In our list of India's Best 50 - the 50 Most Employable Students from the Class of 2020-22, we feature MBA students who have walked that extra mile and done that little more to stand out. One of those featured in today's story, Arzoo Kamrah, has shown an incredible amount of passion to achieve her true potential. Read on and find out her story!
The following are Arzoo Kamrah’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top-50 Most Employable MBA Graduates of the Class of 2022. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Arzoo's story and profile stood out. Here's her story in her own words.
Name an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it OR Tell us the biggest risk you have taken so far in your life.
I remember myself talking to a friend of mine outside the waiting room when a company came to my UG campus for hiring. I really didn't want to go for the job of an auditor. Somehow CAT 18 results were dismal and decided to go ahead with the job. My mind was busy working out on preparations for CAT 19, meanwhile I worked as an audit assistant. During the time when I was working, I started from level zero. Being new to the field and naive to the corporate world, I was hardly able to catch up with the vast array of things and learnings that was going on. It became quite overwhelming and the audit stopped to entice me! Unfortunately, I landed up at a team that expected me to know things in advance. I turned out to be an average performer which intrigued me. I felt gloomy and the job stopped giving me much mental utility. Soon worked this out with a senior and a good friend of mine and I built a plan for myself in a way that allowed me to focus on work at the same time prepare for competitive exams. Over the matter of just two months, I changed the way I used to work and compliments soon started blooming in, and subsequently, I got an offer to join IIM Shillong. Had I given up back then when I was rated average and suffered an emotional breakdown at the workplace, I wouldn't be stronger, wiser, and patient as I am today.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
There are many instances where I feel I encouraged people to accomplish goals, but one major instance was when a dear friend of mine pursued a career of choice. After we gave CAT 18, results in us both did not meet the standards we had set, however over the course of preparation for CAT 19, my friend shared her true feelings where she told me that she wish to do something in the field of interior designing, she had a knack for drawing but never thought of this as a career before. I simply asked her to imagine her life after a few years from now and feel about what seems better, a job in the corporate world, or designing houses and interiors. The answer was pretty clear, she wisely chose her career path as interior designing and is currently learning the same from an institute in new delhi.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
Being a member of the Student Council at IIM Shillong, it is a great responsibility to identify rather than analyze from time to time the changes required from the status quo and bring that up to the correct authority at correct timings, There are a number of instances in day to day functioning of a council team while making sure the interests of everyone is respected while doing so I have learned the art to put in words the right message in front of the right people at the right time and make sure change happens!
What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative which has led you to do deep work in that field?
I am quite passionate about writing. Writing is something that has kept me busy and distracted during these times when we've been in for a long duration now. I first started writing when I was in class-3, and I got to know about a magazine which was to be designed separately for each grade, our theme was the environment and I wrote the first poem for that magazine on water, since then there's been no looking back, all I need is a pen and any surface be it walls of my room, cups, whiteboards in office, clothes. Writing has become a dear friend now and that thrived me to be a part of the English literary society of the college. When I first came about various societies and clubs, I was gloomy about the fact that our college did not have any such society! The writers and readers made it possible to build one from scratch and I felt immense pleasure to be a participant of the first literary club of college and initiate team activities to take it to levels higher! Recently I approached one of the publishers whom I met over social media channels and offered my poem for one of their books. I am elated that the poem will soon be out in the market and this has given me the wings to write even more and even better. I dream of publishing a poetry book of my own someday.
If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?
I would divide this sum into a number of activities as follows:-1. (30 crores) Invest in start-ups: I possess an entrepreneurial mindset and dream to have a start-up of my own with a business idea I have and thus before jumping upon that I want to have a bite of what entrepreneurship is by investing in different start-ups and experiencing the crests and troughs. Once I have the nitty-gritty of my own start-up set right and I am ready to launch my enterprise I'd like to withdraw this money to invest in my own venture.2. (10 crores) Open a charitable organisation near my place of residence for free tuition services (over the years of my education I have realised a big flaw in the education system, that is the presence of money looting tuition centres that might cost one 30-40k per subject per year. This idea completely widens the gap between the haves and the have nots and moreover makes the children worry less about the learning portion that they can gain from schooling. This is an idea that I wish could turn into an initiative and soon turn to a model wherein free tuition is provided by people like me who wish to spread the wealth of knowledge and expect funding from top institutes as it becomes a successful initiative.3. (32 crores): in buying real estate near hospitals, there are a number of stays near hospitals that charge the patients staying in them exorbitant amounts of money. My maternal grandfather got a bypass surgery done and was recommended to stay in that city for a couple of weeks. A lot of other patients stayed in such properties in a single room occupancy with one attendant in that locality and had to pay huge sums of money. The idea is to impart a beautiful stay at cost plus a margin (for maids and workers working there). The aim is to earn 0 rupees for me but blessings worth billions.4. (1.5 crores) To my mother and father who have certain future plans and are short of this amount.
Read the stories of the other Employable Graduates here!