Basic Information

  • Name: Kunal Chhabra
  • Curriculum: Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Masters in AI and Data Science (Dual Degree).
  • Year of Study: 5th
  • Company/University of Internship: Morgan Stanley
  • Year of Internship (eg. ‘23 Summers, ‘22 Winters): 23’ Summers
  • Mode of Internship (Online/Offline/Hybrid): Offline
  • Duration of Internship: 10 weeks

Hi everyone, I’m Kunal Chhabra, 5th year UG at IIT Bombay, pursuing Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Masters in AI and Data Science (Dual Degree). I interned at Morgan Stanley at the Sales and Trading Desk in ‘22 Summers and am currently interning again there but at a different desk in Sales and Trading. My last internship was hybrid but this year it’s completely in offline mode. An internship at Morgan Stanley typically lasts 10 weeks.

Getting into the Internship:

I was open to both technical and non-technical roles for my internship. I focused on my ML projects and revising related topics. I prepared from different Quant blogs for my quant/trading interviews and solved some standard Leetcode/GFG problems during my preparation. I enrolled in various bootcamps at Learners Space, IIT Bombay for my finance and consulting preparation. Once I got shortlisted in Morgan Stanley, I tried preparing for puzzles from GeeksForGeeks and Brainstellar. I had a total of 3 rounds in my interview. My first round focused on some probability problems and a few OOPS concepts(I was shortlisted for both Sales n Trading and Strats and Quant Role) and lasted around 30 minutes. My second round was all puzzle solving and resume based questioning and lasted around 45 minutes. My third round was HR and it lasted about an hour. All of my rounds went pretty smoothly and I was finally extended an offer in the Sales and Trading Desk.

It’s well known that Day 1 Non tech companies are not open for internships for 3rd year Dual Degree students since they can’t extend a pre placement offer to them and almost 80% of Day 1 tech companies also don’t open for the same reason. This was the major roadblock for me and almost every DD student. Very few companies opened for us and I tried to give my best to get shortlisted in any Day 1 company opening for us since I was open to both roles. I was shortlisted in Jane Street for Quant Trader profile and made it to the last round of interviews but didn’t get an offer eventually. I was quite disheartened initially since very few companies opened for us and Jane Street offers the highest stipend in all the recruiters. But I couldn’t afford to lose time beating around the bush and shifted my focus on the other openings. I managed to get shortlisted in Sprinklr (Product Engineering), Sony Japan (Deep Learning) and Morgan Stanley (Trading and Strats) profiles, but I only appeared for Morgan Stanley interviews since the other two had their interviews after Day 1 and thankfully got an offer.

During the internship:

I was allotted a Corporate Sales Desk in ‘22 summers, which is a complete client facing job, but as an intern at MS, we are just expected to learn about the financial products the desk deals in and how we pitch it to the clients. My internship was quite flexible in the hybrid mode and I had about 7-8 hours of work daily. The company is very famous for its warm culture and everyone is kind and easy to approach. I was allotted one Associate to help me guide through the whole internship and my manager was an Executive Director who structured my internship well and I reported to him every week about my progress. I was able to interact with other members of my team and other teams as well and came to know about how different desks work together and support the whole business. My overall experience was great.

After the internship:

I would definitely encourage everyone interested in exploring Finance to take up this internship since it’s a great learning experience and sets the foundation for working full time in the financial world. The company offers a very good stipend and you never feel burdened throughout the internship, since the focus is laid upon learning and not evaluating you consistently. All of my peers had different desks so there’s no direct competition or relative performance comparison so you feel comfortable throughout the internship. Also, the company highlights quite well in your resume because of the reputation it has built in the investment banking industry for years.

After my internship, I was offered a pre-internship offer and currently I am interning here at the Securitized Product Groups desk in the Sales and Trading team. My last experience got me very interested in this domain and if I get a chance, I am considering continuing in this domain as a Full time professional.