Internship Experience @ Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi

Your Name, College, Year of Study, Email ID

Aakriti Mathur, ILI, 2nd year LLM, aakriti.mathur@icloud.com

Name of Organisation, Location, Team Strength

Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Application Process 

Interested candidates may send their updated CV’s addressed to the administrative officer at aklahiri@iift.ac.in or lahiri@nic.in

Duration of internship and timings

May-June 2011, 10 am to 5 pm.

First impression, first day formalities, infrastructure

There are only 3-4 interns working at any point. You are introduced to the professors and the research associates. Everyone is very friendly and approachable.

The infrastructure is good and their library is the best I’ve seen as far as trade is concerned. There wasn’t any book or journal on trade I didn’t find there, including the old and obscure ones.

Main tasks

Interns report directly to the professors of Center for WTP Studies, but you may get work from research associates also.

The main task is to write a research paper to be submitted in the final week of the internship.

You might even be asked to do some work on MS Excel for ongoing research projects.

Work environment and people

Everyone is very approachable and willing to help out. There isn’t much pressure but hard work is appreciated across board.

Best things

The library. Also since your main task is the research paper that you have to submit at the end of the internship you get a lot of time to explore the literature and as well as the institute (it has a beautiful garden).

There is a food stall just outside the campus, which if famous with the students and localities alike (awesome Parathas).

Bad things

Between the research paper and the little work assigned by the associates, you might get bored if you aren’t good at enjoying the other literature available.

Stipend

None

Biggest Lessons

If you aren’t clear on what is expected of you, it’s best to ask again and again than to submit something that isn’t exactly what was asked for.

Seek regular feedback, (especially if it’s a long term project), for the same reason. My perspective on my research project continued to change right till the end due to the enriching feedback from the faculty at every meeting.