(Image source : Shopify)
A client writes a mail to a team member. She has shared a CV for a young student who has completed his BBA. ‘Do you have an opening for freshers who have done their BBA in your consulting arm?’, she asks. The mail reaches me in the Resource Desk.
When I go through the CV and start to reply to the mail, this is what emerges.
What:
We have an internship program titled ‘Start to Finish’ for young graduates to set them off on a journey from self-discovery to leadership development. They get an opportunity to get coaching and mentoring inputs, an opportunity to participate in classroom sessions at the Lumière Learning Monday. They work as part of project teams carrying out research and project management activities where they participate by shadow and reverse shadowing on live projects. They receive 30 minutes of weekly coaching inputs each week from a Gallup Certified Coach where they learn new things about themselves as leaders.
Our Purpose:
To help unlock the potential of our interns so they experience Lumière values of responsibility, commitment to excellence, respect for the individual, family values The ‘learn-by-doing’ program intends to create and hone talent that is creative, resourceful, versatile, purpose-driven, and who can stretch beyond their comfort zone.
How:
The duration of the internship program ranges from 1 month to 6 months. Candidates are usually recommended by friends, family, alumni, clients. Incumbents undergo an interview, an aptitude test and the Gallup Strengths Assessment for their Top 5 talents. A good academic background, extra-curricular interests, curiosity and an openness to learning are must-haves.
Where:
Sometimes the candidate may be someone lost who wants to find their way. Some young incumbents who lack clarity on what to do next, we refer them for aptitude training to B-Verve in Mumbai. This report gives clarity on what are the likely areas of interest where the candidate can excel professionally. Incumbents find this useful if they are at crossroads and unsure of their graduation subjects.
Opportunity:
Depending on their performance during internship and openings at Lumière, young women are offered an opportunity to join Lumière as Research Executive. As Lumière is an all-women team, young male interns are not offered employment at the end of their internship, but may do this as a capstone project.
What Next:
Many candidates do an internship, followed by a work stint at Lumière before they start preparing for their masters in India or abroad. We can provide access to counsellors for overseas studies.
Impact:
Our program impacts future life and work. Our alumni are flourishing all over the world. One parent described this intervention received at Lumière as ‘the best finishing school I could send my daughter to’. We believe that good self-understanding, personal mastery, and a high regard for teams will help smart incumbents develop a balanced view to life and work, a commitment to excellence, openness to lifelong learning and growing. They learn work skills in research, consumer behaviour, marketing, design thinking, project management alongside the basics of a healthy lifestyle, guidance on fitness goals, right diet, exercise and posture.
Payoff:
When we make targeted investments where people are being developed while working on projects, they bring a fresh perspective and create new value for the company; these people we invest in become believers in performance culture, understand a balanced, win-win ways of working, thereby become valuable in the global marketplace. Importantly, they become Lumière family for life.
