So coming to the internship part now, I did my internship at ITC. They have this program called KITES which has some random words put together but is very valuable and prestigious to the company because the uppermost management of the company was part of this program at one point in time.So, I did my internship for 8 weeks starting around mid-May to mid-July, and my project was based in a factory located near Trichy, Tamil Nadu.

The work culture was something that I did not like much like this was probably in that particular factory where people refrained from talking about anything apart from work and did not entertain some basic things like corporate lunches or dinners at any point in time.

Also, it was a kinda government job vibes thing coz people used to come around 9 in the morning and would leave by 5:30 without caring about the things going around. So, the company values loyalty, and people working here generally stick with the company for 15+ years, because they reward them but slowly, thoda government type job jaisa scene hai inkaaa....

They have around 6 domains, including FMCG, Papers, packaging, hotel, agri, and IT. In FMCG they have multiple divisions and in that, I was working in the foods division and particularly the biscuits part.

So how did I arrive at FMCG, well I did not directly come to it, I have a theory ‘that you should not be where you don't wanna work, rather than knowing where you want to’. So in my 2nd year I sat down and removed certain domains like tech, and quant where I don't wanna work.

So, I started with core (did an internship) and did not like it, then I started doing a management minor with operations management as my course in 4th sem and liked that a lot, not only I am looking to complete my minor but I did my second intern in that domain which I liked a lot, then comes day 1, people prepping for consult or tech and here I was just hoping to get my resume validated, and when I got shortlisted in ITC, I was thrilled and thought my purpose is done. And after every round till selection, I was thinking this is more than what I expected and had a nothing to lose mindset which helped me a lot (not saying I was going underprepared or saying that this work for you)

But yeah that's how I come to FMCG or supply chain as a working domain.

The preparation for the interviews was actually pretty tough in the sense, since I was not expecting this to happen, I was not prepped up that well. But I talked to a lot of seniors and they helped me a lot in prepping me at the last moment, and it helped me a lot, but one thing which was the key was patience, waiting for your turn, keeping yourself calm, and talking about everything you are saying with high self-confidence.

And idk how but after giving all the rounds, I just got shortlisted and I didn't even realize what it meant to be shortlisted on day 1 until it was January. Then came the project work, location, reporting manager, and buddy details in April. Along with the induction period details. So we had to fly in to Bengaluru to stay at their ITC Windsor for a couple of days, where they gave great hospitality and it was nice, though we had an extended induction period but that was specific to the foods division, all other divisions started working right after the induction period. So, I was not fond of my project too much cause after finding some observations with data backing I got to know, I have to design new machine parts to achieve the required results, but obviously, I was not aware of how to do that, so that was a particular thing which became a major barrier, although I submitted some good designs which were effective but they took too much time in the first place.

Also, some other hard truth about the internship was 6 day working rule in the Trichy plant of ITC, and I was not ready for that as I had plans for every weekend to travel across Tamil Nadu and I was down south for the first time. But eventually, because of the 6-day rule, I couldn't go to nearby places at all except for one Sunday when I went to Thanjavur which is famous for its temples and palaces and the history idea you can get from PS-2,( no publi at all)....

The good part about the ITC internship was you don't have to worry much about your logistics issues, they take care of stay, travel, and every other thing for the whole 8 weeks.

And finally, the thing that I learned from this internship is You can learn and excel in any domain you want to, if you are interested and motivated for it, cause if we can finish a course in a day, understanding any industry or part of it won't take much time, but while doing so you need to plan very carefully how you spend your time and how you manage expectations of so many stakeholders at the same time.

And finally, ITC takes many reviews so you definitely learn how to present it if not make the PPTs by yourself (iykyk).

With this I end my review, you can contact me anytime if you want to know anything in more detail or wanna discuss anything else as well.