The English Press Club sat down for a conversation with Dhruv Faria, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Conquest—the flagship Startup Accelerator Programme organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), BITS Pilani, and Dhruv Kedia, the President of CEL, to talk about their experiences with securing off-campus internships, specifically in the startup space.

Current position

When asked about their current internships, Faria explained that he is currently a Product intern at Houseware, a startup based in Bengaluru. Houseware aims to make data analysis more accessible to everyone, especially those with little to no technical knowledge. He secured this internship through a referral from a senior in CEL. On the other hand, Kedia currently works as an Associate Product Manager at Wint Wealth. Wint Wealth is an investment platform that bridges the accessibility gap of different investment products in India, which were earlier accessible exclusively at higher investment amounts. In his six months at Wint Wealth, Kedia has primarily worked on product-led growth and category creation. He secured this job through a referral from someone already working there.

Reaching out to companies

Faria and Kedia proceeded to detail their preferred methods of research and reaching out to startups seeking internships. Kedia pointed out that any answer either of them provided would not be accurate because the scenarios have drastically changed throughout their college life. He claimed that the initial funding and points of attraction associated with working in the startup space have now dried up. Faria added that due to the COVID-19 lockdown, they had leeway to be freer with prioritising the different parts of their life, such as academics, internships, social life, and self-care, which also proved to be of great help.

Kedia explained that he believes in pursuing internships due to the valuable lessons they provide, but warned that deciding to take an internship during an academic year would involve a lot of self-negotiation. He also mentioned that internships gave him a like-minded peer group both in and out of college. He suggested that one should first shortlist the sectors they intend to explore. Then, they should read up on the sector and the recent happenings in that space. He emphasised that one should  choose some early stage-startups in that sector, with around 30-40 members on board and then write personalised emails to them. He mentioned that these personalised emails should contain the ‘most truthful summary of yourself’, along with your understanding of the product, some problems you might have identified, and suggestions. 

Faria did not entirely agree with Kedia’s methods. This was because he believed that many people like himself have no affinity towards a particular sector and instead, focus on factors like the team they would be working under. This was because of the multiple team activities he has been involved in, even throughout college, where the team pushed him to do better, bringing out the best in him. To highlight his trajectory, he explained that despite cold emailing nearly 100 startups in his first year,  he had received no replies. In his second year, however, he had a dedicated peer group, with whom he developed a more streamlined approach towards cold emailing startups. Faria also suggested focusing on building mentor–mentee relationships. Both Faria and Kedia remarked that they were not as aware of the efficacy of this approach in the corporate space, because of a relative lack of context.

When asked about the different initiatives taken by CEL to boost exposure to startup culture on campus, especially in the form of internships, Kedia mentioned Summer in a Startup (SiS). This venture connects startups requiring interns in various verticals to BITSians. Kedia highlighted that Desert Hack and Conquest are two other initiatives undertaken by CEL which contribute to the startup culture on campus. 

Exploring career options through internships

When asked for suggestions regarding how best to explore the various career options that an engineering degree opens up, Faria explained that he has always followed the ‘method of elimination’. He elaborated that after his first semester, he was certain that he did not want to pursue a career in tech or engineering at large. After this, he narrowed his options down to three—finance, management consulting, and the startup space. He explored finance via the finance minor offered by the institute, management consulting via joining 180DC, and startups via joining CEL. Of the three, he realised that the startup sphere was where he saw himself, at least in the immediate future. Kedia supported this, and added that working in an early stage startup is a lot like pursuing an engineering degree, because it is for ‘people who do not know what they want yet’. 

Navigating campus life along with internships

When asked how they managed internships, jobs, and searching for internships along with academics and demanding on-campus commitments like CEL, 180DC, etc., Faria explained that the key was cutting corners. Elaborating on this, both Faria and Kedia agreed that their on-campus commitments saw a lot of overlap with their social circle, which made it easier for them to have a social life alongside such demanding commitments. Faria’s approach since his first year has been, ‘there are two ways to get a good job. Either get a stellar CGPA and excel, or make friends and build a professional network. Talk to people and upskill yourself, and that network will help you out.’ He explained that all his internships so far have been through his network, and that cold emailing and cold calling have not proved to be very successful for him. He opined that for those who believe that academics is not what they would want to maintain, there are three pillars—sleep, social life, and work, and that one of these will have to be given up. Kedia finally remarked that if one does not know which career path to pursue, the best thing to do would be to explore while being consistent with one’s academics, because that would keep a lot of options open. 

PU/PSD-mandated internships

With respect to their experiences with Placement Unit (PU) and Practice School Division (PSD)-mandated internships and placements, they said that they would prefer off-campus internships and placements because the companies they want to work in do not often come for campus placements. Kedia said that a startup would ideally not expend their resources on negotiating with a college placement cell to hire candidates, with the college acting as a filter. He also added that whether or not someone is the right fit for the culture of the startup is an important criterion startups look for while hiring candidates, and the competitive atmosphere of campus placements might not be the best place to gauge that. 

Final Remarks

Finally, they were questioned on the most significant learnings they had taken away from their experiences. Kedia reiterated his earlier point, that the only thing one needs to do to secure an internship is to convince themselves to work there for reasons beyond the popularity associated with the same. For Faria, the best way to maximise learning out of any internship experience would be to sit down and introspect to find one’s strengths and weaknesses, so that one could work on their weaknesses and capitalise on their strengths. Faria and Kedia concluded with crediting their peer group, saying that they could not have been where they are today without the conducive environment provided by their peers.