A Hospitality Graduate Who Made It To IIM

Q. How did you prepare for your CAT and GDPI process? Can you shed some light on your GDPI experience?

It was just quant, quant and more of quant! Having done my graduation in hospitality and working with Thomas Cook, I often needed to handle clients who only knew English. So, I found the verbal section in CAT to be my strong point. I was comfortable with Logical reasoning and DI. So, I took the DILR preparation twice a week. As for the GDPI process, GD is my forte and I practised a lot to keep improving. Carefully constructing what you speak and speaking sense is all you need to do. For the PI, getting basics for your grads subjects is of utmost importance. The second most important thing is to be original and have a strong presence of mind. Trust me, all that they are looking for in a PI is ‘you’ as a person, as a student and as a potential MBA student.

Q. What value do you think you can bring to IIM Ranchi culture through your diversity?

I come from an industry where customer interaction is absolutely required. This helped me to develop a customer-centric mindset which is essential for today's market. Hospitality teaches you patience by putting you in situations you have never experienced before. The transition from reaction to response is what I have learnt keeping your head high and ego low is a balance you need have to survive in any working environments. Sometimes, workplace relationships are difficult to understand. Hence, I believe the perspective developed by working in the hospitality sector guided me to adapt to any kind of environment.

Q. Can you talk about some of your activities/achievements and how have they impacted you?
Running a business is something I hated with all my heart. My father has a business of laptops and computers. I did not want to hang on to the same business. My passion was in the human resource field. Urgency put me in a situation where I needed to be seated on that chair for 3 days. Believe me, I found my real self that during those days and probably made the highest sales of the entire year! A big personal and family achievement but bigger learning. Never ever limit yourself just because you have an inherent hatred for it, who knows you might end up having the most fun in that.

Q.How do you think your varied skill set or domain knowledge will help your future organisation?
‘Building and Sustaining Relations’ is what I’ve been doing and am trained to do. Handling clients cross-culturally and at any given time of the day has given me a better understanding of catering to the needs of the human on the other side. Some good sense of humour and my congenial behaviour will help me gel with colleagues and help create a great experiment. Hard work and perseverance are the advantages that come along with me. Finally, who doesn’t need an executive chef to host the best house party after a tiring day at the office?

LinkedIn: Murtaza Baxamusa