It was way back in 2009 that, after seeing the film "3 Idiots," I decided to pursue a career in engineering. My parents, who are from middle-class Bengali families, wished to bring up their only son and make him a doctor. But their plan didn't work in spite of my zeal for engineering.
I prepared for JEE for two years and cleared it with a rank in the top 1%ile. I decided to join chemical engineering in Asia's oldest chemical engineering department at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, in 2018.
For the first two semesters, it was full of chilling and a little bit of study. After that, the core engineering subjects started, and I failed to show enthusiasm.
At this very same time, I became close to our Entrepreneurship Cell at the university and felt an interest in business. I loved to learn about business basics and case studies, and I performed in many of them.
In this way, after four years, I graduated in chemical engineering with a campus placement and a handsome package. But surprisingly, the sector in which I got placed was the core engineering sector! I didn't even think of it and casually sat for the interview, just seeing the 7-digit CTC in 2022.
Again, the same thing started. I failed to show interest in plant operations, while I liked the logistics and business excellence work there. Just for the sake of my interest, several times after my office hours I used to sit with those departments and love to learn the basics, how 5S audit works, how six sigma is being implemented, and many other things apart from logistics and supply chain operations.
Let me add one thing here: I felt the first inclination towards industrial management and operations research during my final semester in engineering college. And I passed my Grand Viva session based on these two subjects alone!
Here I've got to add one thing: I appeared for CAT in 2021 as well with a little bit of preparation and scored 94.27%ile, with 68%ile in VARC failing to cross the sectional cutoff.
Now, during the first week of October 2022, I started preparing for the CAT. I knew I had a significant weakness in VARC I had to work on. On October 9th, I appeared for the Byjus open free mock at home. I was on leave at that time during Durga Puja. On October 11, I opened the app and got to know that I ranked 16th in their open mock; simultaneously, I got a call from them asking me to accept their free offer of whole CAT and OMET preparation. I accepted and started preparing day and night for the next two months.
I skipped lunches during my 9-to-6 jobs for several days just to solve mocks, and the evening was reserved for the analysis of mocks. My target schools were obviously BLACKI, FMS, and NITIE because of my inclination towards operations. Now, two months have passed, and the result has arrived. It is 99.25%ile with VARC: 93.43; DILR: 96.67; and QA: 99.63! The very next day, I started preparing for mock PIs.
I received calls from CAP IIMs, NITIE, SJMSOM, and VGSOM. Among them, I have already converted: IIM Kashipur, Sirmaur, Nagour, Bodhgaya, and Jammu. In all other CAP IIMs, SJMSOM and VGSOM are at WL with a borderline rank. While NITIE merits rank 286, we hope to be cleared in the next round of WL.
My NITIE interview was one of the best interviews of my life. It was online, and the panel members were one male and one female professor. Bit grilling around workex, undergraduate courses, and more on sustainability, safety, and all that. I smoothly overcame all those googly eyes and finally stood in front of the gate to enter my dream school, "NITIE".