Hi! I’m Shorya Jain from the Textile Department. My second-year internship was at Ernst and Young, known worldwide as one of the top accounting firms, was a very encouraging experience for me and I gained an understanding of the intricacies of consulting.
Selection Procedure: As a textile undergraduate, I knew I had no interest in going for research in my field of study, so I decided to pursue a non-core internship. I started applying to companies like EY, Vistara, Carpe Diem Capital, Virtu Financial amongst others around the month of November. I sent my applications through LinkedIn and I also reached out to alums who worked in these firms to know about the selection procedure. I had taken part in a Cybersecurity training camp in the summer of 2018 at IIT, the things I learned there were somewhat related to my internship and it certainly helped me in the technical aspects of my interview procedure. Another thing that helped me clinch the internship was probably a hedge-fund world quant I did.
Work & Culture: At the company, I was part of their government advisory. On my first day at their Aerocity office, I met with my team and in the following week, I was introduced to what a government advisory does and about the work I would be doing during my 2 months. I was part of something called Thought Leadership. I had to work in data science and design surveys while working with client teams and come up with surveys for market analysis. I also had to do something called secondary research which was basically reviewing a lot of other reports. My internship was divided into two parts. The first part was penetration testing which involved me sitting in front of the computer a lot. The last few weeks were conventional consulting. I certainly liked the second part better as it actually involved me interacting with people I usually reported at 10 am. Some days I got free at 4 pm and some at 6. There were days where I had to attend to clients even at 10 pm in the night. But save from some days, I was always free from work after the shift as compared to the hectic club work and assignment ring in IIT. During the shift, the workload was certainly heavy and the work environment was frenzied as well. As cybersecurity and data science government advisory is a relatively new venture for EY, my team consisted of young people, almost everyone under 30 except my manager. I gelled pretty well with everyone. I had a good camaraderie with them and was never hesitant in asking questions. I was always given equal work and treated as part of the team, however, my work was understandably slightly more reviewed than the rest.
Social Scene & Takeaways: I lived at home during the internship since I live in Delhi and didn’t tour much. In retrospect, I think it was a mixed bag and I could’ve been more challenged, not just technically, but holistically as well.