"Curiosity killed the CAT but satisfaction brought it back". This aptly relates to me when I chose IIM Nagpur over NMIMS, SIBM Pune and MDI PGPIM. I was very apprehensive of my choice before landing in IIM Nagpur but after being taught by some of the best faculties in the country, I cherish my choice.
From the beginning of CAT preparation itself, I was very clear that I will not repeat the same mistake of following the herd mentality what I did in engineering. I chose Electronics and Communication engineering in my undergraduate just because everyone saw the future in it except me. Well, somehow I was able to survive there because of the company of some really good people. Even just after completion of my engineering I never felt like an engineer because I knew in my heart that I am not how an ideal engineer should be. Above all, the jobs that most of the engineers get are nowhere close to what they learn in engineering. I realized this aspect in my first job where I was doing more of a managerial work than technical work. At that point of time, though I was earning a decent income still job life seemed to me like an unfit piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Every morning while starting for the office, I used to think "Why am I doing this!". I realized that I need to figure it out as soon as possible.
I introspected a lot about for what I am good at. I reflected in my past and tried to observe my life journey from an outsider perspective to realize that till now I have been a part of "3 idiots race" in which I was trying to become the best in all the fields that I have been put into which has taken a toll on my mental health and kept away from realizing my real strengths. After a lot of pondering, I came down to the point that I had always been better in learning and understanding Mathematics than other subjects and thus, I thought that I should go towards opportunities that involve Mathematics. Then, I came to know about the relationship mathematics enjoys with data analytics and business analytics which made my mind drift towards pursuing my career in these domains. Among the choices that I had only IIM Nagpur allows to choose "Analytics" as a specialization and here, I am in Nagpur.