The Magnificent Campus Engagement Team
Great project; Great team to work with. All good, but are Summers at Cipla, "All Work and no Play"? NO. Enter the campus engagement team, who ensured that despite the virtual nature of the internship, engagement levels among us interns were kept at their peaks. We had fun team bonding sessions(with interns from other b-schools), virtual games, zoom brunches, and many more engagement activities, which made sure our online internship experience was as lively and organic as possible.
The Setback
From what I have mentioned till now, you must be thinking my summers was a 'Joyride'; believe me, it was anything but that. The reason, you ask? COVID. I know, compared to the destruction it has caused around worldwide, causing a mild inconvenience in the summers internship experience seems like the most inconspicuous thing covid has done since last year, but that's not the point; the point is right when I was starting to get a grip over the project I fell onto the grip of Covid. At one point, I wasn't even sure whether or not I'll be able to complete it, but here's the thing, this wasn't any other company I was interning for; this was a company whose core value of 'Caring for life' is engraved in its very culture. I received full support from my project team and the campus team while battling covid and was granted the much-sought project extension.
Final Thoughts And Conclusion
We as humans are motivated by a lot of things, some intrinsic (e.g., engagement in the task) while the others extrinsic (e.g., Rewards, Good teammates). But I think there's hardly any motivation greater than 'Purpose', i.e., knowing that the work you are doing is bringing a positive change in the lives of millions of people. That is what you get working for a company like 'Cipla'. Be it your permanent job or be it just an internship, when you know that the work you are doing is going to impact (no matter how distantly or indirectly) the lives of people, you cannot help but give your best; and this is exactly what kept me going through my down phase (the covid phase) during the internship and I was finally able to deliver the project which met the expectations of all the stakeholders. Drawing analogy from Dr. Y.K Hameid's ideology of 'People before Profit,' I would end this article with this thought
"When you work for Purpose and not just for Paycheck, it's not just your 'Job Satisfaction' that doubles up; your 'Resilience' does too."
About the Author
Avilash Bhowmick is a final year student at TISS HRM & LR, Mumbai, and a Computer Science Engineering Graduate. A sucker for Epic Fantasy Novels and a devout consumer of Social Psychology and I-O Psychology research, his biggest pet peeve is "Having to write about himself in the third person."
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