SIP experience of Sudakshina

It was that time of the year when we all had just finished with our first year and about to join our respective internships. For many of us, it was going to be the first corporate exposure. Although it wasn’t my first job but yet anything new gives an eerie feeling. After a long week of leisure at home, finally the day had come. It was my first day at HPCL. HPCL is a Government of India Enterprise with a Navratna status and is counted amongst the Forbes 2000 and Global Fortune 500 Company. It is predominantly into retail business which includes all the petrol pump stations across the country. Just a day prior to my joining, I was quite apprehensive about the project that they would given to me. To be honest, I believed that they would give me a project which would perhaps require me to go to these petrol stations in this scorching heat of Kolkata. Nevertheless, I was prepared to face the challenges. I had a word with my project guide and taken a prior appointment. As per the time suggested by him, I reached the office 10 minutes early. It was very evident from the façade of the building, that it is very old and has an English architecture. After being asked to wait for a while, I was ushered to his cabin. I walked in with a very nervous look and yet had to wear a smile on my face to camouflage my real emotion. My guide welcomed me with a warm smile and asked me to take a seat. I was under the impression that he would straight away take my introduction, assign me with a project title of his choice and asked me to come from the next day. Fortunately, none of my predictions had come true. As customary, he took my introduction and asked me about my institute. He then clearly explained me about HPCL, its various SBUs and the new projects that they are looking into in order to compete with the MNCs in the Indian market. Having explained me about the projects, he then asked me about my area interest and gave me the time and the liberty to choose the project to work for. I was asked to later confirm the project so that he could assign a marketing officer to help me. After giving a thought over the given options, I chose to work on a project where I need to analyze the gap and develop probable strategies to increase the market share of a synthetic lubricant introduced for the passenger cars. And now I am currently working on the project where I need to talk to the various distributors, know about the strategies implemented by its competitors and for all these I need to have a thorough knowledge about the chemical composition of the lubricants and how the lubricant industry is finding out ways to meet the requirement of the customers.