The Journey from IB to Compliance:

Aug 15, 2007:
India celebrated its 60th year of independence and I celebrated mine from the bonded labour called “Articleship”. But 3 years at Deloitte was fun in terms of learning, experience and friendships. And now was the time to look forward in life- to choose my career. And like all others, I din exactly know what I wanted to do in life. I knew I could continue with audit for couple of years more but not for very long, so might as well step out of it sooner than later. I knew I wanted to do something in finance and Investment Banking was the buzzword then. But before getting into it I guess I would wanna share few of my interview experiences (if at all it helps ppl who are givin interviews lolz).
A rank at the CA final helped me get couple of interview calls from FMCG majors.
Though very gud packages, I really dint wan those profiles but gave the interviews for the experience of it…
The first one was technical with questions on Tax, Accounting Standards which I guess I answered well though fumbled a bit when questions were thrown on VAT (I wanted to say it was never in our portion…lol). Things went well till the interviewer asked abt operating leverage. I just couldn’t recollect but I did babble somethin. Thou I don remember now wat I said but it was some crap after which interviewer told me, “Vijit, You can say I don’t know but don’t bluff” (well a golden rule learnt from this interview).And after that neither did he call me nor did I bother him.
The second one at another FMCG was a completely different one. There was a written test first after which the first round started with questions like “Tell me an instance where you have demonstrated your leadership skill, ur strengths, ur convincing abilities, ur analytical abilities, etc etc etc” And if 1 round wasn’t enuff ther was 1 more with similar questions and at the end of it I was like too tired n wanted it to get over. Here I had no clue how they would be judging candidates and here too neither did they revert nor did I call.(Golden Rule learnt here: Expect the unexpected. You can never be fully prepared for an interview, jus keep an open mind).
The third one was at an IB KPO, where again I din get selected, but this tym I was disappointed not knowing why. Did some introspection and realized the goof up..Golden lesson learnt: The answer to why u wanna chose a particular profession has to have a strong reason to be demonstrated by your competence to perform well in the same…….but anyways I wasn’t too disturbed as was hopin for sumthin gud to turn out at campus…
Oct 1: A written test at campus for an IB KPO again, got selected…and the same day evening went to a large engineering and const co for an interview. Some forms, Again a written test first, got selected and then PI…an interview which I guess I can never forget…. The interviewer, probably in his late 40’s, took me by surprise when he started, “Tell me something interesting about you. How often do you go to pubs?” and slowly he moved towards question answer session based on articleship, studies and gk. The interview continued for around half an hour after which it slowly turned towards a counseling session when he asked, “So what are the options you are considering now?”
Me: Sir, waiting for the campus, targeting Investment Banking in one of the Banks.
He: Why are you so attracted to IB? And that too in a bank? IB is very different from banking and it is difficult for a bank to establish itself in IB. This is not the right age for you to get into IB. You need to have some industry exposure. You are too young to join IB and you will be thrown out in 1 year. Tell me, if I offer you a job here right now, what would you choose?
Me: Sir I would still like to take a crack at IB. What profile can I get here?
He: Here, ideally I would want u to be under me in Internal Audit, but since you are insisting so much I can try to push you into M&A or treasury though I cant promise it.
As per me , u should join us now, work for 3 years, simultaneously prepare for ur MBA…u will get enuff time to do that here, do ur MBA from IIMs and then join us back….(Wowwww!!!! I thought he had my whole career planned!!!!!!!!!!!1)
Anyways I am giving u a spot offer right now.
Me: And when do I have to reply sir?
He: Today’s youngsters….you will want to have 2-3 offers on hand and then evaluate..take your time, reply in another 2 weeks from now.
And before leaving, he reminded me of a saying in Malayalam (he was a tamilian who hailed from Kerala) which basically meant, “Whatever elders say will sound sour in the beginning, but will taste sweet at a later stage”
Well, at the end of it, I was just happy that I had an offer on hand and was satisfied with the way the interview went and got the required confidence boost.
Oct 3: 2 rounds of interview and got selected at the IB KPO, but managed to delay the signing of offer letter.
Oct 4: Finally, the interview for profile that I was targeting all along. Just 1 round of interview and I guess results were declared at around 10.30 p.m or so and yes I got through along with 2 others who got into IB!!!! IB focused on mid-markets….not bad at all….joining date Nov 1:
Things started well, new types of assignments, lots of learning, glamour, parties (which i dont really like) increasing contacts (the most imp aspect in IB i realised), but with the pressure of achieving Targets….1 year has passed now…the markets have seen its all time high and all time low during this period and so have I… Exactly 1 year later, the HR tells, “As you are aware, organizational realignments are happening. Without mincing words, let me tell you that you will have to be transferred to Compliance. Please don’t see this as a downgrade in your career and these are difficult times, but once things pick up, we can always consider you and transfer back to IB if your senior recommends” Aah the normal HR thingie, I thought, but I dint have any other option. Toooo disappointed, thoughts just went back to my earlier interview..Those words still play loud in my ears…..
And the 2 other colleagues who had joined with me also got similar transfers…I dinno whether I should be feeling sad for them or happy that we all were sailing in the same boat….So Compliance it shall be from now, I thought.
Its been couple of weeks in the new set up now. And though initially I was quite negative about it, now I have started enjoying this profile…Increased interactions among colleagues with queries and approval requests coming from all around the bank, learning the banking operations now (earlier depts. like OSD, TBG etc were jus few alphabets clubbed for me, now I kno they are an imp part of banking), interpretation of RBI circulars, corporate laws,etc…well this may not be glamorous but it aint too bad either…or Maybe its just that I genuinely believe in the saying, “If you don’t get wat you like, you shud like wat u get”. But what remains a worry is if I would wanna make this a long term career? Is there enough prospects and more importantly money in here, thou I know it would be a stable profession? To be frank, I believe it is those big fat bonuses which attracts ppl towards IB, but then who doesn wanna make money in life…that’s wat we are primarily working for, right?....Aah jus too confused….and eitherways I don’t have much of a choice…the job market is really bad with IB being totally screwed…and the golden rule to be followed now is Stick to what you have!!!!!!!!! And 1 thing which did make sense to me was what my current boss told when I had expressed my apprehensions in joining compliance, “Your career is 35-40 years long and there wouldn’t be a single profile which you can stick to for all of these years. You will want to change your profile after every 5-7 years and you can definitely learn a lot here if you approach it with a positive frame of mind”….Did sound too “Global” but somewhere it also appealed to me…………………I jus wonder if I will ever be able to get rid of the confusions in my life….lolz……….
Oops....fuhgot to mention...miss playin those pen fights and ofcourse lunching, rather hogging together wit the BBFA team (earlier dept that is).............