ITC, HUL, and P&G Internship Hiring Process for IIT Summer Internships
Hello Friends!
I know you are way more anxious than ever while applying for your big opportunity working with FMCG Mammoths.
**This blog is what I know about these companies and what I have experienced so far.**
First, let’s understand what role these companies hire for and what you should expect.
What do all 3 have in common?
In your internship, you are given a solo project to steer through with a project guide and a buddy. The name might be different but the function is more or less similar for these seniors to guide and help you through the project. You go to factories and explore the world of manufacturing & supply chain and understand how these giants execute with perfection and brainstorm at a different level. Each company offers a 2-month internship.
All 3 hire interns and evaluate you as a candidate to join for Full Time roles under different verticals through their programs.
What are the Internship Programs?
- ITC KITES — ITC hires interns from IITs & IIMs through KITES Technical & Management program. KITES is considered to be one of the leading programs to train Business leaders for the future. Indian E-Commerce genius Vidit Aatrey (Founder — Meesho) & Shark Tank Investor Vineeta Singh (Founder — Sugar Cosmetics) are some of the celebrated entrepreneurs that have worked with ITC. Many more successful leaders have worked with ITC under the program and continue to do so for the exposure & platform that the Proudly Indian company offers.
- HUL ULIP — Unilever Leadership Internship Program, HUL’s trademark program to hire interns from IITs & IIMs. For IITs, they offer 2 roles — Supply Chain generally open for Mechanical & Chemical Engineering students, and Core Research open for Chemical Engineering students. If you are offered a Full-Time role / PPO you move forward to UFLP — Unilever Future Leaders Programme.
- P&G — P&G also hires students from IITs & IIMs for different divisions under their summer internship program.
“The Hiring Process”
Again all 3 companies look for leaders and people passionate to work with them and generate value for the company and the country. Each company is highly specific in finding the right cultural fit for themselves.
- ITC — ITC asks you to fill out a form with specific questions about your achievements, journey, interests, and passion. Then there is a Resume Shortlist Round, which is followed by a very interesting Case Group Discussion with hypothetical scenarios. The goal of this exercise is to gauge the candidate’s communication & convincing skills. Then there is resume shortlisting followed by 2 rounds of combined (Technical + HR) interviews.
- HUL — HUL also asks you to fill out a form & does a shortlist based on the responses you fill out. The goal is to find the right cultural fit. Then there is a video interview round where you are given a business case on their platform and you have to think and answer 3 questions on that case for 2 minutes each. This is to check the level of understanding and communication skills. This is followed by 1 Final Interview.
- P&G — P&G first shortlists candidates on a psychometric test. I still have no clue how it functions and in IITs it is considered as Random Shortlisting (The most accepted phrase to define the Summer Internship Process at IITs). Anyways the trick is to fill out the answers for the test on extremes and not middle pointers. This is followed by a gamified Mental Ability Test which is done in hostels with 4 friends working out together, each one assigned a task in the game. This is followed by a resume shortlist, and a 3-member GD & HR Round.
“Differences in the Hiring Process & What you should expect”
Most of you are here to find the answer to the question that whether these companies will ask you about subjects of your core branches.
That depends on the interviewer but I can give you my analysis.
ITC will be the most technical interview, both the interviews have a technical member present. You should expect core branch questions.
P&G can ask guesstimates and maybe comparative questions since they shortlist 1 or 2 candidates from the 3-member GD.
HUL’s interview is fairly similar, the video interview is a bit unique and hence not easy to prepare for.
**This was the Summer Internship hiring process at IIT BHU in 2022, as much as I can remember**
“Key things to care for while making RESUME!”
At some level, all companies have a resume shortlist. All the information that interviewers have is your resume and form responses. Your resume should reflect your passion and interest in management and your technical approach to problem-solving. Since this is what the job requires.
Internships, Projects, PORs & Achievements — You need to be clear about what you did, what you wish to convey, and what the resume actually translates to be. Multiple iterations over the resume are preferred.
“Resume should be considered as Real Estate! Each line, each word should clearly convey your message and there should be a story that defines it.” Your resume is your journey, each journey is a story and should reflect that way. Why you did go for something is as important as what you did.
Get your resume reviewed by your seniors and mentors. Approach people on Linked In and gather as much information as you can. Clarity of thought, in-depth understanding, good communication, intent & passion for FMCG Hiring is what DSA is to SDE hiring.
“Interview — What to prepare for & How to crack it?”
Interviewers will go into detail about your past internships and projects. You should be well versed with Anything and Everything you write on the resume. You should clearly convey the impact of your work and what did you learn from it. In the end, this is what matters to them.
Prepare an HR doc with answers to generic questions and how you wish to answer them. Unpopular opinion, but you should be in control of your interview. From the first question you need to lead the interviewers and show them the direction in which you wish to talk about. Questions like Why this company? , Why we should hire you? , Your weakness, Your strength & the most important one “Walk me through your resume”.
Answers to the HR doc should also be iterated again and again. You should be ready with answers to these questions when the hiring process starts so that you can fine-tune the answers for each company.
Your answer to Walk me through your resume defines the path of your interview. After a small introduction, you should directly jump to your best internship/project and convey everything about it in 40–60 seconds. Here you have set the tone for the interview and conveyed your clarity of thought and passion. Passion in an interview is restricted to good communication. Clearly understand what is asked and answer to the point.
You should go through Six Sigma frameworks, the DMAIC approach, Quality Management, Assurance, and Control. Try to answer through these frameworks but don't oversell it. Especially for HUL Video Interview round.
Before the hiring process you should be ready and equipped with :
- Resume
- HR Doc
- Concepts clarity (DMAIC, Six Sigma, etc)
- Understanding of internships and projects.
- 40–60 second detail description of every internship and project.
- GD & Guesstimate Practice.
“My Journey”
I sat for on-campus summer internships in 2022 at IIT BHU. As much as I respect people who code I didn't have any interest in coding. My on-campus resume had 1 internship — Analyst at Urban Company, 3 projects — Inter IIT Tech 10.0 Gold Winning Supply Chain project for Blue Yonder Sustainable Supply Chain Challenge, Supply Chain Optimization project with ELAI Agritech & Research project under NIT Bhopal, 1 Publication, 2 PORs, Honours & Achievements & Extra Curricular Achievements.
Since these 3 were my target companies, my goal was clear. I reached out to a lot of people from IIT BHU & different colleges. I didn't clear the P&G Psychometric test [Random Shortlisting :)], but did go for the final interview with HUL & ITC. My HUL interview was for around 45 mins and ITC rounds were around 30 mins each. Finally, with God’s grace and help and support from friends and family, I got the KITES Summer Internship offer from ITC.
You can reach out to me on
Linked In — https://www.linkedin.com/in/yashgupta16/
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