Student Perspectives: What I Learned Working at FBN Securities

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Akash Karmakar, MS Finance, FinTech ‘26

Interning at FBN Securities this semester has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my graduate journey so far. Working at the intersection of finance and technology helped me discover how innovation truly shapes decision-making in the markets.

One of the biggest things I learned during my internship is the importance of building systems that scale. When working with large volumes of earnings-call video and transforming it into structured insights, the quality and consistency of the workflow becomes essential. I gained a deeper appreciation for automation and engineering practices that ensure the data analysts rely on is trustworthy and delivered efficiently.

I made it a point to connect beyond just the tasks assigned to me. One moment that really stood out was when I reached out to a developer on a different team to learn how the datapoint platform should work. That conversation not only helped me improve my work on transcription-based automation, but also gave me meaningful advice on developing solutions to problems.

My most impactful contribution was developing a post-transcription data-processing workflow that enabled tagging, sentiment scoring, and entity mapping. This reduced manual work for analysts and improved the speed at which insights were delivered. Knowing that something I built is actively supporting real financial analysis was incredibly motivating.

This experience has made me even more excited about financial machine learning, especially real-time NLP applications. Moving forward, I want to learn more about deploying AI models in production environments to create tools that help analysts stay ahead of the market. My goal is to build tools that add value the moment new information becomes available.

If you are finding the internship search challenging, don’t get discouraged. Build projects, talk to people, showcase what you are passionate about, even small steps create momentum. The right opportunity often comes when preparation meets timing, so stay persistent and ready.

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