Internship experience at Prudential UK by Bhumika Shetty, Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai
I did my summer internship at Prudential UK and found it a great place to work. I had a wonderful experience in these two months along with wide array of learnings both for my personal as well as professional life. Starting from selection process to the last day of my internship, Prudential had organized everything quite well.
Selection process consisted of two stages. Firstly, the company asked for resumes of students who were interested in HR internship. Out of these resumes, six were shortlisted and these six students were divided into two groups. First group comprised of students who did not have prior work experience and second group comprised of students who had prior work experience. On this basis, they called the first group on day one and the other group on the next day. In the interview that followed, I was asked about everything in my resume and they also asked me in which areas I was interested to work in. The last question that I faced was a case study type question. My interview went extremely well and I was expecting a positive outcome. The results were declared after one week and I was the only one selected from my college.
I reported for my internship on May 2nd, 2014. Right from the starting day till my last day in Prudential, they had planned every event, meeting and activity very nicely. My first day in Prudential was full of action. Firstly, they had arranged company tour for all the selected interns. In total there were 10 interns from different colleges. Then we were assigned our project mentors. They briefed us about the projects which we will be working on during our two months of internship. This was followed by lunch with the entire HR team along with an ice cream treat at Naturals! I also attended a meeting about a cricket tournament which was going to be held next week.
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My entire HR team and other co-interns
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My overall experience as an intern at Prudential was amazing. As it was my first corporate exposure, I learnt a lot in these two months and got the opportunity to work on various interesting projects. They had two inductions programs: one which was inside the company and other was outside. Through this program we were informed about the history, core values, different products, logo and many more things about the company.
Prudential maintains excellent balance between work and fun. I got the chance to participate in lot of activities during these two months. A cricket match was also conducted for Snehsadhan orphanage along with spending some quality time with those children. An Antakshari program was conducted for old age home people which is organized every year by the organisation. I also participated and sang songs with the old people. In addition, we also had stress management sessions, fun fridays and lot many activities during my two months of internship.
I got the opportunity to work on four projects. Following were my major contribution during my two months of internship in Prudential:
-Handling the recruitment process as part of the recruitment team
-Career Maps
-Reviewing HR policies and bench-marking
-Conducting Research to check the effectiveness of Total Reward System.
One particular incident which was really heart touching and very special was when my college mentor came to meet my project mentor for performance review during my summer internship. My project mentor gave positive feedback, appreciated my work and said I have met her expectations. It was a proud moment for me as well as my college mentor.
I learnt a lot during my summer internship. I would classify my learnings into three categories:
Domain
-I learnt how to analyze and understand job Descriptions
-I understood the whole recruitment Process and HR policies in Prudential
-I learnt how to conduct screening, telephonic and HR interviews.
Behavioral
-Always have full confidence in your work and never underestimate yourself.
-If you have an effective team, any lengthy task can be easily completed.
-Be calm under any situation.
Organizational
-Always insist on written communication as you will have a documented proof.
-Communication skills are very essential for any business.
-Always reach fifteen minutes prior to the meeting room and set up the computer to avoid unnecessary wastage of time
My advice for the MBA aspirants would be that two things are very essential for any business and your personal growth in any organisation. These are:
-One should have very good communication skills both written as well as verbal.
-One should know how to work in teams and maintain good interpersonal relationships with team members, which will help you in delivering better and effective results.
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