Interview with Anil Chopra, CEO & Director, Bajaj Capital
Internshala catches up with Anil Chopra, CEO & Director, Bajaj Capital, to understand the working of their internship program.
It’s a two-way process. They (interns) develop their skill-set and we get access to the immensely talented pool of youth.
Mr. Anil Chopra – Group CEO & Director, Bajaj Capital makes it perfectly clear, during his interview with Internshala, that interns in Bajaj Capital have imparted immense value to the organization. Excerpts-
Hi Anil. Welcome and thank you for doing this. Could you please provide us an overview of the internship programs at Bajaj Capital?
Hello. Glad to help. The basic objective of internship at Bajaj Capital is to provide the applicant a glance at both financial market & financial instruments. They get a fundamental understanding of the basic functionality of BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) industry. Usually we run our internship programs twice a year – Summer Internship Program and Winter Internship Program.
We hire interns across all departments for varying tenure (from 45 days to 3 months), depending on the type of projects. We generally recruit Master’s students, but in a few projects, depending on the requirements, we have also taken in graduates.
What qualities should an intern have in order to score an internship at your company and what methods do you employ to recruit them?
Generally we visit a lot of colleges for internships programs and we also arrange off-campus interviews in our offices at various locations. Broadly we look for following qualities:
– Areas of interest
– Excellent communication skills
– Openness to learning
– Candidates should have dedication & enthusiasm
What kind of roles/projects are interns given and what should they expect to learn from it?
Different groups in our organization raise their request for interns along with the list of projects they are planning to undertake with their help. Keeping the interest area and potential of the interns in mind, we assign them a project.
The key learning of an intern is in accordance to their project. For example- if an intern has undertaken a project on recruitment & selection, then he/she will get be aware about the process flow for recruitment, methodologies of recruitment, hiring challenges etc.
Do you remember any particular project where interns played a critical role?
There was a project related with group mediclaim requirements for education industry. The interns selected for the project did massive survey & data collection across Delhi NCR. They visited lot of schools, colleges & educational centers. This was an activity which was executed effectively within the set timelines & we were able to get a very crucial data which, in a way, helped us to penetrate the education sector with our product.
In your opinion, what are the top mistakes that interns generally commit and you would like to warn a prospective intern about?
In the initial phase, there is a lack of seriousness about the project. They don’t readily understand their long-term impact on the project and most interns, coming off college, have inhibitions in interacting and communicating with seniors in the organization. It takes them some time before they fully aware of their responsibilities at the organization.
How has the company benefited from the internship program?
The biggest benefit is related to exposure to fresh young pool of candidates who bring a lot of innovative ideas to the fore. This pool of talent is quite energetic and can also be deployed to projects which are monotonous in nature. This is also a cost effective way of executing various tasks/projects which come on a temporary basis.
Finally, what are the 3 things about Bajaj Capital that would make an internship experience of a candidate unforgettable?
Like I said, the objective is to develop a symbiotic process wherein both the parties benefit from each other. The three things would be –
a. Learning & exposure to corporate environment
b. Brief overview of BFSI (Banking, Financial Service and Insurance) Industry
c. Recognition of output related with on the job training/project
Thank you Anil for giving an insight into such a nicely implemented internship program at Bajaj Capital. We’re sure students on our platform will find this very useful.
Want a cheat sheet to secure that ever-elusive internship? Read the 7 secrets to secure an internship through Internshala.
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