Summing up
I would just like to put a final post to summarize my internship and follow up on the expectations I had in the beginning. All in all the internship has been a great experience and I have gotten a good picture about India, expat life and of Atlas Copco as a company as well.
My expectations before the internship was that it would be tough, that I would deliver something useful and that I would gain memorable experiences from India. I would say that all of these expectations were fulfilled, though I didn’t stay long enough to see the quotation system actually implemented.
India is a very interesting country different from all the countries I have lived in a visited before. The people are very friendly, helpful and are never far from a smile. The food was very good although sometimes it would have been nice with a little more variety.
Having met people at many different management levels and countries I feel that I have gotten a really good insight into Atlas Copco during my internship as well. Atlas Copco has a really strong company culture and you can feel that people enjoy working here. The company believes in its employees and has an ability to think long term instead of just to the next quarterly report. It is not a coincidence that the company that was struggling to make a profit the first 30 years of business, but not giving up, is now one of the most profitable and innovative companies in Sweden.
I want to thank the people in India and the US who made my internship a memorable one; my supervisor Hrishikesh Labdhe, my buddy and hosts Tom and Darla Reeder, the operations manager Prem Madhavan, project owner Alex Grant and the managing director Filip Vandenberghe. Thank you all and hope to get a chance to meet with you again.
/Erik