Intern Diaries — Pfizer | Dec ’17

I have received a lot of messages and texts from people to share my internship experiences with them. Moreover, inspired from one of my mentors — Nikhil Bhaiya (Nikhil Jain — the co-founder of foreignadmits.com) who always suggests — sharing personal knowledge and experience might help someone else from unexpected corners of the world, this is a small attempt from my side to share my experience with people.

Let us try it in a different mode this time. I am trying to summarize my entire journey is a question-answer form so as to help you understand the different dynamics involved.

1) How did I secure the intern? (Pre-internship)

I was an intern at the Chennai plant of Pfizer Inc. in December ’16 during the winter break post the completion of my first semester. My work there was interrupted by the sudden demise of the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the advent of a huge cyclone. Even then, I showed persistence and the willingness to give my 101% every time I come across an opportunity. At the end of my stint, I had expressed my desire to come and work with the team some time again and I assume my work was up to the mark.

I also received a LOR from the department and I was confident that I will definitely be given another learning opportunity. Not so surprisingly, my old mentor asked me if I was interested in a second stint and I chimed in with a big yes and he referred me. I was fortunate enough to be choosing my project out of a select few.

I chose the most difficult one having cross-functional responsibilities — partly because I wanted to work on a high impact project and partly because I wanted to end up with a skill set at the end of the stint. It also required knowledge on the DMAIC approaches of Supply Chain, understanding of the VSM of goods, decent number-crunching skills in MS Excel alongside the traditional ones. The formalities were completed in the month of October and being from Biomedical Engineering stream with my mid-semester and end-semester exams lined up, I barely had enough time to pick up the relevant skills which were required. I did away with some of the basic ones before leaving for Chennai.

2) What went on during the internship?

Having gone through a similar experience just a year ago, I knew what to expect — the ever-fluctuating December climate of Chennai, 6:00 am to 8:15 pm workdays 5 times a week (I was given accommodation at a very far off place and the factory was at the other side of the city), indistinguishable dal and sambhar and lots of hard work (because of the project I chose for myself).

I had two things going for me — I knew my mentor pretty well and he had planned the entire project in an exceptional way understanding my strengths and limitations and second, being an IITian helped me understand the entire VSM process by getting answers to the questions quickly from people (because they want their children to be IITians one-day :P).

It was an exciting project which could have some serious business implications. The company was looking for revising their SLA (Service Level Agreement) and my recommendations could have an actual business impact which fueled my drive even further.

Call it luck — Pfizer also had their top global executives visiting the plant because they had some drug regulation checks planned in the upcoming weeks. It was an amazing time to be there, networking with some of the SLT (Senior Leadership Team) members and learning from their experience. Since most of the executives were from abroad, they brought in their fresh perspectives into play by arranging an exciting conference on “Blockchain and its use cases in the Healthcare Industry” (this is one of the biggest advantages of interning in a big MNC — you get exposed to so many cutting edge technologies, you can be a part of many academic conferences as a college student but participating in a corporate level conference as an intern is a whole new level).

During the course of my internship, I made it a point to reach out to as many people as I could and taking their feedback on my progress till then. It helped me to break the ice with them and have some common topics to talk to. Some serial networking helped me interact with the Supply Chain Director (COO) of Pfizer India and also the site lead. All of them were mighty impressed by my work and my zeal to learn at such an early age. Such exchanges made me confident about my work and I decided to take some time off before the final presentation to the entire team.

Thankfully, all went well. People thanked me for my detailed study and my presentation skills were really appreciated. I was satisfied with all that I learned and was given a grand farewell in the form of a Christmas dinner. My mentor gave me a slight hint which suggested that they might have something else in store for me.

3) What was the benefit of the entire stint? What should one do post-internship?

I have been in touch with my Pfizer mentors long after I have completed the internships. I have kept them in the loop after all the progress I have made in an academic semester. It makes my chest swell with pride when they congratulate me on what I have done. While this is a personal opinion, I would suggest this to everyone.

While these days, start-ups are in the trend, working in a mega MNC has its own perks — you can interact with some of the most senior and experienced minds in the industry and learn shit-loads from them, you are always encouraged to put forward your point of view because all of the corporates want to be agile, you can see how they invest m(b)illions of dollars into their R&D and which tech are they backing to be the cutting edge tool of the next generation and countless others. It is up to the individual to make the most out it and use that experience for personal growth.

A few weeks after I left the Chennai plant, I received a Letter of Appreciation from my mentor(s) and it was gratifying to figure out that my recommendations were actually helping the company take business-level decisions impacting millions of lives.

I guess that sums it up. I had the best time of my life at Pfizer Inc. I worked on high impact projects, met and had lunch with some of the SLT’s and had great fun as well. I suggest everyone should try an industrial internship for it teaches you a lot about corporate life.

4) Key takeaways

• Attitude matters much more than skills. Make no mistake, skills do matter but a greater focus should be on convincing the organization that you won’t waste their time. Attitude matters more than aptitude.
• Never wait for the right time because that never arrives.
• Start early and apply to as many places as you can.
• People respect you for what you bring to the table. It may be your skills, your maturity, your business sense, or any of your strong personality traits, certainly needn’t be your age.
• Show some tenacity and don’t be afraid to reach out to a lot of people. The more you seek, the better returns you get.
• Don’t forget to enjoy. Work hard but party harder. You need to unwind after grueling work hours to remain fresh.
• People often fail to figure out what will make them look forward to on a Monday morning rather than getting them dragged. Use the internship to find that out early.