From industrial engineering at IIT Kgp to 7+ internships in consulting and finance: Adarsh Gupta
Adarsh Gupta is a pre-final year student, pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. He has interned at the University of Ottawa(UOttawa), National University of Singapore(NUS), LIC Mutual Funds and Bonanza Portfolio. He was a finalist in Solvay Business Game(SBG), the biggest student case competition in Europe. He loves to interact with different people as he’s a firm believer in the fact that we learn from our peers more than anything else and has been a delegate at the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations(HPAIR), Harvard US-India Initiative(HUII) and Asia Investment & Banking Conference(AIBC). He is fond of poetry & elocution, plays bridge and is the Captain of his hall in general championship events. Number crunching & problem-solving excites him. He’s the Consulting Director of the world’s largest student consultancy, 180 Degrees Consulting’s IIT Kgp Chapter and aspires to have a career in the management consulting or financial services industry.
How did you discover your field of interest?
I feel privileged that I was always looking for different opportunities that my college has to offer from my first year itself under proper guidance from seniors & alumni. I have been fascinated by global markets & economy since my school days. After reaching college, I found like-minded students. I started exploring the technicalities, started investing, & learning principles of the same. I started looking for internships alongside to gain real-world experience. I worked at two consumer goods companies as a sales & marketing intern before I landed an internship at Indian Railways & Bonanza Portfolio Limited in my first year summers. Though I wasn’t assigned a major project there, the experience was invaluable. In my second year winters, I worked at LIC Mutual Funds, which helped me to sharpen my learning curve. In the summers of my sophomore year, I had my first international exposure when I interned at NUS Business School on a 6 months long consultancy project, half of which was on campus & another half on a remote basis. I also worked on a project related to strategy at Telfer School Of Management, UOttawa in the recent winters.
To summarize, I always looked for new avenues to venture & tried eliminating the career fields I am not interested in & tried to gain experiences in whatsoever excites me.
How did your experiences at AIBC, HPAIR, HUII and SBG help in shaping you?
AIBC, Hong Kong was the first international conference of which I was a part of where I participated in corporate advisory & financial markets networking sessions to place a renewed emphasis on the effect of technological developments and innovative investment methods on the Asian market. HUII, Mumbai was also a good experience where interacting with leaders from different walks of life. At HPAIR, Harvard college conference, I designed models to address economic instability issues that won case competition conducted by Deloitte. Apart from it, I solved brewery industry cases by Mckinsey & Company at SBG which led to qualification to Belgium round, but as a safety measure against COVID-19, it got cancelled. I was also selected as a delegate at WBD, Cologne, but it was cancelled this year.
In short, the experiences you get after interacting & discussing ideas with delegates from different nationalities helps you to gain insights on various problems across the globe & get to know about different cultures is unparalleled.
What were your key learnings from the interviews/application process?
I would like to highlight my major learnings from the interviews/application processes are as follows:
a. Rejection is natural, but one should persevere & should stay positive.
b. Never lie on your resume, recruiters scrutinize & hire regularly but your application process ends once you receive an offer. Always keep in mind that you represent your institute when you apply.
c. Never hesitate to seek from help your alumni, seniors, or any contact.
d. Build your resume according to your career interest.
e. Build a career in profile which excites you rather than following the rat race. Things might get difficult for you but everything will seem worth it at the end.
f. Always highlight prior experience & technical expertise to stand out.
g. Always display what you did, how you did, & the outcome.
How did the internships help you?
I have 7 internships & 3 projects in the fields ranging from consultancy, strategy, finance, business development, sales & marketing to optimization, VR, & simulation. My internships & projects have helped me to develop various interpersonal & technical skills such as problem-solving, data analysis, presentation, research work,
My internship at NUS Business School & Telfer School Of Management UOttawa helped me enhance my reporting & analytics, case building, B-plan evaluation, project recommendation skills. Apart from research interns, corporate interns have shaped me a lot. They taught me the importance of deadline, deliverables, rectification, presentability, work ethics & other interpersonal skills. I analyzed fund flows, cost
controls, expenses, & financial statements. Corporate interns help you to fast pace your learning curve & adaptability to new problems. It helps you get prepared for uncertainties & learn something completely new from scratch in just a few days.
What role did your college play in this entire journey?
My college played a transformational role in my overall development. My involvement in various curricular & extra-curricular activities inculcated various qualities such as leadership, hard work, & time-management in me. I am a student representative at the institute senate raising the concern of the students. Other than this, I am the Governor of the official soft skills & personality development of the institute. I am the Consulting Director of 180 DC IIT KGP. I volunteer at the Counselling Center of the institute as Layman Counselor. I captained in various competitions such as Case Study, Product Design, Ad Design, Dramatics, Elocution, Poetry, Choreography, Bridge, etc.
The best part about these involvements is that you get to work for the betterment of the student community. I stopped criticizing everyone which I used to in my first year.
What advice would you like to share for aspiring interns in finance/consulting?
Prior experience always helps when you are looking for big companies. To start with, look for the quality of work rather than the brand name. Startups hire interns & assign them good projects. Once you have a good experience, start applying to big firms. Finance is a stream where you need to educate yourself a lot. You have to keep yourself updated with the latest trends & happenings across the globe. You can also apply for certifications such as NISM or BMC or advanced certifications such as CFA, FRM, etc. Develop a habit of reading & researching on various topics.
Apart from finance, students looking for consulting or strategy roles should apply to small firms at the start & can go for bigger firms later. The same is true for any career option. Nowadays, companies & especially startups are hiring for strategy roles. You can give it a try there. LinkedIn would be of great help in the application regarding strategy & consultancy roles.
How should students approach research internships? How can they make their applications stand out?
Research internship applications can be tiring at times. There are two ways you can apply, one through programs and the other through mailing. Application through programs requires a CV, cover letter, SOP, recommendation letter, transcript, & other relevant documents. The best part about the programs is that the application process is very structured. The host looks after all the VISA requirements, financial aid, food, lodging & other expenses along with a stipend that is quite good in programs such as UARE, MITACS, DAAD, etc to name a few. Personal mailing requires persistence as it might happen that a professor agrees to host you in less than 50 emails or you mightn’t get accepted even after 500 emails. All the relevant documents are required in this way also. For groundwork purposes, you can look at ongoing projects of the professor & prepare your cover letter & SOP accordingly. This customization requires a lot of time. Focus on projects & relevant coursework rather than extra academics in your CV when applying for research internships.
Any resources that could be helpful for students?
For finance, Bloomberg Market Concepts is a good course to start with. Other than this. You can read from Schweser notes on CFA level 1 to develop better insights & concepts about the subject as I already mentioned earlier that you need to educate yourself a lot to grow into finance. If you aren’t looking for an advanced course like CFA or FRM, you can look at NISM certifications. To know about investments & markets, you can read Zerodha Varsity modules.
For consulting, you must watch Victor Cheng’s videos on management consulting, practice guesstimates, solve cases. You can read IIMA case books or ISB case books. Books like Case In Point, Case Interview Cracked, or Day 1.0 are also very good resources, to name a few.
To conclude, you should utilize your time well. Never sit idle. Participate in competitions, read books, help others, always look for new opportunities in your respective field of interest. You can always approach me through LinkedIn or email. Best wishes to everyone in their application or interview process. Stay strong & follow your dreams.
If you have an internship story to share, feel free to reach out to us.
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