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Prep: Despite your best preparation, you may inevitably end up confused. And that is perfectly acceptable. It can be extremely daunting to not know something despite reading up everything you possibly can. At one point, I had gone through hundreds of pages of technical textbooks to learn about a specific industry related to the project, and yet I could not definitively predict a variable. That’s alright: don’t fear it.
Project: As an intern in the Pricing team, my project involved valuing an illiquid investment. As people in finance know, building a valuation model is never the tricky part. The tricky part is in taking the right assumptions and knowing what is reasonable and what is not. You cannot always get the precise data to solve your problem; being comfortable working with estimates and ranges is critical. However, being thorough with the reasons for those estimates and ranges is as important, if not more important, than the estimates themselves. In classes, the focus often tends to be on the ability to build the model and often misses the part about assumption testing, which is the more significant challenge.
Takeaways: I saw the importance of an “open office” culture when, in a state of confusion, I was able to meet a senior manager in the organization almost immediately to get some conceptual clarity. He was kind and helpful, gauged my understanding of the subject, and asked questions that led me to think about critical elements; it was an actual “aha” moment. Reach out to ex-interns frequently; they have been in your shoes and faced the same challenges. Take their advice; I’m grateful I did. Reach out to people in the organization, even from other teams: learn how everything works.
Prep: I interned with ICICI Bank in the business banking division and it all started with a day-long induction program on the 19th of April wherein we were introduced to the values and different divisions of ICICI Bank. All the interns got the details of the Projects, their respective Guides/buddies, and pre-requisites for the internship a couple of weeks before joining which helped me to get the essence of the project’s deliverables and how to deliver my best in the coming two months.
Project: In the first week it was all about brainstorming the project, understanding the products which were assigned to me, and preparing the weekly timeline with goals set for each week. My project needed me to identify the reasons behind the attrition of customers from the products assigned to me and how the attrition can be arrested and customers' experience can be enhanced. From week 2 to week 5, it was all about talking with the employees involved with the product as well as talking to roughly 200 customers as a part of primary research to identify the key reasons behind the attrition. The most important aspect of the project is finalizing the key areas behind attrition from primary research and competition mapping for ICICI and setting the recommendations to arrest the attrition were part of deliverables for weeks 6 and 7. Week 8 was all about developing models to implement recommendations with the final presentation marking the end of the internship.
Takeaways: The major highlights were the recognition for the work done and the sense of responsibility to carry out the work with immense backing from the guide and buddy.
Prep: Coming from a finance background, I had always aspired to work in the Investment Banking domain, and HSBC was one of the foremost companies offering that role. After a grueling selection process, including a group discussion and two interview rounds, I was selected to intern with the Strategic Transactions Group at HSBC.
Project: The first couple of days were explicitly dedicated to training on basic financial concepts and equip us with the required skills to perform well in the coming weeks. After the training, we were allocated to our respective teams and assigned a mentor to guide us throughout the internship.
Takeaways: As an intern, the team doesn’t expect us to be a master of everything finance. The team was always helpful and made sure that the requirement was always clearly communicated and understood. The team was also patient with any questions I would have and even helped me clear my concepts. This friendly approach to learning helped me learn a lot, quickly, over the eight weeks without feeling left out at any point in time.
Read Next:
Prize Money |
Category |
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Banking and Finance |
Sales, Marketing and General Management |
Operations |
HR, Consulting and Others |
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| 1st Prize | ₹ 10,000 | ₹ 10,000 | ₹ 10,000 | ₹ 10,000 |
| Runner Up | ₹ 5,000 | ₹ 5,000 | ₹ 5,000 | ₹ 5,000 |