Interview with Shrunothra Ambati, Class of 2020, Putnam Investments Intern
Today we are with Shrunothra Ambati, Class of 2020, Economics major, who is going to talk about her experiences on-campus and previous internships, including her most recent one at Putnam Investments.
What did you study at Wellesley and how did you spend your summers?
Shrunothra: I am an Economics major and Computer Science minor. I knew coming into Wellesley that I wanted to be an Economics major, but I did not know what exactly I wanted to do with that. So, I made a different hypothesis for every summer that I wanted to test out. The first two summers, I focused more on the public sector and had internships at Senator Markey’s (Massachusetts senator) office, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and an international nonprofit called Safe Water Network. I learnt a lot about constituent services, federal agencies, how to conduct research, and managing databases. This work was really interesting, but the pace was a little too slow for me.
Last summer, I worked at Putnam Investments and did Equity Research. My summer there was split into three sections. The first section was the industry project, where I researched the home buying and selling industry. The next two sections consisted of two stock pitches. As part of preparing these stock pitches, I did a lot of financial modeling, research on the specific companies and their industries, and then came up with an investment recommendation for each of the two stocks.
What was your day to day at Putnam Investments like? What kind of projects did you get the chance to work on? How did you like your experience researching stocks, and then the final presentation?
Shrunothra: Every day was a chance to learn something new. We started out each day with a morning meeting, where the the whole equity team would meet and discuss how the events around the world the previous day or that night had impacted different industries, companies, or markets. I spent a large part of my day working on the stock pitches I had to prepare and present. For each stock pitch, we had 2–3 weeks to prepare. I analyzed company financials, organic and inorganic growth prospects, potential market share and market sizes of new business segments, etc. It was an interesting blend of qualitative and quantitative work. I went through their financial statements -income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement -, projected out revenues, costs, profits, etc for all the statements, and also talked to industry experts and looked at sell-side research reports. I then condensed this research and analysis into a stock pitch and presented it to the Senior Equity Analysts and Portfolio Managers. I used my research to answer questions about my hypothesis, and defend why I thought the stock would do well or not, in a pressured environment. This experience taught me how to analyze businesses, construct valuation models, analyze company financials, and present cohesive recommendations. I absolutely loved the experience because it was so dynamic and fast-paced, and I was able to learn to look at the world in such a different way.
How was the transition entering the finance industry given your previous summer internship experiences? How did you prepare for the role at Putnam and what were some of the challenges you faced?
Shrunothra: It was definitely a big transition going from the public sector to financial services. When I was interviewing for the Non-Profit sector and Government, my interviews mostly comprised of behavioral questions relating to teamwork, past experiences, etc. But for Finance, I had to put in a lot more time to prepare for the interviews. I learned different ways to value a company, analyze businesses, looked through online interview guides, and did mock interviews. I had also taken Managerial Finance at MIT, which helped me get a little bit more background about Finance beforehand and understand basic concepts and language used.
What skills or qualities do you think are necessary to succeed in the role you were in?
Shrunothra: I think anybody can do Equity Research as long as they are able to think creatively and outside the box. The whole point of Investment management is to have a differentiated view. If you can find something that someone else has not seen before, you have an edge and will stand out. For interviews, try to think creatively, but give structured and concise answers, try to familiarize yourself with the different roles in the finance industry, and keep up to date with current events.
What are your interests outside of work?
Shrunothra: I am part of WeStart on-campus. Through our events we try to bring more of an entrepreneurial spirit to Wellesley. Outside of Wellesley, I co-founded and run my own non-profit called MetroHacks; the purpose is to provide more practice computer science education to high school students, especially girls.
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