Branch: ECE; Batch: 2016
MBA: IIMB
CAT: 99.95 Percentile;
CGPA: 9.72 (undergrad)
Q. What are you currently doing?
I graduated in 2020 and joined IIM Bangalore right after and I’m pursuing an MBA there. IIM Bangalore does not offer any specialization in its flagship MBA programme.
Q. What was your interest that led you to directly do an MBA right after college without any work experience?
Until third year, I was very much interested in engineering. I took up Game Theory and FOFA in third year and started getting interested in the other side of the world. Also, my father is a Chartered Accountant, so I’ve been exposed to finance. And then I started realizing that I probably want to do some roles in which I can interact more with people and not sit behind a laptop and do my work. And that feeling started becoming stronger. That's when I decided to write CAT because I was very sure that I wouldn't like any role in the engineering domain and I would waste my time or be miserable for like one or two years till I start off any other course. I decided that if I get a chance at a good university, I would directly pick up the admission right after graduation.
Q. Generally IIMs don't recruit people without work experience. Is that a myth? Or how did you circumvent it?
IIMs do prefer people with work experience. If you see their admission criteria, they allot points for different things like your 10th & 12th grade marks, undergrad grade (matters a lot if you don’t have work experience), and also quite a bit of points are allotted for your work experience. But the thing is, even if you remove that component, you can make up for it really well by doing well in your interviews, and by having a good CAT score. These 2 main criteria, helps you get an IIM seat too. The interviewers will question you a lot about your motivation to join an MBA without work experience. But if you answer that particular question well, and if you're very clear with your ambition, they do take that into consideration a lot. In my batch, we have around 20-30% freshers.
Q. How did you go about preparing for the CAT exam and sitting for interviews after you figured out that you wanted to go for an MBA and not the engineering domain?
I spoke to quite a few people in my friends and family circle who were doing MBA or had switched from an engineering job to MBA. That gave me a lot of perspective. You can find seniors from the BITSian Facebook groups speak to whoever’s field interests you. I found a senior from IIM Calcutta and talking to her helped me a lot. Regarding preparation, it was mostly just self-study for me. Of course, I bought materials from some coaching centers, but I studied on my own. For the interview, I took help from some seniors who went from BPHC to IIM’s and that's how I prepared.
Q. How would you describe your CAT preparation journey in detail?
The exam was in November 2019 and I started my preparations in July. My first two months went by just learning all the theory and the concepts required for the exam. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube to learn shortcuts on solving specific kinds of problems. I got my material from Career Launcher and also subscribed to their mock online exams. After those two initial months I started taking these online exams every weekend and one month before the exam I was taking them every day. I also spent a lot of time going through the questions I couldn’t solve or missed out on during these exams. I also solved a lot of previous CAT papers. And another benefit of giving exams conducted by coaching centers is that they give you an All India Rank and you get a good idea of where you’re standing at that moment. They also give you stats for every question, so you know where you're lacking and what your peers are doing. I’d say doing these mock tests and learning how to manage your time properly during the exam matters a lot more. Your first few mock exams, however well-prepared you are, will definitely go very bad. But it’s completely normal and you needn't feel down. Smart work definitely helps more than hard work.
Q. What was your college selection process like? Did you only look at IIMs, or did you also look at other universities to take up MBA?
I looked at IIMs, IIFT and XLRI. As this was my 1st attempt at CAT, I really wanted to get into the top five IIMs only. If I don’t get those, I would have attempted it again next year. But I did take a look at the above mentioned schools too. IIFT and XLRI have their own exams and I gave both. So overall, I gave all these exams; IIFT, XLRI and CAT.
Q. Why did you specifically choose IIM Bangalore over other IIMs?
I got admission calls from all the top 6 six IIMs. I then spoke to a few professors, and alumni and they told me that Bangalore has a better industrial connection. IIM Ahmedabad has a very rigorous academic curriculum while Bangalore has a mix of academic and extracurricular activities. In IIMB, we have some minor differences when electives are offered. At IIMB, we get to choose our electives before we start our MBA Summer Internship as compared to IIMA. This helps us in our internship as you can choose the subjects that are related to the domain that you're going to work in. So you will perform better and will feel more comfortable. That was one of my main reasons as to why I chose Bangalore. Here I get time for sports, club activities, for studies, and after that, I also get some time for myself. So that is helpful.
Q. How did you balance your 4-1 along with preparation for the exam?
I had already decided at the start of third year to give CAT in my fourth year So I took 25 credits in 3-1 and 3-2 which led to a very hectic year as a whole. I made sure that I only had two humanity courses left for 4-1 and had a lot of time to focus on my preparation.
Q. What were the things that you felt you did correctly at BPHC?
One big thing would have to be that I didn't neglect my CGPA and it helped me a lot. As a fresher trying for an MBA, your undergrad grade matters a lot since you're losing out on the work experience. Even if you're trying for an MBA abroad, your grade will reflect well on your dedication and competence. And there’s the network I built here with my seniors, juniors and batch-mates that I think was really great. They'll always be a support system for you wherever you go. I wasn’t a part of many clubs and that gave me time to focus on academics. I was in the Phoenix class committee, and Technopedia and also worked as a TA and that helped me build a good connection with professors. And that is something that’s going to be helpful even after you graduate.
Q. Did you do any technical projects under professors of the Phoenix Department? And did that help with your application?
Yeah, I did two projects, one under Prof. Souvik Kundu and one under Prof. Manish Narwaria. I also published a paper under Manish Sir. The thing is, wherever you work now, there’s always a component of technology involved. So when compared to people who come from non-engineering backgrounds, we do have an edge in a few areas since we can understand technology better than them. Coming to the admission process, the panel that reviews the application wants to see if you can give your hundred percent in something even if you don't like it. And suppose you wanted to switch from engineering to MBA. So it’s a given you were not very happy with what you were doing. They’d want to see if you can put your best efforts even when you're doing something that you might not be totally invested in. You are showing your theoretical knowledge with your grades. And with these projects, you're showing your practical knowledge as well.
Q. How could one compensate if they don’t have a high CG?
CG is just one small component of the application. Projects are where you spend time doing actual work, so they definitely help. You might have your own area of expertise, so do your best at that. EX: sports, dancing, painting, etc. It could just be something that you could say you’re proud of. Use the avenues you’re good at and get some sort of result out of it. This will be a huge positive point to your profile.
Q. What advice would you give to engineering students who realize they want to go for an MBA at a later stage in their college life?
1st thing is: Always have a backup plan. Either sit for placements or apply for colleges etc. I was sure that if I couldn't make it to IIM or even get a PPO from my PS, I would get a job at a startup company. Whatever time you have, you need to prioritize. If you’re not sure about what you want to do, it’s better to prioritize your ideas/efforts in such a way that you have something to fall back on if the MBA doesn’t work out. For example, if you're good at coding and you know for certain you'll get a job related to it, aim for that first. And the time you have remaining can be dedicated towards the preparation for CAT or any other exam for that matter. MBA is quite flexible, you can join in after five or six years of work, nobody is going to stop you. Your perspective might change after working at a job. You might decide, “This is what I want to do or I'm going to do a Masters in this field”. It isn’t wise at all to jump in and do something because you can end up wasting your undergrad and shift completely into an MBA like me, but once you do a Masters, it's very hard to change your course of action. If you're extremely sure, then put your 100% in preparation for MBA and hope for the best. But always have a backup plan. Because if you don't, you're not even fully sure of what you're doing, there's always this fear of "What if this doesn't work?" and that fear will kill all your hard work. So, always take it one step at a time. Don’t worry, you can always take up an MBA even after you start working (work experience will be an advantage).
Q. What advice would you give to your juniors, year-wise?
1st year: Since everything’s new, people are very excited to try things out. You should definitely explore, but shouldn’t lose yourself doing things everybody else is. You should be clear about why you’ve come here and try to figure out what you want to do.
2nd year: I think second year is the time to start being serious about your branch. That’s the best period to start exploring your branch so that you can figure out what you want to do with your career. Talk to as many professors and seniors as possible. It’s always advisable for second yearites to talk to fourth yearites and not third yearites because they just got out of second year trauma and will always give you some kind of negative feedback. Whereas fourth yearites would have gone through PS and know what’s going on. They will also have an idea about placements and will be able to give you a better direction.
3rd year: The third year becomes better as you start taking your electives. You should think more about your career in the third year, that’s when I decided that I want to do an MBA. Take some positions of responsibility, it’ll help you better your skills as a person and also help with your CV.
4th year: Just chill out, you’re not going to be with your friends again. Do your PS/Thesis well. It gives you a corporate setting experience, and it would be the first time you’re entering into the corporate world. The more you learn, the easier it will be for you in the future. Make sure you live your best life in the remaining six months on campus. After that, you will be loaded with too many responsibilities. Take up one or two projects in your third or fourth year because it’s always nice to see the result of whatever you’ve learnt in the subjects you’ve studied.
Q. What end goal did you have in mind while deciding to pursue/do an MBA?
The end goal for my career was always client-facing. I was never sure about a particular domain and I’m still not sure about what I want to do for my final placements. I probably can give a better answer to this question after eight or nine months. One thing I’ve always been sure about is that it should be something where I have a good work-life balance and also interact with people.
Q. Was your PS related to your engineering course or management or some company that gave you exposure to pursue an MBA?
My PS was related to my engineering course, I was at Nvidia for my PS. One right move I made was to tell my manager that I was trying for an MBA. He helped me with interviews and gave me a lot of perspective about how people work. He also taught me whatever he knew about product management since he had some entrepreneurship experience. He was very supportive and gave me a lot of flexibility with my work, so I was very lucky to get a manager like that. It's always good to be honest. If I had lied about my future plans, it would have been a bad experience when I left because I would've had to tell him what I'm doing in the future. It's always better to be upfront about things like this from the beginning.
Q. We often hear that people who do an MBA right after graduation don't quite get the essence of the entire thing since they don't know how corporations work, how true is that statement?
I’d say BITS graduates are better off in terms of exposure compared to other colleges. The two months of summer internship I did right after my first year of MBA and six months of PS helped me get a good flavor of the corporate world. Even then, there was always this feeling when I first started out that people who had a couple of years of work experience, who’re CAs or are from an Economics background would do better than me. But you soon realize that it's actually a level playing field. The program is structured in such a way that nobody can have a leg-up over the competition. There are a few cases where somebody might have a slight advantage, for example people who did a CA would be slightly better at Finance courses, but this experience factor never comes into the picture. It all depends on how you carry yourself. If you're confident and able to put your point across properly, there is no difference between somebody fresh out of college and a person who’s been in the industry before.
Q. Any final advice?
While planning is important, there’s no point planning 5-10 years ahead because life is unpredictable. Try to find an anchor of sorts, for some, it might be to earn a certain amount of money, to get a job that lets them travel or to have a job that lets them be close to their family and have a good work life balance. Get an anchor and do everything around it so that you stay happy. Never aim for something just because somebody else is aiming for it too, because then it's never going to be your aim. You'll always keep comparing yourself to what the other person is achieving and how happy they are. Don’t give into peer pressure and find the things that you enjoy.
Disclaimer: The points given above are the views and steps taken by the individual. They are not fixed steps and guideline to base your college upon. Our hope is to inspire students so they can take the necessary steps here after. We hope you like it!
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