It was one fine day in the year of 2018, when it was just a couple of months since I had just kickstarted my MBA journey and I was having the experience of my life. Every second day was as eventful as the previous day, filled with a grind of lectures, guest lectures, assignments, tests, presentations, extra curricular events, competitions and of course parties! Like every engineer in the flock, I too struggled with my finance courses in trimester 1, but the initial struggle and low scores didn't matter to me. Because you know what? I had completely fallen in love with finance! Every single sum, every financial statement, every question (however simple) seemed to fascinate me. It all seemed to make sense just right, and knowing the financial aspect of businesses was an eyeopener. I had always been inclined to finance intuitively, but once I actually started studying through it, I exactly knew what my specialization was going to be.
With mock GDs, interviews and multiple rounds of resume updations, we were aware that the much-expected and much-dreaded summer internship placement process was just round the corner. Everyone was busy with their own course of prep and so was I. Along with the credit courses, we had to undertake an in-depth industry analysis in the courier industry from all spheres. I made sure I get to dig deep and know every nuance of it, and understand what these figures actually meant. By practically applying all those financial principles we learnt from the book to actual balance sheets and P&L statements of companies, I started picking up on my financial skills, one at a time. I also took up a certification in finance which opening me up to several aspects of the financial world and also helped in the interviews. Nevertheless, I kept working on my basics, right from the golden rules and applications of simple financial concepts in real world scenarios. This is what I feel is the most important during anyone's course of preparation - getting your basics right. You are tested the most for this understanding of yours and how well you are able to think on your feet.
Cut to the placement processes, companies started coming in one by one, and it was'nt easy. Every company had a different profile to offer, and it was necessary to choose and opt in wisely. I had my own share of rejections, sometimes in group discussions, some in personal interview rounds. But I made sure that I don't bogged down and learn from each of these experiences - this mindset helped me the most and in January 2019, I finally got placed into a startup specialising in financial advisory services as a financial analyst intern and I was totally delighted and eager for summer of '19 to arrive.
Fast forward to April 2019, the internship was finally here! Having had work experience prior to my MBA, I could'nt wait to go back to office and just start working away! A summer internship essentially lets you explore real life challenges that you learn during your MBA programme. The engagement with industry during internship also lets you learn about different roles and verticals of management. Being a startup, the work environment was really chilled out, but with that being said, I managed to learn a truck load of new things. The internship opened me to a whole new world - trading, which I had never explored before. As a batch of 20+ interns from various other top B-schools, we were given intensive training and classroom sessions on trading in the forex market for the first three weeks. We were imparted training on how to carry out in-depth analysis on the market, take buy or sell calls, compare various strategies and ultimately maximize profit! After this course of learning, we were given accounts to trade on the live market. To make it more exciting, our mentor also organized a competition wherein all of us started out with a pre-specified amount of money in our demo accounts, and took trades throughout the course of the week. The person with highest net profit AND made it by taking trades with informed analysis, explaining the entry/exit points was adjudged the winner and awarded with cash prize. Being the forex market, we had to be alert round the clock, be aware of any news being announced in any country, and its impact on the currency.
Initially, all of us including me had this popular myth that trading is like gambling and depends purely on luck. But these two months of my internship opened me up to a whole to arena of investing money and made me understand that it is purely technical and does'nt happen out-of-the-blue. The openness, support and guidance that I received from my mentors as well as peers helped it to be an extremely enriching experience. Overall, the internship gave me a good hands-on experience of how money management works and what are the key skills that can help you in this profession.