions! ( ask my classmates, who have a facepalm reaction when I raise my hand in class :) )

So yea coming back to the internship bit, I think it’s called “Internship” coz it’s  about entering into a big (maybe) organization which can be related to “ Battleship Galactica!” organizational structure. :P

OK yeah.. That was utter crap, but on a serious note, now that most of my batch mates are interning in various organizations across the country, I would like to question how important is it to have an internship? I mean being a member of the placement committee, I know one fact for sure that every member of the committee works his/her asses off to get everyone placed. But then is these two months in the organization really worth the students time and energy or can we make do without it? 

From what I get to see of the Fb statuses and just talking to people in general, its like many of them enter the company with such high expectations – “ I am specializing in HR, and the project given to me would help me apply my HR skills, I am specializing in marketing and I will get to experience marketing, sales, branding, falana dimkana and end up being the best intern there ever was.. blaah blaah blaah” 

But in reality do these expectations really get fulfilled? – Maybe Yes , Maybe No. 

But incase it’s a NO, then why so? 

Is it because of the fact that, we the students of LIBA are not well educated ( in terms of MBA knowledge) or is it because the companies take us for granted – that once we come in, we will be used to do not so menial but not so mba’ish jobs and then serve the company with all our hard work and perseverance, just to prove at the end of the day – that YESSS! I can follow orders! Wohooo! :D :/

Look, first things first- there is no doubt that we are taught well. So cross that option of not being educated enough, out. So am I saying that the companies that come to campus ( and mind it when I say campus, I mean most of the MBA campuses, not just LIBA) are hiring us to do clerical jobs?

No not really. Maybe a few. 

I believe that companies who come into the campus do look for MBA’s as interns, but for them MBA intern mean a totally different thing. They want someone to collect data (majorly), data that would cost them money, if outsourced. So they pay 50% or less of the actual cost of outsourcing as the stipend, get the job done ( Yeah they know they job will be done, coz there is the guarantee of the college brand name->good brands= good hardworking students), or coz they want someone to agree with them that what their analysis of a certain decision has been, is correct. You know, we would act like human calculators, collecting, analysing data and then coming up with conclusions that would either starkly be in agreement with them, or the other way round ( and in case u are in the middle- then it’s a sure shot indication of the fact that a) you not getting a PPO- if they provide any b) you don’t know what the ****  about what is going on )

And in case you thought that we were the first one doing what we are doing, and that ohh we are so important to the company then-  no you are wrong for the first part, and right for the second. 

More or less every project given to us, has already been carried out or is being carried out. So we are there to help them, but we definitely are not the first ones to start a brand new trend or invention.

So though I am not specializing in HR, given the opportunity, will I change how things work?

The answer would be – NO.

Why would I, when I am getting the job done in half the price with a person who guarantees me over 100% perseverance compared to the outsourced men?

 I would be nothing but silly to not hire interns- MBA interns.

Then I believe we as students should lower our expectations of an internship. Should we??

With that thought running in my head, and the excel sheet waiting for me to get back to flirt with it,

I shall say tududulzz! 

Yours curiously,

Irutsak

(The 'Anon' Junie Blogger :P )