Akshat is a fourth-year student in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering. He completed his summer internship at AB Inbev and was also offered a Pre-Placement Offer.
Application Procedure:
Anheuser Busch InBev/AB Inbev comes on Day 2 of the internship season. What does it do? Basically, Beer. It is the world’s largest brewer and also one of the largest FMCG’s in the world. About the procedure: You attend a Pre-Placement Talk, which was quite impressive. There is no CV shortlisting, but selection procedures differ year to year. In my year, it was done through three tests; first was the quantitative section, consisted of twenty-five or thirty questions to be solved in thirty minutes. The second part was coding-based, consisted of three questions to be solved in thirty minutes. The last part was based on SQL and consisted of ten questions.
First Day Feels:
This was my first company experience, very different from a research internship. I was scared because there were people who were more academically qualified than me, joining the internship. I was very sceptical about whether I would be able to deliver or not and what would be required of me. So from the very first day, I was motivated that I wanted to perform well and take a PPO if they offer it.
The Internship:
AB InBev has two offices in Bangalore, the GAC (Growth Analytics Centre) and GCC (Global Capabilities Centre). I was stationed in the GCC, which deals with Financing and Operations. The profile was ‘Business Analyst’, and it was ML oriented. The project assigned to me was in the operations division was related to financial accounting. In ABI, once an order is executed, there is a reconciliation process, involving tallying two sets of records to check if they’re in agreement. ABI sells to wholesalers and the dealings are in credit. The wholesalers are expected to pay back within a given timeline. This credit business is governed by ABI’s credit policy, which has been overlooked for a long time. So, I was basically required to create an automated tool, which would take in this credit data, and identify where the red flags were so that suitable action could be taken on it. Essentially, fraud detection.
The work culture was really really amazing. It is a Brazilian multinational company, so there were people from all countries and cultures. I especially loved the fact that ABI was concerned about what we got from this experience and made sure that we had an enjoyable time. Also, there was no bifurcation on the basis of departments or hierarchy. I got to learn and have fun and that is why I accepted the PPO they gave me.
Fun Incidents:
There were a lot of them. During the afternoons when we used to get bored, we used to book meeting rooms and sit inside and play PUBG or play loud music. One time, all of us were sitting inside playing PUBG and listening to music, and someone from HR walked right in. All of us looked up and to our pleasant surprise, found him smiling. We were all embarrassed about getting caught red-handed but then he closed the door after asking us to reduce the volume a little.
Takeaways:
It was my first company experience and it was delightful. I did not experience any of those corporate myths about how 9-5 is very repetitive and joy-sucking. The takeaway was the learning experience and the fun that I had. I could learn all that was required while having fun. So, while going for internships, one should focus on what they get out of it. The experience can change a lot about your life and upcoming choices.