As a fresher, with zero work experience, my summer internship brought with it many responsibilities that were new to me. The company I interned with was a fin-tech start-up called Capital Float and they mainly worked in the NBFC domain, catering to SMEs across the country.
When I joined them, they were in the midst of an expansion plan; things were picking up as the start-up had received two large investments in a span of one year through big players in the private equity sector, such as Black Stone.
Given that SMEs form the backbone of the economy, there was a need for such a company in the system to provide finances in a digital and hassle-free way. This meant, for the company, expanding the number of departments/verticals and increasing the team size of existing departments.
Operations vertical
I, as an intern, was given a brief introduction to the company and its background on my first day. After this I was asked to report to my project supervisor who happened to be the Vice-President of the Operations vertical of the company. After a brief introduction, he assigned me the task of documenting and preparing the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Operations vertical. It was the need of the hour to the company as more and more employees were coming in and riding the expansion wave. Also, the Operations team handled the funding of customers, which is of utmost importance to the company.
Formed in 2013, the company didn’t have an SOP in place for the Operations vertical to make the work of new employees easier. Having a proper SOP in place also helps further auditing of the processes, if the need ever arises.
Documenting work data
Initially, I was given a brief session on how NBFCs function. Then the supervisor explained how the company specifically functions in the sector.
The following day, I was called for a meeting along with the entire Operations vertical, where all the members were briefed on the tasks performed by all the teams and their members. I was then asked to sit with each team for three days and document their entire working process.
Each team was kind enough to help me understand their processes and handled all my queries with patience. I had the opportunity to go through their work processes in real time, which was an enriching experience.
The supervisor periodically sat with me to monitor the progress and came up with ideas to make the work better. They were also welcome to some of the ideas that I had planned to incorporate in the final project.
I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom I was granted and will always remember my time with the company.