NDA vs Engineering, IITs vs BITS,
MBA in India vs MBA Abroad, and ISB vs IIMB: My set of choices in life have been a rather unusual tale of trials, triumphs, and transformation. My journey to IIM Bangalore is no different. Born in a small town of Bulandshahr in UP, I did not know what IIMs were (neither did anyone around me). It was late in my schooling years that I came to understand that these are some heavenly abodes where only a few make it and for those who make it, the lives are amazing forever. Little did I know about the realities of ‘the promised land’ or the process to get there, but something in me was deeply fascinated by what IIMs stood for:
Excellence, passion, and perseverance.
I forgot about my fascination with IIMs as I grew. As an Air Force Cadet at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, as a student at BITS Pilani or as a Manager at Tata Steel: my experiences were always around managing people, resources, and situations. Growing through these, I was sure that an MBA is what shall be the right higher education for me. After visiting IIMA and IIMB campuses during a fest, I had these top IIMs on my radar.
In the final year of my engineering, I registered for CAT 2020 but I was not very optimistic about it since most of my time was dedicated to the semester-long internship that I was doing. I did not find much time to study, and to be honest, whenever I did find time, I could not utilize it effectively since I did not have a plan for preparation. Whatever we may call it, to my salvage, I was down with COVID and was quarantined a week before the CAT 2020 date. I did not know what to make of it, but that year’s attempt was gone. Learnings? Take good care of your health while you prepare for CAT and, well, prepare for CAT!
Having missed the take at IIMs, my focus now had shifted to ISB. I attended a Young Leaders Program (YLP) webinar which ISB conducted at my college, and I was fascinated by the different approach that ISB was taking to management education. I applied for the YLP at ISB and meanwhile completed my graduation. I got through the first round of YLP. Then, I prepared for about a month and a half for my GMAT. This time, I had learnt my lesson from CAT. I needed to be solid with my strategy. I identified the weak areas early on in my prep-journey and attacked the weak points strongly by practicing more of those while defending my strong points with regular practice. Meanwhile, I started my first job at Tata Steel (initially WFH). Given my nature of creating bulletproof plans, I booked 2 GMAT dates 15 days apart. To keep options open, I also filled CAT 2021 form.
My first GMAT attempt fetched me 760 and I was happy. But ab toh paisa kharch ho gya tha :’). I gave my second attempt with no additional prep after the first attempt and
got a 770. Maybe, giving the exam with a nothing-to-lose attitude really helps. I put my application together and submitted for YLP stage 2 just an hour before the deadline (not recommended!).
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Cut to November 2021: the results for YLP Stage 2 were not announced yet, and I had little to no prep for CAT (
ISB and IIMs are very different schools, and GMAT and CAT are two different exams with totally different prep strategies). I just brushed up some formulae and went in for CAT 2021. I remember writing the exam with hand gloves and mask on was indeed inconvenient (challenging!) and to add to the misery I fell short on time in QA leaving more than half of the questions unseen. ☹
It was December when I joined my job role on-site in Jharkhand and the CAT results came out soon after. This time I had also filled the form for XLRI but, well, would you believe it, I was again quarantined for two weeks just before the XAT date (my colleagues still tease me for this). But everything happens for a good reason, to my utter surprise, I had gotten 99.59%ile in CAT 2021. January 2022 was a month of good news for me, as ISB shortlisted me for the interview for YLP Stage 3.
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So, here it was. Prep started for Interviews. I remember going into deep introspection for this. I spent days refining and re-refining the major events of my life and what values do I stand for and what my future goals are and how ISB/IIM shall help me, etc etc. It was a fulfilling experience also because I learnt a lot about my own self while I effectively prepared for my next selection stage. I gave interviews for ISB, IIM L, and IIM I.
There is a clear difference between the interview approach of IIMs (more structured, intimidating, and focused on your background) vs that of ISB (more open, calm/friendly, and more focused on understanding your personality and values). One thing that I believe everyone should do between the time one gets the IIM call and the actual interview is
do extensive research on what each B-School stands for and go deep (I mean, really immerse yourself into their experience: just pretend you are a student there, already) into understanding the curricula, activities on-campus, exit opportunities and what you’re getting as a package (not placement wala package, but experiential package). This shall allow you to prioritize schools based on your own career vision, which you identified in the last step while preparing for the interview stage.
My interviews with IIML and IIMI were short (20 mins with 3 panelists in each) and largely focused on questions from my major in college and some business-related situation-based questions that tested general business acumen. ISB YLP interview was longer (45 mins with 2 alumni) and was largely focused on my life at Tata Steel and my internships during my undergrad. I
got the admit from ISB deferred MBA (for the Co 2023-24 batch). Shortly after, I got an admit from IIML and IIMI also (for Co2022-24).
Now this was good news, but also a dilemma. I talked to few seniors at all colleges and weighed the pros and cons (analyzing them here shall make the post very long, but you can find ample comparisons between IIM and ISB online, drop me an email if you still need help), to finally decide on not joining IIML or IIMI and retaining my deferred admit for ISB.
I continued working at Tata Steel, moved from Jamshedpur to Kalinganagar (Odisha) and life went on. I attended various learning weekends at ISB (which were super fun and insightful!) and the fact that I had an ISB admit in hand, it gave me the liberty to try out and invest in learning things, apart from my usual job role, and was a great psychological relief. I filled in the form for CAT again in 2022 on the last day (after one of my ‘friends’ insisted hard on it), this time only filling IIM A, B, and C as my school choices. This time, the amount of time that I was able to find for prep was less than last year, but I knew I had to be systematic with my approach to CAT.
This time, considering time constraints, I took a smarter approach. I did not ‘prepare’ per se, but deeply analyzed the type of questions that come in CAT, where I was lacking, and tried to think of quicker and less mistake-prone ways of solving those types of questions. This exercise really helped me gain confidence, if nothing else, in the case of an otherwise unprepared CAT attempt. I gave my CAT 2022 in Bhubaneswar (which was also an outing for us from the hinterlands of our plant life!) and fell short on QA this time too but not as much as the last time. After the exam, I could feel that I did worse compared to last year. And so, it’d turn out to be.
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Meanwhile, I had to take a decision on ISB. By this time, I was also starting to consider a foreign MBA (yeah cost-wise it is a stretch, but you only do MBA once. Well, generally speaking). After a lot of deliberation, I decided to reason with the ISB administration to defer the admission by another year, and I am glad they granted it. My CAT result was similar to the previous year. Since, I had no calls from A, B, and C at this percentile last year, I was not expecting much. The other day my friends were screening 3 idiots in the common room and at that moment I really wished IIMB would call me for an interview.
Regardless, I did the same exercise I did last year to prep for my interviews (if at all I get any). Call it dramatic or whatever, just the next day, I got an email from IIMB that I have been shortlisted!
The WAT was pretty doable.
My advice on WAT to anyone would be to use the first 3-4 minutes to put down the points and the structure, and then go about writing it fast. Refine the errors or go for improvements at the end. If you reason decently well and think holistically, WAT shall be a cakewalk.
I scheduled my interview at the IIMB campus (also because I shall be able to meet some ‘friends’ that way in Bangalore, LD is tough I know!) and the interview went well. Most questions were around my work experience at Tata Steel and I was (surprisingly) asked no stock questions which I had prepared for (No why MBA, why IIMB, future plans, etc). But I think that is what the process is.
The ‘real’ you comes out anyway and I feel the intense introspection helped there. Some questions were about current affairs and the overall experience was good.
I came back to my job at Odisha and g
ot an email one fine day in April 2023 that I had been admitted to IIMB. Now, the dilemma arose: MBA India vs MBA Abroad and if MBA India then IIMB vs ISB. The process that I took to decide (which was one of rigorous reach-outs, involving self-thought and research online, and deserves a separate article in its own right) led me to
believe that IIMB is the Place to ‘B’ for me!
Things flow, sometimes as per our expectations, sometimes against our wants. But to do our best justice to whatever is in our hands is our duty, and we should enjoy the journey. Everything shall come to you at the time that is right. All the best!