Internship at Karvy Stock Broking Ltd. – How I became a top performer
About the Author: Rahul Sompura is a second year PGDM student at Som Lalit Institute of Management Studies, Ahmedabad. He shares his internship journey from the state of confusion to a top performer at KSBL, Ahmedabad.
During the 2nd semester, students started buzzing with the word ‘internship’. And why not? An internship is an opportunity for students to experience the professional world. My classmates had already started looking for internships in their preferred organizations. On the other hand, I was still confused about which organization I should intern in. Later, companies started approaching our campus, Karvy Stock Broking Ltd. (KSBL) was one of them. KSBL is a subsidiary of Karvy Consultants Ltd. that provides stock broking and research advisory services in India. The company offers portfolio analysis, depository participant, financial planning, and management services for individuals and institutional clients. Initially, the selection process was based on CV shortlisting. Out of the 30 applicants, 20 were selected for the interview round, and luckily, I was among them.
We were invited to the Ahmedabad branch of KSBL for our interviews. I prepared for the interview and gathered as much information about the company as possible. I was so nervous that I was sweating profusely in a fully air-conditioned room as it was my first corporate interview. After some time, my name was announced and it was my turn for the interview. Mr. Ritesh Budhdev, the Branch manager, started the interview with my introduction, and then asked me what I knew about the company. Then, I was asked the most common question faced by an MBA student from an engineering background, “Why PGDM after BE rather than M.E. or M.Tech.?” I replied, “Production engineering is all about managing various available resources and utilizing them efficiently to increase the productivity. Today, production engineers not only need to increase productivity but also to understand and satisfy the consumer needs. And so, I opted for PGDM to nurture my management skills.” Further, I was questioned about a few marketing concepts like 4 Ps of marketing, marketing mix, etc.
After a few days, I got a selection email from the company stating that I was placed at the Ahmedabad branch. After the initial training in the first week, we were given specific sales targets which seemed difficult to achieve in the beginning. My project was titled – Sales and Marketing of financial products and services of KSBL, and mapping customers perception about different demat service providers. I was associated with the sales department, the operations department, and the customer service department of the company. The primary responsibilities in the sales department were to increase brand awareness and loyalty and acquiring new investors for various financial products and services of KSBL. In the operations department, I was responsible for filling up forms online and offline for opening demat accounts, verifying documents required for opening a demat account, and filling up forms of Mutual fund/SIP and IPO (Initial Public Offering). In the customer service department, I was responsible for attending customer calls, providing complete support to the customers, solving customer queries, and following up on inactive demat accounts.
In the first task, we were given contact details of customers having a share in the physical form; we had to convince them to open a demat account and dematerialize those share certificates. In the second task, we were given targets to open 5 demat accounts and encourage 5 investors to invest in mutual funds. In the third task, we were given contact details of inactive demat accounts of KSBL; we were required to identify the problems of these accounts by having a telephonic conversation with them. I successfully completed all the tasks. In the second task, I was the top performer in the west zone (Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Baroda, etc.) by successfully meeting the targets given to me, and I was rewarded by the Branch Manager for the same, thanks to positive efforts, hard work, and a strong desire to achieve targets. Supportive guide and a knowledgeable and efficient staff taught me many lessons about the corporate world.
Supportive guide, knowledgeable and efficient staff taught me many lessons about the corporate world. I advise my readers to not ponder too much about selecting a company for internship. Don’t get upset if you don’t get an opportunity to intern at your desired company. I believe that no organization is good or bad; in the end, it’s up to us, our dedication, and our hard work.
Inspired by Rahul’s story? Check out these cool marketing internships.
Editor’s note – If you also have an interesting story to share, you can now participate in Your Internship Story Contest 2017 and win cash prizes and goodies worth INR 1 Lac!
