My internship at ITC has been nothing like I expected
I joined ITC as an intern expecting to learn from one of India’s biggest FMCG companies. I was honestly excited because I thought I’d get exposure to world-class manufacturing practices and experienced mentors.
Instead, my experience has been disappointing.
From what I’ve seen, the work culture in my plant feels extremely toxic. Most employees don’t seem happy, and there isn’t much enthusiasm or collaboration. As an intern, I expected to shadow managers and learn how decisions are made, but a lot of the time it feels like interns are handling responsibilities that should belong to managers, while the guidance and mentorship are minimal.
Another thing that surprised me was how manual many processes still are. I expected a much higher level of automation and digitalization for a company of this scale.
The manufacturing environment also involves extensive use of cleaning and processing chemicals, which was eye-opening for me. I understand that chemicals are a normal part of food manufacturing, but seeing the scale firsthand was very different from what I had imagined.
Maybe my experience is specific to this plant or department, but it has been very different from the expectations I had before joining.
Has anyone else interned at ITC or another large FMCG company? Was your experience similar, or did I just get unlucky?