Spriha's Internship Experience at FinIQ

About Spriha Singh:

I'm presently pursuing my Masters from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. I did my undergrad in Mechanical Engineering from KIIT University, Bhubaneshwar. I have had the good fate of getting to move around and explore different cultures and opportunities. Debating has been a very important aspect of my life, especially Parliamentary debating. I am a dedicated cinephile and budding environmentalist.

About the Internship

• Company - FinIQ Consulting
• Industry - Consulting
• Duration - 8 Weeks
• Location - Pune
• Role - Management Development Intern

How was your overall experience?

The organization demands an entrepreneurial spirit within the employees. FinIQ follows an agile methodology which comes with flexibility in roles, entrepreneurial environment and space for creativity. Such an atmosphere helped me grow and I loved the opportunity of getting to work there. In the initial days, all the interns were gathered in the ‘working room’ and we were taught about all of the company’s products and processes. We were then assigned roles and responsibilities according to our skill set, areas of interest and specialization. I was majorly part of the Marketing and Development team, but I also had the opportunity to work Hiring policy designs and stock exchange regulations. In a nutshell, the experience was quite tremendous and made me wiser towards the outside world.

How was the selection process conducted? 

The selection process consisted of 3 elimination rounds

• First-round was a Group Discussion where we were assigned group and were given a certain topic to provide our thoughts on
• Second round was a Personality Interview round was which tested our personality constructs
• Third round was a Technical Interview which asked questions about technical knowledge & personal skills

What was your project and how did you execute it?

While interning at FinIQ, I worked on various sub-projects under the main project titled “Social Media footprint creation and Market Research”. Each sub-project had certain deliverables and hence that can be termed as the objectives of my internship. The same are mentioned below:

To set up a social media presence with a planned footprint. This included aspects of:

• Creating Differentiation methods for FinIQ from its Competitors
• I had to Identify and create appropriate social media content for the branding of the organization
• I then designed an app layout for providing smoother UI to clients
• I organized an event within the organization for various clients and to keep in line with the company’s internship traditions

To conduct market research internationally for better analysis and expansion of the business, where

• I had to compile a list of private banks in the USA market that could become potential clients FinIQ
• One of my main projects was to analyze and draft a plan to set up an office/subsidiary in Tokyo. A lot of research based on Japanese infra and corporate laws including external trade went into this
• I designed a presentation layout with a unique colour scheme, icons, pictograms and infographics in order to be used for Geneva demo presentation purpose
• I designed brochure and backdrop for Chicago Trade Fair for the organization using various design tools
• I used various research directories to profile specific ethnicities of various European countries for hiring purpose of the organization
• Prepared a comparison matrix b/w London Stock Exchange and Madrid Stock Exchange

Additionally, as to be able to gain a better understanding of the markets and clientele, certain subsidiary objectives were recognized and worked upon

• I developed a simple options pricing model in Excel/VBA based on Black-Scholes model to understand the various factors considered for pricing based on the expected payoffs and understanding the structured products of the company and how to upload them on the software by creating a suitable layout and workflow blotter
• I created a Use Case Study on a product developed on the basis of RIMS (Repository and Investment Management System) on the basis of the demo product designed for a certain bank

How was the work culture at FinIQ?

The culture was very open and the pool of employees were equally talented. Our first outing happened in the first week itself. All the senior managers attended the outing, including the founder. The first thing that intrigued me was their humble and friendly nature. They made us feel comfortable and it became easy to strike a conversation with them. Almost everyone in FinIQ is an expert in some extracurricular activity. Few employees had even represented India in sports! Few had won National awards in some art form.

What were the key challenges that you faced during your internship?

Since you’re assigned to a team, keeping everybody on the same page gets hard at times. I got through this by listening and hearing but most importantly working together as one single unit.

What were the key learnings of your internship?

The two month period seems like a short time, but as an intern, it taught me a lot. I had to be on my feet all the time as the work was so dynamic and being as management interns we’re the scoop of the outside that could produce a different perspective.

Any memorable moments from the internship?

FinIQ consulting requires you to culturally fit in with the organization. To check that we fit or not, the management takes 2 of our team members at regular intervals for lunch. The feedback is taken from them to assess the intern. This was a fun and innovative way to find out the right candidate. It also helped me personally in the learning process about various things in the corporate world.

Any tips you would like to share with our juniors?

• Work hard. It’s fun when you put your heart into making something
• Opportunities don’t come knocking but not having identifying the right one could cause more trouble
• Make the most of your internship. Make mistakes, go wrong, learn and make better ones next time. One of these days, it could be called an innovation

For any other queries, you can reach out to Spriha @LinkedIn and @Instagram