Learning Through Challenges - Shirsha Chakraborty, NMIMS Mumbai

Back in 2016, during my last year of college, I was preparing for my CAT exam when I got a job offer from a reputed tech company. At that point, I was at crossroads between deciding to start working or rejecting the offer to instead focus my attention on scoring well in CAT. I was not comfortable with the idea of traveling 4 hours everyday, working and yet preparing for my exam. At the same time, I did not want to let go of the opportunity to gain professional experience in the tech industry as I was starting out on my career. I went over the pros and cons and finally decided to make a choice to balance both a full-time join that required long hours of commute and studying meticulously for my CAT. It was not an easy feat for me especially because it required more than 4 hours of travelling everyday and i was working on two projects simultaneously, then coming back home and preparing for cat. At one point of time, i almost felt like giving up as i was unable to find out time to study in my hectic schedule but my self-confidence, optimism and career-minded intentions were the key factor that motivated me. I have learnt lessons through my mistakes in the past that actions need to be executed along with a good planning strategy. No solution is perfect, it is only to make the best out of the available options with our honest and dedicated hard work. This is how I overcame challenges to achieve my ambition. This experience strengthened my belief that with determined and dedicated efforts, we can work around obstacles to achieve the end goal.