This story is a part of the InPlace Series by Cepstrum, IIT Guwahati and is written by Konark Jain, Dept of EEE, IITG.
I consider myself lucky — extremely lucky, in fact, to have been able to intern at one of the most prestigious banking firms across the globe — J.P.Morgan. When I met the person who interviewed me in the office, I asked him what J.P.Morgan expects from job applicants. He simply replied: “You have been here for a month now, I think you can guess what kind of people we are looking for.” At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I would say that they look for people who can manage challenging projects and who have a hunger to learn.
The Interview
I was sitting in a lecture at around 4 p.m. when I got an email saying I have an interview for a Quant Research role in JPMC at 6:30 p.m. on that day itself. I took off from the classroom at 5 p.m. considering whether to even sit for the interview or not. I called one of my friends — he happened to be the Finance Club secretary — and asked him: “Bro, what even is Quant Research?”. Thankfully, his answer was enough for me to take the interview seriously. Financial knowledge is not required for quant roles since JPMC does a great job of teaching their employees, who are coming from an engineering background, the skills needed in the investment banking space.
I dressed up quickly and reached the venue with my notes from my 2nd semester on the basics of Machine Learning. The interview process, as you might guess, went pretty well. It had four rounds. Math, coding, puzzles and past projects were some of the topics that were asked. I didn’t feel too much pressure in the interview because the interviewers were pretty cool people. I would say I got really lucky that I was able to impress the interviewers with close-to-zero knowledge of finance. Tip: Thinking out loud and letting the interviewer understand how you are approaching the problem is very helpful. The interview ended in a phone call from HR asking me if I had any problem relocating to Mumbai. Pretty awesome, no?
The Work
I was pretty confident that I had the job in the bag and I got the congratulatory mail the very next day. After a horridly unproductive 6th semester, I landed in the humid, sizzling yet mesmerizing city of Mumbai, the very next day after my endsems got over. Thanks for that IITG academic calendar! After going through a very difficult apartment search with 20 kgs of luggage on my back, I found a PG which would barely even qualify as a hostel. But considering the high property rates in Mumbai, it seemed like a reasonable choice.
The office of the quant team was a towering building in the middle of a rather busy area. What really surprised me was the level of security and safety measures the firm took even with us lowlife interns. The office had all the facilities you could ever need. It was near a very happening area called ‘BKC’. Some interns worked even on weekends because they preferred working in the office to staying at their morbid PGs. The point is: JPMC knows how to maintain an office.
Anyways, I got allotted to the Market Risk team (known as MRQR) and I was asked by a VP over at the NY office to send my resume to him. Luckily, again, I got a project based on Machine Learning, which is my comfort zone, for Market Risk Prediction. I cannot go into too many details about the project but it was amazing working with people who have outstanding know-how of the financial world. I completed the project three weeks earlier than expected and took another project for the remainder of my intern there. The work is pretty interesting and it takes a considerable amount of effort to get meaningful results but it depends on your team and your skillset.
Moving on to the fun part: Mumbai!
Mumbai Darshan
Having spent most of my life in Delhi NCR, I enjoyed the refreshing change of perspective that Mumbai offered. Where Delhi has better-managed traffic, lovely metro lines and chaat that is worth dying for; Mumbai has beautiful beaches, clean(er) air, and delightful people.
I purposely chose accommodation at a place from where the beach is a 20-minute walk — SantaCruz West. And man, did I love living in that place! You may have heard this before, but I’ll say it anyway: Mumbai never sleeps! I had countless pizzas delivered with a smile to my room at 2 a.m. by Zomato workers even during the floods. Traveling on the roads at midnight had never felt so safe.
I can safely say that I have explored Mumbai more than some of my friends who actually live in Mumbai have. From Elephanta caves to the Gateway of India to Mohammad Ali Road to Juhu Chowpatti to night-outs at the Marine Drive, I did it all. Once, I had to crash at IITB with co-interns for a night because we were too wasted to go home. On weekends, my roommate correctly assumed that I wouldn’t step back in my room before 1 or 2 a.m., and left the door unlocked for me. I even secretly flew to Goa for a weekend with my friends from college. Went to Khandala, Lonavala, Imagica when my family came to visit me. The stuff that happened with me there is a tale for another time.
It was a hell of a ride. And juniors who are looking forward to their interns: go crazy and make the most out of the 2–3 months away from home.
If you need any help with regards to interviews and test preparation about the company, feel free to contact me on LinkedIn.
