Heya, I am Ishita Tyagi, a fourth-year student in the Metallurgical Department. I have lived in three different continents and 7 different cities, so I consider myself a nomad!
I had a design PoR, I was also a DAMP and a member of ShARE. I had projects in finance, consulting and a bit of tech sprinkled here and there.
I started my internship journey from Day 1 Shortlists to Phase II and ironically ended up in a Day 1 company 😉
If you were just as confused as me while sitting for internships – then Welcome! After making my resume I decided to try out for consulting, finance and FMCG roles because after all internships are about learning what you don’t want to do and if you’re lucky – fall in love with what you can do.
PREP: Guesstimates, Puzzles and Probability from Brainsteller and Heard on the Street, Resume & HR prep
Internship Lesson 1: IT’S OKAY TO BE CONFUSED
By the time Day 1 came along I was more confused than ever and if you had friends like mine – totally focused and set in their profiles it was even more intimidating. So the sensible thing to do now is target profiles based on your resume – based on your projects, experience, PoRs and CPI.
Internship Lesson 2: NEVER THINK YOU’RE NOT DAY 1 MATERIAL
I hadn’t been shortlisted for Day 1 consulting companies (Bain, BCG, L.E.K) and boyyy was I sad so I decided to give up (BIG MISTAKE) on prep. That was when life sort of suckerpunched me and my name came up in Deutsche Bank – Finance Day 1. I was not prepared (as much as I should have been) with my quick math and puzzles (I still regret that). I made it till the second round.
So don’t give up early – keep at it!
Internship Lesson 3: SOMETIMES, IT’S NOT YOU IT’S THEM
After DB, there was NRI, Eversana and AmEX (analytics profile – till this day I’m not sure why I was shortlisted lol). The interviews went great (according to me) however still I hadn’t been selected. Now here is where I started reaching out to seniors and other professionals and learnt something – you could’ve given your 110% and still not get selected as no one really knows what goes on in the mystical minds of HR. I have friends who completely tanked the interview and got offers; so sometimes, just sometimes, it’s not you!
Internship Lesson 4: START APPING
It was nearing the end of November and I started the process of making a database of companies and started sending out connection requests like a maniac. I know people who have gotten great offers from apping through LinkedIn (don’t underestimate the power of LinkednIn).
This doesn’t mean I had given up on placement cell (during this time I had given interviews for Machani Group and IDFC), on the contrary I was taking some control over the process which is something you all should do!
Internship Lesson 5: BARCLAYS
I had nearly gotten an offer from EY through apping when Barclays – Structured Credit Team came to IITB in March. At this point in internship season I had developed a confidence you can only develop after so many interviews and rounds – so I said let’s do this again.
Process: Apti/Finance/Quant/Tech Test
3 Rounds of Interview – Puzzles/Probability, Finance and HR
And that was the end of my internship search! I honestly did not think finance would be a good fit for me but I thought lets try it out.
Internship:
I was part of the Structured Credit Team and was given projects in all the products the team dealt in – Credit Linked Notes, Total Return Swaps and Repurchase Agreements. Total 8 projects in 8 hectic amazing weeks! I have improved my knowledge in finance and my technical skills so much I am impressed with myself lol.
Barclays is a company that pushes you to go beyond what is expected and the best part is you can easily connect with senior management sitting in the U.K, U.S or Singapore! Turns out even successful people were confused about career paths once 😉 And guess what? Turns out I like Finance!
