In this article, Soumi Dasgupta , a student of IIM Nagpur who interned at BNY Mellon in the Banking and Finance Domain talks about her summer internship experience. Find out about how she prepared for the summer placements, her onboarding process, her experiences & what her learnings are during this internship.
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Hi, Tell us about how you got selected for this internship? Take us through the moment you realized you had got the internship.
BNY Mellon has multiple teams in India including the Reporting and Analytics Team under the Financial Management and Analysis (FMA) team, the one in which I was selected as a Summer Intern. My past work experience as well as the knowledge gained during the first year of my MBA tenure has aided in getting selected for this particular role. My interview went mostly around the projects I pursued at my previous companies since the Internship role was aligned to these skillsets of mine. Towards the end of the conversation I had a hint that I could get the internship since the response was postive.
On joining the company as an intern, how has your onboarding experience been like?
The virtual onboarding was smooth and interesting, it started a week earlier to the actual joining date, to get us accustomed to the vision and mission, culture and values, structure of the Company, the teams we would work with, our colleagues including India and US Leads and CEO of BNY Mellon. Several training simulations were organized in Finance, Analytics, Compliance, etc. to give us an virtual experience of the workplace which are extremely necessary during this WFH scenario. It continued for 3 days post which we began our journey for the next 2 months. We had received the assets well before the onboarding date.
How has your interaction with the team members and colleagues been like? How will you make sure to leave the best impression on your supervisors by the end of the internship?
Other than the excellent professional experience, my internship has provided me something much more valuable and long-lasting, the relationships with the people I have met and worked with during these 2 months. Working on a number of team projects has allowed me to develop my ability to communicate clearly with others, and mediate conflicts between members from different teams. I have also collaborated with other departments on several projects which have broadened my horizon.
I have always strived to work and deliver within the deadlines and was successful in all the projects I have worked on here. Even after the internship comes towards an end, I will reach out to my fellow interns, colleagues, as well as leaders who were senior to me. I believe all these relationships will prove to be useful at different points in my career. I have already connected with my manager and colleagues on LinkedIn and will continue to nurture them so as to build a long-term professional relationship. It will involve small gestures such as sending out the first message on LinkedIn or congratulating them on any achievement.
Tell us in brief, about the project you are currently working on and how is this project going to help the company?
Since my project is highly confidential, I am giving a generalized description of the same. I am currently working on developing multiple Power BI dashboards for automating Financial Reports. Providing a short description of one of them: Competitor Analysis is done every quarter wherein the quarterly earnings of the bank and its competitors are compared and contrasted to monitor the performance of the bank with respect to its key peers. This work is currently done manually by extracting the earnings data from quarter results published by various peers, consolidating, and manually creating analytics in excel files. The scope of the work is to use the Reports to create automated Power BI analytics Dashboards, performing data transformation using Alteryx. This will result in immediate and intuitive decision-making capabilities for the Company. This scope was further extended to scrub the data from the quarter results and generate excel extracts. The reports of the various competitors are being published on a quarterly basis.
Are You The Best Summer Intern Of The Class Of 2022? Share Your Own Internship Experience.
Give us an overview of how you prepared for your summer placement season.
According to me, a proper combination of knowledge, confidence, soft skills, and leadership qualities is required to ace the Summer Internship interviews. A resume is a fundamental requirement for the interview process and placement preparations. It is the first impression for possible recruiters as it displays our educational qualifications, abilities, skills, projects in a snapshot. A recruiter looks at multiple resumes during placement season hence it is absolutely necessary to make our resumes stand out from the rest to get them shortlisted in the first round. The first step I took towards my preparation was working on my resume, aligning it to the required domain and function I was interested in. I took out time to complete few relevant certifications and live projects in the required domain. I have also mentioned the unique skills and talents that I possess. Certain Companies conduct aptitude tests for a first/second-round screening hence practicing the same was also essential. Next, I prepared well for any technical rounds where they mainly test our problem-solving skills as well as our ability to deliver business solutions. Along with this, I was also well versed with my strengths and weaknesses which is generally used to judge our personality during the last round in the recruitment process of any company. Introducing myself in 10 seconds, highlighting my key achievements and areas of expertise tactically, listening attentively, and wearing a confident smile while answering were few other areas I worked upon.
Based on your internship experience till now, what are some necessary skill sets one must be prepared with before starting an internship?
The skillsets required depend to a large extent on the domain in which we are interning. Still few skills which are applicable everywhere, no matter which area we are working in, are:
Effective communication - ability to write and speak professionally.
Interpersonal skills - ability to build and maintain relationships
Collaboration - Ability to interact with other interns and colleagues which is important for collaboration to work as a team towards a common goal
Adaptability - Ability to accept and work on multiple assignments not necessarily in the same team and same domain.
Time Management - Completing projects within strict deadlines.
Analytical Skills - Research and analysis on new information broaden the scope of work
Taking Initiatives - Ability to contribute proactively or positively affect change
Receptiveness - Ability to receive constructive feedback and work upon them
Technical Skills - in which ever domain we are interning a detailed knowledge of the nitty gritty of the subject is required
What are some new skills that you have developed while working in the company?
Technical knowledge - A detailed knowledge of the financial terms and reports
Strategic thinking - Since this my first work experience post completion of MBA 1st year, I have learned a lot of strategic skills
Professionalism and Leadership skills
What are some of the challenges that you have faced in your internship and how have you overcome them?
Although my internship went smoothly, yet there were very few hurdles that I have come across and tried my level best to overcome them. As an intern, there were few instances where I found myself in a position where my contribution was hardly appreciated. In this case, I tried not to feel dejected and continuously performed well in my projects. Also, the workload was unevenly distributed as during the first few weeks, I didn't get that much work while it was usually a long duration during the last weeks. There were few times when I found it difficult to ask questions for the fear of being judged in front of India and US leads. I was not sure how my queries would be perceived. Slowly and steadily I started asking questions within my team at first and then in the country meets with time. I stayed calm and concentrated on my own tasks. Another challenge I faced was that my co-interns were high-spirited and worked really hard. They made me feel intimidated as I didn’t expect them to be so competitive. Taking part in a healthy competition is actually beneficial to the professional career. Towards the end of my internship, I had to attend my classes and complete assignments as well as work in the internship. These days were really challenging since there was a time constraint, long screen time and it became a bit overwhelming to manage both. Nevertheless, I overcame all these constraints and made the most out of these 2 months since there were a plethora of learning opportunities from the highly skilled and experienced colleagues.
Tell us about a situation where you were complemented by your Manager for your work.
I have been complimented multiple times by my Manager for the project deliveries I completed during my tenure as an Intern. I have received both verbal and nonverbal feedbacks. A few of the nonverbal feedbacks I have received after my mid review and end review are as follows: "Soumi has been very proactive in getting the solutions developed. She has taken complete ownership and has stayed on top of things to get the tasks completed on time"
"Her performance has been excellent throughout her tenure with us and she has contributed with a complete passion to get things completed on time. She has stayed on top of things and hasn't needed a follow up on any item"
"Soumi was very proactive in setting up her environment and getting started with her work.
She was able to understand the needs and come up with a solution with a quick turnaround. She has shown commitment and ownership in getting her tasks to completion. We appreciate her contribution in this short span of time she has been with us"
What have been your major learnings during the internship?
Technical skills of working with Advanced Excel, Alteryx, Power BI, MAQ software, Cubus.
Soft Skills such as Professional communications, Teamwork, Problem Solving, Work Ethics, Adaptability, Responsibility, Time Management, Taking constructive criticism well, Working dedicatedly no matter what I was allotted to do, Making valuable connections that will last for a lifetime. Soft skills are equally important as hard skills, hence I have tried to gain knowledge in both
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TIMELINE, PROCESS AND RULES
- You don't need to register on InsideIIM.com or on the Kampus App to take part in Summer Saga Season 8. Simply share your experiences in the Digital Diary. To maintain standardisation, every Digital Diary will have a few questions that you'll need to answer.
- Access all the Digital Diaries forms from here: Digital Diary 1 | Digital Diary 2 | Digital Diary 3 | Digital Diary 4 | Digital Diary 5
- Your overall submission will be evaluated on the following parameters:
-Completeness: This depends on the number of Digital Diaries you have filled.
-Value Addition: This depends on how in-depth your answers have been. The score for this parameter will be given by our Judges.
-Reach: This depends on how many unique people have read your internship experience once we publish the article. We maintain fair play, we will publish all the articles on the same day, so that you can also share the same in your network.
- There is also a title called, ‘Campus With The Most Interesting Interns’ that will be awarded to (a) the campus that submits the maximum number of entries and (b) the campus that submits the best quality entries (based on the score given by our judges). The minimum entries from campus to be considered for this title is 10. So, if you want your campus to win the title then make sure your classmates and other students from your b school share their experiences in this year's Summer Saga Competition.
This competition is broadly divided into four categories. Refer to the table below to know more about prizes in each category.
Prize Money
|
Category
|
|
Banking and Finance
|
Sales, Marketing and General Management
|
Operations
|
HR, Consulting and Others
|
| 1st Prize |
₹ 10,000 |
₹ 10,000 |
₹ 10,000 |
₹ 10,000 |
| Runner Up |
₹ 5,000 |
₹ 5,000 |
₹ 5,000 |
₹ 5,000 |
The 1st Prize winner will also get a one-hour 1-on-1 career guidance session with an industry stalwart, from our panel of mentors in Kounsel.
ABOUT THE JUDGES
Every year, we have Campus Managers from some of the top companies (such as Reliance, HSBC, Flipkart, ABG, HUL, TAS, etc) judging the annual Summer Saga competition. We will release the details of the judges of Summer Saga Season 8 soon!
Check out the previous year's
winners!
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Maybe this will help you reflect and recall these two months as well (which can come in handy when appearing for interviews in the future). InsideIIM is the perfect platform to chronicle your experiences, your highs, your lows and everything in between.
So guys, what are you waiting for? Start writing! You have a voice. You have the experience. Make the best of it!