SIP Experience

The Summer Internship experience at Wipro is an eye-opener for first-year students. After spending a year studying models after models of business theory, we now experience its practical applications. 

The first couple of days presents an amazing opportunity to connect with fellow interns. There awaits a world of opportunities to make new friends, expand your network and learn new stuff. For us, the experience became a lot richer when our stipend increase was announced (doesn't happen regularly, but it did happen for us :P)Then there are expectation setting sessions addressing questions such as what to expect, Wipro values, organization structure, etc. 

The real challenge begins when we join our teams. Many people could not connect straight away with their managers probably because they work at some other location as compared to other team members. My manager worked out of the Electronic City office while my other teammates were in Sarjapur. The first week was spent understanding the project scope, discussing with the mentor on his expectations and my understanding of the project. What made this even more challenging was the topic of my project - gender diversity, one that everyone has a view on. The real learning comes when you understand the different perspectives. This helps you filter what to keep in mind and what to ignore. The best part of my experience was that almost every senior leader I connected with was more than willing to go the extra mile to help me out - something that I never expected would happen when I began my internship. Over the next few weeks, I had some great interactions with the leaders at Wipro. They helped me understand what is it that Wipro is looking at and what is the expectation from my end. During those two months, I managed to interact with leaders leading the D&I charter at Wipro. I took efforts to understand the D&I charter at Wipro and how it forms a part of the company's strategic vision and mission. I then listed my questions down and consulted my manager to find answers. At the same time, since my project was qualitative and quantitative in nature, understanding analytics and the matrices used inside Wipro was also very important. My manager introduced me to leaders and I took it up from there. Right from setting up a meeting with them to presenting my recommendations at the end, I did them very earnestly. My mentor was always available to guide me and ensured that I stay on track. Please ensure you connect and build a good working relationship with your mentor. You can learn a lot from them. They will also come to your rescue, in case something goes wrong. 

By the nature of my project, I was asked to share a lot of experiences and findings with almost everyone I met. As a result before my final presentation I had about 20 odd presentations and the entire PPT including data points were on my fingertips. The final presentation was a smooth sail with hardly any cross-questioning, probably because all cross-questioning happened earlier and I had incorporated all viewpoints to the best of my abilities. The final presentation was of about 30 minutes. There were 3 panelists. We were given about 20 minutes for the presentation. I finished my presentation in about 15-17 minutes and the panel pointed out a couple of recommendations, to which I responded as to why I hadn't included them. No further questions were then asked and I was asked to wait outside while my mentor was asked a few questions to understand if I fit the culture or not. The result: I was offered a PPI, which I eventually managed to convert to a PPO.

During the 2 months at Wipro, I had plenty of discussions & debates with my manager, but this only helped ensure that my contribution adds value to the organization.

Today, 2 years down the line when I see a couple of my project recommendations being implemented and my project still being referred to by the team, it gives immense happiness and satisfaction that all the toil was worth it!

To the incoming batch, welcome to Wipro. Trust me you will learn and build some strong connections here. Take this WFH internship as a new & unprecedented experience/challenge. Please interact with your managers, demonstrate interest to learn and add business value through your project. The entire team is here to support you and make your internship experience, a smooth and enjoyable one. Also, a personal suggestion would be to keep a folder where you store all the links/pdfs you used to take pointers in your project. It will help you defend your facts if & when asked to explain. WiSE, the tag you receive when you join the Summer Internship, is a tag that people at Wipro value a lot. The reason being that the people joining Wipro are amongst the brightest candidates from a few of the best colleges in our country. Enjoy your 2 months at Wipro and make the best use of it.