My name is Arjan Knol and I am a 25-year-old student from the Netherlands. Currently I just completed a management traineeship at OKS Group New Delhi, from April until December 2008. Meanwhile I am finishing my MBA study, specializing in business & ICT.

I was mainly involved in business process optimization and writing requirements for new information systems, which at the time were yet to be implemented. I also worked for three weeks at OKS Chennai where I gave Dutch language lessons to a group of co-workers. They needed to understand Dutch to translate Dutch client inputs.

OKS Group was the perfect company for an MBA student like me to learn about the Indian work culture and the nature of business process outsourcing in general. My experiences at OKS Group, especially about the operational side of outsourcing projects in India, have given me a unique advantage to grasp functions like this. I am very grateful to OKS for enabling me to get this unique working experience.

From February until August 2008 I joined OKS Span Tech as Trainee in the Controlling Department.

When I first came to OKS, my knowledge of the BPO business was limited to academic paper and pure theory. Within the 6 months I was allowed to spend with OKS in Delhi and Chennai, I got involved in the entire production chain:

• From preparing a new project with price and resource calculation
• Up to process controlling & improvements
• And the next years forecast

The projects I got were challenging and important at all times. It was hard and enriching work but it was worth it. For each task, different members of the senior management were there to answer my questions and support my learning experience. With this unique experience, OKS has enabled me to see the bigger picture of the BPO industry by getting me deeply involved in particular processes with its challenges and complexities.

During my time at OKS I embraced many good experiences and hopefully I was able to make a valuable contribution to the success of the company.

After graduating with an MSc in Economics at the University of Amsterdam, I joined the OKS Group as a trainee in April 2005 for a 6 month traineeship. During this time I was responsible - together with another trainee - for setting up the Marketing department in the Delhi offices. This ranged from designing the current OKS website to hiring professionals for the department.

I joined OKS in Delhi for an internship in Marketing, January-December 2007. This was a very enriching time for me from many perspectives. To be involved in the Marketing function that was relatively new gave my colleagues and me good opportunities to shape the department from what we believed in. Among others, I supported the set-up of marketing processes, worked on E-mail and letter campaigns, did phone calls to potential clients and participated in client meetings. Flexibility, brainstorming and trying out of own ideas influenced the work. To take part in meetings with Management and to participate in trainings from them were other activities involved in the internship.

My entire stay at OKS was maximized because of the people I worked with. Being a European in India can be hard sometimes, but all of my supporting and warm colleagues around me made the experience simply fantastic and unforgettable. To live the Indian work-culture at OKS was a very learning experience for me, as I can understand my own true potential today. Who ever that has the chance to work in India should therefore take it – and I highly recommend future interns to apply to especially OKS!

My three-week internship during my summer vacation at OKS was a great experience. Not only did I get to learn a lot but also met some great people. I worked in the HR department but was given a chance to help out in many other areas. 

With a friendly environment it doesn't take too long for one to settle in. OKS offered me a great platform to learn and understand the basic functions of HR, which has helped me as an HR Coordinator at DSS Imagetech Pvt. Ltd. where I am currently working. 

I did my traineeship at OKS from October 2004 till April 2005. After my Pre-Diploma of my Studies of Economical Psychology in Muenster, Germany, I decided to go abroad for an internship. I don't know exactly why but from the beginning of my search it was clear for me that I wanted to go to India - maybe it was the sense to discover something completely different while empowering my working skills. From the beginning of my internship in October 2004 I was fascinated by the friendliness and open mindedness of people at OKS. At OKS I was responsible for supporting the German department in Market research, quality control, teaching German and collecting data. With the direct contact to Andrea, former Trainee and now still working for OKS in Germany, I always had some guidance in my tasks. During my time at OKS I was also involved in the development of new software together with the customer. Therefore I traveled to Chennai and stayed there for 2 weeks. All in all my tasks were challenging, sometimes difficult but always interesting. I don't want to miss the experience of such a different working culture and the knowledge I could increase.

I can sum up that my time in India (5 months) was the richest, most interesting and most fascinating time I could have. After the traineeship, Vinit Khanna, the CEO of OKS, also supported me with my final theses by giving me the possibility to collect data at OKS. At this point I would like to thank all OKS team members and especially Vinit for giving me the possibility to have such a great time in India. I would also very much like to recommend OKS to motivated Trainees, who are open to give their knowledge and their personality to this company. If you want to see and experience something colorful, diverse, challenging, sometimes difficult but still enriching, than catch the chance to do your internship at OKS in this wonderful country of India.

My name is Martine Straume and I’ve been working in OKS in Delhi for 7 months. As an intern I have been shown many different aspects of the company and I have mostly been involved with Scandinavian projects. Other projects I’ve done are improvement processes and an intranet initiative and general business development.

My key learning point has been working with a Swedish pilot project from its beginning to its completion. My responsibilities were client contact and the implementation process in India. Together we created our own software to process 250 Swedish financial statements. This has provided me with hands-on experience in project management, planning and implementation. It also felt good to get exposure to management in an international company. I’ve been a part of several important conference calls, and also got to travel to Chennai to present OKS to a prospect client.

During my time in OKS I’ve grown a lot as a person. I’ve learnt to deal with differences in culture and communication, and I’m very grateful for being given the responsibility to show how a multi national outsourcing company works. This is an experience I’m sure I will benefit from in my future career, and for me it’s a great starting point for a master in International Management.

Living in India is an exciting aspect of my internship. The country has a lot to offer, and gives you a different perspective on life. When European countries are struggling with the financial crisis, India is prosperous as ever before. Through traveling and being with the other trainees I’ve seen many parts of the country and gained friends across the world.

After finishing my studies of business administration in Germany, having spent a lot of time in Greece and a short trip to Russia I was looking for a new challenge, culturally and in terms of my field of expertise, i.e. business.

Not only did I want to immerse deeply into a previously alien culture, I was also looking to prove a point, i.e. that I have quite some talent in handling business situations, that I have the potential to be a good manager. After a ten minute phone call with Vinit Khanna, the CEO of OKS, I came to the conclusion that OKS could be the right place to prove just that.

The working environment is quite interesting. From a western point of view it might seem unorganized, possibly chaotic ¬¬–but certainly no more than with any other Indian company, rather less– but after a couple of weeks I found it to be quite inspiring. The lack of strict structure is offset by space for creativity, a degree of flexibility largely unknown to European companies. If you are willing to embrace this kind of working environment you will hardly find a similar opportunity in any internship program in Germany, arguably in Delhi neither. If you show your worth, ability & commitment, you will quickly be given responsibility. Good work is recognized and rewarded immediately. With every successful project you will get a promotion. Though not literally you will be given more responsibility, more resources, and bigger projects.

I thoroughly enjoyed working for OKS. All the opportunities promised to me were there. I tend to be quite demanding and faultfinding but I do not have the slightest regret about joining OKS, my stay might just have been a bit too short. But that’s not the company’s fault; it was due to my other commitments.

OKS is an extraordinary opportunity to prove your worth, to gain experience, to grow in stature and in self-belief, if you are willing to take it.