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About four months ago I placed at a national essay writing competition RGNUL ran in collaboration with Dhir & Dhir Associates. The advertised prize was an internship at the firm. I am still waiting for it.
What I have done, roughly in order:
- emailed the firm's internship and careers inbox
- emailed HR
- messaged HR on LinkedIn
- emailed the responsible associate directly, short and polite
- called the firm and tried to get put through to the right person
- went back to the student coordinators at RGNUL who organised the competition
Response to nearly all of it: nothing. No dates, no confirmation, not even a rejection.
Eventually I connected with one of the partners and messaged them on Linkedin. To their credit they replied immediately and said an associate would call me that same day. They named the associate. No call came. At 5 PM I looked up the associate's number and called him myself. He picked up, said he would call back, and hung up.
He called at 8 PM and spent the call shouting at me for having contacted the partner. Not for getting anything wrong, just for escalating. I had already emailed him about this internship. I had emailed the careers inbox, HR, other associates and the RGNUL coordinators. Nobody took responsibility, which is exactly why I went to a partner, and the partner was the only person who actually replied. The associate then told me the firm only offers virtual internships and asked me to message him on WhatsApp. I did . This was about 2 weeks ago. Nothing concrete since.
So, four months in: no dates, no offer letter, and the only real interaction I have had with the firm was being shouted at for following up.
I am posting because prize internships are advertised as a genuine part of what you get for months of work on a submission. If the firm cannot or will not honour it, the organising college should say so upfront rather than leaving students chasing an inbox for a third of a year.
Has anyone else had a competition prize internship simply never materialise? Did putting it in writing to the college's committee get you anywhere, or is there any point escalating further?
If the student won the essay competition, he/she should be smart enough to get a job at a better firm, hopefully. Good luck.