How to ace your summer internship

Vivek Vijayan
How to ace your
Summer Internship
Things i wish i knew, when i did
my internship 8 years back
VIVEK VIJAYAN

VIVEK VIJAYAN
linkedin.com/in/vivekvijayanp
vivekvijayan85@gmail.com
Vivek is an XLRI Jamshedpur alumnus and manages Human
Resources for Cognizant Technology solutions.
He is a specialist in organizational design & development, change
management through behavioural transformation, career
architecture design, process automation & analytics, and
Performance management.
He has a deep interest in deconstructing how our minds work
and is currently doing his personal research on cognitive biases,
heuristics and mental models people use for decision making.
This guide draws heavily on Vivek’s experience managing summer
interns over several years and also his consolidation of inputs
received from 50+ managers across businesses.

By the end of this module, you’ll be able to understand:
1. The importance of summer internships
2. What to prepare before day one
3. What to expect from the 2 months
4. How to put your best foot forward in the first two weeks
5. How to get, define and start working on a great internship project
6. Top things to do and not do during the time spent
7. Things that no one will tell you, but you will be measured on
8. How to ensure that your project really adds value to the team
9. How to prepare a great final presentation
10. How to work your way towards a pre-placement offer

10 reasons why internships are really important
1. First-hand experience of working in the real world
2. A good chance to understand how an Organization within your dream domain actually works
3. Exposes you to new people in a more controlled and stable environment
4. Great opportunity to learn more about yourself and your aspirations
5. Great platform to test out your future career plans
6. Get connected with the industry and develop your professional network
7. Gives you a context to associate with, while you take up your 2nd year courses
8. An interesting summer project is a great talking point during final placement interviews
9. A much needed boost to your resume through relevant industry exposure
10. A great chance to transition into a full-time position through a pre-placement offer (PPO)

How internships help the employer
1 To test and train good resources and to find out
the best-fit potential talent, who will directly fit
the company needs as soon as they graduate
2 To create a good ‘employer brand’ in the
campus and in the minds of future
professionals
3 To infuse some fresh thoughts and
perspectives into the team
4To connect with the academic world, infuse the
business needs of the hour and influence the
curriculum, benefiting everyone in the long run

Run-up to the internship
Section 1

Run-up to the Internship
1. Prepare ahead
Get as much details as possible regarding the company
and the industry it operates in. If possible get in touch
with your project mentor and understand about the
potential projects that can be assigned
✓ Do thorough research about the company: check the company
website, Wikipedia, recent media mentions, annual statements
✓ Learn the business model; how do they make money
✓ Try connecting to alumni who may be working there.
✓ If not, request introductions to a 2nd degree connection
✓ Read profiles of employees working in the same department
✓ If possible, connect with your future mentor and get a sense of
the possible projects that you may be assigned
✓ Understand the critical skills required to complete the project
in the best way possible. Eg: MS office skills, local language,
market knowledge, specific tools / platforms (like SAP)

Run-up to the Internship
2. Know what to expect
Don’t expect the employees there to treat you like one
among them - at least in the beginning. It’s up on you
show them that you are bringing value to the team and
then earn their respect.
✓ Try to know about the culture of the organization. Eg:
hierarchical, bureaucratic, open culture, outcome oriented
✓ Set realistic expectations based on the experience of earlier
interns or from your alumni who work there
✓ Keep in mind that no one will go out of their way to help you
successfully complete your project - remember all others there
have personal deliverables to complete
✓ Be ready to receive cold treatment (if that happens)
✓ At times, no one in the company would have a clue about what
project to give you. So keep some options ready at your end
based on your research about the company and what projects
your friends are working on for other companies

The first day
3. Create a great first impression
Studies say that your ‘employability’ is decided in the
first 20-30 seconds during the first interaction. Make
it count and memorable in a positive way
✓ Reach the place ahead of time
✓ Get maximum details sorted out ahead of the first day
✓ Keep all documents handy for verification (checklists help!)
✓ Go in formal attire (nothing can beat that) - you can later
change it as per company’s dressing policy
✓ Have a well practised introduction ready - you would be using
it at least 30 times in the next 2 weeks. Keep it short &
effective

Your Project mentor is the most important person who
can influence your project like no one else. Building a
good professional rapport with the mentor is a critical
success factor.
✓ Know more about the person from various sources
✓ Learn about his/her career journey. You can request to share
the career journey during one of the conversations
✓ The only way to align your project output to the mentor’s
expectations is to ensure regular checkpoints giving room for
course-corrections wherever required
✓ During conversations, listen actively and make notes
✓ Use simple techniques like maintaining eye contact, posture
mirroring etc to engage in effective conversations
✓ Try to understand your mentor’s style of working / delegation /
guiding and align yourself with that. Eg: some like face to face
connects, some prefer email updates, some keeps it too
professional, some expects to be treated as a friend
The first 2 weeks
4. Know your project mentor

Understanding the outcomes expected from the
project well is the most critical step that will decide the
course of your project. Understanding what problem
you are trying to solve, how they want you to approach
it and the tangible outcomes expected - in as much
clarity as possible is the only sure shot way to success,
✓ What problem are you trying to solve
✓ Who is facing that problem, what is the impact
✓ Who are the key stakeholders that you need to consider
✓ What are each stakeholder’s aspirations
✓ What has been done already
✓ Solving this problem can bring in what transformation
✓ What tangible outcomes are expected from the project ( e.g: a
report, a plan, recommendations, story, a product)
✓ Define the project objective in a sentence “ To achieve abc
outcome by doing xyz activities” - spend time to polish the
sentence and ratify it with the mentor. You are going to use this in
several places in the next 2 months. Make it clear & powerful
The first 2 weeks
5. Understand the expectations

This is the document that will help you and your guide
understand and track the various phases of the project
against the timelines. It’ll give you milestones to chase
on weekly / bi-weekly basis and help your guide track
your progress on a periodic basis.
✓ Start making a draft project plan from day one of your
internship to show that you mean business
✓ Check if your guide wants the plan in a particular format
✓ If not, make a simple Gantt chart which will help you plot
various phases of the project and the steps within each against
a timeline. You can use a software or use a simple spreadsheet
✓ Capture the outcome expected (quantify in numbers wherever
possible eg: how many people to interview) and the
methodology for each step (face to face or survey)
✓ Identify a POC you can work with for each step (if required)
✓ Make a quick 1st draft in the first 2-3 days and run it past your
guide. Finalize on the final version before the end of first week
✓ Get the plan officially signed off - you can share it over an email
with the guide thanking for his inputs and guidance
The first 2 weeks
6. Make a draft project plan

Sometimes the department or your mentor (in case
you have one - sometimes multiple) wouldn't have a
well defined project for you. It's quite normal to have
an unstructured exploratory summer internship.
✓ Try to understand the function, processes & systems well
✓ Understand the pressing problems at hand
✓ Do some research / market benchmark to see what similar
functions(teams) in peer companies do
✓ Try to get different perspectives - from upstream or
downstream teams on the potential areas for improvement
✓ Self-nominate yourself for working on certain areas that no
one has given full attention to
✓ Analyze whatever data is available (ask for it) and look out for
trends. Come up with a plan to solve a problem
✓ Take up whatever work that come your way. It's up to you to
give it a structure and define it in the best way possible
The first 2 weeks
7. In case of no concrete project

Data privacy and professional conduct related policies
are taken very seriously in all companies. Make sure
you don't walk into troubled waters unknowingly for
silly stuff. Not knowing the rules offers no protection.
✓ It's better to ask and clarify rather than explain later
○ Dress policy
○ Minimum log-in hours
○ Company network usage policy (eg: banned websites)
○ Leave policy
○ Reimbursement policy (travel / mobile)
○ Policies on using office transport / other facilities
○ Data privacy / using external devices inside facility
○ Most companies would have an ‘Acceptable User
Practices’ manual covering all above aspects
The first 2 weeks
8. Know the key policies

Every organization / function / teams have their own
power structures and reporting hierarchies. Knowing
the most important leaders helps you to make the best
out of short coffee or lift conversations.
✓ Learn the structure of the function and the name of all leaders
✓ Some organizations have a drawn out hierarchy, some doesn’t
✓ Understand who the real decision makers are (eg: who takes
the final call on offering you a PPO?)
The first 2 weeks
9. Learn the who’s who

The first 2 weeks
10. Build rapport within the team
One of the key qualities that will be looked for in a
potential employee is the ability to gel and work well
with the current team. Team members also can
contribute a lot towards your project.
✓ Know each team member in person
✓ Use simple rapport building techniques
✓ Show respect for the work they are doing and their achievements
✓ “I need your expert advice please” works most times
✓ Go for lunch / coffee breaks with the team
✓ Stay out of controversial topics during conversations
✓ Offer help without being asked for
✓ Understand the ‘unsaid’ rules of the group and act accordingly

The first 2 weeks
11. Get some outside perspective
It always helps to get some outside perspectives
regarding your project - from your classmates, seniors,
or college professors. It may help you see the problem
or solutions from new angles.
✓ Share your project details in closed groups and not on any
public forums (make sure its not against the company policy)
✓ See if there are any of your peers working on similar topics
which will help you share best practices, leads, findings etc
✓ Professors handling the subject in college can also help you out
as they must have seen similar projects done by earlier batches

The first 2 weeks
12. Learn about past PPOs
Learn from the best practices of the past and what
really helped the earlier interns get a PPO
✓ Understand the PPO (pre-placement offer) policy
✓ Check with your mentor succinctly during one of your
conversations
✓ Try to understand the evaluation criteria used during
internship assessment by the company
✓ Try to understand who does your final presentation evaluation
✓ In all your casual conversations, show your keenness in
working here full time (in case you are)

Executing the project
Section 3

13. Typical elements of a project
Pick up the ones relevant to your project
1. The business context
2. The problem statement
3. Key stakeholder expectations (eg: employee, management,
shareholders, vendors)
4. What does a successful design look like
5. The objectives of the project / key outcomes expected
6. Key design principles
7. Project Methodology
8. Internal study - employees / processes / systems / data
9. External study - literature review, peer companies, best practices
10. Summary of findings
11. Options to consider & evaluation against design principles
12. Best option / recommendations
13. Critical success factors
14. Tentative timelines for implementation
15. Key asks from the management

14. Find out the pareto
In most contexts, prioritizing the tasks that you can
work on will decide the effectiveness of the outcome.
Its very important as you have a limited time with you.
Find out the 20% in your project that can create 80%
impact.
✓ What are the tangible outcomes that can be immediately used
by the organization post my project
✓ Define what are the ‘must have’ vs ‘good to have’ parts of the
project (ps. At times the good to have ones are the ones that
become the key differentiators)
✓ Who are the key people whose perspective i should
mandatorily understand / incorporate
✓ What skills can help me differentiate myself among other
interns (eg: good PowerPoint skills, data analysis etc.)

15. Start early on your final presentation/report
A common mistake that many interns do is to wait till
the last week to work on the project presentation. Not
only will that lead to not-so-good a finished product,
but will also lead you to miss out on the opportunities to
change the course of your ongoing work when you are
putting the overall story together in a presentation.
✓ Start working on putting together the outline of your
presentation or report from the within the first 2 weeks
✓ Try to wield a narrative together piece by piece over the weeks
✓ Find out the pieces that when added, makes your narrative
comprehensive (eg: voice of employees) which you can try to
work on over the course of the project
✓ Run it past some key people who will be able to give you critical
feedback mid way into the project

16. Make copious notes
In this world where information is commonplace,
taking down notes is becoming a key differentiator.
Note down every bit of information that comes your
way - terminologies , concepts, ideas, anecdotes etc.
✓ In an organization, people value their time & words
✓ Making someone repeat the same concept / approach multiple
times doesn't look professional from your end
✓ Note down the key things from every conversation and
assimilate it quickly
✓ Use the business terminologies used by the leaders within your
presentation to show how you are aligned

17. Keep deadlines sacrosanct
One of the clearest ways to show your professionalism
is to always deliver before the deadlines.
✓ Try to stick to the deadlines for each phase / activity as much
as possible even if that means stretching at times
✓ During unforeseen circumstances, make changes to the plan
with the agreement of your project mentor
✓ Report back on progress as and when you reach milestones or
on a pre-set frequency (eg. every Friday)

18. Ask questions; respect others’ time
A brief stint within a team is not sufficient enough for
you to understand all aspects of solving the
problem.It's always best to ask questions whenever
you are unclear or gets stuck
✓ Keep jotting down the questions that come up
✓ Ask them together when you catch up with the mentor
✓ Team memberscan also help you with quick answers
✓ Try to get maximum details on each issue before you ask the
question so that you don't come across as too naive
✓ When reaching out to others for clarifications, check their
availability first; if required, block their calendars

19. Have regular check-ins
Block some exclusive time with your mentor to update
progress about the project in person and get a sense
check on how you are progressing. Make course
corrections wherever advised
✓ Set up at least 30 mins one-on-one time with the mentor
✓ Aim for weekly review; at least a fortnightly one
✓ While discussing on what you have done, give equal attention
to how you have done it
✓ Also summarize what you learnt during the period
✓ Listen actively to the feedback made, make notes
✓ share the minutes of the meeting post discussion

How to guides
20. Doing internal study
Doing an ‘as-is-state study’ is a common exercise
suggested to be done as a part of a typical internship.
You are supposed to act as an independent entity who
is not clouded by the biases that internal employees
will have, thereby giving better output.
✓ Read through the existing materials shared with you
✓ Ask for more content that can be shared about the as-is-state
✓ Talk to teams that receive work input from this team or give work
input to this team on process, structure, systems etc.
✓ Find out the key stakeholders involved and make sure that you
connect with a representative sample of each stakeholder group
✓ Select the channel of interaction appropriate to each group:
○ Emails with a survey link
○ Telephonic interviews
○ Focus Group Discussions
○ In-person meetings
✓ See if there’s data that you can analyse - reports, earlier survey
results, written feedback, user behaviour etc.

How to guides
21. Doing market research
Every organization would love to benchmark their
processes with the market and understand where they
stand. If done properly, this step can give a big boost to
your project and add a great amount of credentials to
your subject matter expertise.
✓ Create the list of peer companies in the same space
✓ Create a list of companies who are front-runners in the space
✓ Identify contacts through your friends / alumni network /
LinkedIn
✓ Create a list of questions you want to cover / ask and have it
ready over multiple modes (email, survey, whatsapp etc.)
✓ Create a value proposition to the one sharing the information
(eg:will share with them your key findings post the project)
✓ Try to get collaterals (PPTs, Policy docs etc.) wherever possible
✓ While sharing the observations, differentiate between what
peers do and what the global best practices are
✓ Mark out the ones that can be readily used in your company

How to guides
22. Analysing data collected
Data analysis is the key to any decisions within a
company. This is a crucial skill you should learn not
only for the internship but also for a promising career
ahead. Learn various tools starting from MS Excel to
‘R’
✓ Collect data from various sources
✓ Convert discrete pieces of data into a database (the anchor data
eg: employee ID/name in a column with various parameters
across the columns)
✓ Categorize each parameters into frequency ranges (eg convert
experience into - <1, 1-3 years, 3-5 years, 5+ years)
✓ Use simple pivots (an MS excel feature) to compare all
combinations of parameters (eg: experience vs performance)
✓ Try to keep one or two key parameters constant on one end, and
vary the other parameter to find out which one influences the key
parameters the most
✓ Highlight aberrations and other key observations

How to guides
23. Using frameworks
Using frameworks gives you a structure to follow while
thinking through a problem and proposing a solution .
While you’ll be learning some of them as a part of your
syllabus, there are a whole lot of them which will be
used by experts in your domain or industry.
✓ Try to develop a framework-based-thinking towards every problem.
You can use them for (examples):
○ Understanding the context (SWOT)
○ Analysing the structure, processes, system, culture etc. (5s)
○ Reviewing the business process (Markov’s)
○ Decision making (100s of frameworks)
○ Understand the architecture of an industry (Porter's 5 forces)
○ Review the company portfolio (BCG matrix)
✓ Check out www.mindtools.com for an exhaustive list of frameworks
✓ Identify a set of 3-5 frameworks which you can use in your project
✓ Check if it helps you firm up your analysis / decision making
✓ Don’t force fit frameworks into scenarios and don’t over-do them

How to guides
24. Create a great presentation
A great presentation should be a story or a narrative
that flows effortlessly from one slide to another. It's
not a mere consolidation of observations & solutions.
It should be engaging to the audience.
✓ Create a great looking opening slide- gives you a great boost!
✓ Start by creating the narrative - the slide headers
✓ Make sure that there is a story coming out as you move from one
slide to another
✓ Then start filling in the content to substantiate your headers
✓ Use the ‘Grandmother test’: if you are unable to explain the
contents of the deck to your GM, it's too complex
✓ Use a great looking (professional) template
✓ Create/ use a standard colour palette and a font set for consistency
✓ Don't add too much text to each slide
✓ Use appropriate visuals - start with smart arts
✓ Use free stock images from sites like www.pexels.com
✓ Obsess over perfect formatting

The final presentation / report
Section 5

Final presentation
25. Get feedback from multiple sources
One of the main reasons why it's a great idea to start
off your final presentation / report very early is that, it
lends you enough time to run it past several key people
who can give you appropriate feedback to make it look
sharp and comprehensive.
✓ It's a great idea to host the deck in a collaborative platform like
Google slides to ease getting feedback and making changes
✓ Make sure you get feedback from some key experienced
people within the organization who understands what the
leadership typically expects from the presentation / report
✓ Run it past someone in marketing /sales to check the overall
coherence of the presentation

Final presentation
26. Customize content based on the audience
One size doesn't fit all. Make a master presentation
and make multiple smaller versions based on whom
you are presenting to and tailoring it to them.
✓ Understand whom are you presenting to
✓ Understand the key drivers of the reviewer
✓ Lower level leaders (focus on operational aspects more) vs
Higher level leaders (focus on strategic significance more)
✓ What would interest the reviewer? Focus most of your time
there and less on other aspects
✓ If the reviewer is not connected with your project at all,
establishing the context well is really important - and ‘how’ you
approached the problem and came up with a solution
✓ If the reviewer knows well about your project, the robustness
& innovativeness of your solution is most critical

Final presentation
27. Do multiple rehearsals
Give lot of importance to the delivery of the
presentation. Make multiple rehearsals till you reach a
point where you are very comfortable with the
content and how you narrate the story
✓ Understand how and where you are going to present
✓ Set up and test the presentation infrastructure ahead of time
(connections, switches, remotes, video bridges etc)
✓ Do multiple rehearsals and at least one dress rehearsal in the
same setting as that of the final one
✓ Understand the pattern - timed presentations followed by
Q&A vs free flow presentation were you take questions on the
go
✓ Decide if you want to run a pre-timed presentation vis-a-vis a
manual timed one
✓ Keep a mental note of the time that you take on each slide
✓ Make sure you are able to do the full presentation in 60% of
the given time (keeping 20% buffer and 20% time for Q&A)

Final presentation
28. Be prepared on the typical qns
Being prepared is to anticipate the type of questions
that can come and being ready with possible answers.
This gives you a lot of confidence as you go into the
meeting and makes your presentation more impactful
✓ Go through each slide and try to see them from a reviewer’s
stand point
✓ Find out possible questions that can be asked on each slide
✓ Prepare answers ready for each of them
✓ While running the presentation past others before the
presentation, make them ask / mote down possible questions
that can come up on each slide
✓ Make sure that you know the correct definition, use or
application of any idea / data / metric you have put on your
slide / report

Final presentation
29. Ask for feedback
Once you have done your part, it's important to seek
feedback on the project, how you completed it and
your presentation. This is a powerful way to
understand what areas you should be focusing on
improving- in the year ahead, before you step into the
corporate world - full time.
✓ Seek feedback regarding your project from the project
reviewer and your project guide
✓ Check on how the work you have done will help the
organization in the future
✓ Check if there are areas that you would need to improve on
✓ Thank them for their precious feedback and assure them that
you’ll work on them

Final presentation
30. Express your wish to work here
Explicitly mentioning how you gained knowledge and
enjoyed working for the team / organization is important.
Also state how you look forward to starting your career
in such a great company (if you really wish to)
✓ Explicitly mention your gratitude
✓ Mention how each person helped you learn and complete the
project well
✓ Mention 3 key things that you felt really great about the team /
the organization
✓ Mention some of the key learnings you had during your project
✓ Mention how privileged you are to have worked with the group
✓ Express your keen interest in starting your career here post
your studies

Final presentation
31. Check what content can be taken out
There are strict policy clauses that most companies
have on what data can be taken outside. Make sure
that you check and get a sign off from your project
mentor (+anyone else if required) before you send out
any data / file to an outside network.
✓ Check with your mentor on the organization policy
✓ Give assurance in writing (if required) that you’ll be using the
report / presentation for academic purposes only
✓ If required, create a version without any company identifiable
information which can be taken back to your college
✓ Under no circumstances should you try to use any method to
send any confidential information without your mentor’s
agreement

Post internship
32. Maintain professional connect
Maintaining the network you created within the
company is important as you move into the last year of
your academics and further into your full time career.
✓ Stay connected with the key contacts you made within the
company using LinkedIn
✓ Don’t shy away from reaching out to some of them whenever
you need advice - over email or phone as appropriate
✓ Invest time and effort in nurturing the network you have
created through various means
✓ Share with them things that add value to their professional life
- a relevant article, key findings from a peer’s project in another
organization, a new concept that you learned in college that
resonates with some discussions you had earlier

Post internship
33. Ask for recommendations
Doing a good job during your internship opens up
several possibilities to get recommendations /
testimonials from key people in the organization.
Linkedin testimonials are a great feature you can use.
✓ Ask testimonials through LinkedIn
✓ Giving a testimonial first is the best way to increase your
chance of getting one
✓ Request for introductions in case you wish to connect with one
of the contacts in their network
✓ Check with your key contacts if they can recommend you to
some of their friends in the same industry for future roles or
small projects to work on

Post internship
34. Codify your key learnings
All the efforts you have put in during your internship
and the learnings that you acquired will go in vain if
you are not able to assimilate them into your longer
career. Codifying the key learnings in any format helps
you retain most information and put them to use later
in your career.
✓ Ideally you should have started making your notes starting
from the beginning of the project
✓ Categorize the information captured into different buckets
✓ Differentiate between facts / rules / tools / learnings / ideas
✓ Even if you use a notebook to capture it all, it’s a good practice
to transfer it to online tools like Evernote or Google Keep
✓ All the more better if you can start a running document for
‘Key learnings’ which you keep on updating over your career (a
best practice followed by a lot of successful individuals)

Post internship
35. Share and discuss with others
The best way to assimilate the learnings that you had
acquired over your internship is to share it with others
and talk about it in various forums.
✓ Share your project details among your classmates / professors in
a formal or informal forum
✓ Write about it in LinkedIn or your personal blog (keeping in mind
what you can share based on agreement with the company)
✓ Try to stay updated to happenings in that sector and share the
same with different audience group
✓ Establish yourself slowly as a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ in that
space by sharing relevant & useful content around that domain

Work while they sleep.
Learn while they party.
Plan while they play.
Live like they dream!

Thank you.
VIVEK VIJAYAN
linkedin.com/in/vivekvijayanp
vivekvijayan85@gmail.com

How to ace your summer internship

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