The AIM Blogger

As one of my friends would say it, your final week in school is your "Victory Lap." But that term also describes my final week in the Infosys InStep Internship program. My eighth and final week was probably the busiest week in my whole stay. Why? Because I had to finish my project, do the knowledge transfer and training to the person inheriting it, taking care of administrative requirements like the exit interview and getting cleared by Infosys and the Final Project Presentation all interns have to do. This is also the only week where I had to work extra hours to meet my deadlines. Sheesh. And there's the " Regnard Raquedan Farewell Tour "-- a string of farewell activities in and out the Bangalore campus. The farewell activities started with my farewell dinner in a restaurant called Opus. Then there was the dinner hosted by my project mentor and the head of the Innovation Lab at Infosys. And finally on my last day, our little group went around the city f...

After a couple of my friends in the Infosys InStep Internship program said their farewells , it was my turn to host a farewell dinner for my co-interns since I would be flying back to Manila on Sunday midnight. I really wanted to make the evening more than just good food so I decided to look for a place that's not very common in Bangalore-- a Karaoke place. For a guy from Manila, I just find it weird that there are virtually no regular karaoke/videoke venues in a city. (Well, I've been told that the Indian folk prefer to dance than to sing). I asked for referrals and the place that's most known for Karaoke in the city is a restaurant called Opus . Opus has Karaoke Nights every Wednesdays and Sundays, so I decided to book our group to go there on the Wednesday of my last week in Bangalore. I also made sure I set the expectation that the majority of the people going there wold be singing. Fortunately, a lot of my co-interns obliged even though the karaoke area is a publ...

As promised in my post about my seventh week in Infosys InStep , I'm posting something about the interns' trip to Agra and Delhi. Thirty of us went to the Delhi and Agra last June 20-22. We took a leave on the Friday of that weekend since the travel times are long: it takes around two hours to travel to the new Bengaluru International Airport , which by the way, is a major upgrade over the old and beat-up Hindustan Airport . Then the flight to Delhi is 2.5 hours and the bus ride to Agra from Delhi is 5-6 hours. That meant we spent almost one full day for the transit alone. Delhi is a very big city compared to Bangalore. It also very urban-- big buildings and wider roads. I like the fact that the city still has some green in it. We dropped by Qutub Minar , an old tower situated near the city. We then proceeded to Agra after that. Agra was great-- the Taj Mahal is majestic and everything I expected. The other sites we went to, the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri , were good but j...

Bittersweet. That's how I would describe my seventh and penultimate week here in Infosys . The thing about the InStep internship is that you meet a lot of friends and connect with a lot of people. I remember what Prof. Ricky Lim , my Action Consultancy (AC) mentor, told me just before I left for Bangalore: " What's important for you is you learn and make networks with the people there. " So far, so good. However, with new friends you make and bonds you build, the other side of it is the farewells. Similar to three weeks ago , one of my buddies here finished his internship and went back to school. His departure reminded that my stint in my internship is almost over and made me more appreciative of my time here. It also reminded me to be more productive at work since my deadlines are fast approaching. Speaking of work, my work week was cut short by a day because I took the Friday off to travel to the destination I've set my eyes on from the beginning-- the Taj Maha...

The surest sign that the Action Consultancy (AC) season in the Asian Institute of Management is about to come to a close is the amount of emails my Google-powered AIM Mailbox has been getting the last couple of days. And those emails have been primarily about the registration for the electives the upcoming term. Electives registration has got to be one of the more empowering aspects of the program. Unlike the electives registration in my undergrad days, the school leaves all the decision-making to the MBA student. Of course, the subjects offered are all geared towards entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, or interdisciplinary studies-- all of which are very much related to the MBA program. We're required to take at least 10 units of elective subjects of our own choosing this coming term. I've spent the last few days looking at the offered electives and I'm towards getting 6 units of marketing and 4 units of interdisciplinary studies (notice I did not mention Finance). I w...

Week Six at the Infosys InStep Internship Program for my Action Consultancy (AC) is a return to normalcy after a bumpy detour the previous weeks . The most notable event for Week Six was the completion of my registration at Bangalore's Foreigner Registration Office (FRO). If you have not been following this saga for the last two weeks, the issue stemmed from the perceived mismatch the local FRO saw with my visa. I stressed over it for over two weeks, from worrying about not getting home in time to setting the record for most visit to the FRO in InStep's history. I can see only two good things from the whole experience: My issues have given the InStep coordinators the game plan for subsequent registrations similar to my case and for me, it taught me lessons on how to trust in others and seek help from all places. I was also able work better for my project. A lot of progress was made and I've been preparing the turnover to the Infosys folks who will be taking over the proje...

Finally, my saga with the Foreigner Registration Office in Bangalore is done. I was able to receive the document I need to get the Exit Pass, something required to leave India when my Action Consultancy (AC) ends at the end of the month. I've been stressing about my Indian visa situation for the last two weeks and I'm very glad it's done. I had a little scare when I thought I wouldn't be able to leave India for another three months-- I imagined how that will affect my school and personal life. One lesson I think about is how the bureaucracy can really stifle productivity. I realized there's one thing worse than the bureaucracy in your own country-- and that's the red tape and bureaucracy in another country. I say it's worse because of the unfamiliarity and the having the feeling of helplessness because you're in a foreign place. I'm not saying the bureaucracy in the Philippines is perfectly efficient (it's very far from that) but at least you ca...

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends - Billy Shears, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band I picked out a line from " With A Little Help from My Friends " to start the racap of my fifth week here in India because I feel it captures what happened the past week. My recent problems with my visa ushered in a wave of support from a number of people, ranging from classmates, alumni and even readers of this blog. I'd like to thank the support people extended during the past couple of weeks. I've briefly mentioned in my last post that the resolution to my issues is almost here and hopefully I'll be able to hurdle my visa issues this week. Heck, I've been told that I've set the Infosys InStep record for most visit to the Foreigner Registration Office (FRO) in Bangalore. But apart from the issues, the week also gave a chance to connect to more people as over 40 new interns mostly from US schools came in. The new group is diverse and I'm practi...

New interns arrived the start of the week and they're a very big bunch. Lat month, we were only 12 InStep interns here in Infosys , but the new batch is around 40 people, quarupling the number of people from all over the world in the Bangalore campus. If I'm not mistaken, almost all of the new interns are from schools from the United States, with a good mix of undergrads and graduate students. There's also a few MBA's, like from Columbia, Darden, Fuqua, Rotman and Bocconi and we have some nice chats about MBA life. I also get to know how they have their classes there and how some business schools, like Darden, apply the Case Method . (AIM uses the Case Method as well). A couple of days ago, the new groups and the ones who came last month had little get together in one of Bangalore's pubs and we virtually were enough to fill up a good portion of the place. The dinner was good and it was a great time to meet and connect with the new people. -- Last month, a new batch...

If my Action Consultancy (AC) in Infosys were a movie, I'm at the part when the hero faces a lot of tough challenges. My fourth week in the InStep Internship program was full of challenges both at work and outside of work. For the first time, I've faced some serious roadblocks to my project's completion. I'm currently building a prototype of a software application that's related to Infosys' Innovation Management and it is based on a collaborative marketing framework and Web 2.0 components. The work I've done for the past week has led me to a solution that needs customization of Open Source software. So I'm relatively stuck in some parts of my required functionalities and I've consulted several resources within the company and over the web, but to no avail. Darn. But my biggest concern last week was my visa situation . It really took my mind off of work and stressed me out a lot. Worst case, I may seek the help of the Philippine Embassy in India to s...