Chaitanya Ramprasad - Deutsche Bank

What Can I say about my experience! It’s been such a rollercoaster experience from the day I started preparing for the intern season to today where I’m done with my internship and looking forward to my fourth year and future career options. When I look back at this experience and all the things that I faced, I can just say “Guys! Anything can happen anytime to anyone. There are bad days where you’ll feel nothing is going your way but at the same time you’ll have your share of good ones. So just stay tight, Enjoy the process and in IITB Lingo what I could say is “Thoda Chill Maaro. Ho jayega Sort”

INTERNSHIP PREPARATION

So, It all started in May last year, I was as confused as most of you here. I didn’t know about different profiles. I didn’t have any POR in my resume. No previous professional experiences. I used to often think at that time “Kya hi kiya IIT Bombay Aakar, pura waste kardiya”. That’s when I started to explore. I started taking all projects that were sent on webmail through finance club/ consult club/ and different bodies of IITB aimlessly. It was really tough for me to decide what I exactly wanted to do. I took up one Finsearch project and worked on it a bit. Meanwhile, I had done one Finsearch project last year and one project by the Consult club. I made a rough resume with these three in my resume and randomly applied for all companies that LinkedIn showed me with no success, meanwhile most of my friends were already in the second phases of their internships.

The first internship came as a blessing, where my mother just recommended me to someone whom she used to work with 20 years ago. Luckily, the man who worked junior to my mom at that time turned out to become the CTO of the Company now. He offered a small role as a Research Intern in Equity Analysis where I worked for 30-40 odd days. This internship was more or less a learning experience, rather than work provided to me by them. They suggested to me articles, books, references that I would read and give a synopsis of that at the end of the week.

June passed away really quickly. Once July started, I came back to campus. I started making my resume. With all the bits and pieces that I had collected here and there across the last two months and started giving some shape to it. Although it didn’t carry that much weight, the resume carried a story in it. The same I would suggest to you guys. In interns, According to me, even the companies know that it’s just been two years since they don’t expect you to know everything. They wish to see someone who can fit into the parameters and can suit their workplace better. That being said, Guys do work on your resumes, it is important.

I applied for all companies that used to show up in the placement portal, whether it be software, finance, consult, FMCG etc. Didn’t get shortlisted in any of them. So, had already made up my mind that I won’t be sitting for Day 1, so we actually started to make plans to go somewhere during that long weekend. (Aug 15 was a monday). On Friday night, I got a call from one of my friends saying that I had a shortlist at Deutsche Bank, which I never expected even in my wildest dreams.

INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

My interview was scheduled for Sunday morning. Throughout Saturday, I sat with my resume, reading about what I had written and covering up as much content as possible during those last 24 hours. I hardly slept on Saturday, and reached for my interview at 8 am in the morning.

My first interview didn’t start off good. He clearly understood that I knew very little about finance, But still I kept my spirits high as much as possible to convince him that I was confident in whatever I was saying. I was asked some basic stuff written in my resume, which I couldn’t answer. More or less after the interview, I wasn’t quite convinced with my interview. There were also some Out of the Box questions of Guesstimates: “What are the number of Covid Vaccinations that happen in a hospital for a month” which I answered in a fairly okayish manner.

3 hours passed, I didn’t get any calls for my second interview which led me to believe that I was surely disqualified from the process where some other students were already done with their second and third round. Just then, I was called out of nowhere and taken for another round. The first question being, “ What do you like about Chemical Engineering” & as the interview progressed I was asked to even write the Navier Stokes Equation on paper which miraculously I happened to remember that day. Coding was never my strong forte but still managed somehow to answer the question regarding DSA, ML etc.

As soon as I came out of my second interview, I was taken to my third in 5 mins. I myself was a bit too surprised. This was a complete HR round and according to me this is where it all changed into my favor. I was asked to take the interviewer ( whom I later got to know was the Senior-most person in the office) to take him through the resume. Just as I had mentioned before, I narrated the story that I had weaved into my resume & he seemed to be quite impressed with it. Now I was done with three interviews.

Then came a call for my fourth interview which was a complete coding & puzzle based interview checking my aptitude & coding skills which I somehow managed to clear through ( Lot of Luck went my way that day !)

I went back to my friend’s room to return his blazer and shoes. Those 3 hours between the interviews and till the result came out was really stressful. I refreshed the intern blog for almost 100+ times to check whether the result had come. Around 3:15 pm Afternoon, I got a notification on my phone saying Congratulations @Chaitanya, that’s when I completely lost it. Just 2 months ago, I had nothing and here I am with an offer from Deutsche Bank on Day 1. A journey that I’ll never forget. (Photo attached: 3 hour stressful wait for the result)

INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE

Deutsche Bank perhaps would one of the best work cultures that completely was beyond my expectations. The internship experience as a whole was really great and involved a lot of learning. We were also taken care of in a royal fashion (great stipend xd). The work place is really filled with intellectual people. To just give a perspective – the place where I sat in the office. I had a IIT Kharagpur Graduate with CFA Level 2 on my left, two CA CFA Level 3 people sitting just behind me, an IIT Bombay Electrical Engineering Grad on my right and to his right was a person who stood AIR 1 in JEE 2003. Each working on something completely unique providing room for so much to learn.

In the first week of our internship, we had to undergo training where we were taught complete finance in just 4 days. Lot of it is more or less theoretical, so it was really key for us to catch up as soon as possible. One of the great parts of the internship was the fact that you are treated as a complete fresher to finance with no or very little knowledge. There is a lot of focus to get your basics & fundamentals strong to build up on that.

From the second week, we were asked to join our desks. There were 10 of us, 2 from IIT Bombay & 8 from IIT Kharagpur. Each of us was given a different project, different guide and desk to work on. I was part of the Counterparty Portfolio Management Desk ( don’t want to go into the specifics right now). We helped our front desks which were stationed in London & US, so my work timings were from 12-9 pm.

Projects given to us are not easy. They require a lot of thought from your side and an equal amount of effort. These projects are not just for the sake of it but something the desk wants to implement in the future years. Coming to the point, projects are tough. There were many days I would come to the office in full spirit just to know that at the end of the day I am back to where I had started, Square-One. There were some days where I used to feel dejected for not getting a result even after spending days on it.

But all of this, as my senior said, had a reason behind it. I got to learn a lot. Developed much more conceptual clarity of what is right and what is wrong, much more strong fundamental understanding than my counterparts at the end of the internship. My mentor and my team & my overall desk were really helpful. I can’t express enough how much they helped me on my way through the internship & how much I pestered them with silly questions even till the last week of the internship.

We had our Mid-Term & End term Evaluations which went quite smoothly. Apart from the projects allotted to you, Deutsche gives more importance to the fact that how well you network on the floor of the office. That’s what I feel makes Deutsche Bank stand apart from the other internships that my friends were doing. Everyone’s work in the office was completely unique so you could find people who were already working going in groups into meeting rooms to know about each other’s work with the want to learn more. Over the Course of the internship, I had interacted with more than at least 45-50+ people about their work & their experience. It all ended well & at the end of it, the most important part of it is that – I was Happy & Satisfied.

COMING BACK TO WHERE IT ALL STARTED..

Guys, Internship season definitely is a bit stressful and I’ll not mislead you to say ki it’s not that important or gyaan like a single piece of paper cannot change your future & stuff. Everyone has their own shortcomings, own strengths and therefore find their own ways to get things done at the end of the day. What I would say is, Take it as it comes. Give it all you have.

Having said that, Also realize that somewhere in this race we often forget to recognize the fact that there’s only 2 years left in college (considering you are reading this just before your intern season). Make the most of it. Another Trip to Sameer Hill or Marine Drive with friends is still possible. Taking part in AIDS or playing your favorite sport is still as important & relevant as it was from Day 1 you joined college. Craft these years in a way that you can thoroughly cherish this on the day you leave this college for one last time. That’s all I’ll have to say. If you have reached till here, Thanks a lot from my end. I hope that at the very least it was worth the 10 minutes you spent reading this. Goodbye & All the best.