In our list of India's Best 50 - the 50 Most Employable Students from the Class of 2020-22, 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, Aayush Khatri, has shown an incredible amount of passion to achieve his true potential. Read on and find out his story!
The following are Aayush Khatri’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top-50 Most Employable MBA Graduates of the Class of 2022. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Aayush'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.
I was one of the Core Members of Gyansagar-a social wing at NIT Silchar right from the first year. Being an enthusiastic member, I played my roles in various programs under the wing, like organising cloth donation camps to distribute clothes to 80+ families in the nearby villages. I also acted as a mentor for teaching children of nearby villages. Every fortnight, I led a few members to the village to teach the students at their homes. Going to their homes and teaching them had a slight disadvantage because we could not cater to a larger group. Hence, I came up with an idea to bring them to the campus during weekends and enjoy the whole day. First, I took the college authorities' permission, and they were more than happy to aid us in this initiative. We took the parents of those children in confidence and arranged a bus for their children. We made sure that these children got the best resources to study and made arrangements for them to play and have a healthy meal since a holistic approach will surely help in their overall development. We started with 25 students, and now Gyansagar caters to 150+ students in this endeavour.
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 am one of the core members of the student welfare club of IIM Bangalore which helps the incoming PGP1s right from the first day of college till their lifetime. Out of my own interest, I nominated myself to be a member of the club and I am helping around 30 PGP1s to settle them in this fast-paced MBA life. Taking out time from my busy schedule, I am available whenever they need my help in any matter be it trivial. I have organised multiple doubt clearing sessions out of my personal capacity, helped them in their studies in whatever way I could, mentored them in summer placements sessions. In short, I handle the responsibilities of these 30 students by helping them in whatever way I can with nothing expected in return.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
While working at Accenture, I was entrusted with the opportunity to look into a case resolution system. The client was migrating from an old platform to a new Salesforce platform, and their demands were for a fully automated resolution system. The offshore team started working on the problem statement, which included a chat-based resolution of the cases, which was standard. During the team meetings, I was of the opinion that we should also include some extra solutions in terms of email based resolution system. When I mentioned this to the Managers, they were reluctant to incorporate this since it would alter the timeline and felt it was not worth taking the risk. I knew it would not take much time, and the clients would like this because of the in-depth knowledge of the business flow I had. I demonstrated the flow to the Managers and requested them continuously to pitch the idea to the clients. After continuous persuasion, the idea was pitched to the clients, and they greatly appreciated it. In fact, a separate timeline was created for incorporating this into the scope.
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?
I believe I have developed an understanding of how to simultaneously work on social initiatives apart from my mainline work. During my school days, I worked with HelpAge India towards collecting funds for elderly people. When I entered my undergraduate college, I became the core member of GyanSagar which is the social club of NIT Silchar. I initiated and worked on multiple events with great success. I initiated many tree plantation drives, educating the nearby village children, helping the locals in becoming self-reliable, cloth donation drives to name a few. Even during my corporate career, I was actively involved in CSR initiatives. All these experiences in this domain make me believe I have gathered some depth of knowledge.
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 use the money judiciously both for societal and personal use. First and foremost, I will start a foundation for people of all ages who struggle with suicidal thoughts and open a pro-bono agency that offers psychological help. I will also donate some fraction of money towards autoimmune disease research, research for mental health illnesses, and neuromuscular disorders (ALS, MD, MS, etc). Finally, I would use the remaining money to travel across the world so that I would get to learn about the various places around the globe.
Any Other Comments Or Factors You Would Like To Highlight About Yourself?
My purpose would be to give a hundred percent in whatever I do. While pursuing engineering after school, I had this clear sense of purpose right from the first day that I need to give my best effort in whatever I do. I chose to participate in what interested me and be good at it rather than being a part of all the activities. I always had a knack for managing things and organising events. Hence, I joined the Infrastructure team of Incandescence-the annual cultural fest of NIT Silchar, where I was responsible for arranging the logistics for the events and maintaining that they are synchronous with each other. I wanted to take part in the college's social activities and hence became a part of Gyansagar-the social wing of NIT Silchar, where I was involved in organising cloth donation camps, tree plantation drives, and teaching the village students. But I did not let my participation in extracurricular activities hamper my studies and maintained a good academic record. I continued the same zeal at my workplace, too, be it Accenture or Tata Steel. For my performance, I was also awarded ACE and Pinnacle awards in the Team category at Accenture. Apart from work, I also indulged in organising events, especially team dinners and other extracurricular activities like Quiz competitions and Cricket tournaments.
Read the stories of the other Employable Graduates here!