My Internship at Hewitt Associates :-)

"Hewitt Final Sign-Out Offer Siddharth Bhasin" and my friends rushed to congratulate me. I was relieved and happy. Relieved because I got through the process in the exalted "First Slot" & Happy because I knew I would be stationed in Gurgaon and this meant home cooked food!!! My size (around the waist) stands a testimonial of how big a "foody" I am.

On 17th April we all joined here and went through a two day orientation program. We were enlightened by who’s who in Hewitt and after going through a fun filled ice breaking session and sharing experience of people having immense knowledge in consulting world we treated ourselves to "Cake & Punch" session. The first display of "Team Work" came up when the entire summer interns group presented an impromptu skit. We threw all sorts of jargons which we had come across during orientation (Pitcher – Catcher Model etc. etc.) while introducing the skit and in the end added a disclaimer "There might be inconsistencies between what we speak and do!!!" The two minutes which we spent in front of other associates, we worked together like parts of a clock and acted out stuff which left associates laughing and us surprised at our silliness.

The HR department took care to introduce us to everyone in TOC, TOCA and GS. Everybody said one thing "It’s a great place to work". This really puzzled me. I mean were they all asked to say this to us???!!! Or was it a joke in the office which were about to discover. Time would tell…. Whatever might be the case, I was all set for my first Corporate Experience.

We were provided with our own workstations, phones, stationary and visiting cards. At once it instilled a level of connect with Hewitt. We were not just summer trainees, we were Associates. The pace at which work is done is great and it just goes to show that how much our time is valued. The next two months were full of work and fun. Client calls, Research papers, Reports, Excel sheets, Collating data, Making presentations and yes lovely chocolate cake which we had on send-off parties of other Associates (foody in me awakens).

Time has flown by and today when I look back on my internship, I can say one thing for sure that Hewitt has been a great learning experience for me. Despite 90 minutes drive from my place (one side) I looked forward to coming to office. I couldn’t have asked for a better company to start my journey in the corporate world. The warmth with which I was treated by Associates even at the top level has been humbling. I have made some great friends here in fellow interns and Associates and promise to be in touch with them even as we get back to books in our institutes.

But one thing which I would like to tell everybody reading Connect
"Hewitt is a great place to work" and it’s no joke

"I would rather be a Could Be if I can not be an Are;
Coz a Could Be is a May Be reaching for a star,
I would rather be a Has Been; Than a Might Have Been by far,
Coz a Might Have Been has never been; But a Has Been was once an Are."