Project-Automating derivatives variable analysis; Goldman Sachs

Abstract

During the eight weeks of internship at Goldman Sachs, this participant got an opportunity to work at Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a regional hub for the company with several Asia level heads and teams being located in the office. It is also one of the company's focus areas as it facilitates trade in China for foreign investors. A day's orientation in Mumbai before the internship helped brush up and get us exposed to the company's culture and the level of commitment and work ethic that could be expected during the course of the internship. Following that, all interns were placed straight onto the trading floor in Hong Kong and most of the learning was expected to be on-the -job. The initial tasks included setting internship goals and objectives with various stakeholders on the desk. It also included getting familiar with all the myriad products that the desk sold to its clients and the way the sale process was conducted. More than a single project, the internship testing one's understanding and ability to work through various short-term assignments and ad-hoc projects. This included preparing pitches for trade ideas, putting together data to analyse an opportunity, preparing automated tools to analyse historical data and preparing management summaries and reports. From a pure work standpoint, ample opportunities were given to understand the basics of securities as a division, the capabilities of Goldman Sachs in particular, as well as observe and in some cases work hands-on on key ongoing activities such as pitches to clients. There has been good exposure, both from working as a graduate intern as well as by observing and interacting with other team members and the work they are involved in. A tradition of daily sales meetings which involved news updates from across the region was particularly useful to understand and be up-to date on the goings on in the region. The emphasis on networking within the office was an enriching experience in that it exposed the intern to various trading and sales styles as well as the different product classes that were being offered to the firm's clients and opportunities that each presented to a hire in that asset class.