Student Team 2020: Economist to Manager - A Fool's Gamble or A Prudent's Investment?
Exactly a year back, at around the same time, yours truly took the leap to appearing for CAT, with whatever time he had. Now, a couple of months might seem like too short a time to bell a paper like CAT, but if you kindly lend me the benefit of the doubt and plunge into the same yourself, you will be happy to know it's quite a lot of time if you utilize and plan your schedule wisely. Of course, my graduation had just gotten over, and I had ample amount of time to indulge in my extravaganzas, when I consciously chose to invest in further academic pursuits.
20 mocks & 10 books down, I managed a satisfactory percentile to get into a leading B-School, with mind-bogglingly unsatisfactory graduation scores, and thus if you come across any chap telling you how that would serve as an impediment, choose to not believe him. Graduating from Jadavpur University in Economics, I had the good privilege of coming across shining personalities, most of whom are going to land up at ginormous positions a decade down the line, in Academia, Corporate, et al with or without a Business Degree.
Objectively speaking, the syllabus covers everything most of you have already studied in your 10+2 Levels, yet requires quite a bit of jogging up to familiarize yourself with the pattern of the questions asked. Spend 6 hours everyday with your textbooks for the first month, which is not a lot given how most of you have all the time in the world now and well, think about the pay-off. Your Netflix & Facebook can wait. For the next month, sit with your mocks and take as many as you can, but be sure to analyze each and every one of them to be adept at your strengths & weaknesses. Now subjectively, I studied for maybe a bit more than one-third of the time I have prescribed, but please, do not be like me.
Once your CAT is belled and you have all the time in the world till your interviews, do what you love doing. Your Netflix has been waiting on you for quite a while. Or if you are like me, and in this case I would definitely ask you to be like me, take trips. Roam around. Explore cultures and familiarize yourself with the real world outside the virtual bubble. You will be surprised at the connections you will make, given how 'networking' is such a buzz word in the B-School Community.
And thus, when the interviews start, and be sure to brush up on your current affairs knowledge if you don't do it regularly already, you will have quite a lot on your plate to talk about. If I had been on the other side of the panel, I would be much willing to talk about the remote mountainous village you went to & your takeaways from the same, than your dY/dX knowhow. Regardless, the idea is to turn it into a conversation than an interview. Trick of the trade: Your first 15-20 seconds of how you establish the environment will, in most cases, define how well the entire interview goes. There are social experiments that verify this, but I will leave it to you to find out. Gives an idea to yourself as well if you are truly interested in making it to the top echelons.
And thus, when you have aced both your paper and your interviews, the time comes for you to relax. Or recuperate? Knowledge is everywhere in this virtual world. Take a few courses online, work on some virtual internships if you can, & be innovative. Believe me you, this will work like a charm when you will be submitting your CVs in your first term. Take it from someone who has seen it, thyself will not be scattering around to fill pointers in your professional identity. And come on, not to be crass or disrespectful, but that sucks.
Once you do make it to your dream school, which you will, if you only take a few of my takeaways and work harder, you will be exposed to a world unlike anything you've ever seen. The diversified & talented set of people that will surround you shall give you a natural high unlike anything you've ever known. If you're working, you're living the nostalgic dream, and if you're continuing your academic pursuits like yours truly, you expand your playground.
Once I did make it, I fell in love with the subjects. Well, except one or two but study harder for those if you want to cheat your old self. Defy the burn out blues that will strike and burn the midnight oil. Sleep less. Don't spend a third of your life in bed, that's very boring. And live out your most exciting adventure till date! If I get a chance to see you again on this platform, I'd be more than elated to share more of my experiences as and when they take place. And if you're still here, just read two more paragraphs and we will be done for the day/night.
Apparently, people nowadays seem to love data, so let's take a quick peek at the Harvard Business School Academic Background, shall we? Had you gone to the best of the best in the best, you would have been in the 78% of the population, it seems!* Remember champion, the best do not discriminate.
A Fool's Gamble or a Prudent's Investment? Unfortunately, I have still not been Providentially favored enough to add the coveted role of 'Astrologer' to my identity, but from what I have gathered till date, it sure is going to be an exciting ride for the next two years. Before you end, ask yourself. A Fool or a Prudent? Which one do you want to be, and thus, my friend, you shall find what you seek.
*
https://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/class-profile/Pages/default.aspx
Reach me at:
pgp20saptarshimajumder@imt.ac.in