Ukrsotsbank: First Impressions

My internship finally began in earnest this past Thursday, and after two days on the job I felt like posting about my first impressions and what I've learned so far. Since I have to keep a journal of my internship for my study abroad program, in order to get cultural immersion credit for my Russian minor at IU, I'll be able to keep track of my experience on a regular basis.

After spending two hours on Wednesday traveling to various UniCredit offices here in Kiev to take care of all of my paperwork and make sure I knew about the safety rules and regulations, my first impression is that Ukrainian banks are just about as bureaucratic as American banks. In fact, I was struck by not only how similar the paperwork and HR process seemed to be, but also at how much I was able to understand during the safety lecture. Fire extinguisher instructions are about the same in Ukrainian as in English.

On Thursday after class I took the metro to Olimpiskii station and walked to my office nearby. The weather was great and I was finally breaking in my new Brooks Brothers suit. I don’t think Kievans often see tall, red-headed young foreigners walking around in suits and power ties, but I wanted to make a great impression on my first day and I definitely did. I first met with Nastya (Настия), one of my immediate supervisors, and she could not have been nicer. She informed me that I actually have a choice as to which of the three PR departments I want to work in this summer, so I will probably choose External Communications department since that involves the highest-profile PR work as well as the most English. She was impressed that I had already researched the identity and history of Ukrsotsbank and knew a little bit about their more recent shareholder and client relations issues.

After meeting the rest of my colleagues at the office--all of whom also seemed very nice and very interested in their first-ever American intern-- I was given a very nice and large desk, and they tried to get me internet access but were unable to get it to work. It seems internet systems in Ukraine are not very fast, even at large banks. After arranging my desk, I was told I was free to go for the day and would actually start tomorrow (Friday), but instead I asked if there was anything at all I could do. I was already at the office and was excited and in work mode, and did not want to waste my momentum.

So I was given the UniCredit Ukraine 2012 annual report to review, and asked to do a final edit of the entire 152-page report. One of my other supervisors said that it had already been reviewed for final publication to shareholders and the public, but it was very important that someone with an excellent grasp of English proofread it one last time. It’s a good thing I did, too, because I found a few relatively significant errors and countless grammatical problems and misspellings. On Friday I was asked to do more editing and review work on one of my supervisor's presentation slidedecks as well as for the English-language version of the  UniCredit Ukraine website.

So far, I have a favorable impression of both Ukrsotsbank/UniCredit and the general working environment in Kiev, which is more open and friendly than I assumed would be the case. Also almost everyone knows at least a little English and seems more than willing to help me improve my Russian. Настия also told me, after I explained my specific interest in investment banking, that I should get in touch with Ukrsotsbank’s IB division here in Kiev (which I didn’t even know existed). She said I had been placed with the PR department mainly because of my former professional experience with PR work, but that I might be able to transfer to the investment banking group. I was honestly very surprised to find such openness and flexibility at an Eastern European bank; I had assumed that the atmosphere would be different, but as with many of my other preconceived notions about Ukraine, I have been proved wrong upon actually living here!