Engineering was not a dream for me; it was just a goal, and I became utterly directionless after achieving it. I had first thought about giving CAT in the final year of my graduation. However, I felt that I needed to gain some solid work experience before taking up a management degree. Upon graduation, I was offered an entry-level IT job. I chose not to take it up as I felt my strengths lay in the analytical and managerial fields. I opted to appear for the Probationary Officer examination at the State Bank of India since it gave me a direct entry to a higher position at the largest public sector bank in India. I was tasked with marketing the bank’s digital products. Post that, I had an opportunity to work in the business loan sector of the bank. However, I could not excel at it due to a lack of knowledge about the valuation of the business. Later, I was promoted directly to a Scale-2 officer, Deputy Manager during this period. The Regional Manager was impressed by my efforts at the branch and asked me to work under him at the Regional Business Office, with additional responsibilities.
I started to prepare seriously for CAT only on my 3rd attempt, after 23 months of working at the State Bank of India. I realize now that the approach from my side for that exam could have been more efficient. I should have focused on the areas where I was losing marks instead of ignoring them. I was devastated as I scored just a percentile of 81 on the third attempt.
The following year I changed my strategy. I started giving many mocks and analyzing every minute detail of it. I had a few bad mocks, but that’s how you discover your weaknesses and work on them. I identified the weak areas and studied each topic in detail while being consistent in the stronger sections. I cannot emphasize it enough that while attempting CAT, consistency is the key. On my fourth attempt, I scored 99.71 percentile and was admitted into the Indian Institute of Management Shillong. One thing I realized is that my hectic work life and experiences have helped me a lot in adapting to the rigor of this institute. The past few months of this MBA journey have been an exciting roller-coaster ride, and I can’t wait to travel the rest of it.