How To Crack A Summer Internship PPO | Hari S. (Ex-SHRBP Amazon, XLRI Co'11)

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Take Part In Summer Saga S09 Round Zero Here!

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2) Prepare A Robust 50-Day Project Plan:

While summer projects are of a two-month duration, it is important to keep the last 10 days for project presentation preparation, last-minute additions to scope, and writing the executive summary. Make a 50-day plan with a week-wise breakup and discuss it with your project guide/buddy and send fortnightly updates as to how your project is progressing.
How to prepare a robust 50-day project plan: A robust 50-day project plan will follow the 80-20 rule with 80% of the time devoted to primary research (interacting with customers/employees/competitors/other stakeholders etc) The rest of the time should be devoted to analysis/documentation/number crunching etc. The plan should also have a date for mid-project review.

3) Build Rich Insights:

The key to a successful summer project is rich insights that are derived from extensive primary research. Extensive primary research ensures that your recommendations are spot on.
How to build rich insights? Based on the nature of your project, decide on the method of primary research, including details like the sample size of stakeholders you want to interact with, mode of research, questions to be asked, etc. Look at various options, list down their pros/cons and decide what works best for you based on cost, quality, time and project context.

4) Evaluate multiple hypotheses before arriving at any conclusion:

It is important that you form your own opinions after doing your primary and secondary research. Do not go only by what you hear from people when you ask them questions about why certain things are working/not working. Reflect upon every input received and use data as the guiding light to eliminate/firm up hypotheses.
How to arrive at the correct hypothesis: The first step is to list down all possible hypotheses for your project problem statement. Once you have listed down all these, finish your primary and secondary research and eliminate the hypotheses which do not seem to be working. Use techniques like 5-why, fishbone, and root-cause analysis to arrive at a conclusion, based on which you can make further recommendations.

5) Schedule your mid-project review well in advance:

Block your project guide’s calendar well in advance for a mid-project review. This shows curiosity and initiative on your part. Mid-project reviews help in understanding where you stand, give you chances to course-correct, and set the right expectations for your final project.

Well begun is half the battle won and working rigorously on these actions in the first 30 days of your summer internship will significantly strengthen your chances of landing a PPO.
In the next part of our “Ace your Summer Internship” Series, we will look at mid-project reviews. All the best for your Summer Internship.

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About The Author

Hari Subramanian is an XLRI 2011 alumnus, with 10+ years of experience in business and HR roles, in diverse organizations like Mahindra & Amazon. He is currently based out of the U.K and the author of “Hilarious MBA Memoirs”. The book "Hilarious MBA Memoirs" is a funny, self-deprecating, autobiographical satire on the life of an XLRI MBA grad through childhood, college, and corporate days. The book chronicles funny incidents throughout the protagonist's life right from the rote learning methodology in childhood, to the struggle in his MBA days (making a CV, fish-market group discussions, case study contests fumbled, social media related anecdotes, summer internship fiasco, date nights gone wrong, etc).

You May Check Out "Hilarious MBA Memoirs" Here | Connect with Hari on LinkedIn