It is often said that the best way to learn something is through application. The summer internship is no different for an MBA student. My internship at Indus Valley Partners offered me the opportunity to learn more about financial markets, particularly the hedge fund industry. It was an enriching experience to get hands-on finance and technology and apply the skills learnt in classes at IIM Rohtak to real-world data. I worked as a business analyst intern on a portfolio management product which offered the clients to check the real-time updates of their portfolios in various industries.
For the preparation of the interview, I went through basic concepts of finance and used various online resources like YouTube to get a glimpse of the hedge fund industry which was new for me. The interview consisted of four rounds with different people. It had a technical round, followed by business rounds and then an HR round. Past interview experiences of people from InsideIIM also proved to be useful as I could gauge the difference of expectations that recruiters had from MBA students compared to an engineering interview.
The internship started with an introduction to the entire hedge fund industry and how IVP fits in with various products ranging from the front office to back office catering to the needs to various clients ranging from portfolio management to regulatory reporting. IVP has carved a niche for itself in the fintech domain hitting the sweet spot between finance and technology.
Though the internship was work from home-based due to COVID-19, my mentor and other team members ensured that I did not face any problems in learning. I had daily meetings with them which allowed me to learn a lot about the nuances of diversified portfolios with gargantuan data. The best part of the internship was when I used the product myself and could very well gauge the expectations of the client. The best part of my ‘fintech’ internship consisted of aligning the finance concepts with code and using data analytics on dashboards to gauge the market and offer the best service to clients. In all, it gave me a glimpse of big data. All the three Vs of big data, i.e. volume, variety and velocity were in plenty. Initially, I got a bit confused looking at the sheer number of variables that were used to represent particular security. But, that’s how the finance industry operates, they keep a record of each and everything. The software developers worked hard to write code for the real-time updates of markets and ensured that the clients don’t face any difficulties in accessing the same. The function of business analysts was to act as a bridge between the clients and developers ensuring that the finance concepts and terms are connected in the databases so that information required by clients can be customised as per their needs.
I saw a live application of the implementation of customer relationship management, or CRM as it is popularly known in the MBA. IVP’s product offered a whole bundle to the clients so that they could leave the entire data management to them and concentrate on their investments. This gave me a whole new experience of the expectations of clients in a service-based industry. All in all, the internship was a wholesome experience of finance, technology and CRM giving me the blend of the knowledge acquired in my first year of MBA. I hope the trend continues for other students and batches as well.
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