April 01, 2018
It was 9:30 AM and the calendar read May 21. I had just stepped into Flipkart’s office at Mantri Commercial, Bangalore. Soon, the HR contact arrived and after completing some formalities, we entered the office.
Around 10, another HR person came over to brief us about the internship. To make the co-interns familiar with each other and know about the office, a short interactive session was conducted.
It was a really fun and great opportunity to gel and interact with fellow interns. We were then assigned separate groups and locations, where we were to report the next day. I was assigned to the catalog management group, but I also worked closely with the data science team.
Amod Malliya, the Flipkart CTO, had visited IIT Kanpur for an entrepreneurship task. My professor was hosting him during his visit, and that’s when he referred me. I was asked to fill an application with the details of my research experience and an updated CV.
My resume was shortlisted, and then I had to give three telephonic interviews. I performed well in the interviews, and some time later, here I was with a MacBook Pro, looking forward to my second day of the internship!
I met my mentor, Pradhuman Jhala and interacting with him turned out to be one of the highlights of my internship. I learned quite a lot of things from him. It was surprising that I was given an opportunity to choose my own project.
I got immense support from colleagues at Flipkart and made some life-long friends. My progress was decent, and I made sure that I could finish the work before the deadline. Another great aspect of my internship was the open work culture and the freedom that was given to interns.
My final presentation was successful, and my work was appreciated. The most satisfying thing about this Flipkart summer internship was that I was fully involved in the company’s operations and wasn’t treated differently for being an intern.