Breaking Trail: The World Of Finance
In this article, Tushar Bohra from the Dept. of EEE, shares his experience of working in the Finance and Economics club of IITG and preparing for the FRM exam.
You know one of the biggest perks of studying in an IIT? You get to explore a lot. From drama to music, robotics to consulting, fests to hostel nights, the list is endless.
This journey of exploration often leads you to your passion, and believe me it feels so good after finding something you love doing. Work is not work anymore. You get the curiosity to learn new at every moment.
I too started with the cliched Andrew Ng course everyone does in their first or second sem. I encountered Finance at a very later stage. I remember it was by one of the courses in the club. It was my first faceoff with businesses. Profit, loss, demand, supply, mergers, valuations, growth. I could never come out of these words. Till now, I struggle figuring out the real meanings of these terms as they are very subjective. And this is the thing in Economics and Finance: you get to deduce everything on your own. Here, creativity comes into the picture. It is an art for me, the art of storytelling, the story of the economic and financial matters backed by strong facts and numeric data.
I remember I used to open something on Investopedia, and by the time that article was completed, ten more sections of the related terms were already open.
The path was too vague in the beginning, you don’t know what is important or why. And that’s the case with every field you get into. It takes years to get a grasp on any subject.
Finding passion is hard, getting ahead with it is harder. As our campus doesn’t really encourage someone getting out of coding and ML. Economics was too out of the box. I often used to hear that ‘you won’t reach anywhere without coding’, ‘there is a lot to study in Finance’. It gets even difficult when we move towards internship and placement seasons. Everyone is getting an intern from campus and you at the same time, struggling to figure out how can you get something you want. Difficult times need strength to face everything firmly. But you get your tribe wherever you go, right? Finance & Economics Club was there for me. Club helped me a lot in tackling these problems; you get to know and work with people who share your interests. The guidance, support, and inspiration you receive from seniors are invaluable. You will never feel lonely there.
I accidentally came across FRM last summer. It is Financial Risk Manager, a certification program consisting of two exams and work experience later. I was going through something on Investopedia and I came across its advertisement. After studying Finance for almost 6–7 months, I had known I can study these subjects up to any extent. I have a weird obsession with exams (maybe after JEE). So I enrolled in it and started preparing. Preparation was not very tough I should say. Finding the right resources for preparation was difficult. Only one senior had appeared for it in the past, so it was new for the club too. I never liked to study my course subjects. Maintaining acads with preparation was tough. With FRM I was having one more reason to not study electrical. The exam was on the same day as my lab exam, and four days away from the end semester exam of MA201. My grades were ruined in the third sem due to that.
I don’t know how FRM will help me in the future but one thing is certain now for me, I know I love this subject.
I remember a senior telling me this: “Don’t do everything keeping in mind how it will help you ultimately. Sometimes we just need to do things”. Wander, feel free, we are humans not machines, we are allowed to explore. Fail fast, fail often. We can all use it to find new paths. New directions are not always easy, not always successful but we can keep finding. Consistency is always the best determinant. You don’t need to just do things, but to do them regularly. And as time passes you start embracing the vulnerable nature of unknown situations. That’s where creativity comes in.
Believe in yourself, everyone’s different. You will never want the life that your batchmate wants. So why do the same things under peer pressure? Let us own our decisions and start doing the things we love. There will never be any material destination (other than death) so why not enjoy the only part we have with us - our journey.
