#MyLearnings : Being the Youngest Intern at YES BANK FOUNDATION

On 22nd May 2018, I entered India Bulls Finance Centre at 8 am with a mixed feeling of excitement and nervousness starting with my day one at YES BANK FOUNDATION. I reached one hour early, a practice I continued throughout my internship. I waited impatiently for the elevator and I recalled, Prof Anuja Kimatrai once told me after graduating with a Masters Degree from Curtin University when she cleared the interview with Ogilvy and Mather, she was asked to unlearn all the concepts that she learned at the University and start anew. Basically to learn, unlearn and relearn. Keeping this in mind I got out of the elevator on the Twenty Seventh Floor at the YES FOUNDATION's Office.

My First Week 

Day 1 was all about induction and briefing about the work and the person I am reporting to. I asked a lot of questions and did a lot of research and noted everything I could. The first day Ms Prerana Langa CEO of YES FOUNDATION said, " I don't want you to think like an intern, I want you to think like a Manager, a Leader. You should think holistically about anything and everything you do here." Her words inspired me and I am forever thankful to her for always believing in me. She has truly been a Mentor from the last one year and through my YES FOUNDATION Fellowship.

I worked and observed the people around me. I tried to understand how they work, their skills. I started taking notes of my observations and learnings in my notebook. In the first one week, I tried to set out a plan for myself for this internship.

                 Rahul Bagwe with Ms Prerana Langa, CEO, YES BANK FOUNDATION



My Personal Action Plan

Initiative

The most important thing I reminded myself every day was to take initiative. My first week had been fine but I also felt that no one would take a 19-year-old seriously, all though they did take me seriously and gave me important work, I always felt I need to take the initiative and do some really good work.

Self-Assesment

I planned that at the end of every week, I will sit down peacefully and review my work and my progress and make it a consistent weekly discipline.

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness by questioning myself every day the following:
1. What new ideas have I experimented with?
2. What have I learned?
3. What follow-up steps will I take?

Motivation

In one week, I realised how depressing corporates can be with everyone into their laptops all the time. This was a new world for me and missed college and interacting with friends.
I decided that every day I will choose happiness by reading books in the morning. I found it crucial to strike a balance so I would come one hour early and read newspapers and books to start with my day with ideas and optimism and definitely food for thought.

Networking

I was determined to network with many professionals and interact and widen my perspective and horizons and I was successful in creating strong networks by the end of the Internship.

My work 

I was the Youngest Fellow at the YES FOUNDATION Media for Social Change Fellowship 2017 and subsequently received a scholarship to study at the prestigious ISDI WPP School of Communication. Considering my experience at the Fellowship I was working extensively in being a point of contact for the Fellows in Mumbai.

The most exciting part was to do the Program support for YES FOUNDATION Fellowship 2018. I hosted all the significant workshops for the YES Fellows 2018 that enabled me to network not only with the dignitaries but also with young people who are driven to make a difference.

Remembering Prerana Madam's words to think holistically. I not only worked on content with Priyanka Tambe who has been my guide throughout the internship but I also worked on understanding all the departments from logistics to content to social media to conducting various surveys and feedback  and lastly playing a key role in the convocation ceremony for the YES Fellows and I made sure I note all my learnings only to develop a holistic perspective.

I also worked on understanding other projects of YES FOUNDATION like Yes! i am the change which is flagship program of YES FOUNDATION. I worked across departments to understand different skillsets and apart from professional lessons I tried to look for a few personal characteristics I can develop.

The People 

" An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it."

                                                                                                                         - Dee Hock

I consider myself fortunate to network with the entire team at YES FOUNDATION. I cherish the moments spend observing, learning and interacting with each one of them. I reminisce Prerana Ma'am always being so supportive and I fondly regard her as the CEO with a heart, mind and sense of humour. The two Senior Vice Presidents I admire the most at YES FOUNDATION are Ms Seema Pawaskar and Mr Rohan Das. Seema Ma'am gifted me lessons in time management. Being a mother to a 2-year-old and commuting all the way from Borivali every day and leaving late from the office every day she struck a balance and she would always make time for me. I admired Rohan Sir's remarkable intelligence, his oratory skills and his eye for detail. I learned a lot from Priyanka an amazing content writer and a guide to me throughout the internship. I enjoyed working with Ranjan Sir, Sudeshna Ma'am, Diana, Omakr Sir, Dhruneal and Akshay who were working on other projects and I luckily got many opportunities to learn from them.

My Learnings

1. Understanding the concept of Ecosystem and being a good team player.

YES FOUNDATION is a huge success and has always come up with innovative ways, largely because of a huge element of teamwork and collaboration and it is one the values of YES BANK which is omnipresent in the organisation.

I developed the ability to see the bigger picture, to conjure a mental image of the web of interrelationships, and to think imaginatively and holistically.

2.  Art of Articulation or effective communication

I learned not to beat around the bush and rethink and be to the point and articulate my thoughts effectively.

3. Setting and resetting my priorities

One of the blunders of my internship was to delay a task and that's when I realised I need to be quick in thinking and setting and resetting my priorities every day on the basis of urgency and deadlines.

4. Managing my time

Managing my time and always do multiple things in the given time.

5. Trust but Verify 

I learned to trust myself with various information on different content writing work but at the same time always verify the facts twice.

6. Constantly Learning and Refining my skills

I realised the importance of this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world of ours and the need to reinvent myself constantly by learning and refining my skills to stay relevant.

7. Building Diverse Networks

Focusing on building trust and adding value to other people. Sharing my ideas and insights and seeking advice, reviews, interacting to widen my perspective.

8. Seeking Diverse Information from everywhere

I learned the importance of staying updated with current affairs and diverse information stimulates creativity.

9. Staying Mentally Flexible 

Importance of being open to all kind of information and processing and analysing the information well and develop spontaneous thinking.

10. Empathy

I learned to empathize not only with the poor, the vulnerable and the downtrodden but also to empathize with the people around me, to be more understanding and to work effectively with people around me and make a collective valuable contribution to the organisation.

Lastly, I am enormously grateful to YES BANK FOUNDATION for offering me this internship and making this experience memorable.