A2 here -- Is everything okay at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas? My peers tell me there has been a lot of attrition, interns keep changing every 1-2 weeks so the associates can't trust anyone and end up doing all the grunt work now, HR is unresponsive etc., and generally, it has been very chaotic since the pandemic began. Some juniors from my alma mater even say they haven't committed fully to zero day, which is a strange move that only benefits competitors.
I was planning to make a shift to sam because I worked with some great people from there on my last deal, but started reconsidering it after hearing all these stories. Is this chaos firm-wide or restricted to only a few teams? If so, which teams and location in particular? Any insider help would be appreciated to help with my decision, thank you
Two separate points - attrition being of team members, and internships being so informal that interns are only given internships for 1-2 weeks due to which associates have ended up doing most of the grunt work themselves. I would rather not deal with this scenario.
Two separate points - attrition of team members, and internships being so informal that they're given just for 1-2 weeks due to which associates have to do all the grunt work themselves. I want to avoid that scenario
What was being referred to, I presume, is SAM's absurd 2 week internship program which leads to associates being required to do a large part of grunt work since you can't keep investing time in assessing which intern can be trusted to work effectively on things that ideally ought to be delegated to them.
The point of an intern shouldn't be to dump all your "grunt work" on them. You're supposed to use interns for discreet pieces of research, etc., which allow you to assess how good they are at the job. Call them back if you think they're good enough after two weeks, and make them an offer if you want them to do your grunt work. Please don't make them do due diligence in their internships and then complain they're not here long enough to finish it.
Short internships are probably to accommodate more interns because the demand for internships at SAM is extremely high.
Very ideal, but when there's so much work we already have to do with team members leaving, RELIABLE interns are needed to pick up the slack. 1-2 weeks is not enough time to assess whether an intern is good enough to trust with the work I don't have the time to do. Half the interns I have I wouldn't trust with research work because they just copy+paste one article written by someone else and send it across after 4 hours. Until they prove themselves capable and diligent, why would I open myself up to be yelled at by my seniors because I trusted research work to some kid who barely knows the practice area?
Weird takes all around. SAM's internship programme has always been 2 weeks at a time, this was even before the pandemic. Which just means it has always been absurd because demand for internships is high at all Tier-1s, not just SAM.
Also interns are expected to do grunt work, because Associates also do grunt work. Interns are not going to be given a DD report or an SPA to draft, that's an unrealistic expectation.
But they don't really accommodate interns. At a top 5 NLU and the only people in thr 22 batch and 23 batch getting internships are rich kids with contacts. No campus internships or through the ordinary route.
That’s not true. I’m from a non-nlu, got the internship by directly applying to the HR (without contact). So they are considering internship applications.
Any firm relying on interns to do long term substantial grunt work is basicklly outsourcing associate work to unqualified and underpaid interns.
As a mid-level associate, I would expect my juniors to do the 'grunt work' themselves with intern assistance and not intern reliance.
internships by their nature are short term (even a 4 or 6 week internship is short term by any reasonable standard) and is meant to give a flavour of the work/practice area to students who have no other way of figuring out which practice areas they would enjoy in practice (over the theory they study in school). Interns are not meant to be replacements for associates for the time they are at the firm.
Interns are underpaid? I thought they were working for zero pay, and burned cash from their savings (or rather parents' savings) to do internships. Basically glorified modern slavery.
in a firm as large as SAM each practice area, if not team, works in its own style. So while some teams around you could have high attrition, as long as your team is stable you will be fine. of course if its an LL/SAP type issue, the overall external firm issues may affect the team, but if management is relatively stable, teams are allowed to do what they want as long as they meet targets.
Oh come off it. The bloke's concerns are valid. Interns need to be around long enough for associates to trust them and hand them work. It's a loss for the intern too
I was planning to make a shift to sam because I worked with some great people from there on my last deal, but started reconsidering it after hearing all these stories. Is this chaos firm-wide or restricted to only a few teams? If so, which teams and location in particular? Any insider help would be appreciated to help with my decision, thank you
Short internships are probably to accommodate more interns because the demand for internships at SAM is extremely high.
Also interns are expected to do grunt work, because Associates also do grunt work. Interns are not going to be given a DD report or an SPA to draft, that's an unrealistic expectation.
So they are considering internship applications.
Had interned a couple of months ago when the ID was there on the website. Not sure if it's still working though.
On a more serious note, I think you should do something else with your life.
As a mid-level associate, I would expect my juniors to do the 'grunt work' themselves with intern assistance and not intern reliance.
internships by their nature are short term (even a 4 or 6 week internship is short term by any reasonable standard) and is meant to give a flavour of the work/practice area to students who have no other way of figuring out which practice areas they would enjoy in practice (over the theory they study in school). Interns are not meant to be replacements for associates for the time they are at the firm.