Last year at this time, I was right there in your place, reading articles on InsideIIM. I can still recall the October of last year, with less than a month left for CAT, when I was calming my nerves. This was my second attempt to bell the CAT. As the days approached, my anxiety and heartbeat increased, but a voice inside assured me that I would be successful this time. I worked day and night, but after appearing for a mock, all the hard work seemed to have gone in vain. Finally, the D-day came and guess what? I was sure I had messed up the exam this time as well. The sectional cut-off of DI-LR did not allow me to get into the holy shortlist of my dream B-School, XIMB. But, as is said, destiny has a plan of its own. It was 14th February 2018, when the result of the XAT exam was declared. That day I was in Mumbai for my NMIMS interview. I received a message from my sister the moment I stepped out of the interview room. Luckily, this time, I had cleared all the sectional cut-offs and of course the overall cut-off for getting shortlisted by my dream B-school too. My interview for XIMB & XAHR was scheduled on 12th March 2018, and this time, I did not want to take any chance.
I worked even harder than the last year because this was my last and perhaps the only option between getting into my dream B-School and wasting one more year. Starting from what my name means to whatever on earth came to my mind, I brushed up on everything. The interview went quite well and I was quite positive about the results. I still remember, except one question, I was positively able to answer whatever my interviewer asked me. The question, I could not answer was “What’s the knot in your tie called?”.
It was exactly 12:30 PM on 29th March 2018, when I received a mail from Xavier University, Bhubaneswar. My blood froze and my pulse peaked to its maximum. And then the first sentence of the mail read “Congratulations, you have been selected”. I was on top of the world! I had been selected for the HR program at Xavier School of Human Resource Management (formerly XIMB-HR). The first person I called was my father, who stood by me in all my up and downs. He was my unparalleled support system when I was rejected by many B-Schools. After messing up the CAT examination this year as well, and after facing rejections from many B-Schools, my dreams loomed like a mirage. I was in no mood to start all over again. At a point in time, I thought of giving up on my dream of doing an MBA.
Ultimately, I conquered my dream and the phrase “destiny has a plan” actually showed me what it meant. So remember, hard work always pays, and if I could make it, anyone on earth can. Like I always say, “Don’t be afraid of your failures, these will make your TED talk longer!” Keep patience and work hard.
- Subhasish Suar
MBA-HRM (2018-2020)