Why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life?
ABG, without any doubt, has touched the lives of people around the globe, especially Indians from its inception in 1857 by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla. But strangely, ABG had a profound impact only recently in my life, when I was giving my MBA selection interviews in March this year. Wearing a formal suit would project professionalism and commitment on my part towards the interview process. So, I decided to buy my first suit. Keeping many factors in mind which includes quality, comfort, fit and price of the suit; I entered a Van Heusen store in Chennai. In the store, I experienced impeccable customer service from the employees. They helped me to select the right suit, from an array of collections which was tailor-made to my expectations and was within my budget. Everyone will agree to the fact that clothes make the man, in my case wearing that grey coloured Van Heusen formal suit added zeal and confidence in myself. Van Heusen clothing brand was in line with its tag, which is 'Power Dressing". Even though the interview mainly focuses on my preparation and performance, there was also the confidence factor that helps us to drive the interview process to our advantage. And here comes the role of my grey formal suit that I bought from Van Heusen, to boost my confidence level. As a result of a confident performance put up by myself in the interviews and the impact ABG created in my life, I got selected in IIM Ranchi, which is a well-reputed institution in India.
How you overcame challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far?
"The best view comes after the hardest climb". It's a dream come true moment for any MBA aspirant to get selected in a prestigious institute. For me, this was realized when I saw the "You have been provisionally selected for the PGP course in IIM Ranchi" message on my laptop screen. As I was working, when I got the urge to crack the CAT exam. There was a huge obstacle staring at me, to overcome it I hardly had a year in my hand. My workplace was 50 km away from my home, so I had to travel 3 hours to and fro in the weekdays. Instead of seeing this as an obstacle, I saw it as an opportunity. I utilized those traveling hours to prepare myself for the interviews by reading the newspaper and kept myself along with the current events. I took the preparation seriously, as I was having three years of work experience, which was, in my opinion, the perfect factor for getting the b-school experience. As I was juggling between office works and preparation, I had to cut down on my sleeping hours as it was demanded. After the excruciating efforts, I had put, the day came when I had to deliver. On the day of the examination, I was thinking straight as an arrow, to put only my preparation into solving the questions, instead of trying to gamble by making guesses. After finishing it, I had no second thoughts about the exam and I started straight away for the interview preparation for the second round. The hard work I had put in paid off when I got a very good percentile in CAT and was shortlisted in all the new IIMs. The mistake, I think, everyone does is undermining themselves by not dreaming big and not putting in efforts to achieve the same. One trait every individual should possess is the perseverance character, that helps in pushing a person through his or her limits even if they fail multiple times.