Exchange Diaries  

Harshit Mishra | Mechanical Engineering

National University Of Singapore, Singapore

Research Area: Risk Management of Financial Market

Duration: 3 Months

What was your FT about and what was the duration of it?
My FT was based on Risk Management Of Financial Market and the duration was three months.

what type of work or research you did there?
I worked there on Risk Management Of Financial Market. The lab in which I worked was a credit research initiative that daily calculates the default risk of all the public listed firms. The major part was understanding the research paper. There are a lot of teams in the lab, I was the part of the validation team. We have to calculate the probability of default of all the companies on a daily basis and there are a few companies that have a high jump in the probability of default. So my task is to look into the reasons for their high jump.

How this FT help you in the future?
My aim is to go into the financial sector. As a KGPian we have a lot of opportunities in the field of core engineering sector but to go into the financial sector most of the professors prefer students that have financial background. So it was a big opportunity for me to get an FT in the finance sector. Also, if I have to go for placements or for higher studies like Masters of Science in finance and even in MBA, it will help me.

How you manage your expenses?
My FT was funded by the National University Of Singapore. They provided me the stipend for my FT.

Difference in the work that you did there as compared to KGP?
The difference that I feel is that in KGP the professors and students are bounded by the curriculum, they do not have very much time to dedicate to the project and after one semester or at most one year the project comes to an end. But there what I notice is that most of the projects that professors do, they look for the opportunity to implement it in the industry. There we have much funds and well-organized labs. In KGP we do not have so much funds to set up well-organized labs.

Role of CG in getting an FT?
I think CG plays a quite important role. But what I feel is that there are two ways by which you can go to the FT. If you have a good CG then it will surely help you if you want to go into the core sector. In my case, I don,t have a very good CG but I have done few projects in the financial sector that help me a lot in landing an FT. So if you want to go into the noncore sector then by doing some good projects in that field despite descent CG can land you to the FT.

Suggestions to fellow KGPians who want to go for FT.
For the fellow KGPians who want to go into the financial sector, what I see is that there are very few options to go into the financial sector. Generally, students take some courses in VGSoM and HSS department, that gives them the theoretical knowledge of financial sector, but if the student did some good projects under professors into the financial sector it will be very helpful to gain knowledge and to get the taste about various things going into the sector.