Internship Spotlight: Imane Bounana ’20 Explores India, Gains Marketing Experience with Infosys

Amanda Scopelliti ’20

Features Editor

When Imane Bounana ’20 attended a presentation about Trinity’s new partnership with Infosys at the Career Development Center, she was immediately interested in applying for a summer position at the Bangalore, Karnataka, India-based company that specializes in business consulting, technology, and outsourcing services. Bounana says that she was drawn to the idea of gaining professional marketing experience outside her comfort zone, in a new country and industry.
Bounana is double majoring in French Studies and International Studies with a focus on African Studies and completed a minor in Writing, Rhetoric, and Media during her junior year at Trinity. She credits her liberal arts education, specifically the classes she took towards her Writing, Rhetoric, and Media minor, for teaching her strong writing skills and says these skills have helped her greatly during the internship application process, as well as during internship experiences.
As a marketing intern at Infosys, Bounana held a position within the Education, Teaching, and Assessments Unit. She was part of the Lex Team, the group responsible for marketing the Lex app, an internal learning platform for Infosys employees to stay updated on the latest information in business and technology. Her main responsibility during her two months at the company was to work on initiatives to encourage Infosys employees to use the app, and her biggest task was to get as many of the company’s 120 summer interns as possible to use Lex and share their testimonials.
Her other major responsibilities during the summer included designing and implementing campaign ideas to increase the number of users on the Lex app and writing scripts on how to use the app that would later be converted into videos.
Bounana worked on an all-female team with four other women but spent the most time with her supervisor, who also served as her mentor during her time at Infosys. She says that it was “very empowering to work on a team of all women,” adding that there was “so much inspiration on a daily basis.”
One thing Bounana appreciated about the company culture was that she had both a professional and personal relationship with her supervisor. She says that there were “fewer professional boundaries,” than what she was used to from past internship experiences, and she could work productively with her boss and chat with her about life over a cup of coffee. Every summer intern at Infosys was assigned a supervisor/mentor, and Bounana says that hers “did an excellent job of being both a boss and a friend.”
One thing Bounana was disappointed about is that she was supposed to direct a virtual reality tour of the Lex app, but she was not able to complete the project due to time constraints. However, she did attend many sessions and workshops about virtual reality and had the opportunity to learn about new technology that she was not educated on prior to her internship experience.
Bounana is originally from Morocco and attended high school in South Africa before making the journey to Hartford to attend school at Trinity, so she didn’t find it difficult to adjust to life in India and “welcomed living in a new place.” She says that her living situation in India is pretty similar to what students are used to in the United States. She and the other Trinity student interns lived in an onsite dormitory that housed interns in addition to employees and visitors.
On the weekends, Bounana would often spend her free time traveling with other students to South Indian cities including Mysore, Hampi, and Pondicherry. She enjoyed connecting with the Indian people and says that she felt safe and relaxed during group excursions. She found the culture in India to be much more laidback than the American lifestyle, and she says the people she met “reminded her of the Moroccan people, welcoming, kind, and open.”
Bounana also says that the Indian food was amazing – and incredibly spicy! She remarks that even when she asked a vendor to make a dish less spicy, it was still the maximum amount of spice she could handle. However, after two months there, she learned to embrace the spicy food. Overall, Imane Bounana’s experience at Infosys allowed her to hone her professional skills, travel, learn new things, and figure out what she “likes and doesn’t like in a job.” The internship came with its challenges, but it enabled Bounana to grow her skills and establish valuable relationships.