Saavi Pahlajani is currently working with J.P. Morgan as an investment banking analyst. She graduated from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. She also cleared CFA level one while studying for chartered accountancy. She has been working with J.P. Morgan since January 2020 and has completed her articleship from Deloitte.
What was the selection procedure?
The first round of interview was with two associates, the second round was conducted by two Vice Presidents, followed by an online test and lastly, the HR round. My role is related to finance so the majority of my interviews involved four buckets of questions. The first would be technical questions related to valuations, ratios, capital budgeting and other financial concepts. The next type of question was related to logical reasoning and testing whether we can observe things that a normal person would generally miss out on and some brainteasers at times. The third type of question would include critical thinking i.e. they do not have a specific answer but they test your way of thinking about the data given.
For example, I was asked the question, “How many people travel by train from Dadar to Andheri on a daily basis?”. Basically in these types of questions, we need to think about the factors affecting the data and answer accordingly. The fourth type would include behavioural questions including questions like “would you be able to brainstorm ideas at 3 am at the night”, “how are you working on your weaknesses” etc. The interview lasted for about an hour.
What is your title and responsibility at the job? What is your day-to-day work?
I have the title of an investment banking analyst. Our main deliverables include presentations and working with various Microsoft applications like Excel and PowerPoint. We suggest companies ways to increase shareholder value through mergers and acquisitions, fundraising in the form of IPO, and raising funds from the private capital markets or debt capital markets. The company can also decide the step they want to take and ask us for ways to help them with the procedure ahead.
They basically come up with a request for proposal and we tell them how we would engage with the investors and show value in the company. Apart from this, we have regular clients as well to whom we pitch ideas as and when we see an opportunity that we think would be appropriate for them and would lead to an increase in profits, performance or shareholder’s value in some form. Once the company has taken the decision to go ahead with a particular step that’s where execution comes in place and we assist them as financial advisors, book runners etc depending on the deal type. Approaching investors, building prospects, creating an equity story and explaining to them how the company has evolved and growth prospects are all parts of this job profile.
What are some of the challenges that you faced? How did you overcome them?
Since I joined the firm during covid in 2020, we didn’t get to work from our offices because of lockdown. It was an initial learning phase for me and I had a lot of questions because this role was new for me. Knowing who to approach was a bit challenging as I didn’t get to meet people in person. Every aspect has been a learning curve for me, over time as I got more experience everything fell into place.
What are some of the skills that you need for this role?
Basic knowledge about excel, and PowerPoint is a must as most of the assignments require the use of these applications. Attention to detail and working with consistency is the third important skill needed for J.P. Morgan.
How was your overall experience working with this company?
It has been a great experience. J.P. Morgan values its employees a lot and that’s something I really appreciate about this company. Overall it has been a really good working atmosphere and working with so many young talented professionals from the best colleges has been encouraging.
What advice would you give students/freshers regarding internships?
I would suggest exploring different fields, talking to people, and getting as much exposure as you can. It's absolutely okay if you don't know what you want to do as yet (trust me, most don't). Once you start exploring, you will either find what you love, or what you don't. Even I didn’t know what I exactly wanted to do which is why I started eliminating options than selecting one, as it seemed easier at that point in time.
I was also a part of the Students' Council in my college. Doing extracurricular activities, being a part of the core committee, leading a team, planning and organizing events and interacting with so many people over the course definitely helped me grow and become the positively strong-minded individual I am today.
So, look for opportunities to explore yourself, and grab every opportunity that knocks on your door, you never know what great things life has in store for you.