As I sit back on my comfortable bed after a hectic day to write this article, I remember all that has happened in these last six months. Attendance, cases, chai, samosa, committee, parties, assignments. The list just goes on and on.
Time just flew by. To the person who is reading this article, I too was in your shoes at this time, last year. Having taken all the management entrance exams, looking up colleges based on CAT scores, waiting for the XAT results to be out or scheduling travel plans for interviews.
27th January 2017 was the date I was eagerly waiting for, the day, XAT results were to be declared. By that time, I had received interview calls from two other MBA colleges. Yet I chose to wait for one specific University about which I had heard a lot from a very young age. Yes, you guessed it right. It was Xavier University, Bhubaneswar. By far, the biggest brand in the state of Odisha and a stalwart in the MBA world; this college is the dream and aspiration for many aspiring managers.
I gave my interview on 28th February 2017, skipping the AFCAT exam scheduled on the same day, and was eventually selected for the HR course.
My experience after coming here was exquisite and exciting. From meeting people from different walks of life to forming my own mob of misfits (the 3 best friends I have found in XUB, I feel we are inseparable now), life is bliss.
The faculty here is one of the best you can find in the country, and are specialists in their own fields. In fact, many of them have a rich industry experience and offer valuable insights which make attending their classes an enriching experience. Hence, academically, you are sorted. The examinations, well, it all depends on the faculty and subject, so expect monotonous theoretical or exciting practical papers. The academic curriculum is set in such a way that you give weight to the class proceedings and learn the subject to its fullest, usually by solving case studies, which opens all the floodgates of knowledge. Sometimes, the discussions resemble something which you might see in a parliament.
This place not only prepares you to become a manager through academics, it also gives you a lot of exposure and opportunities to do work, the sort of which you might have ever done. I got the opportunity to be a part of the organizing committee of Xpression’17, the annual cultural fest of XIMB-XUB. The sheer amount of work done, from forming a team with students from different departments for getting operational work done, to approaching organisations for sponsorship and having wild parties after every milestone, was enormous. I am glad to have been a part of it, from which I have learnt a lot. Through these activities, I was able to not only improve my networking and communication with the external market but also realise that just bookish knowledge isn’t enough to survive in the outside world.
For any issues that we face, from academics to non-academics, seniors always come to your rescue. The biggest change a B-School offers is that you treat everyone as your peers. This ensures that you always have an informal connection with them and they become your guiding force just like your team leader or an elder sibling.
Summing up my overall experience, the emotions that I have experienced, the things that I have seen and done in these past six months at XUB, will be tough because experiences are meant to be felt and just can’t be put in some 500-600 words.
Divash Mishra
1st year HRM