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Well, here I am to take you all along a journey through the myriads of “Life-lanes”.
Citius, altius, fortius these 3 words not only embodies my journey but also defines the decisions and standards through which I have stood by and continue to stand by.
Faster resembles adaptability, essential in both exam and decision (most used in LRDI ?)
Higher provides me with the fortitude for setting higher goals and bigger aspirations.
Stronger encapsulates the efforts and strength required for the last mile and achieving your dream.
Combined it has landed me (not like Harry Potter in Philosopher’s Stone though) on the front of XLRI Jamshedpur, one of the most premier institutes since 1949.
Now, let’s take a walk down my childhood...,
From the school time, I was curious about various trivia competitions which played a large role for my becoming the editor-in-chief of our state-level quiz 'Inquizzitive' magazine. For college days, I have to say, were filled with everyday practical experimentations and knowledge sharing with the diaspora of various people, which gave me a variety of exposures. Notable mentions are projects like a) A Motorcycle running on dual-fuel and b) An In-line water heater using piped natural gas, both of these ventures helped me with a plethora of rich team-building experience which assisted largely in the completion, as a result of which our project became a part of the proud collection for our entire regional college projects. I was part of the Guinness World Record attempt for the most no. of people folding origami together and also formed an integral part of the college level-grand event of our entire north-eastern region. I wrapped up my academics until UG with a 10/9/8.57 profile.
From then on started a very interesting part of my life, my work-ex, the place filled with so many memories and the place where I stayed for 3 years, Toppr…
I got in here from campus and believe me when I say this those 3 years were one of the best troikas which pulled me into the over-zealous corporate world. Even though I was hired in product department, I was soon involved in various other activities like assisting in freelancer training and onboarding, inducting new joinees in the department, and organizing off-site gatherings. This allowed me to often get into formal and candid conversations with the partners of the firm. My people skills were also recognized when I was given an opportunity to deal with clients directly which was unusual for a junior product developer to get to do so. All this prompted me to aspire for a career in human resource management for the long run as I liked interacting with people, designing L&D courses for skill upliftment, Ensuring the mental, physical, and professional well-being of every employee, ensuring a consistent employment experience for all employees etc. all for the betterment of one of the most important assets of an organization i.e., it’s employees. Needless to say while being there I got 3 vertical promotions and multiple star performer awards.
All’s good upto this point, well let me introduce the thorns….
I will disclose now that I am repeater with my first attempt in 2021. The attempt yielded not so good results with me falling short of cut-offs for the dream b-school of mine. Then tragedy struck with the death of my great source of love, my grand-mother. I decided to take a break to re-organize my thoughts and aims. I acknowledged my shortcomings and strengths, revolved my preparation around those. I started with my weak points and built around it. Until the D-day I had to keep my mental fortitude intact because it was collaboration of mental strength and aptitude and calm analysis.
Now D-day tidbits…
Well on 27th of November, the horn went off with CAT being the first exam. Somehow, the day didn’t go well for me , guess not everything goes according to plan. Nevertheless, there was no point of feeling down as other exams were roaring at the corners. I decided to bet on my preparations and gave others to the best of my abilities. First came NMAT with its adaptive test type (it was new), then came IIFT, SNAP and at last XAT. For each of the exams I formulated different plans with the mocks. For XAT of course the Decision Making section was tricky but I tried to solve it by thinking as realistically as possible.
At last the fruits…
In XAT, I got 98.85 percentile. Subsequently in IIFT, SNAP and NMAT, I received 99.59 ,99.05 percentile and 237.
With the 98.85 percentile in XAT , I received the call from XLRI, from then on started the interview prep.
The interview lasted for about 30 minutes. I was asked behavioural and situational questions. The interview also revolved around my work-experience, as I also worked in L&D development. I gave the answers to the best of my abilities and then the wait started….