Survey on
“Summer Internship Relevance in MBA Curriculum”

Report submitted for the partial fulfillment of “Managerial Communication”
Course Number MBA C431

Submitted To
JAYASHREE MAHESH
Department of Management
BITS, Pilani on 26th October 2012

Submitted By : Group 5
Harshit Shukla
Nischal Sarin
Paresh Sarjani
Sanya Nauharia
Venkat Naveen
Zaid Bin Ahsan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to PROF.JAYSHREE MAHESH of Department ofManagement, BITS Pilani, for providing us an opportunity to do project on “Survey on Relevance of Summer Internship in MBA Curriculum”. We sincerely thank you for the constant encouragement and guidance in carrying out this project work.
This project bears an imprint of views and opinions of fellow colleagues and other people. We wish to express gratitude to all of them for actively participating in our survey.
We are grateful to our college for providing infrastructure and internet facilities due to which we were able to complete this project on time.
Last but not least, we wish to avail this opportunity to express a sense of gratitude and love to our friends and our beloved parents for their manual support, strength, help and for everything.

Place:Pilani
Date: 26th October 2012

CONTENTS

* List of Illustrations/Figures * Abstract * Introduction 1. Questionnaire 2.1. Current Curriculum 2.2. Research Techniques and Survey Methods 2.3. Survey Screenshots 2. Observation and Analysis 3.4. Responses from Inexperienced candidates 3.5. Responses from Experienced Candidates 3.6. Analysis based on Responses 3. Conclusion and Proposals 4.7. Conclusion 4.8. Benefits 4.9. Challenges 4.10. Proposal * Appendix A * Appendix B * References * Glossary

List of Illustrations/Figures * Figure 1 – Current Curriculum of MBA at BITS * Figure 2 – Survey Title Page * Figure 3 – Survey Second Page * Figure 4 Survey Page for Experienced Candidates * Figure 5 Survey Page for Inexperienced candidates * Figure 6 Last Page (Common Page) of Survery for both Inexperienced candidates and Experienced

ABSTRACT
This report aims to find out the importance/relevance of “Summer Internship” for MBA Students as a part of curriculum. The audiences who have been surveyed areMBA students of BITS Pilani as well as students from different colleges.
We had created a questionnaire seeking student’s views on “Summer Internship” and this questionnaire was floated on Social Networking Sites, Emails, etc.
Good number of students participated in this survey and results indicate that more than 80% of students feel that “Summer Internship” should be made a compulsory or mandatory part of MBA curriculum itself.
Further as our opinion, we would definitely like to request our faculties to take a look in this matter if possible and based on the permissions, revise the curriculum if possible.

Introduction
With the rise in number of MBA Schools in our country, the environment for students is becoming truly competitive. And in this competitive environment, the first thing which comes to mind is - MBA students need to be pro-active and effectively utilize their time.
This is the sole reason why we have selected this project. There are lots of B-Schools offering top-class education in India. But it is not only the class education that matters; student can learn better if they spend a considerable time in industry too. So if they go for industry experience over that period, after first year and before choosing specialization, they can develop more interest in their chosen field.
So the report presents * The survey which we have floated across * Responses from that survey. * Based on the responses, we have made analysis on same * Try to express our opinion based on the consensus.

Chapter 1
Questionnaire

1.1 Current Curriculum * Our current curriculum comprises of 1.5 years of classroom teaching and 6 months of Practice School making up total of two years * In these two years we have 2.5 months of holidays in summer.

Below snapshot gives information on existing curriculum.

Figure 1. Current Curriculum

* So our basic aim is to make students fully utilize this period (of 2.5 months). * Students are allowed to do summer internship during this period, but the major problem is that all of them are not successful in their endeavours. * If the majority of students are not able to get an opportunity (of internship), 2.5 months will be wasted in (maybe0 frivolous activity. * Instead, if this summer internship is made a mandatory part of our MBA curriculum, then somehow our college can use its influence to get students appropriate organizations for their internships. * This will result into efficient utilization of student’s summer holidays and it will also help students gain prior experience of the “real business” before going to Practice School.

1.2 Research Techniques and Survey Methods * Here research technique that has been used is Descriptive research which contains * Objective: To understand importance of summer internship and make it mandatory as a part of our curriculum. * Problem: Non compulsory internship leading to our loss of an opportunity for pre-work experience in an industry. * Structure: Structured questionnaire has been designed based on a candidate’s characteristics (eg. experienced or inexperienced candidates). * Method: Survey and Observations from students. * Conclusion: based on the findings.

1.3 Survey Screenshots * Below is the first page of our survey. The link is highlighted in “Red” and the continue button will lead to next page.

Figure 2 : Survey Title Page

* Below is the second page. This page will divide the survey into two categories based on the selection of a candidate as an experienced or a inexperienced candidates candidate.

Figure 3 Survey Second page

* Below is the set of questions which will appear for experienced candidates

Figure 4 Survey Page for Experienced Candidates

* Below is the page which will appear for candidates with no prior experience

Figure 5 Survey Page for non-experienced candidates

* Last Page of Questionnaire

Figure 6 Last Page (Common Page) of Survey for both types of candidates

Chapter 2
Observations and Analysis
2.1 Responses from inexperienced candidates Based on the responses received from different students we observed: * 75% of inexperienced candidates feel that internship would help them gain work experience before going joining any industry * 13% of inexperienced candidates would prefer doing activities other than an internship (during those 2.5 months). * 87% of inexperienced candidates demanded that summer internship should be a mandatory part of our curriculum.

2.2 Responses from Experienced Candidates Based on the responses received from different students we observed: * 84% of experienced Candidates agreed upon the fact that a summer internship would help them in career growth. * 88% of experienced Candidate believed that a relevant summer internship would provide them an insight in their field of interest. * 72% of experienced Candidates demanded that summer internship should be a mandatory part of our curriculum.

2.3 Analysis based on responses * Responses clearly show that a majority of students, irrespective of the fact that they are inexperienced candidates or experienced, feel that the summer internship should be a part of the curriculum. * Inexperienced candidates require internship to gain some practical experience in an organization which can help them to get on with the job easily in future. * Experienced candidates require internship to gain some insight over their field of interest as maximum of them are having an experience in some different field. They also think that summer intern would add a point of effective time utilization. * The candidates also believe that due to a strong summer internship their resume would look more appealing.

Chapter 3
Conclusion and Proposals
3.1 Conclusion * Summer internship is a short term experience that provides a real insight into a particular job or career field. * provides an opportunity to gain the relevant knowledge and skills required in the field as well as adds an important element to the resume.

3.2 Benefits * Students get experience. * Earn while you learn. * Networking Opportunities. * Add an important element to the resume. 3.3 Challenges * Reluctance of administration in implementing change. * The Practice School effect. 3.4 Proposal We would like to urge our administration to check the responses of students on this survey. And if they find these results relevant as well as useful we would like to propose the inclusion of “Summer Internship” as a mandatory part in our MBA Curriculum.

Appendix A
Pie Charts of Inexperienced candidates

Appendix B
Pie Chart for Experienced Canidates

References
Google Drive for Questionnaire http://www.topmba.com/articles/news-and-features/career-value-mba-internships http://www.topmba.com/articles/north-america/summer-internships-important-career-stepping-stone http://www.mba-channel.com/channel/article/the-importance-of-being-an-intern/ http://indiavidya.com/importance-of-internships-for-mba-students/

Glossary
Practice School : A physical organization where student is able to practice his theoretical skills practically in real world
Consensus : Majority