Internship Report

Course Code: BUS 498 (Internship)

Section: 01

UNITED COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED

Submitted By
Mostofa Amin Tonu
ID-1420840030

Submitted To
Syed Kamrul Islam
Senior Lecturer
Department of Marketing & International Business
North South University

Date of Submission: August 5, 2018

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5th August, 2018

Syed Kamrul Islam,

Senior Lecturer,
Department of Marketing and International Business
School of Business & Economics,
North South University,

Subject: Submission of internship report on United Commercial Bank Limited.

Dear Sir,
As per you guidance, this report has been written on United Commercial Bank Limited for the
“BUS 498 (Internship)” course, based on my three month long internship program. I would like
to thank you for your support throughout the preparation of the report. This has indeed been an
immense opportunity to work in a very successful company and learn from vastly experienced
individuals.

I hope you find this report to be satisfactory.

Yours faithfully,

________________
Mostofa Amin Tonu

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Acknowledgement

It has been a huge opportunity to have been given the chance to complete my internship program
at the Learning and Development Centre (LDC) of United Commercial Bank Limited. This
journey would not have been as successful without the precious time and guidance of certain
individuals

I acknowledge with gratitude my respective course instructor Mr. Syed kamrul Islam, for the
advice and guidance throughout the length of this semester. My utmost appreciation goes to the
team at Learning and Development Centre (LDC) of United Commercial Bank Limited for the
effort and time they have given me over the internship period. I would also like to specially
acknowledge the supervision and training provided to me by my respective reporting managers,
Mr. Abul Ali Ahad and Mr. Tahsin Jalil Chowdhury.

Finally, I would also like to thank all the interns who worked alongside me during this period.
They ensured I was focused on my objectives and had all the support I needed, while also
making sure this was an enjoyable experience overall.

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Executive summary

This report focuses on my experiences, learning and the people I have met communicated with
over the course of full time internship program at Learning and Development Centre (LDC) of
UCB. It is nationally one of the biggest companies in Bangladesh and specially a privilege for
many in Bangladesh to have the opportunity to work there. Despite tough regulations they
continue to dominate the industry in Bangladesh, especially in the premium segment over their
competitors. I was assigned to work with the HR department and a further diagram of the local
hierarchy has been provided to pinpoint the position I had occupied. The report also describes
my learning experiences and day to day tasks during the period. The major tasks were being
dealing with the branch managers, master trainers from different institutions, data management
and working with business documents. More importantly, the general meetings and conversation
with the reporting managers, the other interns as well as the opportunity to interact with
employees from various departments gave me huge insight into organization and learn more
about numerous topics. Working in HR was a new challenge, where many aspects were not
similar with my academic background, even though the basics where enough. I believe the best
part about UCB is their work culture and this program gave me the opportunity to get used how
work gets done here. I still believe I can further improve my communication, analytical and
technical skills before joining a full-time job, especially given how important a part
communication plays in such an organization. This program overall will go a long way in
understanding where I stand currently and help me improve. Moreover, there are further growth
opportunities if I plan on applying for a permanent post at the organization.

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Table of Content:
Introduction to United Commercial Bank (UCB):..................................................................................7
Brief Overview of United Commercial Bank (UCB):.............................................................................8
Objective of United Commercial Bank (UCB):.......................................................................................9
Mission of UCB:.........................................................................................................................................9
Vision of UCB:...........................................................................................................................................9
Core Values of UCB:.................................................................................................................................9
Business Motto:........................................................................................................................................10
Strategic Priority:....................................................................................................................................10
Branches & Network:..............................................................................................................................10
Product & Services of UCB:...................................................................................................................11
Deposit Account:..................................................................................................................................11
Deposit Scheme:...................................................................................................................................12
Investment Schemes:...........................................................................................................................12
Computer services:..............................................................................................................................12
Card services:......................................................................................................................................13
Other services:.....................................................................................................................................13
My job responsibility and Contribution to the Learning and Development Centre (LDC) of UCB:..........13
The Work Culture and Environment:...................................................................................................15
Interaction with Supervisor and coworkers:.........................................................................................15
Academic vs. Experiential Learning:.....................................................................................................16
Difficulties that I have encountered:......................................................................................................16
Lesson learned from my internship Experience:..................................................................................17
Technical Skills:...................................................................................................................................17
Analytical Skills:..................................................................................................................................17
Teamwork Skills:.................................................................................................................................17
Communication Skills:........................................................................................................................18
Interpersonal Skills:............................................................................................................................18
Conflict Management:.........................................................................................................................18
Listening Skills:...................................................................................................................................18
Personal Development:........................................................................................................................18

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 Multitasking:........................................................................................................................................18
Time Management Skills:...................................................................................................................19
Professionalism:...................................................................................................................................19
Patience:...............................................................................................................................................19
Things I need to improve:.......................................................................................................................19
Differences between expectations and experience:................................................................................20
Influence on Career Plan:.......................................................................................................................20
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................................21
References:...............................................................................................................................................22
Appendix:.................................................................................................................................................23

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Introduction to United Commercial Bank (UCB):

After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, six state owned commercialized banks were
composed, two state owned banks that specialized in lending to the agriculture and industry,
three foreign banks including standard chartered bank. The banking industry has faced
momentous expansions from 1980’s. Private Banks has entered in banking industry, Micro
finance banks grew rapidly, which has provided assistance to meet the needs of poor citizens.
Foreign trading is a large business which is run by commercial banks. Foreign trade means the
Exchange of capitals and services across the border. Expertise is provided by commercial banks.
Foreign trade requires a flow of goods from seller to buyer and payment from buyer to seller.
Here, bank plays as a conciliator between the buyer and seller.
United Commercial Bank Limited was built-in as a public limited company under the Companies
Act. 1994. UCBL’s rules and regulations were established under of Bangladesh bank and the
Bank companies’ Act 1991, on the 3rd June 1983, The founder chairman and the leader of that
time during the leadership of Late Mr. Shahjahan Kabir. He was founder chairman, who had a
long dream of floating a commercial bank which would contribute to the socio-economic
development of our country. He had a long experience as a good banker. To get the dream done
few highly qualified and successful entrepreneurs joined the chairman. With proper
hardworking, intelligence and talent each and every entrepreneurs proved themselves in different
field of business in the journey of UCBL. According to the process Mr. Nazrul Islam Mazumder
became next chairman after passing Mr. Shahjahan Kabir the founder of UCBL.
Government contributed to United Commercial bank Limited along with some selfmotivated and
hardworking entrepreneurs and distinguished industrialists of the country. It was formed as a
public company in Bangladesh on the 26th June, 1983 under the company Act 1994 and listed in
Dhaka Stock Exchange limited on the 30th November, 1986 and Chittagong Stock Exchange
Limited on the 15th November, 1995.

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Brief Overview of United Commercial Bank (UCB):

Alike other banking institutions United Commercial Bank does not produce any tangible
product but it offers a variety of money related services to its customers. However, United
Commercial Bank started as a small Bank in mid 1983 and established itself as one of the largest
first generation banks in Bangladesh. It distinguishes itself from other private banks by its
personalized services, innovative practices and effective management system. Also a huge
networking system of 148 branches made it easier to success. The Bank has its in different and
diverse segments of banking like Retail Banking, SME Banking, Corporate Banking, Off-shore
Banking, and Remittance etc. United Commercial Bank has lengthened its arena by diversion
among different segments of banking like:
Retail Banking: Retail Banking is a mass-market banking where customers use all banking
services from local branches of larger commercial banks. Services include personal loans,
opening and checking different account, issuing debit or credit card etc.
SME Banking: Small and medium enterprise banking works for creating jobs for low income
people. They help increasing economic growth, social stability, and they contribute to the
development of a dynamic private sector. Bank also assess and monitor business loans,
managing business financing risks, pricing products and working for further development of
SME.
Corporate Banking: Corporate banking, also known as business banking, refers to the aspect of
banking that deals with corporate customers. It is also the source of regular write-downs for
loans that have sourced. Its Corporate banking service consists of simple business of issuing
loans to more complex matters, such as helping minimize taxes paid by overseas subsidiaries,
managing changes in foreign exchange rates or working out the details of financing packages
necessary for the construction of a new office, plant or other facility.
The Bank also provides its clients with both incoming and outgoing remittance services.
Thus the expatriates find an easy way to send money through proper channel. The Bank, aiming
to play a leading role in the economic activities of the country, is firmly engaged in the
development of trade, commerce and industry by investing in network expansion and new
technology adoption to have competitive advantage.

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Objective of United Commercial Bank (UCB):

 To provide quick and superior service by applying modern information technology.

 In all aspects the UCBL lanced development growth of the bank to be sustained and this
technique is to be maintained.
 By improving congenial relationship between the Bank and the customers, we want to
come closer to play a vital role in national development.
 By investing the liquidity of our valued shareholders income generating projects and give
them maximum dividend.
 In this competitive market, the bank is to provide new innovation banking services to its
valued customers and build up its own image.
 To ensure the improvement of professional quality of man power by increasing the work
efficiency and technological knowledge.
 To its own position by creating creative banking service in competitive market.

Mission of UCB:

To offer financial salutations that create, manage and increase our clients’ wealth while
improving the quality of life in the communities we serve.

Vision of UCB:

To be the bank of first choice through maximizing value for our clients, shareholders &
employees and contributing to the national economy with social commitments.

Core Values of UCB:

 There are some core values of UCBL as follows:

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  They put our customers first
 They emphasize on professional ethics
 They maintain quality at all levels
 They believe in being a responsible corporate citizen
 They say what we believe in
 They foster participate management

Business Motto:

United Commercial Bank Ltd. started its journey with the motto of socio-economic development
of the country about three decades ago. It will keep continue to provide best financial services in
coming days as well. The corporate motto of UCBL is –“Happy Banking”

Strategic Priority:

Strategic objectives ranked by their importance in achieving the strategic goals. All subsequent
operational or tactical planning and resource allocation is based on strategic priorities.

Branches & Network:

UCBL always put utmost importance on the client service. To make customer service more
available to the customers Bank continued its personalized approach to improve services.
Presently the number of branches stands at 148 covering almost all the important places of the
country. UCBL maintained proper equipment along with computers in addition to modern
facilities, logistics and professional competent manpower in each and every branch it has.
Number of authorized branches are 21. UCBL has tried to expand its branches all over the
important countries. Till now UCBL has arranged a number of exchange houses at Singapore,

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U.A.E, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait to facilitate remittance from expatriate Bangladeshi’s. Presently
the number of branches stands at 148 covering almost all the important places of the country.
Division wise urban and rural branches are given below.

Division Name Urban Rural Total

Dhaka 41 26 67
Chittagong 29 19 48
Rajshahi 7 7 14
Rangpur 8 1 9
Sylhet 2 1 3
Khulna 6 0 6
Barisal 1 0 1
Total 94 54 148

Product & Services of UCB:

Deposit Account:

 Saving deposit
 Short term deposit
 Fixed deposit
 Foreign currency deposit A/c
 NECD ( Non Resident Foreign Currency Deposit
 Account)
 RFCD ( Resident Foreign Currency Deposit Account)

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Deposit Scheme:

 UCB Money Maximizer

 UCB Earning Plus
 Time Deposit Scheme
 Monthly savings scheme
 Deposit insurance scheme
 Consumer credit scheme

Investment Schemes:

 Import finance
 Underwriting & bridge financing
 Export finance
 Working capital finance
 Trade finance
 Industrial finance

Computer services:

 SMS banking services

 Online service
 One stop service
 Any branch banking
 Integrated system
 Signature verification

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Card services:

 UCBL debit card

 UCBL credit card
 VISA classic blue –local/ dual/ international
 VISA Gold-dual/ international
 VISA classic black- local/ dual
 VISA classic pink-local/ dual
 Supple card-local gold/ dual /international classic
 Supple card-dual/international gold.

Other services:

 Travelers cheques
 Inward & outward remittances
 Locker services

My job responsibility and Contribution to the Learning and

Development Centre (LDC) of UCB:

I was asked to collect my appointment letter of my internship in UCB on 11th June 2018. Till
that day, I was not sure in which department or in which branch of UCB I was going to be
assigned. After collecting the appointment letter from HR department, I saw that I was placed in
LDC (Learning and Development Centre), which is located at the 7th floor of UCB Corporate
Head Office and which is a part of UCB HR department. When I entered in LDC, I was given a
short brief about LDC by my supervisor and FAVP (First Assistant Vice President) Mr. Tahsin
Jalil Chowdhury. He got me introduced with all the four colleagues and the department head of
this department. The first week was all about observing and understanding the tasks of LDC. I

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came to understand from my experience that the department has a fixed schedule of training
program and the employees working in the department strictly follow the training schedule as a
team. They assess the training need of all the employees working in the 179 branches of UCB.
After assessing the training need, they personally call the branch managers and ask a particular
employee to be released for a particular training program. There are 20 fixed training programs
that is run throughout the year and each of the team members of LDC are responsible for
conducting at least 5 of the trainings. For example, Mrs. Afrin conducts FTC (foundation
training course), Mr. Tahsin conducts ‘Foreign Exchange’ training programs, Mr. Akram
conducts the training of General Banking (GB) and Mr. Feroze Conducts the training related to
credit management. They are all responsible for the preparing budget, allocating resource person
(trainer), taking feedback from the participants and ensuring all the necessary facilities of the
training program. My job was to help and assist them to arrange and maintain the training
program.

In the below I am giving a list of job responsibility that I had to do during my three month of
internship period.

 Setting up the appointment with branch managers to release a certain candidate for a
certain training program.
 Evaluating the feedback form and presenting those forms on excel and powerpoint to
forward towards the DMD of HR
 Monitoring the exams of the training program
 Assessing training needs through the intranet of UCB “iucb.ucb”
 Checking up MCQ exam scripts
 Managing phone calls
 Managing library data
 Preparing the excel, word and PPT presentations
 Crosschecking the financial data of LDC

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The Work Culture and Environment:

The culture inside LDC is one of the best parts of the company. It allows you to enjoy the work
you are doing and this was further enhanced by the approachable nature of my coworkers and
reporting managers. It is however vital to understand the scope of conversations in general, as at
times employees are stressed out due to the workload. Most of the departments do not have their
smoking lounges, which often have televisions. The company would also often have gathering
inside the premises to celebrate occasions such as award wins and operational achievements. The
employees are extremely hard working and many are willing to spend long hours at the office, or
even work weekends and or overnight on month ends. My co-workers would always be mobile
or attending meetings, they only freed up towards the evening. However, the organization also
provides a lot of benefits through paid vacations and other monetary benefits. Moreover, for
many of the employees here the experience of working is such a global organization is huge,
they are aware that even if they leave this job they can move onward to good positions in other
organizations.

Interaction with Supervisor and coworkers:

My supervisor and FAVP Mr. Tahsin Jalil Chowdhury was extremely helpful towards me. He
helped me a lot in learning new things from the company. He also motivated me in my career
planning. My supervisor was also very flexible. He allowed me leave and understood my health
issues. I am very happy to say that my supervisor liked my job and he appreciated me. He relied
on me while giving me complicated tasks. I am very lucky that I got the opportunity to work
under such an inspiring supervisor. The other seniors also treated me well. Sometimes they
offered me tea. Also they showed respect towards me. They came to talk with me whenever they
got time. Also when I faced any problem, they were there to help me. As a new intern I was
unfamiliar with some of the office rules. So they made me understood those things.

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Academic vs. Experiential Learning:

Working in the HR department meant there was not a vast amount of activities I was familiar
with. However, basic university concepts came in handy when initially dealing with visit report,
as it was like writing a report. Moreover, Excel skills were vital to the job. In practice, processes
are not always as organized as in academic outlines; moreover managing different groups of
people from different backgrounds is an even bigger challenge. However, theories from courses
like business communication, Strategic Human Resource Management and Industrial
Relationship helped me a lot in real life actions. For examples, I learned about formal emailing
from my business communication course, I learned about how much important it is of being
polite and flexible towards my customer from service marketing and I learned how to brand a my
own company from brand management course. I believe Universities can offer more
communication courses, as it plays the biggest role in the business world. More importantly, it is
vital to teach students how to deal with different scenarios and meeting

Difficulties that I have encountered:

As a fresh graduate it was not quite easy for me to come up with the corporate culture initially.
There are some formal languages which we have to use in corporate world. Initially I little bit
struggle with that. As a result it was difficult for me to get familiar with some of the jargons and
documents. However, at the end of my internship period I successfully overcome those things
and now I am more accomplish about HR activities than before.

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Lesson learned from my internship Experience:

I had learned a lot of things during the whole internship period. These working experiences will
help me to drive further in my future career life that I personally believe. Working at LDC at
UCB was a big opportunity for me. Here, the working environment was so good and especially
the employees of LDC were very polite and kind hearted. Overall the experience was very good.
During my internship period I had developed a set of skills which are very essential for my
future career. In the below I am describing all the skills that I have developed during my
internship period.

Technical Skills:
During my internship period I have learned how to use computer for doing sales and other
official related works. I have also used some software to do my works. Now mentioning them
below:

 I have learned about a new software called “Sylvia” that manages leaves of the
employees
 I learned some of basics of excel such as Pivot table, Vlookup etc.
 I learned how to send official email using official words in Microsoft outook.

Analytical Skills:
Internship in LDC gave me the opportunity to enrich my analytical skills. Analytical ability
includes both understanding and solving a problem by analyzing the situation. It also includes
seeing a problem form both side. Although I did not have any significant job responsibility,
nevertheless I was often faced with situations where I needed to think with my own judgment
and act accordingly. I had to remain sound, focus on identifying problems, and evaluate them
with my own judgment to make decisions.

Teamwork Skills:
In my undergraduate life my university gave me the opportunity to develop people skills through
various types of programs. Like group works, seminars etc. In my internship I was able to use
those people skills.

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Communication Skills:
I was able to improve my communication skills through internship. In corporate life people need
to talk with each other for completing works. I learned how to talk, how to address someone and
which words to use in formal conversation. So it was a new experience for me to learn the
practical business language in a corporate environment.

Interpersonal Skills:
As I have worked under DM Sir’s supervision so I needed to improve my interpersonal skills.
Also when I faced any trouble I was easy in asking for other’s help. Also my supervisor and
colleagues were very supportive.

Conflict Management:
As I worked for few days, I did not face any significant conflicting situation. But I have observed
how other employees deal with this. I have observed that in conflicting situations employees
tried to present their opinion with logic. Sometimes they overlook minor problems to solve the
major problems.

Listening Skills:
I had never been a good listener but during my internship period I had forced myself to be a good
listener. Since, without attentively understanding my supervisor’s command, I cannot proceed in
work. I attentively listened to his command and tried hard to work according to that. Most of the
time, I understood my task very fast and worked according to that.

Personal Development:
Internship program is aimed to develop one’s personality. Through my internship I have
developed positive attitudes, strong sense of responsibility, being active, resourceful,
hardworking, smart and responsive to challenges. My internship program brought lots of positive
changes in me.

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Multitasking:
I had to do multitask in my office. When doing one task like making visit report, I had to listen to
my supervisor’s or other colleague’s words. I tried to be updated so that my supervisor feels
happy with me.

Time Management Skills:

I got the opportunity to enhance my time management skills through my internship. Most of the
time, I had to complete my task within the give timeframe. So I had to work under pressure.
Time management skills helped me to distinguish which work is more important and which work
I need to do first.

Professionalism:
As an intern I need to come to the office on time. I need to work properly and maintain good
relationship with other employees. Internship program helped me to learn and practice
professionalism.

Patience:
Patience is a great virtue that I have managed to practice in my internship period. Doing works in
sales department requires lots of patience. I have successfully achieved patience and managed to
work well in my internship period.

Things I need to improve:

If I had to redo the internship I would almost do everything in the same manner. But there are
some things that I would like to change.

Be more punctual:

As my workplace is very far from my home, so sometimes I came late in the office. I felt guilty
about it. Being late in the office creates a negative image of the employee. It shows lack of
responsibility. So if I can redo the internship I would try not to be late in the office.

Be more attentive:

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Since it was my last semester I was being paranoid most of the time about my future career. I
tried to focus on so many things at a time. If I am given the chance to do my internship again I
will definitely change this attitude of mine stay focus on the task that I am assigned to.

Socialize with more people:

As I was new to the corporate world, so I was somewhat conservative this time. But next time I
want to be more social.

Doing experiments:

This time I did not do any experimental work, but next time I want to do some experimental
work. It can be of anything. I can experiment about employee’s sentiment regarding their job.

Differences between expectations and experience:

I had a different idea about corporate culture when I joined UCB. I used to think that corporate
life is more flexible than educational institutions. In my school days I needed to come on time
and follow dress code, rules and regulations. In my corporate life also I got to see that employees
are need to come on time, follow dress code, maintain certain behavior etc. Another expectation
of mine was that as this is one of the most reputed private banks in Bangladesh andthe pay scale
will be very high. But unfortunately the reality was different. The pay scale is lower in compare
to the banks like EBL and Standard Charter. They give some other perks like conveyance,
insurance, medical coverage up to three family members including you. Still I think that as UCB
has a good position in the industry, they should increase their pay scale.

Influence on Career Plan:

As I did my major in marketing and HR my future goal is to acquire a top position under any
multinational company’s r marketing or HR department. My first priority was to work for a
FMCG companies like Unilever or Square. However, after working under HR department I had

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to give the same priority to HR job as well in terms of choosing it as a career. I saw how flexible
HR people’s lives are. In addition, it is a challenging job. You will be given a target and you
have to fulfill its which makes the job less monotonous. Besides, I saw whenever my supervisor
achieving his target he is getting a very good compensation for that. So HR profession is
something which is quite interesting and challenging, at the same time there is a possibility to get
highest amount of compensation from it since it is a performance based job. So I will be
privileged if I got the opportunity to work for a team like LDC of UCB.

Conclusion:

This has been a great experience overall and I enjoyed working in LDC. A lot of the things were
simply observational learning and I believe there could have been slightly higher learning
opportunities during a different time of the year, when the work pressure was lower for the
permanent employees. I do now have a much clearer understanding of sales in general and how
deeply it is involved in day to day activities at LDC. It is important to note that various projects
and details were of highly confidential nature and I will not be able to include them in this report
as a result. This program, however, enabled me to meet and work alongside many exceptional
individuals over the last three months. I have had the opportunity to build a network with some
brilliant minds in the business world at the moment and learn from them on a daily basis;
working with sales team enabled me to meet individuals from various departments in UCB. I
also enjoyed my time socializing and working alongside the other interns, some of whom I have
become very good friends with. They helped me learn more and achieve my tasks much more
efficiently. Working here also made me realize that I can be better prepared to handle the tasks
than I am now, only if I am in a better mindset mentally and also if I spend some time to brush
up on all my existing skills. I plan on taking some time off to ensure I can also acquire some new
technical skills and knowledge valued in businesses around the country. Moreover, this
internship program has been an eye opener in terms of where I stand with my technical,
communication and analytical skills within such a global organization, an experience I would
like to further reflect and improve from over the coming months.

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References:

1. Siddikee, M. J. A., Parvin, S. and Hossain, M. S. “BANKING SCENARIOS IN

BANGLADESH”, Bangladesh Research Publications, Journal, Vol – 8, Issue – 1, Jan-
Feb, 2013. pp. 90-95.
UCB Annual Report (2013a) Retrieved on April 20, 2018
http://www.ucb.com.bd/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/about_us/Investor_Relations/
docume nts/2013/annual_report/en/2013/index.html
2. Azam MS (2007). Implementation of B2C E-commerce in Bangladesh: The effects of
buying culture and e-infrastructure. Adv. Glo. Bus. Res. 3(1): 55-81.

3. UCB Annual Report (2013b). Retrieved on April 20, 2018

http://www.ucb.com.bd/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/about_us/Investor_Relations/
docume nts/2013/annual_report/en/2013/kuehne-nagel-group-key-data.html

4. https://home.ucb.com.bd/. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2018from https://home.ucb.com.bd/

5. https://www.ucb.com/about_us/media_relations/news/. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10,

2017, from https://www.ucb.com/about_us/media_relations/news/

6. M. Kabir Hassan and Sirajo Aliyu, A contemporary survey of banking literature, Journal
of Financial Stability, 34, (12), (2018).

7. Ali MM, Ahmed R, Rahman A, Azam MM (2007). Electronic banking in Bangladesh:

potential and constraints. Dhaka Uni. J. Mar. 10: 1-19.

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Appendix:

First Week Journal

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I was asked to collect my appointment letter of my internship in UCB on 11 th June 2018. Till that
day, I was not sure in which department or in which branch of UCB I was going to be assigned.
After collecting the appointment letter from HR department, I saw that I was placed in LDC
(Learning and Development Centre), which is located at the 7 th floor of UCB Corporate Head
Office and which is a part of UCB HR department. When I entered in LDC, I was given a short
brief about LDC by my supervisor and FAVP (First Assistant Vice President) Mr. Tahsin Jalil
Chowdhury. He got me introduced with all the four colleagues and the department head of this
department.

The first week was all about observing and understanding the tasks of LDC. I came to
understand from my experience that the department has a fixed schedule of training program and
the employees working in the department strictly follow the training schedule as a team. They
assess the training need of all the employees working in the 179 branches of UCB. After
assessing the training need, they personally call the branch managers and ask a particular
employee to be released for a particular training program. There are 20 fixed training programs
that is run throughout the year and each of the team members of LDC are responsible for

Page | 23
conducting at least 5 of the trainings. For example, Mrs. Afrin conducts FTC (foundation
training course), Mr. Tahsin conducts ‘Foreign Exchange’ training programs, Mr. Akram
conducts the training of General Banking (GB) and Mr. Feroze Conducts the training related to
credit management. They are all responsible for the preparing budget, allocating resource person
(trainer), taking feedback from the participants and ensuring all the necessary facilities of the
training program.

My first week was nothing but understanding these things from my supervisor and colleagues.

Second Week Journal

_____________________________________________________________________________________

As my first week was all about learning and understanding the tasks and methods of LDC, my
second week was to apply my understanding to contribute to the team work of LDC. My first
task was given by Mr. Akramul Haque who is the AVP (assistant vice president) of this
department. He gave me an excel file with a list of 29 employees with their phone number and
the division/branch they are working currently. I was told to call each of them and ask for the
feedback form as well as the power point slide they were supposed to submit by 28 th July. Most
of them were senior employees and a few of them were senior executives who recently
participated in the training program of credit management.

I successfully finished my first task as almost of them submitted their works by 26 th June and in
the mean time I was given the task of calling a few branch managers in Chittagong region and
asking for the release of one or two of their employees for attending a daylong session for the
guideline for preparing credit proposal which is recently developed by Bangladesh bank. I called
38 branch managers and negotiated with them for the release of a certain candidate. Some of
them asked questions about the session topic and the usefulness of the session, I successfully

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answered all of their questions. Out of 38 branches, 32 of the branch managers sent their
employees for the training session. During this week, I also prepared some excel files consisting
of the employee information, attendance data, evaluation form etc. During this week, I also came
to know about the hierarchy of LDC. I had a clear understanding of who reports to whom. I came
to know that all the employees working in HR department reports the DMD of HR Mr. Arif
Quadri. I also had an understanding of the ranking difference among vice president, executive
vice president, senior vice president, first assistant vice president, assistant vice president, senior
officer, executive officer etc. All this things, I understood from the employee database that was
given to me by Mrs. Sadia Afrin.

Third Week Journal

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The actual work pressure began from the third week of my internship period. Because of Eid
vacation and the ongoing training of FTC (foundation training course) and GB (general banking),
I was not given any task of those two training programs. After the end of this two training
programs, the other training session started as per the schedule and that’s when I was assigned
with everybody’s task.

I had to handle phone calls, prepare excel sheet for training database, typing the exam questions
of the ongoing training and cross checking the financial documents. From the third week I was
given a personal desk with a desktop pc and IP phone. I was allowed to have access in the UCB
employee database “iucb.ucbl’ which is managed through UCB intranet.

My primary work of this week was to handle phone calls. Every day, I made at least 50-60 phone
calls to different branches where I had to invite them for particular training programs, answer
their query or question to different topics. During this week, I was given a particular task by the
director of LDC Mr. Abul Ali Ahad. For the beautification of LDC premises, a 42” LED TV was
installed with HDMI cable. I was told to prepare a PowerPoint presentation with at least 150
motivational quotes. I took three days to complete my task since I was instructed to take time for

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this work. For this task, I explored at least twenty different website. I also applied my knowledge
of literature and music to develop the PowerPoint slides.

The third and fourth week was nothing but the repetition of same works like handling phone
calls, sending training invitation through phone calls and emails, preparing excel sheets for
attendance and training data and crosschecking financial documents. The weeks had a lot of
pressure but it was fun to have the touch of corporate life.

Fourth Week Journal

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The work experience of third week and fourth week were pretty similar. However, in LDC, there
was something new almost in every day. On the Sunday of this week, I was sitting alone in my
desk at around 9:45 am when all of my senior colleagues were chatting in the canteen. At that
moment, an old man approached near my desk and asked “where is Sadia?” As I heard a lot of
gossip about this man from our colleagues, I understood that this should be Mr. Atiar rahman
Mollah a renowned writer and counselor in the banking industry. I stood up and politely greeted
him with salam. He asked me if I was new or not. When I told him I am doing my internship in
here, he asked me a lot of questions about my education and career plan. As his accent was pretty
similar to the accent of my parents, I asked him if his home town was in Khulna or not. Then he
told me that he spent half of his life in Khulna. He was a student of Khulna B.L College later on
he joined as a professor in Khulna City College. While leaving the room he wished me good luck
with a pat on my back. The opportunity to chat with such an honorable person was pretty
amazing for me.

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At the end of week four, I finalized the participant lists for the training session of general
banking level one as well as foreign trade and foreign exchange level one. To finalize the list of
these sixty four people (33 in GB and 31 in Foreign Exchange), I had to talk with at least one
hundred branches and enlist the remarks of the branches in a excel file. The excel files were
monitored by my supervisors and instructions were provided by my colleagues while performing
a specific task.

Fifth Week Journal

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This week was pretty different than the other weeks. My work load of shifted from making
phone call and preparing excel file to academic activities like exam paper checking, preparing
grade sheet as well as monitoring exam halls.

It was the second week of FTC and GB which was the mid exam week for this two training
programs. During this week, I spent most of my office time by monitoring the exam hall as well
as checking the MCQ exam paper of the training programs. I also had to prepare a excel sheet for
each of the training session and update the exam score in it.

The work pattern of this week is also different because they accepted one of my advices and let
me apply this for LDC. LDC has a library of its own and there are several books stored in the
library shelves. Most of the time, the library remains empty but just before the mid exam or final
exam of a particular training, many people borrows books from the library and LDC faces a lots

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of difficulties while keeping track of the book records. The participants just open a register book,
write their name and phone number with the weirdest type of handwriting and take the book
away. So, I took the whole week to develop an excel file where I enlisted all the book title and
with the help of the office staffs I listed the number of copies available in LDC. At the same
time, I opened a separate excel sheet where I put columns for, employee id, name, current
branch, current training session he/she is attending, phone number and book title. And from this
week the library book records were monitored through Microsoft excel rather than pen and
papers.

I really enjoyed this week since I had the experience of a professor, a librarian and a HR
professional altogether.

Sixth Week Journal

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This week was mainly the week of Mr. Tahsin Jalil Chowdhury (FAVP) and Mr. Feroze Ahmed
Bhuiya (Junior Officer). I was assigned with these two persons during the whole week. Mr.
Tahsin Jalil was planning to arrange two unscheduled training, English Language Proficiency
and computer literacy and Mr. Freoze Ahmed was arranging training session for Credit Risk
Management.

My job was to call some specific branches and talk with the branch manager or operation
manager. I had to brief them about the objective of the training session and then ask; if there was
any employee or employees available in that particular branch to attend the training session. I
had a specific target for 20 to 30 participants for each of the training program. However, there
was a problem in such unscheduled training program. The head of HR wants participants in the
training sessions and if there is a few numbers of participants, there is pressure on LDC from the
HR head. But, there is another problem in the branches. If, the branch manager releases one or

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two of his regular employee/employees for this unscheduled training, he faces problem in
managing his daily activities of branches. So, they try their level best to not release an employee.

Here, I had to negotiate with them on a regular basis. I had to explain them about the necessity of
the training very thoroughly and make them understand the whole process. Sometimes, I had to
bluff by saying, “if you don’t want to release an employee, send an email to Mr. Arif Quadri
with a valid reason” and many time this threat works for the managers who deliberately refuses
to release their employee and also to the managers who actually will face a big suffering by
releasing one of their employees.

Basically, the week was my learning phase of the hidden corporate culture where I came to learn
about the ethical and unethical practices that exist in UCB.

Seventh Week Journal

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Last two weeks were eventful weeks for me. During the last few days in each month, the
pressure of work increases abruptly. Each department tries to reach their monthly target at the
end by providing the payment request, and so it causes excessive pressure.

Key achievement of this week is to attend in a meeting of finance department. The main topic
was that how to we solve any kinds of problem by team works. From that meeting I had learnt
some important things that will be helpful rest of my life. For the last one and half months, I
have witnessed both success and failure of our department.

The head of the HR t ordered to arrange some unscheduled training on excel and credit risk
management. He also mailed LDC to send him the list of participants requests who were going to
participate in the program

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I had to negotiate with the branch managers on a regular basis. I had to explain them about the
necessity of the training very thoroughly and make them understand the whole process.
Sometimes, I had to forward emails to different branches on the training topic and schedule. For
forwarding the mail I had to use the ucb id of mr. Akramul Haque.

Eighth Week Journal

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In this week the main task was about the cross functional on the job training. Here the task was
to invite at least 10 participants from different branches. Especially from the branches that
operates in the remote areas. The objective of this program was to invite employees from the
branches in LDC.

After inviting the people through phone calls and emails. We had to place the employees in
Business Operation Division (BOD). Since, BOD handles all the rules and regulation of the
banking operations, such employees needed to be trained on the activities of BOD.

The employees were sent to the subsections of BOD like credit, general banking or foreign
exchange. The employees were placed into those department on the basis of their work
experience. Everyday LDC had to monitor if they were actually getting the proper training by
working with the BOD team.

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After the training of five days were over, an assessment test were taken. There were some
practical questions as well as some MCQs based on the topic they have learned. We also took
feedback from those employees about the usefulness of the program. After the training was over
we had to forward the evaluation form to the HR department and the exam copies were sent to
the resource persons for the evaluation of employee performance.

Ninth Week Journal

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During this week of my internship in LDC I passed a very relax week..

Work Done:

I just did my office on Thursday because of Eid Ul Azha.

Learning and Achievements:

Nothing new I have learned on this week because of Eid vacation.

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Observation:

The festive mood of corporate life is different. I felt it more fun.

Notable Incident:

I received BDT 1500 as Eid bonus whgich was my first bonus in my life.

Tenth Week Journal

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The work experience of this week was pretty similar like the other weeks. My job was to call
some specific branches and talk with the branch manager or operation manager. I had to brief
them about the objective of the training session and then ask; if there was any employee or
employees available in that particular branch to attend the training session. I had a specific target
for 20 to 30 participants for each of the training program. However, there was a problem in such
unscheduled training program. The head of HR wants participants in the training sessions and if
there is a few numbers of participants, there is pressure on LDC from the HR head. But, there is
another problem in the branches. If, the branch manager releases one or two of his regular
employee/employees for this unscheduled training, he faces problem in managing his daily
activities of branches. So, they try their level best to not release an employee.

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At the end of week four, I finalized the participant lists for the training session of general
banking level one as well as foreign trade and foreign exchange level one. To finalize the list of
these sixty four people (33 in GB and 31 in Foreign Exchange), I had to talk with at least one
hundred branches and enlist the remarks of the branches in a excel file. The excel files were
monitored by my supervisors and instructions were provided by my colleagues while performing
a specific task.

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