Dhairya Gangwani, a BTech Electronics and Communication student from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, who has always believed in action rather than words. She has completed 6 months internship at KPMG in India, achieved her goals and established herself as a doer.
Here, Dhairya is sharing her experience being a Management Consulting SAP Trainee. Her apprenticeship will certainly propel her ahead of the curve.
Go ahead and know what her story has to offer to aspiring youth so that you can easily find a path of self-growth.
How did you come to know about the internship?
Got an Internship + Full-time job offer via my college campus placements
What was the location?
3 months at the Mumbai Office and 3 months work from home, due to the pandemic.
What were your responsibilities as an intern?
I was responsible for gaining hands-on knowledge of different P2P cloud platforms such as SAP Ariba, Coupa and Ivalua. I was to learn how to run different end to end cycles on the software, create templates, interact with clients, make proposals, presentations and work on process flow diagrams. I worked on 2 projects during the duration of 6 months and both were on different tools. I Got to learn a lot about real-time client engagement, project management, team management and gained substantial technical knowledge as well.
How much time did you contribute on a daily basis?
It was generally somewhere between 6-8 hours per day, 5 days a week.
Share your proudest achievements and how were you able to realise them.
My proudest achievements have been firstly successfully completing 20+ internships with several startups, companies and community initiatives across the globe as a Business Analyst, Business Development Manager, Operations Lead, Market Researcher, Content Writer, Content Creator and many such roles.
The second would be getting placed with an internship and full-time job offer via my campus placements with KPMG in India. Here I got to work on two client-facing projects as an intern which was an achievement for me as generally, interns don’t get the opportunity to do so.
The third one would have to be my Guest Podcasts, Webinars, Interviews and Story feature on some amazing platforms in a short period of 2 months.
My family, friends and mentors were the ones who helped me realise the importance of these achievements. I am who I am because of their constant support and faith in me.
What are the top learnings, skills and values that you acquired here?
To name a few learnings, skills and values acquired at KPMG, I believe building strong and effective relationships with your clients and colleagues would top the list. I also learnt a lot about Project Management, Client interactions, Proposal and Strategy building, working effectively in a team, professional team coordination, and most importantly I gained substantial interpersonal and effective communication skills.
I have improvised on my technical skills with respect to P2P cloud platforms, having worked on 3 different tools for 6 months. Getting a hands-on experience helped me understand the functioning of the software and deliver according to the client requirements effectively.
Do you feel this experience is a stepping stone towards success in life? Illustrate how the experience gained will help you going forward in your career.
This 6-month Internship Journey is surely a stepping stone towards my success in life. Getting the opportunity to enter the professional world even before completing my engineering was a surreal experience. To top that I got the opportunity to work with one of the Big four at a very tender age. This experience helped me network and engage with such brilliant and top-level management professionals of the firm first hand.
The client meetings, proposals and discussions that I got to be a part of, were with such renowned companies and firms in the market. I got the chance to interact and make my mark on the client-side as well. Be it my technical knowledge of P2P cloud technologies or learning the intricacies that come along with being a consultant, I got to learn it all at KPMG. This experience will undoubtedly help me in numerous ways with respect to my corporate journey and life in general.
What is your advice to those, who are aspiring the same or a similar internship?
I would like to tell aspiring students that when it comes to applying for or bagging internships via any platform, the first thing to be kept in mind is a positive and intelligent working attitude. Students must have the zeal in them to go out there and explore different career fields while pursuing their undergraduate degree. Doing diverse Internships will give them an enriching experience. It will help them gain a better understanding of their interests and then they can effectively work towards building up on the required skill set.
Another advice would be to always believe in yourself and never lose hope. You need to keep trying until you reach the mark that you have set for yourself. Follow your heart not the crowd!
How can we (Friends, Family, YI Fraternity) encourage young students such as yourself to involve themselves in different opportunities?
I believe students should be given the chance to engage in various extracurriculars while they pursue their academics. This will teach them the art of time management.
Secondly, parents, mentors and teachers must encourage students to apply for real-time industrial training and internships as the skills learnt through them are incomparable and set you apart from the crowd.
We at Young Influx would take this opportunity to thank Dhairya for taking a leap of faith and sharing her impeccable story. We are humbled and grateful, your efforts mean a lot for the youth seeking growth and development.
And hello, dear readers, we welcome you to explore the platform with an open mind. Help yourself gain most out of the experiences and opportunities listed here.
And before you bid us adieu, we would like you to know that you can read more such student stories here.
