My Enthralling Journey At ICICI And Valuable Takeaways - Shilpa Shrivastava, XIMB

My journey began on a bright sunny afternoon, as I stepped out of the Mumbai airport. It was a known city to me but I certainly knew that this would be a purely new experience. I interned at ICICI Bank in RSPPG. Being a fresher with minimal experience, I was nervous and excited for this new chapter of my life. The next 2 months were filled with a plethora of knowledge, new experiences and great people who shaped my perspective of the workplace and teamwork in a positive direction.

My first day started with the induction program where we, interns, were introduced to important stakeholders who showed us ICICI Bank’s journey since inception and the core values they hold important. This was followed by a networking session where few alumni shared their experiences with us and highlighted key things to focus on while handling our projects. Following this was a meeting with my project guide who introduced me to my buddy mentor.

On my second day, I had an in-depth discussion with them about my project. I was assigned to Salary product team which handled corporate salary products. This was my first hands-on experience on a project and I got the opportunity to be innovative. One thing I really liked was every idea or suggestions I pitched was welcomed, discussed upon and I got constructive feedback on how to take it forward.

I spent the first month understanding my project process and various channels related to it. Thus, I met many Relationship Managers, Sales Officers, RHS and learned their perspectives on my project. I further visited several companies, met important stakeholders and other ICICI offices which dealt with different processes to determine bottlenecks, customer requirement and this gave me requisite field exposure. I liked the fact that whenever I approached my guide, he always took time from his busy schedule to review my progress and provided me with important insights.

The following month, I spent time with various other technical teams to understand the feasibility and technical perspective of my recommendations. There were regular reviews with my mentor and I felt humbled and appreciated when my guide liked my recommendations and I got the opportunity to interact with certain teams for further implementation.

The final day was concluded with a trip to Lonavala organized for interns and it was an enjoyable experience. Thus, I realized that ICICI has a friendly culture with a great work ethic and professionalism where learning and innovations are encouraged, new ideas are appreciated and hard work is valued. My key takeaway would be the invaluable learning I had, the industrial exposure I got and the amazing people I met.

Thank you ICICI for the valuable experience!

Shilpa Shrivastava
Class of 2020
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar