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Accelerating Career with RBS R-ACE Program -Summer Internship Experience




How it all started?
Amidst many companies that come to campus for Internships and Placements, RBS is one such Bank that started recruiting from premium colleges for its R-ACE program from the last few years. Since this program was new, we had apprehension regarding the opportunities, type of work, and growth one can get in RBS. This program excited me for the first time in its preplacement talk when it talked about three stints in different functions for six months, each among Risk, Finance, Operations, and Technology. They had openings in all its five fields: i.e., Risk, Finance, HR, Technology, and Operations. Its recruitment process included PI, in which questions were mainly based on my CV and RBS. From the preparation point of view, panelists mostly look for work-experience and their fit in RBS culture. So, getting verse with CV and better communication skills can give one edge over others.

& here it begins!
Unlike other times, amidst Covid-19, internship experience was probably profoundly different than normal times. I learned from seniors that in the internship, it is not only about the project/work we do but also about networking, understanding the company’s working style, and our fit in the company. I was preparing myself for small talks, but I didn’t know how to do so in the video call environment. I’ll mention my project, networking experience, and other company-related things in the same order.
My project was related to the automation of the reconciliation dashboard. It was a part of the migration project, which was scheduled to take place later this year. To guide me in my project, I was allocated with one mentor and one buddy. One challenging task before me was that I needed to understand data flow before starting to work on this project. My mentor introduced me to his team, and they came to rescue me here. I found somethings outstanding at RBS, which include their documentation, supporting culture. Within the first two weeks, I got the understanding of end to end flow of their Ledger Books and Reporting System. After then, it was about understanding the migration plan and evaluating some tools to automate it. At the end of the internship, I could say that I had a considerable value addition behind the working of Ledger Books. Knowledge of Journal Entries in MANAC-1, presentation, and excel skills helped me a bit in the internship.

HR in RBS organized something called Discover RBS series, in which heads of different units used to introduce us about their career experience and guide us. I tried to make a point to interact with each one of them and clarify any doubts I had. When I asked one of them about my difficulty in networking with people, he asked me to take this as an opportunity and connect with people even outside Gurgaon Office. I took that as a point and connected with early RACE graduates, seniors from my college, other IIMs, and learned about the work they were doing, opportunities in RBS, and its culture. I made it a point to have my camera on every time I interact with people as I felt that I could connect well with people via doing so. But, there were still some lacunas where I could not do good. Informal chats, random political talks were always challenging to do.

Finally, coming to culture in RBS, I found many people working for a long time and enhancing in career, which to me, shows a supportive culture. Work-Life Balance is excellent here. Once I mention to HR, that one good thing with WFH is that I could work in odd hours too, and she suggested me not to spoil my work-life balance. After interaction with seniors in the RACE program, I got to know that this program opens a great number of opportunities across functions and networking with heads. RBS is working in most advanced technologies, and this can help one to learn and grow. Since automation is the need of the hour, and fintech a buzz word all around, getting experience in these fields can help a lot in further career. Amidst Covid-19, RBS is among one of the few Banks, whose Balance Sheet looks good and can swim through this crisis easily.

I had one of the best experiences in the internship. I could say that I could demystify all my apprehensions, which I had about RBS. RBS is a great place to work for those who want to grow in the field of risk and operations in Banking while keeping themselves afresh with the latest technologies.

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