Human life is ephemeral but great experiences make this life to be cherished and nurtured. One such experience I had while working at HSBC as an intern.
I could never claim to be clairvoyant about what would enfold during the 2 months internship at HSBC, but one thing was certain that it would be a life-changing experience. Landing at the Mumbai airport, sent a chill down my spine, a sense of excitement gripped me. At the same time, I was anxious to be in a new place and curious to meet new people.
As clichéd as it may sound, this city of dreams never disappoint the seeker who comes here to seek his life goals. I was one of those seekers with stars in the eyes and with the belief in my heart that this would be the stepping-stone towards the benchmarks I have set for my life.
My journey began with the induction program at Hotel Trident, one of the modern landmarks of Mumbai. This was done to introduce us to the culture and values espoused by HSBC. It helped me to calibrate myself with the work culture prevalent at HSBC.
So, on the first day of my internship I met my project guide (She is SVP, Operations). I worked in the operations department and my project was to streamline a process for HSBC to increase efficiency and optimize cost. My project guide introduced me to the other people in my team who by the way were very warm, lively and ready to help. My team took me to a welcome lunch that day and they made sure I was comfortable (I confess that I don’t have any work-ex and I was scared by the shiny corporate bay and serious faced honchos working there). But I got to admit I met some great people in HSBC.
The next day, I started off by networking extensively with my colleagues. Most invaluable and practical knowledge about an organization is never found in manuals, but in people. All my seniors were extremely helpful in teaching me the basics about the bank and its offerings.
I had to collaborate with different departments in order to gauge feasibility of the process, this was the toughest part as I had to get in touch with people from Chennai, Delhi and other parts of Mumbai. Getting them to help me was a task in itself. One thing that I learnt there and cherish all my life is “Doing our own work diligently is natural and expected but real satisfaction comes with helping others out of the way in the pursuit of their individual goals”. This ideal is bred in the bone of each and every employee working there.
Towards the end of my internship, my mentor approved my recommendations and let me collaborate with the regulatory compliance and customer experience teams in order to implement the recommended strategies. I got the same approved from both the teams.
The internship ended with a cocktail event specially organized for the new interns. There we got an opportunity to interact with the business heads. This was, indeed, a befitting end to my journey marked by corporate vicissitudes.