Interns bring about new energy and enthusiasm to companies. They show us our own potential and could very well be the future of the company. Moreover, hiring interns is one of the best ways to establish yourself as the brand that the brightest college graduates would want to work for. Meesho understands this and wants to invest in the best of the best, which is why our intern hiring process is focused and multi layered.
But as with everything else, the lockdown and ongoing pandemic made onboarding interns a different experience and perhaps a lot more interesting than we were used to. From the Talent Acquisition team to engineering managers, we adapted to the new normal — hiring virtually and completing the whole process in record time. In 2021, a good number of amazing interns joined the Meesho rocketship and are now adding value to our Tech team.
The future of tech
We plan to double the strength of our tech team in FY 2021, and the core part of our talent plan was to get the brightest minds from India’s best campuses. Samir Ranjan, VP- Engineering explains why hiring interns was an important aspect of this growth: “Last year we hired interns and trained interns for six months. Once they joined as full timers they became immediately productive without taking any ramp-up time. The fact that this was their first job also meant that their energy and enthusiasm level was unmatched.”
Chetan Kalyan, VP — Engineering, adds how the Meesho leadership looks at interns as team members from day 1. “Their internship period is a way for them to experience work at Meesho while they still enjoy college life,” he says. Because our interns are our future full time teammates, the interview process was admittedly rigorous, with an online test round on hackerrank platform, a problem solving and coding round, a tech interview with the hiring manager, and finally a round of interview with HR as well.
Karthik Venkatasamy, Senior Manager — Talent Acquisition — HR, says, “Placement season usually begins around July-August, but in 2020 because of the pandemic, placements were delayed. Once we decided to carry out a massive hiring drive for interns in December 2020, the first step was to shortlist the campuses we wanted to visit. NIT Bhopal, for example, was a campus we knew to have exceptional candidates because we have historically hired brilliant teammates from there.
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We shortlisted some amazing campuses for internship recruitment including BITS Pilani, Goa, and Hyderabad, IIT Mandi and Gandhinagar, and NIT Bhopal, Jamshedpur, Allahabad, Meghalaya, Patna and Surat.
Right remuneration for the right candidates
“Our plan going into the process was to hire interns for a six-month-long internship programme. We wanted the best of the best and coordinated with campus placement cells of the colleges in our list,” says Karthik, adding how despite the pandemic, we kept our compensation numbers at competitive rates, qualifying us as a dream company in all campuses. This helped set us apart as a prime recruiter.
The first filter in our interview process was the online tests designed by a team of engineers led by Alok Sharma, Senior Engineering Manager — Backend. The cut off for this round was 90 per cent. The intern hiring team of Meesho was in constant communication with the training and placement cell of the colleges we were recruiting from, and according to NIT Bhopal final semester student and recently hired Software Development Engineer — Intern at Meesho, Vibhore Srivastava, Meesho’s transparent process was a boon to students preparing for interviews
“As the student coordinator of my college, my job was to constantly update all my fellow candidates with all the information delegated from recruiters. Not only was Meesho prompt in getting back to us with the results of the online tests, they also scheduled the coding test within the next two days. And, as members of the training and placement cell, we were always kept in the loop of all updates,” he relates.
Also check out: Meesho Tech Interns of 2020
Keeping it simple and accessible
The panelists and HR team from Meesho were also understanding of the technical difficulties that each candidate faced while interviewing online. He reveals, “I remember how one of the candidates from my college was halfway through his interview when the call was interrupted due to internet connectivity issues, and Meesho was considerate enough to reschedule the same. This is not a courtesy most recruiters extend.”
The coding test was followed by a round of interviews with the engineering panel. Nithya Shree, Engineering Manager — Backend — Tech, reveals how exciting it was for the engineering managers at Meesho to meet with the new generation of engineering professionals entering the workforce “Interns bring in a new set of energy to the team. They are not just an extra set of hands at work; we are committed to providing them with a great learning opportunity, and empowering them with new skill sets. At Meesho, we want them to have actual industry experience,” she says.
When committing to such an important task it is also pertinent to know that the other person in the equation is on the same page as you are. Nirhya Shree reveals that personally she was looking for two things: “1. Their attitude to work and how well they would fit in at Meesho 2. Their understanding of the projects they have completed, the internships they have completed in the past, and basic computer science knowledge. We need all our interns to hit the floor running after they are onboarded, otherwise, it is neither optimal for their learning nor for Meesho’s smooth running.”
Nithya explains how during the hiring process, she was assessing the candidates as not just interns, but also as prospective full-time Meeshoites, and she was happy with the group that has joined her team so far. She gushes, “A lot of people, though they were not from computer science backgrounds, really worked on cool projects that have to do with a lot of new technologies and it is highly enjoyable to talk to them about. I am very pleased with our army of interns this year.”
The perfect culture fit
Our extensive round of interviews not only ensure an intern’s capabilities and assess their knowledge, but they also gauge how much of a culture fit they are in the company as well, which is important during an early stage campus placement. In the final — HR interview — round, the talent acquisition managers primarily look for candidates who have the drive to keep up with the dynamic environment of Meesho.
“One of the biggest differences between the intern hiring we did for 2021 and in 2019 has been brand awareness. Most campuses know about Meesho, our culture, our funding status, and our mission now. They know what the learning curve is going to be like. It is a huge motivating factor for candidates. From an HR perspective, we also enthuse them by drawing out a career path and their potential growth in Meesho,” says Karthik, adding, “Those who are enthusiastic, eager to learn, and want to to sign up for a high growth trajectory, are likely to be extremely successful at Meesho. These are the problem solvers who would fit right in at Meesho.”
Despite these four rounds, everything happened at a record speed, relates Vibhore, while Karthik explains how the talent acquisition team truly exhibited the Meesho core value of Speed Over Perfection to pull it off. “Doing this online in the short time that we did is a huge achievement. The entire intern hiring process was done before the Christmas break. It was certainly challenging, but I knew my team and I could manage the quick turnaround perfectly,” says Karthik.
In fact, the entire team behind the hiring process did a wonderful job of finding the right interns for Meesho’s tech team. According to Chetan, the new gang has already been inducted into the system and are working on “the app and backend systems and deploying their code to production.” Pretty soon these interns would become full-fledged Meeshoites.
At Meesho, when you join as an intern, you are very likely going to be a permanent Meeshoite. Are you looking for a place to learn, grow, and gain real industry experience? Look no more. We are hiring!
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