Born in rather humble surroundings, I have seen various facets of life, learnt and adapted along the way, while developing a better understanding of people & life, in general. I was lucky to get an opportunity to study & worked at prestigious institutions in India and abroad during the last decade. This period had been a very enriching journey in self exploration and the pursuit of knowledge for me. I am quite ambitious and my personal credo has always been always to find innovative ways to accomplish goals, and to realize my full potential in every aspect of my professional career. I believe this persistent attitude inspired me to take a logical step after my under graduation - M.B.A.

2. What made you leave your well-settled job and go for a full time MBA?

The journey through the various odds has given me the confidence that I can compete at the highest level and perform at par with the best in the country but I still needed an opportunity to prove myself. An MBA not only helped in significantly steepening my learning curve but also provided a good hedge against life’s vagaries. Apart from tangible financial gains from professional career, it also generates several intangible benefits such as instant respect and access to valuable alumni network.

3. Why did you choose IIM Ahmedabad?

I think “why IIMA” is no brainer but I still try to give a brief insight about IIMA. An MBA from a reputed institute is a great value addition to one’s resume and MBA from IIMA increases its worth by several times more. In terms of academics, placements or infrastructure, there may not be much difference in top IIMs or other top institutes but IIMA definitely & significantly scores over others in teaching methodology (case based curriculum), brand value (industry recognition), batch mix (majority of them are genuinely smart & intelligent), experienced & reputed faculty (at least in Economics, Operations & Finance department). IIMA is still the best in the country as evinced during the recent downturn where IIM-A had far better placement as compared to other institutes.

4. Tell us something about the life in IIMA?

Life at IIMA is an exhilarating roller coaster ride during the first year and pretty much usual college life during second year. First Term is a tough nut to crack and even very best struggle to “survive”, it pretty much tests you on everything (academics - regular assignments/ presentations and deadlines, strict attendance rules, surprise quizzes, cultural activities, various club interviews & much more happening simultaneously) in a highly competitive environment where almost everybody is scrambling to get good grades (since good CGPA at IIMA really counts during placements). During the first term, normally one doesn’t have time to do anything other than what system expects him to do. At the end of first term, one is expected to fine tune his time management & multi tasking skills & get familiar with basics of management studies.

Second term is tough due to increased academic load as courses become even tougher coupled with pressure to secure much coveted day zero summer internship which eats lot of time due to CV fine tuning and mock interviews. Besides this, there are various college festivals & other activities where fachchas are bound to devote their precious time to get brownie CV points. At the end of second term, one is expected to have refined his presentation and networking skills.

Third term is a consolidation time where candidate re assess what has happened during first two terms and re align his priorities, if required. Course curriculum in this term is probably the toughest as most courses require application of learning from previous two terms as well. By the end of this term, one gets exposure of various potential streams and is in good position to choose his career. Accordingly, one has to choose fourth term elective courses in his chosen stream in advance.

Apart from this, there are all sorts of usual fun activities inside (very active intranet, sports, parties, birthdays and festival celebrations) & outside campus (Ahmedabad is really nice city with many festivals celebrations).

5. How did you study for mba entrance exam?

I was determined to get into IIM (though I never expected IIM A) because of aforementioned reasons. In hindsight, it was not an ideal level of preparation since I was working as well. For those who are serious about MBA from top institute, I suggest giving 200% of effort in preparation simply because you are competing against really smart people for very few seats; there is simply no room for error. I prepared religiously as I didn’t want to regret later since there is very marginal difference in scores between those who did and those who didn’t but it make hell lot of difference in your future career.

For CAT preparation, I spend considerable time in thinking about my performance on a daily basis. This helped me in maintaining focus, fine tuning strategy and minimizing mistakes. I tried almost all sorts of combinations and concluded that I should attempt my strongest section first and score as much as possible and save atleast 10-15 minutes for my weakest section as buffer which I can reuse on my strongest section in the end to maximize my overall score. I also maintained (& regularly reviewed) a hand written concept/ formula book to be able to quickly revise everything. I used to write key concepts/ tricks applied in mock questions including takeaways from my mistakes to avoid repeating the same mistakes again in future.

I particularly struggled in RC and finally concluded best way is to read whole passage calmly and patiently, took extra care to avoid coming any extraneous thoughts (did lot of practice for this), always read first paragraph very carefully as it is base on which you develop passage map in your mind. I found CF, CL & IMS RC passages especially useful as they are closest to CAT passages.

6. What was your strategy for GD/PI?

I was not comfortable in GD as it used to become fish market. I again practiced a lot for GDs (joined 3 separate GD coaching classes to overcome inherent hesitation. I suggest target 2-3 times participation, maintain calm body language, give a serious thought on essence of topic, make notes throughout, don’t shy from making any new point thinking it may be sound stupid (on the contrary it is always helpful to add new angle), never look towards moderator, complement others if you agree, don’t target anyone, don’t get biased, don’t speak just for the sake of speaking, read a lot to develop perspective and never take a unethical stand.

Interview was easy as I had some strong points which I really leveraged well. Here are my suggestions for interviews - dress well, maintain confident body language, don’t lie, highlight your plus points, don’t argue with panel more than once, carry your certificates, CV etc in a nice folder, prepare your academics/ job experience well and thoroughly prepare each and every point in your CV and interview form. Questions on current affairs are important but they are never deal breakers. Most importantly, prepare for “Tell us about yourself” and “Why MBA” questions very seriously. These 2 questions are invariably asked for good reasons. Through these questions, they are giving you an opportunity to lead the interview towards your strengths/ plus points. Also, they need to know, for your own good, if you really have good reasons to do MBA as it can be very detrimental if you are not really motivated.

For GDPI, it is important to structure your thoughts before speaking to avoid any late embarrassment. Also, remember good communication skills are important but not critical to crack interviews as long as you have something that makes panel believe in you. Think of it like this: they have shortlisted you because they are serious about taking you. Now it is up to you to justify their faith in you.

7. According to you, what is the right time to go for an MBA. Should economic scenarios drive an individual MBA plans?

MBA is long term investment and doesn’t have anything to do with economic scenario. In Indian context, I feel MBA is much more valuable since our school and college level system is not good enough to impart desired attributes (communication, exposure, knowledge, brand) necessary for successful professional career. One should do MBA at the earliest as opportunity cost increases and no. of opportunities decreases every passing year. To conclude, MBA is never a loss making proposition, it is simply an investment to enhance your skills & insurance against any uncertainties.

8. Any advice for future MBA aspirants?

I like to give five advices:

1) Give serious thought on “Why MBA” and how desperate are you about it. This requires critical analysis of your strengths and priorities in life and this is important because it is not everyone’s cup of tea and it is no guarantee for success (many students even from top institutes do not get expected results!). Ideally, you should do what you will enjoy and what will make money for you. However, if you are still not so sure about it, I suggest you to do MBA at the earliest as it’s always difficult to do at later stages.

2) Clearing CAT does require some serious level of commitment towards preparation unless you are really intelligent person. So I suggest to plan your preparation well in advance and also don’t give up midway as many students get disheartened with below expected performance in mocks.

3) I suggest doing MBA from top ranked institute (in India or abroad) is better even if it is slightly expensive as one manages to breakeven even high fees within few years. Despite having good infrastructure, MBAs from second or third rung private institutes in India do not generally give good return on investment as they r primarily focused on making money & lack committed faculty.

4) Once you get in, try to focus on developing key skills (such as communication skills, team working, networking, quick and decisive decision making ability, application of key concepts, negotiation tactics, ability to adjust & stretch yourself according to the situation) instead of getting bogged down by academic pressure because these skills will be your most valuable assets in your future professional career

5) Do take inspiration from successful persons but don’t compare yourself with others as it’s a very self destructive & never ending process. Don’t waste time in looking for shortcuts as they don’t generally help in long run.