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Internship Report

Submitted by: Muhammad Asfandyar Dauna

Roll number: 22-10368

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Table of Contents

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Introduction:

My name is Muhammad Asfandyar Dauna, and I belong from a family of bankers so it

was natural that I would have a keen interest in the banking sector, this was why I chose this

sector to start my practical life with and thus I applied for an internship in Bank of Punjab. As

the name suggests, the bank of Punjab is a government owned institute which offers all sorts of

financial services to its customers. The bank was founded in 1989 and over the years it has

become one of the most prominent financial institutions of the country. The bank has over 600

branches all over Pakistan and has around 6000 employees. The bank offers services in client

deposits in PKR, GBP, US dollar and Euro, while it also allows its customers to transfer

remittances from other countries. The bank also provides loan related services, for example

house building loans, business loans and car financing. The bank also provides all the above

services in accordance with the Sharia compliance act or more commonly known as the Islamic

banking act. Under Islamic banking service the bank eliminates any interest related activity or

investment and works on the principle of Modaraba which is a contract between the bank and the

client whereas the client will provide the investment and bank will be providing with the

required skills. The concept of Islamic banking revolves around transparency and profit sharing

thus there is no concept of interest involved. Other Islamic financing service which the bank

provides is car financing, home financing and business financing, all of the mentioned financing

plans have one thing in common which is that unlike conventional financing which provides cash

to its clients and in return charges a certain interest rate Islamic financing does not give cash to

its client rather the bank itself pays for whatever type of financing the client is demanding and in

return a different agreement is signed which revolves around rent, procurement and profit

sharing. The reason I am stressing on Islamic banking so much is because the branch I was in
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was the Islamic branch of the bank. Since the primary focus of the bank is to provide its clients

with finance-oriented services the primary competition would be other banks, some major

conventional banks include Allied bank, Alfalah bank, standard chartered and Habib bank while

in Islamic banking perspective some major competitors are Meezan bank, Dubai Islamic bank,

and Faisal bank. It is important to note that all the banks provide Islamic window as per the law.

Moving on to the role which I had as an intern over at the bank, so during the first two

days all I did was just sit and observe the workings of the branch while occasionally my

supervisor filled me in on the working of different desks that were present in the branch. The

initial knowledge which I received was related to the cash counter. My supervisor told me that

there are three types of cash which include fresh cash which is issued by the state bank, sorted

cash which is collected through the daily customers and spoiled cash which must be returned to

the state bank. Along with this I also got to know about the working of the cash counter most of

which I was already aware of, the cash counter is responsible for all the deposits which the

branch receives while the counter also provides services related to various bill payments.

Another thing which was new to me was the treatment of fake notes I got to know that if a fake

note is caught by the bank the officials first must destroy that note and then they must take the

note holders information along with his CNICs photocopy after which that person is allowed to

leave. Moving to the remittances counter I was briefed that there are two types of cheques the

first one is a normal cheque which can bounce and the second one is a pay order which is a

guaranteed payment method. As I mentioned before that the first few days there was nothing for

me to do which was quite frustrating for me as I am not exactly a lazy person and I like to spend

my time productively however I finally got my first assignment which was to take receive the

mail which came into the branch and make entries into a register by the name of inward mail,
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even though this was a clerk level assignment I still took it very seriously as I just wanted some

work. The other task which I got was a lengthy one in which I had to make over 500 entries in

the sales invoice register. This task alone took 3 days to complete, and I enjoyed being busy in

those days. Soon after completing the above-mentioned tasks, I got a promotion, and I finally

was allowed to do some customer dealing which included calling clients and notifying them

about their cheque books and ATMs and when the customers came to receive their ATMs and

Cheque books it was my responsibility to complete the required SOP (Standard Operating

Procedure) before handing them over. One additional task which I performed was regarding

deposit slips and cheques whereas many customers requested me to fill in their deposit slips and

cheques which I did joyfully as most of them were old citizens unable to read or write. If I

summaries my role in the branch I would say that I had no specific role and I had been told in the

first day that I will not be sitting in front of any system as it was not authorized so mostly the

work I did was not related to the banking itself rather it was more of a clerical work and

whatever work I was given I, did it with great responsibility and with no prejudice.

All my life I looked up to entering the professional life and prove my ability to myself

my parents and the world therefore I was excited to start my internship and I must say that it was

a wonderful experience overall as I got to learn numerous things about myself and the

professional world in general which I will narrate in the coming lines. So to start off with my

learning experience I would say that I always thought that I was a under confident and socially

awkward person and before first day in office I had severe stress on whether I will be able to

carry myself in a professional environment or not however to my surprise I managed my entire

internship period very well and I got to know about myself that I am not a socially awkward

person rather I talk to people very well along with creating a healthy bond with them. Second
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thing which I learned as an intern was that professional life is not exactly difficult it is only a

unique experience from our academic lives, the only thing which is necessary to get a good start

professionally is the urge to work hard and be open to new opportunities. Thirdly through my

internship experience in a bank I got an opportunity to get a glance at all the paperwork which is

required for various businesses as well as how a lot of business dealing is carried out.

Furthermore, going in as a professional helped me overcome a lot of insecurities as well as some

misconceptions I had about myself. Some of the insecurities I had about myself were being

unable to do anything by myself, feeling my heart rate going up in public spaces, getting a

feeling that I may vomit if I had to do any professional task and lastly losing my temper on

misbehaving customers which fortunately, did not happen. Apart from all these things there were

some simple things as well which I learned such as filling up a deposit slip, filling cheques for

different purposes, getting to know about various documents required to open an account,

learning new vocabulary related to the business world and lastly seeing firsthand how many

opportunities lie in wait for me.

Throughout my business degree if there is one word which pops up is every business subject that

word would be organizational culture and I always thought of what an organizational culture

would look like however when I walked in the bank for the first time, I immediately got my

answer as to what an organizational culture is which I will explain in the coming lines along with

some things I liked and disliked about the firm. So, I will start off with the things I like, firstly

the person who was guiding me throughout my internship was an amazing individual even

though he had a lot on his plate he still went out of his way to help me get to know things for

which I am grateful, not only my supervisor the entire branch staff was supportive and helpful,

secondly the general atmosphere of the branch was relaxed and mostly all staff members were
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pleasant in their behavior, thirdly the branch was organized in a professional way and everything

was kept in a neat manner, fourthly the branch was neat and clean even though I had an

assumption that government institutions do not pay attention to such things, Fifthly what I liked

about the company culture was that almost everyone treated me as an equal professional which

really uplifted my confidence. Moving onto the things I did not like about the company culture,

Firstly I felt as if even though the staff members were working together there was no teamwork

among them most of the times there was only one person who had to deal with several things and

even though others were not exactly busy, they would still not help that person, secondly

something which really annoyed me was that the staff members did not answer each other's

greeting what I mean is that it is common practice that whenever someone goes to some new

place he has to greet everyone over there however in my branch neither did the person coming in

greet other nor the ones already siting in made any effort and a lot of the time when I greeted

them they would not even bother to look up and answer which made me feel very disrespected,

thirdly coming from a bankers family I always heard my parents and their colleges rant about

how they have to sit for hours after the bank timings without getting paid to which I always

blamed the management of the bank however spending only a few days at work I changed my

opinion because I noticed that out of the eight hours of bank timing most of the staff was not

available at their seats for at least two hours now if a person will not be at his seat than his work

will pile up which he would have to do after the banking hours, another thing which I did not like

about the company culture was that the staff sometimes acted unprofessionally with the

customers what they did was that they catered their high deposit customers with lot of protocol

while those customers which belong from salaried or labor backgrounds had to wait for several

minutes before the staff called them, this classism is something which I absolutely hate no matter
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where it is and by seeing it with my own eyes I resent it even more, before moving into the last

thing I disliked about the company culture I would like for the readers know that I am an

advocate for women rights and I strongly condemn work place harassment of any kind however

during my time at the bank I saw something which really shocked me. What happened was that

when I joined the bank there was some debate going on among the staff and the general

environment of the branch was intense upon asking some of the people over there about what

had happened, I got to know that a female member of the staff has filed a harassment complaint

against a male staff member, and she is demanding for him to be fired, I really didn’t think much

about the entire situation as I thought what the women is demanding is justified as she was

stating she was harassed however the entire argument between the two party's started when the

female employee forgot some cheque books on her desk and later blamed the other person for

forgetting them when the two could not let go of the situation than the female employee filed a

sexual harassment case even though the issue was something else, when the manger asked the

female employee to justify herself she in return threatened the manager with a harassment

complaint as well after which the manager had to transfer that woman to hush up the entire

situation, I was very disappointed when I saw this entire situation unfold before me and I

genuinely felt concerned about all those women who are harassed in real and due to these sort of

stunts their word will never be trusted. Lastly the thing which I disliked was that the staff

members joked with each other as if they are good friends however as soon as they were with

someone else, they started to back bite about each other going as low as cursing the other person

and calling him names, this activity alone summed up the entire professional life for me as now I

know that no one is honest in a professional environment.

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There is a misconception among the students that their university education is worth nothing in

professional life and whatever they learn is just a formality to get a piece of paper which is called

a degree, I among many also believed in this concept however when I got a chance to see the

professional life through this internship my take on this concept changed. What we learn in

university is general in nature, meaning we are given knowledge about all fields and after some

time our education shifts to more specialized subjects even then the subjects, we are taught are

too broad to be implemented in a single job therefore such a misconception became known. As

far as my business education is concerned, I would say that I applied every part of it during my

internship which I will explain in the coming lines. During our business education we are taught

in every class that a person must be punctual, polite, and professional in his job and I did all of

these three things I was among the first persons that entered the branch in the morning, and I sat

till the banking hours were finished even if I had to sit idle the entire day, I greeted everyone in

the branch regardless if they greet me back or not and lastly, I showed utmost respect and

professionalism to the customers even if they shouted or misbehaved with me. Secondly, being

an accounting and finance major, the knowledge and terminology I had suited the banking

environment as I was always aware of what my fellow colleges were talking about, and I even

explained to some customers about finance related quarries like interest rates and spread.

Thirdly, during our business communications course we were taught about formal email writing

and professional dealing both skills came in significant use to me as my colleagues often asked

me to proofread their email and I would correct all the errors in those emails, also whenever a

customer came in, I was confident in dealing him as I already had knowledge of how a

professional talk’s and behaves. Furthermore, all students are taught a course by the name of

Management information system which is an introduction to how companies set up their

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automated systems, even though I did not sit in front of a system simply knowing how it operates

really helped me to understand that basic working of a branch.

No matter what professional environment a person is in there is always something which

he learns whether he learns it by doing it or by observing others. I am glad that I opted for the

banking sector because as mentioned before all business dealings go through the bank, therefore

in a brief period I picked up some important skills which will surely help me in the future, I will

write about some of these skills in the coming lines. Earlier in this report I mentioned that I

considered myself an underconfident person and I was unable to talk to anyone properly without

stressing out, however, during my internship I got a chance to interact with people directly as

well as over the phone due to which I am now able to confidently interact with people. Secondly

during my time at the branch, I saw firsthand what paperwork is required for a business to open

an account as well as the day-to-day transactions a business does through a bank, knowing these

things has cleared a lot of misconceptions which I had and now I am confident enough to open

my own business without getting confused. Another interesting skill I picked up during my

internship was sitting for eight hours in one place, I am considering this as a skill because I am a

procrastinator and before my internship, I had no patience and I could not do one task for more

than ten minutes however sitting for eight hours really helped me get over my weakness, another

skill which I picked up during my internship was that I became confident enough to interact with

females I know that this is a weird thing to say however I am a shy person I often get confused

around females however during my internship I had some female colleagues who were great

professionals and by interacting with them I became confident in my conversations with all the

females around I must say that by being confident I do not mean that now I can flirt with women

( which is unethical) rather starting a healthy conversation with males and females is now not an
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issue for me. Lastly, as I completed one month of my internship another interne joined the bank,

he was of my age however he was a simple guy who was getting confused in everything he did

however as being someone with experience I took up a role of being his teacher and I guided him

through the entire process of banking during this period I realized that in have an ability to teach

others as well as making them comfortable.

Moving on to the last part of this report, which is about my suggestions for the upcoming

batches. So, I have observed in my friends as well as other students of my batch that they

considered this summer internship as a mere formality which they must complete, and many

students were talking about taking a short cut and getting an experience letter through their

contacts without doing the internship, however my suggestion to the upcoming batches is that

consider this internship opportunity as a test for themselves, a test in which they will get to know

about their strengths and weaknesses as well as they will get to know about the practical life at

an age where they are in control of their future Secondly some of my friends looked at this entire

process in terms of monetary gains and all of them were ranting about how they have to do an

internship and not get paid a penny however I am suggested my junior batches to not care for the

monetary gains rather look at this opportunity as a stepping stone to acquiring more knowledge

about the world. Thirdly during an internship orientation session many students had this query

that whether they can do an internship of some other specialization or major to which our

teachers answered appropriately however I will add to this point and guide my juniors

beforehand that it is necessary that they get an internship in their specific field so that they get a

chance to enhance their knowledge and make some contacts during all this.