Siddharth Srivastava is a final year Human Resource Management student at the prestigious XLRI, Jamshedpur. He did his graduation with honours in Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi and completed his schooling from St. Columba’s School, New Delhi. A strong academic performer throughout, some of his accolades include XLRI Dean’s Certificate of Merit, INSPIRE Scholarship given by the Government of India and Dr. Ram Behari Mathematics Prize in his under-
graduation.
Siddharth interned with GSK Consumer Healthcare India for summers and worked on training and development related projects. He recently secured much sought-after placement with ITC through the campus recruitment process. Siddharth’s areas of interest include labour laws, compensation and HR analytics. You can expect 100% transparency, a strong work ethic and diligence when working with Siddharth. Outside academics, his interests include modern Indian history, politics, cinema,
reading and travelling.
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.
I would like to share an example of both experiences.
The biggest risk which I have taken so far has to be when I decided not to sit for placements at the end of my graduate degree and instead follow my conviction of appearing for the Civil Services Examination.
I hold a Mathematics (Honors) degree from the prestigious St. Stephen's College, Delhi and graduated in the top 5 in my class. The recruiters on campus included the likes of McKinsey, Bain, Barclays et al and had a very high chance of working for them and such work experience would have definitely given me an edge in my present MBA degree. However, I decided to opt-out of the placement process and dedicated my efforts and time towards pursuing my Civil Services dream.
Life, though, had other plans and despite my best efforts, the Civil Services Dream didn't materialise and I got the opportunity to pursue MBA at XLRI, Jamshedpur. I do not regret taking that risk because even though the end result was not as desired, the journey itself was a steep learning curve, not just in terms of knowledge but about myself as well as life in general. It's an experience I will always treasure.
The most prominent example of me going out of my comfort zone has to be my overcoming my fear of public speaking. Till the end of my school days, I used to be absolutely afraid of public speaking, even reading out my essay in a classroom used to petrify. As we know, public speaking is an important skill for any professional and when I entered college, I knew I had to overcome it. The only question was how? The fear of judgement, of making mistakes etc., was even more in a college setting than in school. I decided to take the first step by registering for a paper presentation competition organised by the Mathematics Society of my college. I thought that since academics has always been my strength, this may be a good platform for me to take the first step towards overcoming my fear. I prepared a paper on 'Golden Ratio', in collaboration with a friend of mine and presented, fighting my hesitations every step of the way. The presentation went better than I had expected and thought I didn't win anything, it was still a major personal victory for me. I got the confidence of participating in some more such events, becoming a member of informal groups and slowly, but steadily overcame my fear of public speaking. This is not to say that I fell in love with public speaking or anything, I still don't like it. It's just that now it is a choice, not a handicap or a fear.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
I don't think there is ever an act which can be said to be truly selfless because we always get something out of it, it's just that this 'something' can also be spiritual in nature instead of necessarily being material. One act in the recent past which I did which was purely for someone else as far as material benefits accruing from them are concerned is working for an NGO named SANTOSH, which works for the upkeep of shelters for the homeless in various areas of Delhi. What I took away from this experience was the joy of being able to do something to help the homeless, whose sufferings are exacerbated during the winter months.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
The situation I am going to share happened during my SBI PO 2016 Personal Interview. The last question which the panel asked me was to suggest a way of improving access to schools. My response was that the Government should allow for-profit schools in order to bring in private investment which would lead to the expansion of the sector. The resultant competition would ensure that the tuition fees and quality of education remain in check. To ensure quality, an independent agency could be put in place. They disagreed and countered that allowing for-profit schools would result in profits becoming the main motive and education taking a back seat. My reply was that just because a school makes a profit doesn't mean education would take a back seat. It would actually motivate them to produce better outcomes as their interest would be aligned with the performance of the students. To this, they countered that students from poorer sections would get left behind. I replied that markets run on the principle of supply-demand. There is a wide demand for low-cost schooling and eventually, a supply to meet this demand would get created. It was very apparent that the panel wasn't convinced by my arguments but I stuck to my guns as I firmly believe in this solution.
P.S. I did get selected asana SBI PO in 2016.
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 which has led you to do deep work in that field?
One subject over which I believe I have a firm grasp and possess in-depth knowledge has to be Labour Laws. Though during my Civil Services preparation days I did come across some issues related to labour laws, I got properly introduced to this subject only after coming to XLRI, Jamshedpur. I took an instant liking to the subject and the interest generated by the faculty motivated me further. So far, in the 4 courses related to labour laws I have gone through, I have managed to secure 3 A+ grades and an A grade. In addition to this, I have also won co-curricular competitions related to the subject including a Contract Labour Management Manual drafting competition organised by TeamLease in 2018.
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 utilise 1 million dollars to buy a house and create a fixed deposit to ensure a steady income stream for me and my family, through the interest generated by the fixed deposit.
I will use the remaining 9 million dollars as a corpus for starting a Micro-finance institution, with focus, though not exclusive, on agriculture and agriculture-related activities.
I firmly believe that instead of simply giving hand-outs through subsidies, the more sustainable and effective way to enable people to come out of poverty and end the vicious circle is to help them take charge of their lives. A Microfinance institution tries to address this very need. It empowers the borrower to create a homegrown solution without having to depend on outsiders. Microfinance specifically offers services to those who don’t have adequate credit or who are otherwise “unbanked”, meaning they do not have access to the services of a traditional financial institution like a bank. Microfinance institutions adapt their services to cater to these populations and get them financial credit. However, my idea of microfinance is not just limited to credit. I will also includes other services such as providing a secure place to keep their cash earnings, and actually earn interest on their savings and other microfinance loan products meant for specific purposes such as housing (in a format like a traditional mortgage, just on a much smaller scale), or to pay for children’s school fees. This range of services would help provide my clients with the products most needed to pay for (or save for) important things in their lives.