Indeed a learning Summer experience

I did my two months internship in this summers. I did it in Tata Sikorsky Aerospace Limited, Hyderabad. A joint venture of Tata Advance Limited and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation to manufacture the Sikorsky-92 helicopters in India in 2009.

The Sikorsky Aerospace limited is an aircraft detail parts manufacturer cable of precision machining, sheet metal fabrication and various special processes.

I was fortunate to be offered internship with HR Department in Training and Learning section at Tata Sikorsky at Hyderabad. I am grateful because I could only work for two months and they allowed me to have my one of the most important learning experience in their organisation. I learnt many valuable lessons and I would like to share them in this blog post.

“Don’t come to me with problems, come with recommendations how to do it”.

One of the most important things that I learnt from manager is to be a proactive and initiator. Once you are assigned with work. She did not ask me how you are doing it. She wanted the task completed. Trust me, all your managers wants to do is evaluate the options, sign off and make the final call. You should do be doing all the leg work.

‘An Intern’s job is to make the manager look good ’

Your mentor manager delegate responsibility for some task to you. He or she believes in you to do justice to it. Nobody would come to intern and pin point things its the manager who will be held responsible. If the task is not done then manager will be held responsible. Usually what happens is when things go according to plan, intern gets credit. Hence why we should be doing our best to make sure that we outperform. This leads to a good impression and gets extra learning and points from the mentor.

‘If you say Yes every time and in every situation then nobody would realize.’

There were few incidents during the time of internship when there was much in my plate and it was difficult to take any other task in that particular period. I could not say no to people. Then my mentor gave me this piece of advice.

‘Learn to play the game’

I learnt a lot about how a and HR manager functions. This internship made me realize that university really does not prepare you for the practical scenarios that are to be faced by the new people who wish to work in corporate. In my time, I learnt a lot about how real business operates. I saw inter-department wrangling as well selective disclosure of information which I think probably true for many workplaces.

‘Document whatever you are doing, action plans, inter department interaction, your learning as well as failure. ’

I felt this insight acted as a valuable lesson that I got for my internship. My mentor told me to record every interaction of yours regarding training with different departments. At first I took it casually but after one incident where a manager of different department totally refused that I have communicated certain piece information, in front of my manager. I got to understand the importance of documentation. Keeping a record of projects delivered, performance feedback received and what you learned from any mistakes. A few months post internship, your memory of events will be patchy best.

Lastly, you have to be open to learn, enthusiastic to work, innovative to design action plans to increase the efficiency from your end and taking of ownership of whatever you do as well as being flexible in your working style.