An internship is a wonderful way to get acquainted with the industry you’re going to work for after graduation.
In this guide, I am going to cover and share a complete resource to find and apply for finance internships in India. You’ll be learning the following modules:
- What is an Internship?
- Should You Pursue a Finance Internship in India?
- Paid vs. Unpaid Internship
- Finding and Applying for Finance Internships
- Common Internship Interview Questions
- Securing a Foreign Internship
Let’s begin.
What is an Internship?
An internship is a short-term position in a company, typically taken to ‘test waters’, as in a student is able to judge his/her suitability in the chosen industry.
An internship usually happens in summer vacations or while studying, and each intern is paid a stipend (optional) for their contribution.
Should You Pursue a Finance Internship?
Yes!
A survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) shows that graduates with internship experience are valued highly by prospective employers, and their employment rate is higher, of course.
This is but a single survey. There’re scores of others proving the same point.
As a finance intern, your job profile will be clerical in nature.
You have to sit with investment advisors to learn client negotiation, with brokers to learn security selling and order execution, you have to maintain records, do data entry, follow portfolio and audits, handle data maintenance and more.
For instance, you’ll be asked to contact customers and update their system data, review current account and share approved information with the customer.
Sometimes interns are asked to handle short-term projects.
Completing the projects to satisfaction will reflect nicely on your resume and get you good references.
Experience as an intern is invaluable.
Paid vs. Unpaid Finance Internship in India
A stipend is not mandatory. You’re usually paid below Rs. 20000 for full-time internships jobs in India.
However, many companies don’t pay stipends. So, should you avoid these companies?
Never! Of course, unless you need financial support desperately, there is no point in leaving unpaid internships.
Finance is a competitive field and hence, unpaid internship opportunities are more. Even so, you do get experience and understand if finance is genuinely for you.
While evaluating an internship opportunity, you must think through these factors:
- nature of job description
- company profile
- application and interview process
- conduct
These four factors will help a lot.
Finding and Applying for Finance Internships India
We will see two factors here.
Finding a finance internship is easy. You can search for job resource sites like LetsIntern.com, Monster.com, Shine.com, Internshala.com and more.
List of 50+ Companies Hiring Finance Interns in India
If you’re looking for the best hands-on experience in Finance through summer finance internship and internship jobs, here’s your ready “go-to” resource.
This is a list of companies hiring finance interns. We aren’t claiming any internship opening at the time of reading this post.
You should enquire with them through their business website or job portals like LetsIntern.com and Naukri.com.
Below is the list of companies from cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida, and Thane.
- Evalueserve
- SLA Consultants
- V-Skills
- Kompass Career Solutions
- Muthoot Finance
- Bajaj Holdings
- L & T Finance Ltd.
- SE Investments
- Religare Enterprise
- TATA Investment Corporation
- Karvy Group
- LIC Finance Ltd.
- ICICI Group
- PNB Housing Finance Ltd.
- SBI Capital Markets Ltd.
- DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd.
- Birla Global Finance Ltd.
- Housing Development Finance Corporation
- Aditya Birla Money Ltd.
- Abirami Financial Services Ltd.
- Bajaj Finserv
- Muthoot Capital Services
- PS IT Infrastructure Services
- Trinity Trade
- Urja Global
- BCB Finance Ltd.
- Bulls & Bears Portfolios Ltd.
- Blue Chip India Ltd.
- Burlington Finance Ltd.
- CFL Capital Financial Services Ltd.
- Canara Bank Ltd.
- City Union Bank Ltd.
- DJS Stocks and Shares Ltd.
- Delta Leasing & Finance Ltd.
- Edelweiss Capital Ltd.
- Empower India Ltd.
- Future Capital Holdings Ltd.
- Global Capital Markets Ltd.
- HGI Finance and Leasing Ltd.
- HDFC Bank Ltd.
- Himalayan Finance Services Ltd.
- India Finance Ltd.
- Innovative Venture Ltd.
- Indianivesh Ltd.
- JJ Finance Corporation Ltd.
- Karur Vyasa Bank Ltd.
- NDA Securities Ltd.
- Oasis Securities Ltd.
- Oriental Industrial Investment Corporation Ltd.
- Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd.
- SI Capital & Financial Services Ltd.
This is an incomplete list. You can find the complete and updated list of all companies and corporations working in the banking and the financial services industry here.
Bookmark this link, check them out and send your internship profile.
Alternatively, view this list of updated and available finance internships for 2020.
Applying for Finance Internship
This is a tricky zone. Most internship seekers fail in making the right impression with their application. The application, ideally, consists of these things:
- basic details (name, age, etc)
- cover letter (if emailing directly)
- resume
The 2nd and 3rd points are problem areas.
Writing a Cover Letter
Every job application should include a cover letter unless the advertisement clearly states not to include one.
The purpose of a cover letter is to give the employer information about your skills and experience which can’t be explained in resume.
If you don’t have that, like in this case, the cover letter acts as an introduction. Check out the cover letter below.
You will notice how the applicant shares her knowledge and expresses interest in working for the organization. Use it as an example of your cover letter.
Resume
An interviewer won’t devote more than a minute scanning a resume. You have to make the best impact. Here are two resume samples.
Resume sample – without finance internship experience
Resume sample – with some internship experience
Moving on, here are some resume writing tips to secure a finance internship.
- always mention facts
- even if you don’t have internship experience, mention other contributing factors scoring high in finance classes or being a part of finance/investment clubs in college
- don’t depend on MS Word to proofread resume; always do manual editing or get it done by an experienced person because your resume shouldn’t have any errors
- send the application ahead of the deadline
Lastly, don’t send out the same cover letter to every employer. Tweak it depending on the internship requirements.
Common Internship Interview Questions
This is the last step.
Finance internship interview questions are tough to crack because most probably, this is the first interview of your life.
Consider yourself lucky if shortlisted for interview.
Here are some questions to expect your way and some tips to answer them.
- Tell me about yourself.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Why should I hire you?
- Why shouldn’t I hire you?
- Who is the person you admire and why?
- Here is a pen – convince me to buy it.
- What do you know of the finance industry?
- Why do you want to join the finance industry?
- Why are you a ‘fit’ for this company?
- If you were a flower, which one would you be and why?
- Will a new company go for debt or IPO?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
- What are your career goals?
- Talk about your resume.
Mirror practice these questions. Perhaps you’re expecting answers to these questions but no one can offer that.
You have to create your own. Whatever you say, just make sure you don’t babble and deviate from the question.
If you notice, these questions have nothing to do about finance or your finance skills because they know that you lack experience.
What the interviewer will try to assess is your personality and character, your common sense and logical skills.
Be prepared very well and dress your best!
Securing a Foreign Finance Internship
Not only in India, try to seek an internship position abroad too. Since you won’t be visiting the foreign lands, all communication will be done through emails.
You’ve already learned about writing a resume and cover letter. You can also easily search for finance internship opportunities abroad.
Apart from that, you need to follow these tips:
- resume should be in PDF format
- be resilient as first contacts may not elicit any response
- email during the weekday because weekends are off and recruiter might miss your email
- contact the ‘right’ person (very essential)
- start searching months in advance
- target the right country; a country that will benefit your long-term career
- don’t hesitate to ask about internship scholarships or funding
- don’t send bulk emails (never!)
- be regular with email follow-up and responding to emails
Start at least 6 months in advance – searching, short-listing companies and concerned person contact email – and keep track of openings.
What if You Still Can’t Get Internship?
Don’t get disheartened with not finding the ‘right’ internship opportunity or not at all.
The internship isn’t mandatory to get a finance job yet!
We hope the guide will help you in getting the right internship opening.
