An Intern Guide for ITC & HUL

Come around the intern season, and there is always a buzz from the people trying for a CDC intern, to get information on the various companies they might be sitting for. The companies coming to the campus offer various profiles and one of them is FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods). This includes companies like HUL, P&G, and ITC.

In 2019, I was in the same shoes as all these people. I had just gotten into my third year and was eager to get an intern from CDC. My mind was filled with countless questions. Luckily, there were a lot of people who could give me the required information and guidance. With all their help, I was able to get an intern at ITC.

One year later, the season is here again and a number of people have asked me for help and guidance to bag an intern at an FMCG company. They have numerous questions about the process, the profile, etc. I tried to help them all but there are many who do not know anyone who can provide them guidance and there will be many such people in the coming years. So I have decided to make this short guide where I will try to answer some of the FAQs, based on my experience. Hope you find it useful.

What are the job profiles offered by these companies?

All 3 of these companies mainly offer interns in the supply chain and optimization category. HUL specifically only gave out supply chain optimization and quality-improvement related problems in my year but they have also come for R&D and product development profiles in the past. ITC also has similar supply chain and optimization projects but it does involve some projects or some sub-projects that include product development, data analytics, image processing, machine vision, and core mechanical or chemical projects like increasing machine efficiency or thermodynamic modeling. Some projects in the software field are also open for a student from the Electrical and Electronics department along with their core fields (only in ITC).

These job profiles that are offered are not fixed and change from year to year. Thus I can only list out the ones I know of (not an exhaustive list).

This kind of job profile sometimes requires the knowledge of statistics and DOE (Design of experiments) but it is not a prerequisite. Though, it is always beneficial if you know basic stats beforehand.

It might so happen that once you are selected and receive your project, it majorly involves a completely new field unknown to you but loosely fits the description of “supply chain”. Many times, the assigned project might not even match your interests or your career goals. But do not get disheartened. Any new opportunity forces you to step outside your comfort zone and it can only result in growth in some form.

What is the general selection process?

The selection process has 3 rounds — CV shortlisting, Group Discussion, Interview.

Along with the CV, HUL and ITC both ask you to fill an additional form that mostly caters to the HR questions like “What are your goals and vision?”, “What are your strengths?”, “Describe an incident where you put mind over matter?”, “What is the one thing you are passionate about?” etc. There is no right or wrong answer to these questions and I always advise people to actually look back on their life and fill out the forms truthfully (as these questions are often brought up in interviews). Though some amount of spicing up is ok. The only point is that you should be able to speak about the answers and expand on them in a convincing manner in the interview. And no, the answers do not have to be fancy. These additional forms take a while to fill so I will advise the readers to start filling these at least a week before the CV submission deadline. Companies of this kind also value independent decision-making skills and thus having these reflected in either your CV or your additional form helps to impress the interviewer.

The companies hold a mandatory presentation at the end of which they announce the list of candidates shortlisted for the GD rounds. GD happens on the same day or the next day itself.

HUL GD:

HUL takes a case study type of GD. All the candidates in the group are given 5–6 pages of material to read. At the end of the pages, there is a set of 4–5 questions that need to be discussed by the group. The group has to reach a single conclusion for each answer that will be provided at the end of the discussion. e.g. In my case, we were given data for the sales of refrigerators across various demographics, geographical locations, and for various companies. The questions were on the lines of “Should company X venture into the rural market?” etc.

ITC GD:

ITC takes a priority/ranking type of GD. The candidates are presented with a scenario and a list of available options. The candidates have to prepare an ordered list of those options according to priority.

I believe it will be best to explain this with some examples. In my case, we were presented with a scenario where we were told that our plane had crashed in a tropical forest on an island in the evening. Then we were given a list of 15 items that we were able to salvage from the crash site. The goal was to list these items in order of priority and present the order as a conclusion. Another example that one of my friends encountered was a scenario about the power issues of a town where they were given a list of power sources that they had to rank according to priority, based on the various factors like climate and geographic location of the town. There might be other similar scenarios used as a GD topic but I hope you got the idea.

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the whole process happened remotely. Most of the steps still remained the same but the GD step was replaced with a 1 minute extempore speaking round. In this round, you were given a topic followed by 1 minute to think on the points you want to speak and 1 minute to speak.

After the completion of the GDs, the shortlisted candidates for the interviews are soon announced. Both HUL and ITC have 2 rounds of interviews as standard but there might be more depending on how your first interview goes.

HUL Round 1:

The HUL round one is a technical interview to a major extent (though you might be asked a few questions about your extracurricular). The interviewer goes through your CV in this round and asks you relevant questions related to your projects and past internships. You will be asked to elaborate on the technical aspects of your past projects and tested in a few core concepts related to your past work. The interviewer also asks questions related to your stated coursework and other core/technical concepts he/she feels are necessary for the job and which you should know as a pre-final year engineering student.

ITC Round 1:

ITC round one is similar to HUL for chemical department students but it differs a bit from the HUL round one for other departments, in the sense that much emphasis is not given to the core concepts/courses from your branch. For chemical students, the interviews focus a lot on the core concepts in both ITC and HUL interviews. But for others, ITC round one mainly involves CV grilling. Regardless of the branch, the interviewers go through each and every detail written in your CV and you will be asked to extensively elaborate on your past projects and internships, including certain choices you made during the project as well as your reasoning behind it. The goal (as far as I was able to understand) is to assess the flow of your thinking process and critical thinking skills, as those are crucial for any project that you might be assigned.

Round 2:

Round 2 of both companies is an HR round (sort of) where you are asked questions regarding your goals and vision, your journey in college so far, your qualities as a human being, etc. The questions you answered in the additional form also come into play here and you might be asked to elaborate on those answers.

What should I include in my CV and what specific skills are required for this profile?

This profile is a bit unique in the sense that there are no prerequisites as such. You don't need the knowledge of any special software, concepts, or programming languages in order to get selected. The job/project that you will be offered will require you to think critically and have sound reasoning and a structured methodology of approaching any problem. These are exactly the skills they try to test in the interviews. But it is very important that you be absolutely thorough with whatever is written in your CV and you can defend it convincingly. The interviews for these companies heavily revolve around your CV and it is very important that you know everything written on your CV to the best extent possible to make a good impression.

The projects themselves sometimes involve knowledge of statistics, production planning, optimization, etc. Thus, if you have done a course related to the above-stated topics, it will prove to be helpful. But I reiterate — THERE ARE NO PREREQUISITES.

Something common that I saw in most people who got selected for interviews or for the intern was their involvement in at least one activity outside of academics, be it a POR or extra-curricular activities or participation in social service like working with NGOs. Since the interviews are heavily CV-dependent, your extracurricular and non-academic activities play a bigger part than they usually would.

Also, a CGPA of 8+ gives you a fair chance of selection, as I have observed in the people who got selected over the last 2 years (though it's not mandatory, and people with lower CGPA can also get selected.)

Tips and tricks

Every company has a set of values and mission around which its operations are planned. These core set of values drives the decisions of the company and are associated with what the company wants the people to recognize them for. It is very beneficial if you research about the company before you apply. In the form, where you have to answer all the “goals” and “vision” and “why this company” questions, it helps if you phrase your goals so that they align with the company values. Having this knowledge and using it during the interviews also has a very positive impact. It reflects that you have put in work and actually researched the company before you applied, making your candidature stronger than others who have not.

There are certain fairly common guidelines that one must follow during any type of GD. e.g. You should let others speak, you should motivate someone to speak their opinion when others are cornering the person, you should usually be the person to start the discussion, you should always leave room for disagreement in your opinion, etc. You can find such guidelines easily on the net and through youtube videos.

For both GD and interviews, it's important that you brush up on your speaking skills. Portraying a confident persona, showing leadership skills, and having good communication skills to keep the interviewer engaged, go the extra mile in helping you impress them. I usually practice such skills by reading books and watching videos of a fluent speaker (be it a sitcom character or a debater) and try to emulate his/her style.

For interviews, it also comes in handy if you prepare an introduction for yourself and learn it by heart. In most cases, the interview starts with the question “So tell me/us something about yourself”, after which you are expected to speak for a minute or 2 before the interviewer interjects and asks some other question. Having already prepared an introduction and memorized it word to word, you make a very good first impression as you do not have to spend time framing sentences and looking for words in your head. This also keeps the introduction structured and you don't repeat what you had said or blurt out an unorganized set of sentences that the interviewer has to piece together. A good introduction should include information about you, your family, hobbies, goals, passion, vision, and your expectations from the company. It also helps to be prepared for common HR questions like “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” “What is your goal in life as a human being?”, “What is the biggest setback you experienced during college?” etc. You can find the standard structure to answer these questions online, fairly easily.

These tips & tricks would be equally useful for any job interview even in the future.

Conclusion

I have tried to address as many FAQs as possible that were asked to me or those I asked when I was preparing for my CDC intern. I could not add information regarding P&G as I did not experience it firsthand. But I will try to ask people I know and include it too to make the guide more complete. I know that a lot of people struggle with these questions and feel lost in the process of preparing for these internship interviews. I hope this guide will at least help some people gain a little more clarity than they started out with. And you can always contact seniors around you for guidance as they are the best source you could ask for. Wishing you all the best for your interns.