Experience : Beyond the Borders
And finally……………. I made it to Japan. Perhaps its little late to say this, but frankly it took me a month to sink in that feeling especially after too many ups and downs involved. And now when I look back, rite from the start, I feel I was lucky to get selected and extremely lucky to fetch a scholarship for this experience. The journey wasn’t easy as many would expect, it’s a sheer test of character to overcome the pain of sad news, joy of happiness and anticipation of results amidst of semester examinations. But as the saying goes, “if you want the rainbow you have to tolerate the rain”, true that. We look for opportunities all around us, sometimes those end up as not just opportunities but breakthrough’s that can change our lives once and for all; I am sure my summer internship here at Ritsumeikan University Japan will prove to be one experience to remember and cherish forever.
Summing up my Japan experience so far in words/phrases, its discipline (even machines will shy away), rich culture (more you explore, more amazed you are), humble people (It’s impossible to describe this in words), language barrier (sooner you learn basic Japanese, easier your life becomes), hard work (don’t be surprised to see people working in labs entire night), extreme weather conditions (extreme winters, extreme summers, heavy rainfall, stormy winds, minor earthquakes all in a span of 30 days) and finally, cutting-edge TECHNOLOGY (all I can say is see it to believe it…GodLike).
My internship story is full of fascination and thrill as it transcends the barrier of nationalities, ethnicity, languages and cultures. Things at work are progressing smoothly with people all over the world under one roof striving hard to come up with a sustainable IT solution in their respective domain. My internship not only educates me in technical terms but also gives me a deep insight into another world, very much undiscovered by Indian people. During this course of period we are also subjected to various company visits like Mitsubishi, to get a comprehensive 360 degree understanding of technological marvels which world can see in future. To test and add on to our managerial capabilities, we were invited for a ‘Business Experience Workshop’ organised by ‘TIS Inc’ to propose a solution on behalf of ‘TIS Inc’ for a real life client issue they were facing. This was a real value addition for us wherein we could relate our theoretical knowledge with its practical implications.
I personally feel that the idea of overall development of a management graduate and the true essence of real life learning will be totally achieved in these 3 valuable months here at ‘Ritsumeikan University’ Japan. Given today’s economic reality, a rich global work experience is what an employer is going to be requesting. An international internship succeeds in those areas and beyond. Working in another country and understanding the cultural nuances of the work environment will prove to be my biggest challenge. However it will also prove to be academically and professionally rewarding in the long run. I believe that I will be able to look back at the end of summer on the overall experience, not just the work, as a chance that I took where I got to grow emotionally and intellectually.
My sincere thanks to SCIT and RITS for giving me a chance to showcase my technical and managerial competence as a part of my summer internship project.
A special thanks to Dr. Raman and Prof. Sadhana for their endless support and guidance throughout.
Arigato Gozaimasu,( Thank you !)
Pankaj Chawla – A Proud SCITian -MBA ITBM, 2012-2014|Member- Guest Lecture Committee|Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology [SCIT]
