Summer Internship in Thane with TJSB Sahakari Bank Ltd. – an insight into the workings of the corporate world
During an internship, a student gets to experience the practical world with all its challenges. Jaya narrates how she overcame the hurdles and made the most of her internship opportunity.
About Author: Jaya Sidhwani is a final year of MBA student at VESIMSR and is doing her majors in Finance. She did her internship with TJSB Sahakari Bank Ltd.
Summer Internship was the start of a new journey. Summer Internship was the word which had created terror in my mind because of the lack of good opportunities available due to the economic downturn. Getting a hardcore Finance profile (no selling of financial products or services) was a difficult thing. But I was lucky enough to get a finance profile of my choice. Being a fresher, corporate world exposure was a completely new thing which I got to experience in these two months of internship at TJSB Sahakari Bank Ltd and was also the start of a new journey. Experience of this summer internship will surely be helpful in future as there was a lot to learn from the environment in which people work in the corporate sector. There were many good things to learn such as savor every moment, work hard, punctuality, meeting targets on time, add value to the work, give preference to important things first in the morning, boss is always right, and many other things. But along with good things there were many negative things too, which came to my notice while working which were mostly responsible in spoiling the work atmosphere where people in the office were complaining about the work, spreading negative and false rumors about the competitors, more concerned about other people’s life than the work which has to be done, reduced productivity at the end of the day, and many more.
Like every other management student taking finance as a specialization I also wanted a hardcore finance profile for my 2 months summer internship. I’m glad I didn’t get cheated like many others who expected a finance profile but got pure selling of financial products and services. In TJSB where I was working in the International Business Division as a management intern, frankly it was a good experience as I got to learn about Foreign Exchange which actually was a totally new thing to me but my expectations were not entirely fulfilled. I expected the staff to be cooperative, allowing me to learn their daily core jobs and also providing helpful guidance for the summer project but the reality was little different. Barring few from the whole International Business Division others were not much interested in making me learn their basic core jobs or solving my doubts regarding new concepts coming in my way while learning about Foreign Exchange. Most of them were actually habituated to the patent job which is performed by them daily in the bank and therefore were hardly aware about the actual meaning in the true sense of the concepts involved in their work and also were hardly aware of the current happenings in the Forex market. There were few people in IBD (International Business Division) of the bank who actually made my summer internship worthwhile with their support and guidance. They sometimes allowed me to carry out certain transactions after providing sufficient training regarding how the transaction takes place with the help of their OMNI software. The work of scrutinizing the documents was most of the time allotted to me which helped me to come across various essential requirements of regulatory authority for the completion of the import and export transactions. My guide for the summer project cleared many doubts which I had related to Foreign Exchange rates.
The Oxford Dictionary defines an “intern” as “a student or trainee who works, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification” but my definition is little different after experiencing 2 months of summer internship. According to me “An Intern is a student or trainee who can work in any given situation (good or bad), many a times without pay, in order to fulfill academic requirements and gain some work experience”. In a nutshell it was a good experience for me as it allowed me to acquire deeper insights and knowledge about Foreign Exchange. But some more support and guidance would have made a lot of difference. But I’m satisfied because I got to learn something which has given a new dimension to my career and also for the huge interest which I have developed for the area of Foreign Exchange while making my project on the “Study of Foreign Exchange in Banks”. Earlier I was hardly interested in the current affairs of Forex market but now it’s opposite; thanks to the opportunity which I got during summers. Though the internship was not according to my expectations but the learning will be tremendously useful to me for my future endeavors.
What did you learn from your internship? Share your internship experience by participating in Your Internship Story Contest 2012 and win prizes worth Rs. 40,000! Hurry.
