Kritarth Saurabh: SunGard graduate
Job: Project consultant
Employer: SunGard
Subject: BEng electronic and computer engineering, University of York
Graduated: 2009
I’ve always had a passion for technology. I did a sandwich year at IBM as part of my degree, which gave me a good perspective on what a career in IT involves, and an internship at Morgan Stanley, which helped me develop an understanding of finance. I now work for a division of SunGard that develops software for financial services institutions, which combines these two interests.
Consulting and implementing
I started out on the 18-month graduate scheme, which consisted of three six-month placements with different teams. I now work permanently on Adaptiv, a credit risk system used by traders and risk managers at investment banks and hedge funds. We operate by having a base product that we customise to meet different customers’ needs.
A typical project for a client will involve a project manager, a technical lead consultant (who oversees the technical side of things) and several project consultants. The project is broken down and different items allocated to different team members. For example, I might be responsible for part of the system that deals with one particular type of financial product that the client trades, such as FX forwards. I’m then responsible for everything to do with that item, both the consulting aspects (eg discussing requirements with the client) and the implementation aspects (eg writing code). I enjoy having client exposure while still keeping up my technical skills.
Typical tasks
My typical tasks on a project include: reading specifications and ensuring I understand them; producing a time estimate of how many days’ work that item will take; explaining the time estimate to the client and getting this approved; working internally on the item, eg writing and testing code; and implementing the item into the client’s system and helping to test it in situ. My involvement ends once the system has gone live, though there is another team that’s responsible for ongoing support.
International trips
I’m mainly office based, but visit clients roughly once every six weeks. This often involves international trips lasting several days or a week. For example, next week I’ll be in Canada. I typically work 8.30 am till 6.00 or 6.30 pm and have plenty of free time for sport. I play squash two evenings a week, cricket at the weekend and football at the office with colleagues.
My favourite aspects of the job are indulging my passion for technology, being innovative, and working collaboratively and learning from others. My least favourite is writing documentation; however, it’s an important element as it allows non-technical people to understand how the system works. One of the highlights of my career so far has been winning a company award for the best newcomer in 2009; it’s called the ‘Rookie Rocket of the Year’.