Oshin - TATA Steel

Hello there! I’m Oshin, a 4th-year undergraduate pursuing Metallurgy and Material Science Engineering. I’m from the very beautiful city of Chandigarh. I’m inclined towards many many fields that can make for an entire blog. But let’s not depart, my main interest lies in learning finance, mainly using the algorithmic part, understanding economics, core metallurgy and just a little amount of theoretical physics. Outside work I enjoy cricket a lot followed by traveling, dancing and singing sometimes to my heartbeat. Deep diving into the main subject for today, I completed my internship as a Management Trainee on the day I was writing this blog, somehow thinking of this as writing an ending note before farewell at the TATAs. My last 8 weeks here at TATA Steel were nothing less than a magical experience for me. I still remember the day I scored this internship through the PT Cell around October; kudos and high fives go to the wonders of the IC Team bringing it on. Traveling a bit before in time, it was around August 2021 start, and I got to know at first that the companies will be coming to offer interns just about in two weeks, while my thinking was December ☹. So naturally, as a human instinct, I got onto looking for my interests with less time. My first interest came forward was Optiver, an algorithmic trading firm. I got ahead in the selection process there, but I guess it was the GD round where I blundered. No matter, raising my head high, thinking reaching so far in Optiver was good, I went to fill many similar companies. The majority stroked out because of the strict CPI criteria, gladfully, which now I have maintained learning so much from the process, XD. Then came the TATAs. Now, let’s talk about the interview process and my preparation strategy. So, I used to solve a quick math series of questions every day, like an 8-minute 80 questions type quiz, to hasten my thinking. I used to practice logic; sequences and even watch some riddles at Ted-Ex on YouTube to elevate my level. The test here at TATA was quite simple, as I put it with other companies. It consisted of easy and numeric mathematics questions, mostly probability, some logic reasoning and metallurgy; however, metallurgy were relatively few. Since the test was simple, 50% made it out of it for the next round of the GD. I had given one GD before, massively fumbling. But this time, the GD was more like an open discussion, and they just wanted to see whether you were able to put your points with, you can say, complete confidence and clarity. That was it, my GD round went quite well, and out of 17, only 4 got selected for the further round, including me. Then came the final devil, the technical interview round. The majority of questions asked were about Metallurgy, and the most crucial course I found relevant to it was ‘the crystallographic lab one’ (MM212). After the smooth round, I believed I was there to be selected, and you see, you can figure it out from your interviewer’s face. Later we had a fun conversation about the same. Jumping to my internship experience, the intern was purely online. However, I think they will call you to their Jamshedpur plant this year, all expenses paid. My work was concentrated on examining how their machine was malfunctioning in short durations (due to corrosion) and what I provided to counter that. It included market research, talking to different companies, getting their viewpoints and budgeting—as the industry wants to incur the lowest costs and make the highest profits possible. I wouldn’t like to go any further into the technical details. Still, to give you an overview, it has been pretty exciting working with a leading company in the steel space, understanding their business model, seeing how technical problems are solved in real life and what kind of a structure is typically followed while devising a growth strategy. The softer aspects were the gifts the company sent even before the internship started and during. It used to be a pretty heavy box that my one day at a gym used to get sparred. Exciting, right? I have gained a lot of knowledge in these 8 weeks not only technically but as a person, learning the approach, the structure, and sometimes the hard work. Yeah, I used to hate it back then, but it has grown me as a person and I'm very grateful. Leaving you this quickly, my heart aches. But to end this monologue, here are the words that I believe in. Stress is something that comes naturally and which increases not so naturally unless thinking about it a lot. I know this is all overwhelming, but your brain is here to do great wonders to the world and not to panic or compare with others. Enter the process positively, stay strong and calm and most importantly, hang on. Learn from your mistakes and experiences because that is life, after all. An intern will do no good to you unless you believe in yourself and rock the way forward. Optimism and not a callous attitude will lead you to a good place. You are getting this lovely opportunity at the very best firms, and you have nothing to lose, right? All the very best for the upcoming season, and you know I’m hanging in there as I would like you all to if you have any more questions :). Have a great one, cheers!