Nothing Prepares You For Life At An IIM | IIM Udaipur

Before coming to an IIM, you might read and read and read about the life in an IIM but nothing, I repeat, nothing prepares you for what this life holds for you. You will read a million stories on various web sources about how hectic your life can get but nothing compares to the experience of being in one of the seats of IIM Udaipur.

The first year for me breezed through amidst various activities - academics, placements, fests, club events. Some days were easy, some days were not and before I could settle in all this schedule, my internship period had already started. Coming back from the internship, I had more love for my college than ever. What I am going to narrate is one of the days in the third week of my second year which got bombarded with a schedule so exhausting that no one was prepared for it.

Monday started with classes back to back from 8:30 am in the morning to 8:00 pm in the night. The night before, we were up till 2:00 am submitting an assignment for the term paper of a subject, let’s say A. Monday morning, as goes by its reputation was not very welcome but given the tough academic rigour required by IIM Udaipur, I filled myself with coffee and went to the classes, ready to conquer everyone with amazing class participation. The thing with class participation is, that you need to be really thorough with your case analysis and considerable work goes into each sentence you speak aloud in the class. Along with that, you need to be very attentive in the class as well. Rejuvenated by coffee, the regime began. Midway through the day, after probably 3 classes we got a notification regarding the submission of a project presentation as well as report by end of the day.

Just to emphasize, deadlines in IIM Udaipur are SACROSANCT. So end of the day means 11:59:59 pm and not 00:00:00. Now submitting a project even after having only 3.5 – 4 hours after classes is still achievable or is now our habit but along with that project were 4 other submissions, all due at 11:59:59 pm. After that, we had to prepare for a long day of classes again from 8:30 am to 8:00 pm and with that came case analysis.

Everyone came into action right after the last class and formulated their own strategies to deal with the problem in hand. We were exhausted, overworked, needed rest but everyone did a quality submission within the deadline. The next day we again started with the routine without any complain. The task was mammoth but our spirit and our culture prepares us for much worse and that is what IIM Udaipur stands for. Each and every member of this community abides by the core values – mutual respect, excellence, transparency, integrity, inclusion, environmental consciousness – and exhibits them in their everyday behaviour.

This is what makes us unique. Our values are not just formulated just to be on the board, they are instilled in us and our culture.

WHICH GROUP OF ADITYA BIRLA I WOULD LIKE TO JOIN?

I would like to join the fashion and retail sector – Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited – which is one of India’s top fashion lifestyle entity. The industry itself is growing at a rate of around 10% which indicates many new opportunities in this sector. I have always been fascinated by the fashion industry and how the trend of shopping never really fades away. This is an industry which needs to heavily cater to the demands and needs of customers to survive. There are very few industries which require the understanding of consumer behaviour as much as this one because no customer has the same choice (right style, right colour, right size) and yet under one roof, you have to try to satisfy all of them. I would love to be part of such a challenging and interesting environment.