You will encounter many different types of people in your life. There are ones who rarely question things, and there are others who go on to change the entire system to make things work their way. Today's feature, Zaid Merchant, is the latter kind of person. Zaid considers himself a very tech inclined individual. He dreamt of having an all-night hackathon in his college. In the beginning, almost everyone, right from his team members, faculty, principal, SVKM management opposed the idea. But, his perseverance and problem-solving attitude helped that dream come true. And therefore, Zain landed InsideIIM's Best 50 - The Most Employable Graduates of the Class of 2020. Read on to know more.
The following is Zaid Merchant’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top-50 most employable MBA graduates of the Class of 2020. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated by the Founder of InsideIIM-Kampus Konversations, Zaid’s story and profile stood out. Here's his own story in his own words.
"I am Zaid, an IIM Kozhikode Placements Committee member, Citrix’s first-ever PM intern (globally), their soon-to-be youngest Product Manager, and a two-time case competition finalist. As a Mumbai University topper, I have excelled at academics while pushing for overall development, including leading teams to conceptualize and organize Mumbai’s first inter-collegiate Hackathon, and my college’s first TEDx event. I am an IT-inclined individual, avid reader, and an F1 fan. I love to speak on stage and have also won National and State-level awards for leadership, technology, and speech."
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.
"2018: This was the year I had to make a tough choice. Having secured a “super-dream” job from campus, and brought home a 99.82 percentile in my first CAT attempt with an IIMK convert, coupled with the fact that all I was interested in being post-MBA was a Product Manager (and no other domain), a lot of people advised me to work for a year or two, give CAT again and aim to get calls from A/B/C (two of whom, along with IIML had not even called me for the interview). However, I took a call not to while away two years of my life doing something I was not very fond of, and instead, joined IIMK, keeping the greatest bit of advice in mind – that in a few years, it won’t matter which college I am an alumnus of, what will matter is how I am, as an individual, as a leader, and as a contributor. And now, with a Product Management job (after a PPO) with Citrix, I can say it was a risk that paid off well!
2017: In my college, there were two student chapters, one under the Computer Engineering department (ACM), and one under the IT department (CSI). I was a Computer Engineering student but was a part of the junior team of CSI, which was famous for organizing an intra-college hackathon. As a junior member, I studied this event closely and drew up a plan for the following year. The next year, ACM offered me the Vice-Chairperson position even though I was not a part of the junior team. However, I took a calculated risk, and declined it, knowing that my own department would not take this too easily, and there would be consequences. I interviewed for CSI, who also offered me the Vice-Chairperson position since I was not from the IT department. However, post a marathon 3-day process including meetings with various stakeholders, I managed to be the FIRST Computer Engineering student to become the Chairperson of the CSI student chapter, going on to lead my team to organize Mumbai’s first intercollegiate hackathon, and winning the National Best Student Chapter Award as well. This also gave me the courage to continue further, and organize my college’s first TEDx event, as Licensee, Organizer, and Chief Curator, creating a separate team in the process. Had I simply accepted the Vice-Chairperson position with ACM, I’d just be someone who took the easy way out, and did not have a National Award. And, of course, Mumbai would not have had its inter-collegiate hackathon too.
It was these two decisions that have played a vital role in shaping the way I have become as a person, personally and professionally, and the road not taken turned out to be the better choice after all!"
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
"With the amount of hard work put in, I guess I have earned myself one cliché line – as a member of the Placements Committee in an IIM; it wasn’t just “someone” – it was over 1,250 students relying on me/us as a team for their careers. And that journey was a massive learning experience. Sacrificing EVERYTHING to call companies throughout the day (with almost no attendance waivers at IIMK), to send emails, have meetings, organize PPTs, slot companies, help them conduct processes in a compact schedule, it all seems impossible to think about, and yet we did it. But in all of this, there is one aspect which goes unnoticed - the human touch. During a crazily hectic placements’ week, it is not easy to tell the same person she/he has been rejected for the nth time. It is not easy to not take cognizance of attention-grabbing pages on Facebook and/or a handful of students of various institutes, raising accusations against the team despite us holding the highest ethical standards, to place these very students in the best companies. But all of this helped me grow as a person. And given a choice, I’d choose to do this again in a heartbeat. Because at the end of the day, that smile when someone gets an offer, that “thank you” after placements are completed, is something that stays with you – and no reward can trump that memory.
Additionally, I have taken part in many other charitable initiatives – including helping out with content for the COVID Art Relief initiative by my IIMK batchmates, participating in the Terry Fox run to raise awareness for cancer, multiple events during my 7-year stint in the scout's program, activities under the SUPW department, and helping the NSS department in my college digitize their work to enable smoother functioning. But working as part of the Placements Committee holds a special place in my heart."
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
"In college, there was an opinion, which became more of an informal rule, that no student from the computer engineering department could become the chairperson of the CSI student chapter, belonging to the IT department. However, I was determined to change that. I had an idea, to create something drastically different from the prevalent atmosphere in college, and for that, I needed the position of chairperson. At the same time, I knew it would not be plain sailing. As such, before the interview process itself, I had a meeting with the HoD of the IT department and talked him into explicitly clarifying that there was no rule discriminating against students of another department with respect to the position of chairperson of the CSI student chapter. Armed with this confirmation, I went into the interview, conducted by senior faculty members of the IT department. They offered me the position of Vice-Chairperson, which, to their surprise, I turned down politely. I laid out my proposal for the committee, and I could see in their eyes that none of the previous interviewees had any such plan. The only thing stopping them from giving me the position was the fact that I was a Computer Engineering student – they would have to confirm with the HoD, but I had already covered that. When the results were released, it resulted in a wave of surprise throughout college. Never before had a Computer Engineering student become chairperson – and yet, unmistakably, my name was up on the notice board – as chairperson of the CSI Student Chapter.
With this position, I conceptualized, created, and led a team of 53 students to organize Mumbai's first Inter-collegiate hackathon. This was my college's first overnight event, requiring written permissions from the principal to the SVKM Management, the trust with ownership of colleges including mine, NMIMS, Mithibai College, etc., wherein no overnight events (including Industrial Visits) were ever allowed. Getting that permission was the first of many tasks.
I collaborated, for this event with the Computer Society of India, Mumbai. I shortlisted 16 other colleges to approach, as a start. I went all around Mumbai, personally contacting other chairpersons of the CSI Student Chapters of their respective colleges, to sell my idea, and convince them to come on board with it. I managed to win over all of them to send three teams each, to represent their college at our event. Additionally, working hard with the faculty members, I managed to balance the budget over the long term, to enable this hackathon to be free of cost – one of the first to do so.
There was resistance by other colleges, who had their reservations. There was resistance by the faculty members to manage an overnight event. There was hesitance from the principal to approve such an event. There were obstacles by the teachers and Head of Department of Computer Engineering initially since the CSI Student chapter functioned under the purview of a rival department in my college. But my propensity to use the power of speaking honestly, helped me accomplish these tasks and overcome all the obstacles.
The final moment of victory, though, was when Uber called us themselves to sponsor our event. That was a moment of jubilation and triumph. We finally did successfully pull it off, an event that even my own team had firmly believed could never happen. The magnitude of this event ensured that I was asked to help two other colleges to set up their overnight hackathon as well!"
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?
"For me, this would be a combination of 3 things: Software Engineering (IT), Formula 1, and TEDx.
Software Engineering: Even though academics are probably not the best measure for skill in technology, I did check that box when I ranked first across Mumbai University (encompassing more than 70 engineering colleges). I won multiple hackathons and coding events across the city (Mumbai), stood 3rd in state-level project competition and won the best project award in college. Additionally, as chairperson of the CSI student chapter, I helped digitize the workings of the NSS by initiating a technical partnership with them.
It was around the third year of college, when I initiated that technical partnership, and organized Mumbai’s first intercollegiate hackathon when my interests began moving from actually coding to have more of a managerial inclination towards IT. This was because I realized that only as a Product Manager could I have the ability to make an impact – such that each (well thought out) decision I make, can have an impression on millions of users! And thus, this was the field I wanted to build a career in. As a result, I decided to go for an MBA, and leave the “super-dream” job I had in hand to be able to become a Product Manager. Things have a way of working out, and they did, for me, and I had my (MBA) summer internship at Citrix as their first Product Manager intern, globally. And finally, on June 1, 2020, I became Citrix’s youngest Product Manager after securing a PPO, and thereby, realized my dream.
TEDx: In the process of organizing my college’s first TEDx event, I undertook a ton of research. I had to go through a maze of webpages on the TED website to go through the seemingly endless set of rules, before the application process, which itself consisted of written submissions, quizzes, etc., culminating in a Skype interview with TED representatives. With the help of my co-organizer, I created a team from scratch and ensured intra-college publicity of unprecedented levels. The most crucial field of work, however, was the selection of speakers and their speech content for the event, i.e., curation. I was the Chief Curator of the team and actively partook in these activities as well. Managing speakers, their speech, and their schedules, while watching over a hundred TED and TEDx talks in the process, ensuring that I gained some expertise, both in terms of knowledge for organizing the event, and in terms of the wisdom various eminent speakers on the TED platform had to offer."
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?
"Of course, a lot of this answer would depend on the prevailing circumstances. However, overall, I would invest $4 million in stocks and bonds ($2 million each), for the long run. I would invest $3 million in real state or gold, depending, again, on which choice would have a greater probability of yielding more profits, given the circumstances. I would spend half a million dollars in immediate “upgrades” for my family and I. Finally, I’d pitch in a $2.5 million effort for the betterment of society, by donating to various causes, and funding educational grants after thorough research – I strongly believe that no deserving student should be robbed of an opportunity due to financial reasons – and I hope to make a meaningful contribution in this aspect – irrespective of whether I win a $10 million lottery or not."
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