IDFC FIRST Bank: Drashti Shah's Journey in Technology

People often ask how a Chartered Accountant who once trained as a lawyer and later went off to do an MBA ended up inside a bank's technology office. The short answer is that IDFC FIRST is the rare kind of place that looks at a background like mine and sees possibility rather than a problem.

IDFC FIRST is an unconventional Bank, and I mean that as the highest compliment. It tends to notice people who carry a real, almost restless curiosity to solve problems, and then it hands them the space to do exactly that. When I joined, I could not point to a tidy, linear career for myself.

That brings me to the first thing I want to share - the leadership. Instead of slotting me into a role that matched my old qualifications, the leaders I met went out of their way to help me explore something new, a function where I could create outsized value for myself and for the organization as it scales. That single decision tells you a lot about how this place thinks. It encourages people to carve out their own growth, and then it stands behind them while they do it.

The second thing is the people, and this is the part I find hardest to put into words. They are smart and quick, and they are also kind, generous with their time, and quietly compassionate in a way you do not always find in this industry. You might assume that a competitive field breeds a certain guardedness with your peers. What I found was the opposite. Some of my closest friendships today live inside this Bank. These are the people who showed up when I was unwell, who were there through family emergencies, and who help you push forward on the days when you most need an ecosystem around you. Here, the person comes before the process when decisions get made, and that is what lifts it above an ordinary corporate job.

The third thing makes me feel like I get to work a little ahead of my time. We are one of the most technology-forward banks around, and the seriousness about AI runs deep. We build and run our own internal large language models, our own internal bots with proper guardrails, and a set of systems that make the future feel like an ordinary Tuesday. Just as important, there is a culture of sharing the work. At our monthly TechXpresso sessions in Chennai, anyone at any level can take the floor and talk about a project they are proud of or an idea that has been keeping them up at night. A new engineer and a senior leader get the same room and the same attention. That openness is uncommon, and it is a big reason the work never gets stale.

“IDFC FIRST Bank tends to notice people who carry a real, almost restless curiosity to solve problems, and then it hands them the space to do exactly that.”

Drashti Shah

Technology Program Manager

Drashti Shah

Growing into Technology at IDFC FIRST Bank✨

"The leadership at IDFC FIRST Bank always backs innovative way of thinking and carry willingness to sit with hard questions that do not have obvious answers.”