“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” – John C Maxwell.
At 24, a lot of my peers have decided to settle down in life with their well-paying jobs and life-partners. At this stage, the decision to return to education and be the first MBA aspirant from my family wasn’t easy. What was even harder was convincing myself that investing in my career isn’t a gamble even though I am the only child in my family and it has been 5 years since my father retired. Making things harder, is the norm in the society of daughters getting married by twenty-four. No prizes for guessing I'm turning twenty-four this year. The toughest part wasn’t even leaving my job or convincing my parents of my career choice. It was convincing my extended family of my decision of joining a B-School now.
I was campus placed at Allegion India Pvt Ltd, in Bengaluru in 2017. I was already working in Bengaluru by then due to my internship with a B-2-B market place now known as Avysh, as a part of my final year project. That was the start of my financial independence.
I have 2 years of experience in Specification Writing for Allegion India for which I was trained on the job for three months in Dubai. This exposure landed me projects from several verticals like Educational Institutions, Healthcare Facilities, Transportation Facilities, and Military Holdings. I have also appreciation from the Vice President of Allegion EMEIA for playing a pivotal role in penetrating the Polish market through one of my projects. Apart from performing my day to day tasks as a specification writer, I had also taken up the additional responsibility of reporting glitches and coming up with suggestions to improve the user experience of the in-house developed tool for Specification Writing. I came first in my team in the training that was held to familiarise us with the usage and benefits of the tool Overtur, giving me the chance to pitch Overtur to our clients at its launch in the Middle East market.
Managing this was possible due to my active involvement in extra-curricular activities while also balancing my academic performance. While traveling a 108km each day as a day scholar during engineering, I stood third in the Civil Engineering batch of 2013 – 2017 at NMAMIT, Nitte. Along with representing and winning for my college at various inter-college fests, I have also organized events, been an active contributor to my college’s magazine and went on to become the Magazine Editor for my department as well. I also assisted the social outreach club at college and helped them collaborate with an external NGO to raise funds on various occasions. My biggest achievement was winning the Prime Minister’s Scholarship, all four years of my engineering for being a meritorious student throughout the course. I used this scholarship to pay half of my college fees, hence reducing the monetary burden on my parents. I was awarded the best outgoing student of my class for both years of pre-university for striking the right balance between scholastic and noncollegiate activities at a State Level. I am also the recipient of Certificate of Merit from Central Board of Secondary Education and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan for my CGPA-10 during my 10th Standard.
I believe that my experience as a Specification Writer, an intern at Avysh, an intern at IISC and NITK for my summer internships, an organizer, a student, and all other roles that I have played has made me confident of taking up this course.
These were opportunities that presented themselves to me at various stages of my academic and professional career. Not giving it a genuine shot would mean letting go of a chance to grow. All these put together triggered my inclination towards management education. Me not taking a decision to pursue it would mean not doing justice to all my past efforts. It would imply I am falling prey to the “log kya kahenge” phrase by getting married and becoming the “ideal” daughter that fit society's standards.
The biggest challenge in our country is to stop the neighbour, the cousin’s mother and the father’s boss from making decisions for you. It can be very overwhelming when the public opinion (literally) is always the opposite of what you have decided for yourself. Fighting these baseless notions and convincing only the ones that really matter (my parents in this case) is the toughest thing you may have to do. I truly believe in not letting yourself be bogged down by any of these factors, not when you have worked hard to get where you are today. I believe,
Let the world keep speaking and let your work speak for itself.
