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, Vignesh Kamath, has shown an incredible amount of passion to achieve his true potential. Read on and find out his story!
The following are Vignesh Kamath'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, Vignesh'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.
Apposite to the context, I believe my foray into management education was the most fish-out-of-water decision I took. Prior to appearing for the CAT, I derived great satisfaction from my role at Goldman Sachs. The people were great, the culture was amazing and the compensation was decent with a more-than-desirable work-life balance. I appeared for the CAT on a whim and was blessed to secure admission in IIM Kozhikode. Yet, what tipped the scales was the opportunity to pivot into an investment banking role, and I am grateful to all the stakeholders involved to have achieved this today.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
The event pertains to last week in our hostel at IIM Kozhikode. After a particularly colourful night of partying, the area outside our hostels (green and grassy) was littered with paper cups, cans, bottles and other paraphernalia. Waking up that morning to the sight inspired a sense of revulsion in me. Chastising people to use the trash cans on the several dozen WhatsApp groups seemed like the normal thing to do, however its efficacy is seldom significant. Admittedly this is out of character for me, however the revulsion mixed with empathy for the cleaning staff inspired me to don gloves, head downstairs and begin cleaning the trash by myself. I was happy to be joined by four other colleagues who saw me from their balconies and decided to partake in this exercise. It was merely an hour long, but we left the area with our hands dirty and conscience clean.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
Being in the Placements' Committee at IIMK, I was not so pleasantly surprised at the manner in which the activities were conducted. Meetings dragged on unnecessarily into the wee-hours of the morning and the resultant sleep deprivation affected most of the day's activities. While the Pcomm culture is arguably notorious, two weeks in I had to express my opinion. I came out to my team with the proposal that we work more efficiently and try to get a few hours of much-needed sleep in. The suggestion was initially scorned and scoffed at. However, after weeks of persistently working with members that shared my opinion to a certain extent and sharing information on the perils of a nocturnal lifestyle, I was happy to witness incremental improvement in the culture. Towards the fag end of our JPC phase, we had started working more efficiently and getting healthy amounts of sleep in too.
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?
Finance and geopolitics are two areas of academic interest that I hold close to my heart. Consequently, I dreamed up a few independent projects that are linked to finance yet applicable to our daily lives - e.g. ROI of pursuing an MBA, how to manage personal finances, economic power vs hard power. I derive tremendous enjoyment from building these models - especially because the motivation to build them is endogenous. In the process, I research and learn quirky facts that have helped me in professional and personal settings. Imagine telling your date that appropriation of the Inuit practice of walrus hunting is bewilderingly inconclusive on its dwindling personal freedoms. Fun, isn't it?
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?
Admitting to the cliche nature of this response, I truly believe my birth and education privileges have landed me in a position where my personal finances are looked after. Hence I would use the corpus to further three altruistic goals that I work towards currently. 1. I would give away a third to my friend Ganesh, who is incredibly smart but has struggled all his life due to medical illnesses in his family. I trust Ganesh to use it any way he sees fit, seeing as to how frugal and hard-working he has been throughout his life. 2. Another 33.3% of the corpus would go towards bolstering my venture (the Right Track) which aims to help Tier II and III students gain meaningful employment. The venture currently suffers from a lack of man-hours to connect our candidates with the roles we have sourced, hence this money would go towards recruiting resources from our very pool, and setup the venture to boost rural and semi-urban employment.3. The last third of the corpus would go towards setting up a sports centre on the outskirts of major metropolitan cities of India. I have personally witnessed the positive impact of sports on our lives, and the untapped talent that exists in India constrained by equipment and training facilities. I would love to do my part to contribute towards the development and integration of sports in our society, especially among the sections that have been excluded thus far.
Read the stories of the other Employable Graduates here!