SOMIL GUPTA

Finance Club, IIT Kharagpur, is proud to present to you the interview of . Somil Gupta (Roll no. 16CH3FP03), a final year undergraduate student of the Financial Engineering program. He shares his experience with grabbing an Intern at a swiss based global investment bank, through the CDC process.

Finance Club, IIT Kharagpur interacted with him to learn about how he tackled interviews and the preparation strategy that he followed . Here, we present to you a glimpse of the brief interaction we had with him. We thank him for spending his valuable time to answer the questions regarding the CDC Internship process.

Interviewer: Hello, Somil. Thank you for joining us. Hope you are healthy and safe.

Somil: Thank You for a warm welcome.

Interviewer: I would like to ask you about your past experiences in the field of Finance and also the type of work that you did during those internships?

Somil: I did a Summer Internship at Model Risk Management Team of a European Bank where I worked on model validation . I also did a Research Intern at Centre for Capital Markets & Risk Management, IIM Bangalore where I worked on an event study.

Interviewer: What is the general interview process for finance companies? Can you please mention the number of rounds and the nature of the interview process?

Somil: Every finance company has a different nature and number of rounds. They can be anything between 2–6.

Interviewer: So how did you prepare for the technical rounds and what preparation tips would you like to give to the students appearing for CDC this year?

Somil: For Technical rounds in most finance firms, they mainly ask probability & statistics and puzzles. Stats 110 course from Harvard University/MA20104 lecture notes are a good starting point for studying/revising Probability and Statistics. I also solved “50 challenging problems in probability” and “Heard on the Street” which are a must-do for CDC preparation. If students have time, they should also try solving puzzles from Brainstellar.com/Ted-Ed video puzzles on Youtube. Also, be prepared with all the subjects you have mentioned in your CV and avoid mentioning subjects which you think you won’t be able to defend in your interviews.

Interviewer: Could you please explain the role Competitive Programming (CP) plays in the CDC?

Somil: CP is really important for most companies that come in CDC. If you are aiming for Quantitative Finance roles, then avoiding CP would be a big mistake. I didn’t do CP for CDC internships which had reduced my options to very few companies. Even if you are targeting for Finance firms, preparing for coding is always a good idea. Companies like JPMC & GS have coding sections in their papers. Moreover, I personally feel, it’s wise to have a fall-back option if you don’t get into your target firm and CP enables you to have those fall-back options.

Interviewer: Would you recommend any book for students trying to grab a Finance Internship?

Somil: 50 challenging Problem in Probability, Heard on the street, A practical guide to Quantitative Finance Interview (Xinfeng Zhou)

Interviewer: Is this true that a high CGPA is required to grab a good internship in the Finance sector?

Somil: Having a high CGPA is always an advantage in the CDC process. However, it is not a necessity for targeting many companies. Your performance in company’s tests, projects, past internships and in few cases your PORs can compensate for a lower CGPA. Projects definitely help you in the shortlisting process and also give you a talking point during your interview. However, those projects should be such that they can stand out. Especially, if you have a project which lead to/may lead to a conference/journal paper, it will definitely give you an edge.

Interviewer: Is there anything else that you would like to share with the students? Any last moment tips..?

Somil: Prepare your CV well. You should be able to describe your projects/internships such that it clearly conveys the objective of your work, strategies you applied and impact of your work. Be ready for all types of cross-questioning and practice at least 2–3 mock interviews with your friends.

Interviewer: Thank you Somil for giving your valuable time for this interview to the Finance Club, IIT Kharagpur. We hope this interview helps students to organize themselves and prepare efficiently to target their dream companies and roles. We wish you all the best for your future endeavors!

Somil: Thank You!!