1. I was 2nd in the overall merit list in IIM Indore at the time of admission and I am ranked 6th in the batch currently. I am the only one from the original list of top 20 students at the time of admission who is still ranked in the top 20 after 4 terms.
2. I was the first student to be placed during summer internship and was also offered the best role on campus which was present on campus.
3. I was among the few who did not just run after PORs for the sake of making my resume look better in the first year. I had no POR during my first year at IIM Indore. During my second year, after figuring out better, what things interested me, I got involved in extra curricular activities of my choice.
What have you done in your life that you are the most proud of?
The proudest moment of my life was my selection as a Technology Analyst at Goldman Sachs during my 4th year of Computer Engineering at Delhi College of Engineering. It was a very coveted role on campus and was also the first company I sat for with almost 350 other students as applicants. Getting selected for the role after the tough selection process and the happiness and pride of my family members marks it as my most important achievements.
My selection at Goldman Sachs helped me regain my confidence in my abilities and skills as a computer engineer. I was running a bit low on confidence prior to the placement season. This was because I had not done very well during the summer internship process which happens in the 3rd year of engineering. My failure in landing a very good internship motivated me to put in more efforts and hone my technical abilities.It highlighted the fact that there were many others who had made better use of their time at DCE and I would need to work really hard if I wanted to catch up in the final placements. My confidence in myself was further shaken up when I used to see my peers and friends getting good internships and me being rejected.
I made a very strong resolve that I would not let the same happen to me during my final placements. I worked very hard for that 1 year and getting selected into Goldman Sachs was the fruit of my effort. The entire episode taught me humility and also reinforced my belief in the importance of hard work and in maintaining faith in oneself during tough times.
If there was one good aspect about your school that you could take back after you graduate -
One aspect about IIM Indore that I am very proud off is the encouragement to diversity that I see on my campus. This diversity is seen in terms of ideas, backgrounds, gender and geographies. We have students from all across India and that has given me the opportunity to get a glimpse of the way of life in different parts of India and also to respect ways and habits that maybe different from what I have been used to. Additionally, when you have people from very diverse backgrounds, you also see many new ideas and ways of thinking. The system in IIM Indore is such that this diversity of thought and ideas is encouraged. We are given the freedom to express ourselves as well as listen to others' viewpoints both inside the classroom and outside.
I feel that in the globalised environment that we are part of, appreciating and encouraging diversity is very important for any kind of innovation and success. It also helps to expand one's own thinking and enrich one's own personality when you are exposed to so many different ideas. Hence, appreciation of diversity is what I would like to carry back with me from IIM Indore.
4) If there was one thing that you could change about your business school, it would be -
One thing that I would like to see changed at IIM Indore would be an increase in the number of resident faculty members and reduction in the dependence on visiting faculty members.
Currently we have a number of visiting faculty members for the Finance courses specially in the 2nd year. Some of them are industry stalwarts with many years of hands on experience while others are renowned professors at other premier B schools. While studying from them is very enlightening, I still feel that the connect that students are able to form with resident faculty members is better. They are always available for any doubt clearing or idea sharing on campus while the same is not true with visiting faculty members. At times, they maybe very difficult to reach when their help is required the most. (exam times!! ).
Also resident faculty members can take up initiatives to improve the education imparted on campus while visiting faculty members may not get as involved because of the temporary nature of their involvement.
Thus I would want to see more and more of our courses being floated by our own faculty members and only a few exceptionally good courses not available on campus to be taught from outside.
If you had to open a rival social network to Facebook, what would it be like?
One of the things I would do differently than Facebook would be the handling of user data. Currently Facebook uses customer data for displaying relevant advertisements to them. Also, the New Feed which is the activity of our friends' visible to us is filtered by Facebook . I would want my social networking sight to not pass on the user data to any third party firm to earn advertisement revenue. I would not share user data with anybody else. I would not want to use my social networking site for any kind of manipulation.
My revenue model would be revenue from a very nominal signing up fee and not advertisement revenue earned by selling user data. Additionally I would try to follow Wikipedia which has come up with such a good service that people voluntarily contribute to it. They are able to collect donations from users who genuinely appreciate the idea which helps them sustain their operations. I would also want my product to be so good that people willingly contribute to it.
Lastly I would let users have some tools to be able to customise how their profile looks as a better reflection of who they are. This is different from Facebook where everybody's profile looks the same. In my social networking site, users would be able to choose different themes or even create their own themes to make their profile look the way they want it to look like. I would like my site to be a place where people can connect with each other and celebrate their lives.
Who are you - Express yourself
I am a happy go lucky and talkative person. I find it very easy to strike up a conversation with people of all age groups and am able to keep them engaged.
I am also an avid reader and spend a lot of my free time reading books. I would have read more than 1200 books to date. My favourite author is Ayn Rand for her novels: the 'Atlas Shrugged' and 'Fountainhead'. I specially like her focus on how an individual must stick to his convictions under all circumstances. Other favourites include 'Gone with the Wind' for its beautiful depiction of the strengths and short comings of human beings and how situations change different people differently bringing out the best or worst in people.
I am also very fond of travelling. My father is an Army officer and that gave me the opportunity to travel to many remote border areas of India. Additionally during my 1 year stint at Goldman Sachs, I visited New York and tried to cover as much of the East Coast as possible including Washington DC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlantic City, Niagara Falls. I also had the opportunity to visit London during my summer internship at Deutsche Bank.
I have studied in 7 different schools but did my entire schooling from Class 3 onwards in Mater Dei School, Delhi. The convent education that I received and the values I learnt from my family have instilled a deep sense of respect for hard work in me.
I am driven to do very well in life and make full use of all opportunities available to me. This would give meaning to my life and make me a contributing member of the country.
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