Every year, lakhs of MBA aspirants apply for CAT. The aim is to get into the top IIMs. From that sea of candidates, only a few people make into IIM Kozhikode. And at the end of the MBA chapter, only a few get the Gold Medal for Best All-Round Performance. In this article, we bring you, Shloak Chopra. He is a gold medallist for Best All-Round Performance at IIM Kozhikode, Class of 2020. At IIM-K, he was a member of the Placements Committee, a merit scholar for both years and received a pre-placement offer from JPMorgan. He’s a poker enthusiast, likes playing strategy games and is a movie-buff. Continue reading more about his inspiring journey below.
Q1: Please tell us about your educational and professional background, and what drew you to pursue an MBA.
Post completing schooling from Lucknow’s CMS, Gomtinagar, I pursued Computer Science Engineering at VIT, Vellore. One particular summer after the completion of the second year at college, I decided to act upon my nudging interest in finance and with some preparation, I was fortunate to join an asset management company as an Investment Research Analyst. That summer whetted my interest in finance and made me decide to pursue further education in management aiming to understand business and finance better, which led me towards CAT. After securing 99.64 percentile in CAT, I secured calls from all b-schools barring IIM-Ahmedabad. After a series of rejections at IIM Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow, I got accepted at IIM Kozhikode, Indore and MDI Gurgaon. Being just fresh out of college, I felt myself in the dilemma of dropping a year or joining right away. At last, the thrill of being in a high-paced decision making role where you see the impact of your choices made more sense for me, making me join IIM Kozhikode, and it has been an exhilarating and memorable journey.
Q2: When you entered this prestigious program, did you expect to win the Gold Medal? What did you expect from the program?
To be honest, as I entered the gates of IIM Kozhikode, I expected rock stars all around with star-studded profiles and professors who would challenge my views and constructs about the world. At IIM-K, I found the most amazing of peers, unique in every way, but with a single similarity, that when push comes to shove they would grind their way out of every difficulty. They weren’t the rock-stars I expected, but, they were people who toiled harder or thought differently than the average person. The professors helped me think and reason better guiding me through the nuances of the business.
The two-year program is jam-packed with courses challenging you in ways you wouldn’t have imagined and extra-curricular opportunities to help you hone yourself. You could contribute through a club or committee, participate in case competitions, perform at cultural events and venture into numerous quizzes and debates. And, I was determined to make the most of every single one of these opportunities.
Q3: Given that only the creme de la creme of India makes it to b-schools like yours, could you give us an idea of the degree of competitiveness at IIMs?
Top B-schools are highly selective in their admissions and a general assumption comes in that they are filled with highly competitive individuals. Well, you would be surrounded by people who will be building themselves and working hard to do so but not at the expense of others, hence it would be competitive but it would be a healthy competition. Every b-school has a subtly different culture, while most of us usually look at placement opportunities while selecting B-schools, it would be fair to also look into the culture at different colleges by talking to those that have attended that college.
Talking about IIM Kozhikode in particular, it’s open and amiable culture acted as a stark differentiator for me which helped me in making a choice between my three converts. From projects to placements, you would find a gamut of batchmates and seniors helping you, while at the same time you shall be competing for grades (you are graded on a normal curve against peers in your class) or placement with peers, so there’s a fair share of collaboration and competition going on through the two years. From the point you get an admit, you are going to be mentored, helped by seniors and committees and you do the same when you the junior batch is admitted into the college, there are hundreds of initiatives taken by each batch and it just works like clockwork.
Q4: What did you do differently and how did you study differently that helped you become a gold medallist?
From the last few years, I have learnt that it’s not more about doing things differently but about doing things consistently. Two things I had planned before I joined IIM-K were: make the most of each and every class both through professors and peers; and make sure you challenge yourself hard enough as these would be your last two years in a guarded environment, but it’s easier said than done.
Driven by purposes larger than myself, I wanted to join the Placements Committee, which I thought was the most challenging job on campus, after all, you shoulder the responsibility of placing every student of two batches through your tenure. But not being sure of my ability to contribute, I didn’t apply in the first term. As I said, it’s easier said than done. I worked hard with my peers, helped them in every way I could, in projects and placements, but through the first-term, I always felt I could have done more. As soon as the re-elections came in, I toiled hard through the process and joined the committee. The next two years gave an unparalleled learning experience building sheer grit, confidence and communicational prowess, ending up as one of my best decisions on campus. But, every decision you make has a trade-off, I got less time for academics, but sticking to my plan of action, I focused on in-class learning and took the help of my friends to brush-up on the topics.
Another important takeaway would be to understand that courses at B-schools are more hands-on and applicative than undergraduate (especially engineering) classes; and how you link say, Finance to Operations shall help you understand and appreciate the dilemma of a decision-maker. The learning differs significantly as it aims at broadening your thought process, working in the grey areas and taking decisions after you have considered all potential effects. In this sense, I also participated in a number of case competitions launched by companies which offered me live problems to test and cement this cross-domain understanding. The evaluation criteria for the Gold Medal for the Best All-Round Performance at any of the IIMs includes your contribution to the institute and society and I believe contribution through the 3Cs: committees, classes or case competitions add value.
Q5. What are the advantages of being a gold medallist? Is it advantageous in the placements process?
You are awarded the Gold Medals at the end of Term VI while Placements are done much before that. So, yes, you won’t be the Gold Medallist at the time of placements. But, be it an academic Gold Medal or a Gold Medal for the Best All-Round Performance, that is pretty much visible on your CV at the time of placements. Your rank at the end of term V might not change much by term VI and the recruiter understands that. For an all-round achiever, each of those 3Cs is visible on your CV and your answers further cement each and every one of your achievements and contributions during the course of an interview. So, you might not have that elusive Gold Medal, but you have all the right ingredients by the time you reach your final placements. On the other hand, a good number of people are placed through their summer internship PPOs, for them, the internship performance would be much more important than the gold medal for placements.
Apart from placements, a good rank would fetch you a good foreign exchange college, a chance at some of the best scholarship opportunities at b-schools and some extra points for elective bidding. Well, these reasons might be pretty alluring to quite a few of us but, to be fair, the most important reason, in my opinion, is that the pursuit in itself is self-fulfilling.
Q6. How does an MBA student balance studies and extra-curricular activities at b-school? Is it possible to balance the two, or must one be sacrificed for another? How did you bring about a balance?
A well-perpetuated myth is that b-school students shall have to choose between extra-curricular activities and academics. Well, there are trade-offs but it isn’t as simple as black and white, rather it is amongst myriad shades of grey. You would have to devote nights over and over to committee work or to case competitions, but you will still be capable enough to wake up and grind through that 9:15 AM lecture, but whether you end up getting out of bed shall always be your call. Every successive thing on your plate shall spread you a tad bit thinner, but remember nothing’s ever been gained without hard work and you will always find a person around helping or even pushing you for it. Again, easier said than done, right? But you shall find a good bunch of individuals doing this day in and out at all IIMs.
I was very fortunate to have successfully managed to work tirelessly for the college through the Placements Committee, to contribute in a few case competitions and maintain a top 10 rank at IIM-K through all terms. Now, what kept me going? A really caring family, an impeccable set of friends, each and every member in PlaceComm and an inner drive. My family acted as my go-to social support system; my friends acted as my guides and confidants; PlaceComm’s every member inspired me to contribute and attain something bigger, and my zeal to be driven by purposes bigger than myself held me together. Also, all of these endeavours are mostly parallelly pursued but there shall be windows of time when the workload moderates and you have time to build upon the other pursuits.
To summarize you shall have enough time to balance academics and extracurriculars, whether you end up doing so is a personal choice.
Q7. What were your, your family's and your friends' reactions when you got the Gold Medal? How did you celebrate?
Well after applying for the Gold Medal for Best All-Round Performance, I hoped for the best but never expected it. I was really ecstatic and grateful for having received it. Fortunately being at home, I could celebrate with my family face-to-face and simply put they were at the top of the world. All of my friends and relatives shared my joy as well. For celebrations, with a raging pandemic on our heads, we chose to delay most celebrations except a nice home-cooked dinner.
Q8. Regarding b-school life and academics, what are three crucial pieces of advice you would like to share with the incoming class of 2022?
Well, if I were to have three key takeaways from my experience:
- The number of opportunities available at a b-school may be overwhelming and each of them shall have an in-built trade-off. What works for one may not work for another person and though you have a senior batch to guide you, do reach out to someone who has graduated to get a more clear perspective on things and talk to multiple people. But ultimately, sync your choices with your psyche and goals.
- A b-school class is one of the most diverse classrooms you can attend in India, though not as diverse as those Ivy-League colleges. Peer learning is grossly under-appreciated, utilised every moment, not just within classrooms to learn from that diverse batch and venture into conversations trying to understand a stand against yours, you shall definitely grow in that process.
- Though academics are important, there’s much more to a b-school than academics, so venture out and try to discover yourself. Choose electives balancing short and long-term goals, build relationships outside of your sections, get in touch with alumni and try visiting a foreign school on an exchange or contribute to a club or committee.
To conclude I feel in many ways the b-school prepares you well for your life ahead and hope you make the most of it.