Summer Internship at SNL Financial – Anamika Pumba from Narayana Business School Ahmedabad
Anamika Pumba interned at SNL Financial, Ahmedabad this summer, and shares with us why the experience was “the one to be remembered forever”. Anamika is a student of Narayana Business School, Ahmedabad. Read on to discover the rattling series of events she underwent and how they changed her forever…
Finance, the word rings bells of numbers inside people’s heads at first encounter. For me it was more than that; it had to be my life.
Nearing the end of my 1st year of MBA in finance, I was all excited at the prospect of spending my summer, working with a corporation and was bracing myself for the dip inside the sea of the practical financial knowledge. As such when I was about to start the process of applying to companies, god read my mind and sent this beautiful company called SNL Financial; (savings and loans, which is a US based financial filter and guide for the banking, financial services, insurance, real estate, energy and many other sectors) to our campus for summer intern selections (thank you god). And by his grace and my hard work I got selected along with four other colleagues of mine. As the classmates were best buddies in class and eventually became the best competitors in the corporate world.
My 1st step inside the company premises felt like heaven… the environment was so calm and it never felt for a moment that it was summer, for the temperature inside was somewhat near 15 degrees. Figurations apart, I was introduced to my project mentor and workmates there… (all were so competent and experienced). I learnt what exactly SNL Financial was doing or what products SNL was producing.
What I loved about SNL was that it had flexibility to the degree that brought out the best in people. As such I was working under Mergers and Acquisition department as a financial analyst. People were always so ready, rather say enthusiastic to extend help, that we never felt like internees, but one amongst the team that takes SNL forward.
Working straight for 90 minutes and then a 10 min coffee break, fiddling with the coffee machine (almost broke it) , boosting up energy levels and then again heading straight for another 90 minute concentration dive. I have to admit, it is after coming here only that I learnt the true meaning of patience.
The proportionality between hard work and success was exemplified before my eyes here only, and I truly learnt that ‘hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard’. We could achieve anything and we just have to patiently spend the right no of effective hours (in the right direction, of course).
A heavy chunk of my projects involved Googling, a task which I’m good at, and love doing. The immense adrenaline rush from searching and surfing through the gigantic amount of data in such a short amount of time is something which might look like a delta dirac curve if u plot my learning and info intake with time.
The merger and acquisition deals gave me the insight of the power plays of companies and realization of the bigger picture of the profits involved in unification. The sharing of infrastructure, technology, ideas, learning from each other’s mistakes and catering to an increased number of customers.
Interspersed between the work were the gaps of social activities, quizzes, the gusto of birthday celebrations, the movie Fridays, inter dept competitions and u name it. SNL sets up a blood donation camp once every 3 months as a part of its social initiatives. It also religiously does its part of the CSR (corporate social responsibility) for the less fortunate. We too were encouraged to donate blood (but forgive me, I need some myself.
For the restless freaks , there was a TT table and carom board inside the cafeteria itself, which others used for watching the FIFA matches, socializing , making connections and some , just for “chilling out” (of course from work).
Now after reading all these don’t form the picture that all we did during intern was chilling. I witnessed some truly exceptional minds out there too. People, with sitting capabilities of as long as 17 hours (yup, that’s it!!). Workaholismpersonified, in other words (well if you have everything in your office, logic says it- what’s the need to go home).
I have to say that I am a changed person after this 2 month experience. The environment and the extreme competition from quality peer pressure brought out the best in me. These 2 months basically served to me as a demo for the corporate yet ahead of me, instilling in me the relevant qualities of corporate etiquettes, professional communication and socialization which were indispensible for any budding corporate lady or gentleman.
Alas, the time to leave had finally come. It came as no wonder that the time spent doing the most precious things (learning for a lifetime) flied faster than a jet.
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