The Journey to a Full Time Role at RBC

Saumil Parikh, FDM alumnus and Technical Systems Analyst at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has now been working with the same team for three years and was internalised with the bank in 2016. Recently, Saumil was awarded the RBC Capital Markets Technology Canada Convention Award in recognition for his outstanding performance. Follow along as he tells us about his FDM experience and his tips for future graduates.  

I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Electrical Power Systems. My career has primarily been focused within the IT industry – this is due to, in no small part, my time spent at FDM. Apart from the technical expertise that FDM provides during training, they also helped me develop a strong work ethic, discipline and a sense of professional decorum. These skills not only helped me get a job, but set me up for a progressive career in the industry.

I was initially hired at RBC in a support personnel role to back-up the existing team members. However, soon after I joined, the team member who was to train me moved on to another opportunity. As a result, I had to not only pick up different technologies quickly but as the only member with access to the production environment, I also had to perform tasks with minimum impact to the business. The rest of my team recognised my effort and potential to learn new technologies as I developed a great rapport with them. After a year and a half into my support role, I was approached with an opportunity to move into a more development-focused role.

Since transitioning to a developer, I have worked on numerous technologies including the upgrade of the Anvil Trading System to Apex, one of the key projects for RBC Capital Markets in 2016. I developed over 200 reports as part of the upgrade and received the 2017 quarterly award from RBC in recognition of my contribution. Additionally, I work on business intelligence technologies such as Microsoft SSRS, Microsoft SSIS, Tibco Jaspersoft and Oracle Business Intelligence.

A typical day at work for me is quite busy as it involves gathering business requirements and implementing complex logics to satisfy them. This involves regular meetings to ensure that the business requirements are being met and good business relationships are being maintained. My main challenge is to divide my time amongst projects and each of the seven business stakeholders efficiently.

I was the first FDM consultant to be hired within our team at RBC.  Since then, our team has taken on 10 more consultants who have gone through the FDM training program. This has also provided me with the opportunity to train some of them  and help guide them in making a positive impact in the organization.

For a lot of trainees and consultants, this might be their first job and it could be quite intimidating to join a team where everyone is a lot more experienced than you.

My advice to every recent graduate and new professional who is facing the same delima I once was:

• Seek out a mentor within your team.
• Show your team you are willing to learn and put in the effort to grow professionally.
• Don’t be scared to ask questions and to speak up if you have any suggestions or recommendations to the team.