There’s a gap when it comes to developing students for the real working life. This is where WiseRound will change the game

WiseRound enables protégés to improve their career prospects in the Banking & Finance industries, by providing them with expert battle tested advice from real industry Mentors.

Protégés across all age ranges & experiences, aiming to progress in any areas of Banking & Finance; IT, Front Office, Operations and many more, use WiseRound.

Any professional with a background in Banking & Finance can be a WiseRound mentor, we accept all ages and experience, with the one condition: that they add value to our driven protégés.

At WiseRound, the mantra we live by is to educate and inspire. We believe that we can transform training in the Banking and Finance industry, one person at a time.

BusinessInterviews.com: How do you think that WiseRound can help transform the approach to training in the Banking and Finance industry?

Rajdeep: WiseRound mentoring involves real industry mentors, providing battle tested advice to help a protégés career progression. Our mentors span across Director, Vice President & Associate roles, from the major financial institutes throughout the globe. This moves training away from conventional classroom learning and into the world of learning from the experts, first hand.

Rather than generic course training, mentoring is catered to the protégés needs. The entire time the relationship is focused on discussing where the protégé can improve, addressing the worries the protégé has and providing the knowledge the protégé needs

This is also a cost effective method of training. A few of hours with a specialist career mentor may cost around £100. But compared to courses costing thousands of £’s, the skills and knowledge a protégé gains are substantial.

BusinessInterviews.com: Can you share some tips for both mentors and mentees when it comes to getting the most out of a mentor relationship?

Rajdeep:  The key step is creating the right relationship; the protégé should have a high level view of where they want to develop their career. From that step, they can use WiseRound to find the right mentor, either by searching directly on the site or reaching out to our team who can help find the right match.

We encourage an open and honest discussion between the protégé and mentor. This type of discussion always leads to getting the right knowledge and skills for the protégés career. Is there something that makes them feel inadequate for a career in banking & finance? Are they concerned of a lack of skill in a certain area? The important aspect is that such issues will be overcome with the mentors guidance.

All our mentors have a strong background in the industry, so they are experienced in understanding even the most sensitive of issues and how to overcome them so the protégé can reach their potential.

BusinessInterviews.com: What inspired the decision to offer the chance for mentors to donate any fees they earn through WiseRound, directly to charity?

Rajdeep: From being involved in mentoring program’s for a number of years, I’ve always identified the key characteristic in mentors is that they love giving something back to others. I realised many mentors on WiseRound were donating their fees to charity through their own methods. I loved the fact that mentors were giving even more back through charitable donations, so then I decided to make their lives easier, making this function available automatically.

BusinessInterviews.com: How has your background in investment banking influenced your approach to entrepreneurship?

Rajdeep: My background has influenced my entrepreneur ventures massively; it even gave me the idea! My career flourished under the guidance of my mentors. This then led me to mentor others to help their careers. I then looked into what career learning opportunities were available to students, aiming to break into the banking & finance industry. I discovered that there was a real lack of opportunity for students, as well as people already in the industry, to get a mentor.

Apart from the initial idea, the tenacity and determination I had to develop to progress my career at an investment bank, have been used to develop WiseRound. Such transferable skills drive me to make WiseRound a success.

BusinessInterviews.com: Can you expand on how you’re currently negotiating with 3 universities to implement WiseRound schemes for students interested in Banking and Finance careers?

Rajdeep: The core focus of a university is to provide an education. But, there’s often a gap when it comes to developing students for the real working life. This is where WiseRound will change the game. WiseRound university schemes manage and coordinate mentor relationships for students aiming to get banking and finance careers. With students at our partner universities equipped with a strong education and real career skills from an industry mentor, their career prospects improve drastically. This is the area where WiseRound will expand in the coming months. There’s a great demand for the WiseRound mentoring service and discussions are going extremely well at this moment in time.

BusinessInterviews.com: Do you think that the WiseRound model could be easily adopted across a variety of industries?

Rajdeep: Very much so. Similar concepts related to entrepreneur mentors are widely available on the internet and are proven concepts. With the concept now showing success in banking and finance, there is enough evidence that the concept will take off for other professions too.

It’s not just one sort of individual that can achieve their potential from mentoring. Remember the term “banking and finance” mentoring, covers IT, Trading, Marketing, HR and many other types of roles this industry requires, and all such disciplines have already benefited from WiseRound.