You are currently viewing Internship Experience of Utkarsh Upendra at Tata Steel : Raw Material Division

Internship Experience of Utkarsh Upendra at Tata Steel : Raw Material Division

Internfeel: Tell us something about yourself. What are your hobbies, interests. Where are you currently studying?
Utkarsh: I am a sophomore year Electrical Engineering undergraduate at NIT Rourkela. I hail from Bhubaneswar. I find interest in coding, reading, debating and music..!

Internfeel: Which internship did you get the chance to take? What was it all about? Stipend, duration and place?
Utkarsh: Here at NITR, we have a month long winter vacation. So, I managed to bag a month-long internship in raw materials division of TATA Steel. The place where I was supposed to intern was ‘Noamundi’ in Jharkhand but the due to state assembly elections, I was shifted to ‘Joda’ in Orissa. This entire project was unpaid.

Internfeel: How did you come to know about the internship? To what all sources you kept yourself connected?
Utkarsh: There was no opening as such. I found one of the hr official on LinkedIn and then developed contacts with him to convince him that I was good enough to intern at the concerned firm. I kept myself connected to LinkedIn and kept pinging the hr official periodically. It all started back in October. So, it would not be wrong to say that it is of course time consuming..!

Internfeel: Any common mistakes which you feel students should avoid while searching and applying for internships?
Utkarsh: Many a times, students get overexcited and blabber something in the message that they send to the authorities that creates a bad impression of them. In other words, they literally start begging for internships. I believe you should be good enough to make the person on the other side want to hire you. A student must always humbly request, but never beg. Moreover, I have seen my batchmates and juniors trying to connect to people who are of least help. So, analyze well to choose better. That’s it when you are looking to get an internship via networking.

Internfeel: So Utkarsh, could you please highlight the work/research project you carried out during the internship period? Its application in near future and your work in it?
Utkarsh: As an intern, I was to study the power system of the processing plants and the protective circuits. Also, I was to suggest any modifications or so. I was really well mentored there and so my project was completed well in time. The modifications that I along with my mentor had chalked out has been put to application there last month and it’s definitely good enough.My project was basically based on the power management of the plant. The incoming electrical power had to be distributed to each and every section of the mine in such a way that efficiency and reliability is maintained and losses are minimum. Let me not go into technical details of the project. The basic idea was to improve the overall efficiency of the then prevalent electrical system.

Internfeel: What was the best thing about the work culture and the internship? What were the things you liked there?
Utkarsh: The work culture was really good and open . The people were really friendly. They never hesitated to help. The best thing about the firm was there was a perfect balance between professionalism and conviviality. Also, everyone there right from the head to the staff were always open to ideas.

Internfeel: What qualities of yours do your believe helped in getting this internship and making best of it?
Utkarsh: My presentation skills coupled with my technical knowhow really helped me out during the entire tenure. My extrovert attitude helped me to talk and convince someone completely strange, to trust me.
Technical knowledge is like backbone for every prospective engineer. Without it you are nowhere. I had undertaken a few projects in my 3rd semester on embedded systems, power systems and power electronics at college which exposed me to technical phase.Even presently I am working for the power system of the upcoming nano satellite project of our institute – KALAMSAT.

Internfeel: Were there any special events during the internships?
Utkarsh: No. I guess there weren’t any ‘special events’ during the internship. The entire project was quite hectic and so we hardly got any time for anything else.

Internfeel: Let’s now talk about some negatives. What problems you or your friends faced, during the internship, which your juniors may be able to avoid?
Utkarsh: The biggest problem was regarding transportation to and within the mine. There was bus service provided by the company for the employees but then again, the timings weren’t flexible. And you can hardly do anything about it unless your mentor is generous enough to lend to his vehicle to move about. 😀 Apart from that, the cost of food was a bit on the higher side. Although inside the mine, the rates were nominal but outside, it was really expensive.

Internfeel: Was this your first internship?
Utkarsh: Yes it was.

Internfeel: To whom all would you, like to thank for this internship
Utkarsh: The hr department at TATA Steel, LinkedIn, my institute, my friends and of course my family. Each on of the aforementioned played a crucial role in bagging and completion of this internship.

Internfeel: How much difference this period of 1 month made in your intellectual capabilities and mindset. In broader terms what were your gains
Utkarsh: In this one month, I got to expand my professional network, got to enhance my technical knowledge and skills, improved on my time management and learnt to adapt to different environment as well.

This internship has clearly broadened my intellectual horizon.

Internfeel: What are your future plans after this internship and how much impact this internship will have on it?
Utkarsh: I wish to pursue higher studies in the field of power system. And this internship has definitely given a kickstart to that journey of mine. Post that, I wish to contribute to the R&D sector of the nation.

Internfeel: Any views about this initiative of InternFeel, and how beneficial it would be? Any suggestions for improvement?
Utkarsh: I must say.. This is a really brilliant initiative.. Keep up the work. All the best

Internfeel: Thanks a lot Utkarsh. It was so nice to know all about this. We agree you would have been busy with your academics or your personal work. Even then you took out time for this. We thank you and wish you best of luck for all your future endeavors

Utkarsh: Thanks a lot…!

Leave a Reply