Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, and the lessons afterward. One such fateful experience of my life has been the one after my under-graduation when I joined as a GET in the manufacturing industry. The transition from college to the corporate world was quite overwhelming. It was a drastic change from attending morning lectures to hands-on learning on the job and I was put to test on managing deadlines. The experiential learning I received while managing different customer portfolios and by direct interaction with the client was invaluable.
It was also during this phase of my life that I had also made up my mind to pursue an MBA. I got myself enrolled in weekend coaching classes. With this, started the most grueling phase of my life. It was a daunting task to manage the weekly 72 working hours at the manufacturing plant, along with preparation for the MBA entrance examinations. I had to cut myself from social events and family gatherings. I even rejected the offer of going on my dream summer vacation abroad with my parents. This further added fuel to my fire of making my shot at MBA entrance examinations worth it. I squeezed every available free time in office and travel in preparing for CAT. I hardly slept for 4-5 hours during my penance like state for CAT preparation.
The D-day arrived and I felt quite confident before the exam. Unfortunately, I got stuck in one of the questions in the logical reasoning paper which cost me dearly. The results soon came thereafter and I had managed to secure only a meager 94.66 percentile in CAT and a 93.43 percentile in XAT. I was disheartened. I knew that none of the top ten business schools will call me for an interview at these percentiles.
But fate had something else in store for me. A few months later, I received the profile+interview based call from SPJIMR Mumbai. I knew that this was my only shot at getting into a premier B-school. I also knew that I had to put in extra effort into my interview preparation since I had to compensate for my low examination score. I gave around 10-12 mock interviews, wrote my statement of purpose almost a dozen of times. I continuously analyzed myself as to what were my areas of improvement.
The interview day arrived. I was quite nervous and intimidated by the quality of students who came for the interview as their profiles and scores were way beyond my league. I went to the group interview rounds with abysmal hope. Surprisingly, the interview went well beyond my expectations. I still was quite unsure about my chances of selection.
The day of reckoning came a few months later when I received a congratulatory mail “
Congratulations! You have been selected for the Post Graduate Diploma in Management Programme at SPJIMR". I was dumbfounded for a few seconds. Once the realization sunk in that my dream has indeed become a reality, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction that my efforts bore fruit and has made a meaningful impact on my life. This phase of my life taught me the lesson that unrelenting efforts towards your goal never go to waste, no matter the odds.
In retrospect, Aditya Birla Group has always been there in my life in some way or the other at every step in the journey of my life. My first interaction with ABG was in the form of Freshwrapp, which kept my school lunch warm and fresh. I remember telling my father to use Ultra Tech cement in building our home. When I first moved out of home post class 10
th to Kota to prepare for the JEE examinations, my father gave me a mobile phone with Idea sim card. I shop for my favorite Marvel t-shirts and ethnic wear at Pantaloons. I aced my SPJIMR interview wearing my favorite Van-Heusen shirt. My latest smartphone has a phone glass cover made by ABG.
In short, the influence of ABG in my life has been unfathomable. I look forward to furthering such interaction with ABG by extending them a warm welcome to SPJIMR.
#ABGLPWooMe #SPJIMR