Sunday, May 3, 2009

Internship with L&T Infotech 2008 – Daniel Brath, Denmark:


There can be identified several different reasons for people to go on an internship and I guess people have very different reasons to put the studies on stand by and challenge themselves through a professional experience such as an internship abroad. My own reasons to go were both personal and professional. I had just finalised my Bachelor degree in Political science and need a break from the books before entering the final stage of my education. Second reason was connected to a lacking knowledge and professional experience which I needed to choose the right master program and to find out what I actually could do in my future career. I was well aware of the fact that my internship might not provide me with a complete picture but it might guide me or at least show me some of the work roles that you find in companies. Finding out what you don’t want to do can even be a very useful and educational learning to gain from an internship. The professional experience: The professional part of my internship at L&T Infotech was perhaps the most challenging experience I met in India. I was to work with business development in an IT company which seems quite far away from Political science. Further more the daily work would be conducted in cooperation with only Indians located partly in Pune and partly in Denmark and Sweden. The core work I was doing with L&T Infotech was marketing, sales and strategy work focused on Scandinavia. The working experience showed me that there is a huge gap between knowing the theories in the books and actually solving the problems in a real company, dealing with real issues, real people, real money and not least dealing with an entirely new industry. All these challenges both culturally and professionally made this internship extremely valuable to me and I would almost say I learned as much more during those 5 months as I have done during my Bachelor. At least the character of knowledge I gained in Pune is something I can use the rest of my career and something that for sure will give me a head start compared to those who “only” do the books!! At the end of my internship I was given a very interesting opportunity by the company. I was given the opportunity to work with the company from their Copenhagen office while completing my master studies at Copenhagen Business School. Since my master program is focused on how multinational companies act on a global market this opportunity was almost tailored to me and something that has made this internship even more valuable for me and even for my future career. I have also been offered to write my master thesis with the company so the impact of the internship actually goes far beyond those 5 months. The personal experience: When I decided to go to India I knew that this internship would give me a personal experience. I have earlier travelled in South America and seen cultures completely different from the Danish. From the very first day I spend in Pune I could see that this was going to be a very challenging experience on a personal level. India is so different from what we know in Europe. The similarities between India and Europe are almost non-existing which demands quite some tolerance and cultural understanding to be able to adapt and enjoy the culture. Cultural understanding has been around as a concept for quite some years but it is actually becoming increasingly important to gain cultural understanding as the interaction between Europe and India or China is increasing. Gaining understanding of the Indian culture is therefore essential for our future interaction with the country. Having stayed in lived in India I can see that there are many areas where we differ significantly. Level of hierarchy in any social setting or organization, way of communication, religion and personal values in general, the role of work in life. I could go on forever. Actually you really have to search to find the similarities between India and Denmark but I guess that might just have been the main reason why I found India so incredibly interesting. My internship with L&T Infotech was from a professional point of view a very good experience. I got challenged in all the ways I was hoping but I certainly also got challenged in ways I would never have imagined. I can therefore say with confidence that I got more out of my internship that I could have hoped for.

1 comment:

  1. You have done a great job on this article. It’s very readable and highly intelligent. You have even managed to make it understandable and easy to read. You have some real writing talent. Thank you. Forum Posting

    ReplyDelete

President's Address

AIESEC, as the world’s most global youth run organization, develops the youth of today into the leaders of tomorrow by providing an unparalleled personal development platform consisting of leadership opportunities, corporate exposure, international internships, local and national conferences and participation in a global learning environment, not to mention we provide our members with an opportunity to build a 30,000 person strong network with the brightest young minds from all over the globe.

Since its conception in 1987, AIESEC Pune has impacted thousands of young people, and has given them an unmatched edge over their peers. Today, it provides society with high potential membership armed with leadership advantage in socially relevant issues.

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Varun Avasthi

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AIESEC Pune

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