Internship at HDFC Bank – Kaveri from WeSchool
About the Author: Kaveri Sinha, a student from Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool), shares her internship experience at HDFC Bank Ltd.
“Bhaiya please drive faster, I am late,” I pleaded to the auto driver.
“Madam, you can see the traffic. It is peak hour, what can I do?”, he shot back.
This is how the first day of my MBA summer internship at HDFC started. As luck had it, I was running late on the first day. While pursuing my MBA, I was waiting to get an internship. After working with an IT company for three years, I was looking forward to working with a good brand. With everybody in my batch getting internships, I was still applying.
It was in February that HDFC Bank visited my college and scheduled an aptitude test. I cleared the test and was called for an interview to Bandra. I reached the venue well in time for the interview. Before the interview, we were briefed about the company. We then had a group discussion round, which I cleared. The last phase was the interview which got me really nervous. I was the last candidate, by which time I had lost all hope. The panel asked me about my academic, professional, and family background, questions about why I took up MBA in marketing after engineering, why HDFC, a few scenario-based questions, and what I was expecting from HDFC. I came out after 45 minutes with my fingers crossed. Two days later, I was selected with a handsome stipend of Rs.20, 000!
I finally reached the Andheri East office 10 minutes late, fully aware that being punctual was one of the most important disciplines in the corporate world. As I entered the retail branch, I met my manager who explained my job profile and assigned me my desk. Initially, I felt that the work was not very enriching, but that happens when you intern with a large organization. The best thing to do in such a situation is to grasp as much as you can and analyze where you could apply the same. I spoke to my manager and started assisting him in retail branch activities.
One of the major perks of working in a retail profile is that you get to interact with customers from all demographics. My role was to talk to customers and make them aware of the digital products of HDFC Bank before getting them to use them. My major learning here was customer management. I shadowed my colleagues all day to understand their work as they would be busy with customers and couldn’t mentor me always. Soon, I learnt about banking products like account opening & closing, loans, credit cards, teller counters and so on. I also gauged what my profile as a Relationship Manager would be if I got a pre-placement offer.
What you must keep in mind is that the work culture at an MNC is very different, in terms of the mindset of employees, the communication among the employees, the way one behaves with the co-workers etc. To sum up, I can say that my internship was more about taking rather than giving back. All you need is confidence and the willingness to learn, which will eventually take you very far in life.
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