My Internship Experience: Flipkart

Hi everyone! I am Vivek Gupta and I interned with Flipkart this summer in Bangalore and I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said those were some truly awesome months. Hence, here goes my attempt to share some of those moments with you !

It was 9:30 AM, 21st of May. I had just stepped into Flipkart’s office at Mantri Commercial, Bangalore. I was familiar with the pleasant weather and insane traffic of Bangalore, as I have worked as an intern in this city in past. Confused about which building to enter among the two, I decided to call the HR assigned to me. She guided me to the right place - Tower B, 3rd floor. She asked me to wait over there. After half an hour, I saw other students entering. I enjoy having conversations with new people, and so I went ahead to speak with them. I got to know they were my co-interns from various colleges including - BITS Pilani, BITS Hyderabad, IISC Bangalore, IIT KGP and IIT Bombay.

Soon, the HR arrived again and after completing some formalities, we entered the office. The first thing I noticed were meeting rooms and that there name based on television soaps. Around 10, another HR came over to brief us about the internship. To make the co-interns familiar with each other and know about the office, they conducted a short interactive session. We were supposed to do some funny activities to complete the task. It was quite fun, and a great opportunity to gel and interact with fellow interns, including those of the opposite sex. We were then assigned separate groups and locations, where we were supposed to report on the next day. I was disappointed for not being assigned the data science group. We were then asked to collect our laptop from the IT department. I was elated to receive a Macbook Pro.

Flipkart Office Main Building

I met my manager at 9.30 am next morning. Contrary to my expectations, my manager was young and enthusiastic - which was amazing. He introduced me to other team members and my mentor. Interaction with my mentor turned out to be one of the highlights of my internship. With 14 years of experience in the industry, he was currently working as an architect. I got to learn quite a lot of things from him. He frequently used to take me out for tea and coffee.

The following day, I set up my system and email address so as to start working. My mentor then asked me to send a project proposal. It was surprising that I was given an opportunity to choose my own project. I consulted a professor of IIT Kanpur and settled over a potential project, after taking reference from around 4-5 papers. I drafted the proposal and received a first appreciation from my mentor. And hence, I was satisfied as I would now be working on my own project related to data science.

Flipkart Mission,Values and Brand Vision

Next day, I started working on the project; first step being data collection. The problem statement was quite interesting and technically challenging, which made me even more curious and excited to solve it. I got immense support from colleagues at Flipkart and made great friends with them.My progress was decent, and I made sure that I could finish the work before the deadline.

I have always believed in delivering more than what is asked for. I gave equal weight to both quality and quantity, for best results. Another great aspect of my internship was the work freedom. Flipkart organized a hackday during internship. I also invited my few fellow college colleague for participating in hackday. Overall the experience of participating in hackday was amazing. We implemented 2 hacks, and received appreciation from other teams for the same. I love the fact that flipkart has a very open culture. Owing to my suggestion, an outing was organized. This made flipkart stand on its motto - "Ab har wish hogi poori ". I made friends for lifetime, during the course of internship.

I learnt a lot from discussions with data science colleagues. I even went to Karunya university with a flipkart employee to host a workshop. People of Karunya treated us nicely, and I am grateful for that. This was my first workshop to an audience of over a hundred. Finally the demo day approached and I worked for my presentation. My final presentation in front of top leadership was successful. My work was appreciated, and I was given a chance to continue my work off-campus. I also won the poster competition for my work.

What I learn is that persistence is quite important. The sense of ownership among employees is amazing, irrespective of designation. I hope my work will help Flipkart and its customers. I am sure that it will help my team, reduce their manual effort and save their time. Time for departure had come and I was sad that I had to leave some brilliant people behind.

The most satisfying thing about the internship at Flipkart was that we were fully involved in the company’s operations and not treated separately as interns. Though this meant higher working hours at times, the learning experience we earned owing to this was invaluable. We picked up a lot of things in a relatively short time, and gained valuable insight into not only our own sector, but also the other sectors. We got considerable exposure to the industry, and hence are, now, well equipped to make a decision on how to proceed from here onward. Above all, it was the people and work culture - that happens to be the highlight of Flipkart experience. I am thankful to Flipkart for providing me this opportunity.

Written by Vivek Gupta and edited by Samarth Bansal

Tags: Flipkart , Internship, Bangalore, IIT Kanpur