More and more IIM-Ahmedabad students are now bucking the trend and opting for rather ‘unconventional’ career paths.

With the institute’s policies and programmes playing an instrumental role in supporting these initiatives, students are increasingly preferring non-conventional options for their internships.

New-born start-ups, IIM-A’s Maverick programme, public policy sector, NGOs — these are some of the less trodden paths chosen by the students of the 2016-18 batch, for their 2017 summer internships. For instance, Arushi Jain selected international relations as a ‘sector’ and chose the Ministry of External Affairs for her internship.

“My fascination towards foreign policy analysis started during my under-graduation. To further pursue my interest and understand the policy process closely, I decided to do my summers at the Ministry. This provided me with exposure and helped me get acquainted with the nitty-gritty of the bureaucratic process.”

Goutham Senthurvel chose the entrepreneurship sector and interned at IIM-A’s own Maverick programme.

“I worked on two projects. One, to buy used clothes from upper middle-class households and sell it to the lower middle-class after re-processing. The second was to produce sugarcane and Neera juices and offer in tetra-packs to consumers.”

On the other hand, Shankhdip Majumder selected renewable energy and interned at a two-year-old electric mobility solutions company. “Right from the start, I was fascinated by the renewable sector, which, I believe, along with AI (Artificial Intelligence), represents two of the most transformative and impactful areas of the next decade.

“My primary mandate was to understand the inter-city bus business.”

Shreeja Jaiswal’s interest was in “impact consulting” and she did her internship with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“In India, the foundation has been a key impact-maker in reducing inequity, especially in healthcare sector. I was greatly inspired by their philanthropic causes,” she added.

IIM-A Recruitment Secretaries Sandeep Murisetty and Prabal Chauhan remarked that an evolving environment and the widening scope of the management field was among the reasons behind the growing acceptance for IIM-A students in these niche sectors.

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