Back in 2019 when I joined my MBA there were a lot of things going on in both my personal and professional life. I count this as one of the toughest years for me till date to focus on my career. But when you have joined one of the leading B-Schools in India and got a chance to prove yourself again after so many years, you can’t leave the battlefield unfought in fear.
You have to face it and of course, the end results depend on multiple factors including luck, but hard work and perseverance always pays off for sure.
“If you ever get a second chance in life for something, you’ve got to go all the way.” — Lance Armstrong
During my first year, I used to keep this small handwritten note in front of the study table with a few goals that I targeted for multiple reasons. Focus was definitely the key and the goal was to chase the dreams no matter what may be the situation.
I'll try to explain them and how it helped me to grow into a better career professionally.
Term/Academics - Right before joining MBA, I had decided to give full focus on Term/ Academics and not to neglect this aspect. Thankfully ended my MBA with a decent GPA and being in Top 16 in the batch of 240 which I definitely count as an achievement for life.
This is important for being part of a BSchool along with any other activities as this gives us confidence and motivates in every odd situation you are in along with getting appreciated by faculties.
Summer Placement - I did struggle a lot to get a decent one but ended up doing one of the most interesting projects in leading IoT based startup Atomberg. I got an experience in FMCD as well as influencer marketing with the online internship due to Corona.
There was 15+ times when I got shortlisted and then rejected in one of the rounds and those calm walks back from the academic buildings after being rejected definitely created that eager to prepare 2x,3X,4X which helped me in final placements.
Public Relations Team - Dreamt to be in the final team of the Public Relations Committee for IIM Rohtak and luckily got a chance to be the President of the team to work with some amazing people. This taught me how to handle the PR and Media in tough situations and helped me a lot in the current day in the company I am currently working for.
One of the most challenging parts definitely was to be in the admissions team which coordinated the first non-CAP admissions for IIM Rohtak with a huge pool of 8000+ aspirants. It Might sound weird but I definitely felt how underprepared I was during my interviews the previous year.
Finance Club- From the first presentation to Finance Club I just felt like being part of this elite club to do something new and did my best throughout the year to end up being one of the only 2 members who got lateral entry to the club. As a part of corporate relations team, I was able to initiate National Level event with club members. Being a finance enthusiast currently I am able to take up things related to finance as and when required in the company. This was kind of goal that drove me to be a decent presenter as I had to present on current affairs in events to be an active member throughout.
COTY (Consultant of the Year)- While writing achievements in my CV I didn’t had many great achievements post B Tech and felt like doing something that sets my CV apart and was able to win the award for Consultant of the Year 2020 for the yearlong event organized by Strategy and Consulting Club IIM Rohtak. This also gave me a direct privileged entry to the club which I had to miss due to One club rule at IIM Rohtak. This achievement definitely helped me to crack BIG4 Consulting company during the final placement process.
Swaniti - Public policy has always fascinated me since and being part of the final team was a privilege for sure. Visiting villages to understand how Public policy is affecting the village development and trying to prepare a report was definitely a new experience altogether. Being a son of a state Government servant helped. Today, I am working in the healthcare segment. I can understand where we stand in ground reality.
S.T.O.R.E - IIM Rohtak has this unique concept of Student Tailored and Organized Retail Enterprise which is entirely run by the students to cater the needs of the students. This gives an entire new experience to the students to know about how the Retail industry works and also comprehensive experience to run a startup with minimum capital and proper strategy. Dreaming to be part of the final team was lucky again to be able to be one of the 4 Secretaries to lead this team. Working with top brands like Nestle, Pepsi, ITC, Havmor and understanding the nuisances will definitely be a learning for life.
Sometimes you might not get what you try to achieve but that shouldn’t affect your ultimate goal for sure and everything is part of a journey.
Management event in Infusion - Though I didn’t get this one but was able to pull off the maximum sponsorship for Marketing event and was able to handle two events parallelly which was definitely a great experience while parallely running the Media sponsorship with getting partnership from 5th in the world and 2nd in India by circulation for North India’s largest management fest Infusion.
CFA - With the exam being postponed thrice due to pandemic after scheduling I have kind of took a break from this goal after patiently trying to give the same for one and half years.
During adversities, I had few quotes which kept me driving for sure and one of them was Sohanlal Dwivedi’s
लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती, कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती। So one thing which I always followed was to keep on trying when I even knew I didn’t have a single chance to win. Another quote that kept me going was
“We fall to rise again” and whenever I felt like things are taking me to lows, I decided to give those extra efforts to rise again and again and improved myself every day.
In my second year, I decided to join
Marketing Weekly which was one of the leading marketing content platforms created by a group of BSchool alumni and students which grew from 1000-40000 followers in less than 6 months and being an active contributor, I was able to understand nuisances of marketing frameworks and how we can easily communicate to 100+ B Schools. We build a community of 30000+ students without investing a penny.
During the course of 2 Years, I did 10+ Live projects in different domains and gained experience and was also able to pay off one term fees from the stipend I received during this period which I counted as bonus content for the MBA journey.
One more aspect which helped me a lot was corporate competitions and participating in those helped me hone my skills to structure solutions. I won a few events like Hult Campus Prize and my summer project was selected as Top 6 Summer Projects by NITIE annual event and one of my business ideas was selected as the finalist for a B Plan presentation and won the runners up in Keeto Fintech Championship.
Doing all these I never dreamt of but did come close to the Gold Medal for Best All-rounder for IIM Rohtak but didn’t get that. But when looking back at the journey I find all these small achievements as Gold Medals only that I’d treasure for life.
Well, I did get the fun award of
Mr.Omnipresent due to multiple PORs I held during the course of B-School career in my farewell which definitely was something to cherish for.
The struggle did bring fruitful outcomes where I had offers for BIG4 Consulting and
leading Healthtech startup Dozee which I joined and working now as a Manager Corporate Strategy. Moment to cherish was when I was able to go back to campus to recruit which itself is a big thing for me right after passing out in less than a year.
3 Years back in April 2019 my only ask was to get a chance to prove myself and 3 years down the line my only advice is to trust the process and journey and all that destiny has for you will be yours and you will only connect the dots when you feel things are going your way. It’s the truth of life that when things are not going your way you will feel dejected and down but the most important thing at that point of time is to have few people who stand by you and more importantly how you stand by yourself and fight that time and bring all odds with you.
This doesn’t mean I was not impatient or restless at times but what mattered the most was just standing tall when it mattered the most and also to have people who can pull you up when you are down.
Have written a few more articles on MBA life do give it a read
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Connect me over LinkedIn for any guidance for your MBA Journey
Santosh Mishra