“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”
-Nora Roberts
Katyayani embraced all odds in her life to fulfil her dream of studying in an IIM. She achieved admission in IIM Rohtak after years of hard work and toil. With an IT work experience of almost 9.5 years, she has turned a page in her career story to make her professional life more enriching and rewarding.
Hailing from Kharagpur, Katyayani is an electronics and communications engineer from the Avinashi Lingam Deemed University of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Initially, she aspired to be an IITian, having been born and brought up near an IIT campus (IIT campus). She worked hard and kept trying for IIT. Still, as destiny would have it, she didn't receive admission in an IIT. So, she took a different route to reach her destination. She got admission in the prestigious University of Coimbatore. The real struggle had only begun when she graduated from college in 2007. The global recession of 2007-2009 had set in. Alas! The job offer from her campus placement got rescinded without an intimation. But, this hurdle didn't deter Katyayani's spirit, and she further took up an equivalent diploma course in VLSI designing. Unfortunately, that too did not work out due to recession. Cut to 2009, when she was demotivated and looking for some hope. That is when her father motivated her to prepare for and write CAT 2010. While she was putting her heart into CAT preparations, the saddest tragedy struck her family. Katyayani lost her father, her motivator and her inspiration. The situation changed her path, her life. To support her home, she took up an IT job as a technical solutions representative in HP Global Soft Pvt Ltd, Bangalore. "The culture at the job transformed my introverted personality into an extroverted personality which then settled at Ambivert," said Katyayani, about the takeaways from her impressively long work experience.
Time flew by; she settled comfortably in her job and started climbing the corporate ladder and eventually gave up on her MBA dream. Years passed and sometime during 2017 Katyayani dawned upon the realisation that she was not happy with her current job portfolio. Though she had come a long way starting with an engineering degree and now as a successful technical representative, she could not ignore that there was stagnation in her career. The overthinking had begun harming her mental well-being. That is when she decided to take a six-month-long break, and with that, she quit her job. The unhealthy lifestyle and the graveyard work shifts had made her adopt a detrimental lifestyle. During her time away from work, she realised that her career goals and ambitions could only be satisfied by achieving an MBA degree from the prestigious IIMs. With this began the journey of hard work and dedication. To be able to sustain herself financially, and not be dependent on her retired mother, she took up a job in a start-up, formed by IIT alumnus, which had flexible work hours. The task of handling a full-time job along with CAT preparations was tiresome. Still, Katyayani sailed through it with her passion for getting into an IIM. She failed once, got up twice and continued her practice for CAT 2019. This time around, she enrolled in an IMS coaching centre. On seeing her dedication, the MD of her company was also supportive of the idea. Hence, she could attend as many classes as possible.
Finally, the D day had arrived. She tried her best but felt a little disappointed at her performance. Though her interview went well, she was still sceptical. Nevertheless, she decided to appear again, if by chance she didn't clear this time around. Luckily, the odds were in her favour, and she got her PGP offer letter from IIM Rohtak. Again luck played its part; the letter got sent to her spam mail, and she found it on 19th May when 20th May was the last date to accept the offer. PGP office at IIM Rohtak helped through this situation. Finally, Katyayani Peddiniti got inducted into IIM Rohtak PGP Batch of 2022.