Name: Ghanshyam Chandrashekar
Track: Finance/ Risk
Studied: Sustainable Energy & Management
Trainee year: 2020
Why should you choose the Traineeship at NN Group?
How I got here?
Unlike most others in the traineeship, I had a very different path towards getting to NN and the traineeship. I graduated from TU Delft with a master’s in Sustainable Energy and Management and hence this move was indeed considered unconventional but not uncommon. Curiosity and challenge drive me every single day and hence learning more, being versatile, and constantly participating and contributing in new domains is something I strongly value. Being an engineer, I felt I had a unidirectional and limited view of how disruption occurs in the energy industry. As I learned more about energy markets and scaling of novel technologies, economics and finance took a new level of importance in understanding the bigger picture.
Why the traineeship at NN Group?
I investigated many traineeships but NN without a doubt stood out for me just by the sheer level of personalization, involvement and care that was displayed through the entire recruitment process that spanned almost 4 months. The staff made us all feel extremely comfortable even in the online environment of the selection process, which was new to all of us including the trainees and the recruiters. I found the traineeship attractive for multiple reasons.
The Finance and Risk traineeship spans 3 years with 3 different 12-month assignments that can be tailored to be extremely different based on my personal choice. I feel that as a fresh graduate, building a good foundation is important and this variety gives me that edge.
The traineeship is more than just a job. It involves mentoring, guidance, and personality development which I feel is crucial for fresh graduates. Although we enter the corporate sector with enthusiasm and zest, we lack a sense of direction and know-how, and the traineeship bridges that gap.
Lastly, I lack a financial background, and this automatically makes this traineeship a new challenge in a new frontier and this propelled me towards the NN traineeship.
Personal Trajectory
As a first-year trainee, my first assignment is in IFRS 17 & 9. This is a temporary transformation programme working on amending the financial reporting of the entire company towards the new metric set for all insurance companies that are publicly traded. Our team forms the bridge between several business owners, business units, stakeholders and we implement change through different approaches and strategies. The team and the working tasks are extremely diverse, dynamic, and distinct and hence we learn on the go and solve problems as they occur. As mentioned earlier, the challenge involved ensures I am in the right place.
My ultimate goal is to find the amalgam of energy and finance inside NN. Having studied clean energy, I am keen on finding where societal needs, climate change, and finance meet or rather can meet in the future. It is indeed a long path to finding that answer and I am sure that journey is going to be eventful, invigorating, and insightful to say the least.
I have always recollected this quote my mom used to repeat at home – “Change is the only constant” and hence life is about moving from one paradigm to another to ensure a steep learning curve. My life experiences, my educational background, the traineeship with its rotations, and even my assignment in IFRS presently are characterized by shifts and allow me to learn more every single day. Hence its “One paradigm shift to another” 😊 If you have any questions or you would like to hear more about my experiences, feel free to reach out to me via email or LinkedIn.
Ghanshyam.Chandrashekar@nn-group.com
Linkedin: Ghanshyam Chandrashekar
