In our list of India's Best 50 - the 50 Most Employable Students from the Class of 2021-23, we feature MBA students who have walked that extra mile and done that little more to stand out! One of those featured in today's story, Nivek A V, has shown an incredible amount of passion to achieve his true potential. Read on and find out how his story!
The following are Nivek A V’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top 50 Most Employable MBA Graduates of the Class of 2023. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Nivek's story and profile stood out. Here's his story in his own words.
Name an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it OR Tell us the biggest risk you have taken so far in your life.
When I joined XLRI Jamshedpur, I was one of the average students who kept on having the feeling of being an imposter, who did not belong there. I was in constant doubt if I ever deserved to be in one of the top 5 business schools in the country. I wanted to prove to myself that I indeed belonged here and I deserved it no less than anyone else in the institute. I worked hard to get into the prestigious Dean's Merit List (DML) of XLRI and I made sure that I was not just on the list but one of the top 10 students in the institute. This also opened doors for a foreign exchange program (which only 30 students in a batch of 450 qualify for) with the NEOMA Business School, Rouen, France which was a life-changing experience in itself.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act?
Four of my friends and I came up with an initiative called "Catch a Dream" where we helped a bunch of students from relatively weak economic backgrounds who could not afford formal GDPI coaching sessions in cracking interviews of B-Schools during the last admission season. We selected students based on their profile, their economic background (of course) and their passion to get into the management field. We gave them a month-long training with multiple mock interviews all free of cost and we ensured that almost all of them got into the Business schools of their choice. I even have a few juniors in XLRI whom I helped crack the XL interviews.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
During my previous work experience, our team had a code base which relied on really old technologies for a software company's standard. I had a talk with my manager about the same but was told that this is maintained because the dependencies were challenging to migrate to a new code base and the engineers were familiar with the older tech. I felt that it was something that needs to be changed eventually given the fact that the tech stack is constantly evolving. I requested my manager to have an internal meeting with all the engineers and let me convince them to migrate to an updated tech stack. I was able to succeed after a lot of discussions and we made sure that our team is up to date when it comes to adopting new technologies.
What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative that has led you to do deep work in that field?
Outside my academic domain, I am an ardent movie watcher and people look up to me when it comes to getting movie suggestions. I am a movie buff with no language barrier and I get awe-spired by movies across the world. I can go on talking about movies (or a single movie) for hours if I have the right audience. Besides this, I am also an excellent organiser be it for tours, parties or get-togethers. I leave no stone unturned in planning things even to the minute details and I ensure that whatever I take up as an organiser, I do it without having any hiccups or difficulties for any stakeholders whatsoever. I was able to cover more than 20 countries while handling my foreign exchange academic rigour with the help of proper planning.
If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?
I would like to set up a business of my own using half of the money. The specifics of the business, I am not sure right now but would definitely think about it down the line. I would invest around 1 Million dollars in order to support myself in case my business does not succeed and the rest of the 4 million dollars I would use in some way or the other to improve the living conditions for the lower classes of the country. This would definitely not be in the form of donations but by setting up an NGO which would require initial setup funding but at the same time something that can sustain with the help of crowdfunding from there on. This way, I can ensure that the help provided is continued even after the initial 4 Million is exhausted, unlike donations. I already had a vision to start up a business and an NGO by myself after 10-15 years of corporate career but if I get funding like this, I would definitely fast forward the thought.
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As per government tax payers' data and our assessment, only about 6,00,000 Indian taxpayers earn an annual 'salaried' income of INR 30 lacs or above. And only 11,00,000 Indian taxpayers earn a 'total' income of INR 30 lacs or more.
Have you ever considered how much time it would take for you to be amongst these top 0.5% earners in India?
Find out here!