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Continuing the insightful interview of Anurag from Mumbai, here’s the third one in the series of six internships of Anurag at IIT Bombay.
Anurag has completed an integrated 5 Year Dual Degree Program (Bachelors & Masters’ Dual Degree) from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working with Eaton Corporation where he started working from August this year
InternFeel: Tell us something about your internship including stipend, duration and place?
Anurag Roy: Internships at BARC and L&T were one each in a research facility and in the industry which were sweet and short. It was now time to explore the outlandish domain of modelling and simulations which were accomplished thanks to the kindness showered on me by an esteemed faculty member at IIT-Bombay who accommodated me for a six week winter internship during Dec’12-Jan’13. This was exclusively devoted to kinetic simulations for automobile applications.
IF: How competitive was the selection process? According to you, which qualities have helped you have an edge in the selection process? Also, what were the key things that selectors were looking for?
AR: The selectors closely look for former research endeavours, the groups you have been associated with (i.e. the professors/scientists you have worked with till date and their contributions to science), quality of research (best judged by journal or conference publications) and a knack for higher education (in the form of grad school aspirations).
IF: Could you please highlight the work/research you carried out during your internship period?
AR: The winter internship at IIT-Bombay ventured into the rather-intimidating modelling side whereby mechanical linkages were simulated to attain perfect movement and to maintain their steric-viability within an extremely confined space akin to the ones inside compact automobile engines. With this, three domestic interns were successfully completed.
IF: Can you give us interesting details about your experience – good and bad?
AR: Well, I have often advocated that good or bad are very relative terms. But hell yeah, lots of “interesting” details, lots of spice, lot of crazy-ass things were indulged in and I don’t regret them, not for a minute, haha.
At IITB, I felt that a social circle lacking as compared to the two prior internships (BARC and L&T). This was maybe because I was the only one working as an intern during the winters (remember, IITs are most sought after internship destinations for summer internships, not winter). However, I had tons of friends studying at IIT-Bombay and the beautiful campus will leave anyone spellbound.
IF: How do you think this internship has helped you grow? In other words, what are your key takeaways from the internship?
AR: Well, every internship experience is definitely worth the time and effort that we invest into it.
The research internships, both domestic and abroad (at Texas, Florida and Paris) were instrumental in shaping up decisions concerning grad school, career paths and in answering various mind-boggling questions such as, whether or not to pursue a career in science for the forthcoming years and if so, which field to opt for later.
IF: Has this internship had a decision altering impact on your career? Do you now think of a different future path as compared to before doing the internship?
AR: Indeed, internships have had a substantial impact on altering my prospective career paths. All throughout my childhood and teenage years, I nurtured the dream of becoming a civil servant and joining the elite Indian Administrative Services to serve my people. But my interest in taking this ambitious profession as a career ended as suddenly and dramatically as the climax of the “West Side Story” after the fascinating trips overseas.
