Aakash Jha - Axis Bank

Hi, I'm Aakash Jha, a soon-to-be fourth-year student in the Civil Engineering Department. I am from Mumbai and I completed my summer internship as an analyst at Axis Bank.

After my third semester, I participated in the WIDS program by the Analytics Club, where I completed a bootcamp and a project. This experience sparked my interest in machine learning, leading me to take a minor course in Introduction to Machine Learning. Additionally, I pursued various online courses and completed projects in this field. Later, I interned at Deloitte as an Analyst.

These experiences solidified my desire to work in a role involving machine learning. However, I also had an inclination towards quantitative finance due to my completion of a course on algo trading..So, basically the profiles that I was targeting were data science,quant finance and software(as I had done some dsa and competitive programming in the past).

As I prepared for interviews in these domains, I learned from seniors that companies often ask puzzle and probability questions alongside technical ones. To prepare, I studied two books: "Fifty Challenging Questions in Probability" and "Heard on the Street."

Initially, my chances were impacted by not having a high CPI during the internship season. Many companies in my target domains had either internal CPI cutoffs or limited openings for non-circuital branches. I really liked Axis Bank IAF as its JD had all the elements that I was looking for.The initial round had two straightforward coding questions based on maps and sets. I was among the five shortlisted candidates for the final round, where they asked questions about my projects, a guesstimate, and easy puzzle. Three of us were ultimately selected, and I was one of them.

During my internship at Axis Bank, I appreciated the fact that it was entirely office-based. I was assigned to the Retail Deposits Team of Axis BIU, where my responsibilities included creating a star schema data model and an automated dashboard using SAS VIYA. Additionally, I developed a customer deepening model to predict the deepening of our mapped customers. Despite the hectic travel, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience because I was passionate about the work I was doing.

For those targeting the data science domain, my advice is to not only focus on resume preparation and puzzle-solving but also invest some time in strengthening your data structures and algorithms skills. Companies in the data science field often include coding questions in their test rounds, and you wouldn't want to miss out on opportunities due to this aspect. You can practise coding questions using the provided link. Moreover, remember that the internship season can be unpredictable, so don't get demotivated if you don't secure an internship right away. If you have worked hard, you will eventually find a good opportunity. Best of luck! Feel free to reach out to me if you need any assistance.