I have always been a person with varied interests and wanted to try out plenty of things in life! Apart from maintaining a good academic record, I was always a keen participant in performing arts, visual arts, poetry, debates, quiz, and numerous such extracurricular activities. I had also raised funds and volunteered for organizations like Helpage India and SMILE Foundation India during my school days and was inspired by their founding stories to come up with such an organisation of my own someday.
I went on to pursue Electronics and Communication Engineering but as I neared my graduation, I was somehow not able to connect my long term goals with my present position. I had decided to go for an MBA but was skeptical of pursuing a business degree without any experience. In between this, I was offered the position of Diploma Programme (DP) Mathematics Educator at an International Baccalaureate (IB) Organisation. The diversity of the role fascinated me - it was of a Teacher, Mentor and CAS Advisor (CAS stands for Creativity, Activity, Service, which is a core IB programme to develop one’s creativity, well-being and commitment to serve the society).
After two and a half years, I started preparing for the MBA entrance exams. People around warned me that sticking to the study schedules, mock test routines along with balancing an eight-plus hour job will not be feasible! But I knew I wanted to prepare alongside my job. Since I was teaching mathematics, I was clear with my basics in Quant and I have been good at Verbal, thanks to my reading habits. I was also scoring well in mocks. Finally, the D-Day arrived. After the three hours ordeal, I could say Verbal was mediocre, DI-LR was underwhelming but I did not let that affect my Quant performance in the last one hour. Fast forward to the day of the result, it was a sheer disappointment when I saw my percentile just touching 95! Especially for someone whose AIMCAT percentile was always used to be higher than this (AIMCATS are relatively much tougher compared to CAT)! I had lost hopes of getting even a single IIM call! Since I had walked upon an unconventional career path, I used to hear it from others quite often that this may come across as a hindrance since I did not have a corporate world experience like others. Apart from CAT, I appeared for a couple of other management tests, like SNAP. I had to go on an educational trip from my organization and came back just a night before my SNAP test with a bad cold. I was deluged with fatigue and dizziness on the day of the exam but I did not let that deter me and I was determined to make the best of this opportunity, especially after CAT. I scored 99.1 percentile in SNAP. Also, fortunately, I received calls from all the CAP and baby IIMs. But at this CAT score, it was almost an impossible task to convert the best ones. Aspirants I used to meet at the GDPIs even used to ask me whether I got the calls from all the new IIMs!
But I knew I still had WAT and PI, and I had to make the best out of them! To prepare for them, I continued with my daily habits of reading newspapers, magazines like The Economist, various GK capsules, Non-Fiction works like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Outliers, Freakonomics and followed religiously the reading lists compiled by InsideIIM. For WAT, I practiced essay writing focusing more on the current issues. I also practiced picture compositions (you find many such groups on social media comprising of fellow aspirants). At my SIBM Pune extempore (which is a part of their interview process), I got a very abstract topic and had to gather my thoughts over this in just a minute. It was especially difficult after a silly error I made in the GK test, which was still haunting me over (due to the intense competition, every single point counts!) The results season arrived and to my amazement, I received the admission offer letters from all the colleges I had given interviews for - IMT Ghaziabad, SCMHRD and even the one I wasn’t expecting at all - SIBM Pune! After two months when all the new IIM results came, to my utter astonishment, I converted all my IIM calls!
For interviews, it is extremely important to be clear about why you want to pursue MBA, that is usually the most difficult question for many and it can make or break your performance. In the time you get in between your entrance exams and interviews, self-introspect to know your interests, strengths and weaknesses. Also, contemplate how you can deal positively with your shortcomings. If you have an unconventional work experience, like me, you can turn this to your advantage as you will always have offbeat experiences to share which your interviewers will also like to pay heed to.
Being a General, Engineer with a borderline percentile, it was an uncommon feat to achieve. Yes, having a good percentile is like a job half done but there are many premier B-schools that give less weightage to the test scores during the next stages of their admission processes. Therefore, if you ever think that your percentile may not be enough to convert your coveted calls, just don’t underestimate yourself, neither undermine the importance of GE/PI/WAT! Ending this with my favorite quote by Nelson Mandela:
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”