There are 3 words that are guaranteed to wreak havoc in the hearts and minds of every first-year student at XLRI – Summer Internship Process. From before the second term begins, the preparations begin. It takes a certain amount of mental fortitude to go through the gruelling 5-day (and in the past couple of years, more than 5 days) process, being woken up as early as 4 am on some days, and having to stay awake until 3 am on some nights. There’s a lot at stake not only for the juniors, but also for the seniors. We talk about “XL Culture”, and in my opinion, this manifests itself best in the form of the support seniors give to the juniors before and during the process, and the obvious pride and joy we feel when the process is done.
This year’s SIP was particularly sweet. As Venky (Placecomm Secy) put it, “We put in 4.5 months of work exclusively into your SIP, and it’s sweet that the entire process was done in just 4.5 days”. These 4.5 days, though, has taught me a lot of things:
- It’s in every XLer’s DNA to be as supportive as possible to those being placed.
- Every year, the seniors are worried about how their juniors will handle the pressure and the stress, and every year, the junior batch outshines its senior batch, proving they’re strong, proving they have the mettle and more.
- All the hard work you put into the SIP, whether as a member of any of the placement support teams, or just as a senior helping out a junior, it all feels sweet and satisfying when you see 240 smiles.
- No matter what, XLers stick together. It was great to see the juniors helping each other out with preparations, forcing each other to eat properly (!), celebrating each other’s successes and just generally being perfect batchmates.
People surprise you. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. That phrase is particularly apt for the batch of 2010-12. Congratulations on a truly awesome SIP! Now’s the time to celebrate, because come April, it’ll be the time to put your heads down, work hard and grab as many PPOs/PPIs as you can.
Before I end this post, I’d like to link to a post written by one of my seniors during our SIP. It makes for great reading.
Cheers!
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