Soumya Ranjan Patra is a first-year MBA candidate at IFMR - GSB Krea University. Here, he talks about the academic achievements that led him to IFMR, key preparation tips for CMAT 2019 and his plans for the future.
Born and brought up in Agra (The land of Taj) I pursued my B.com (Hons.) from Dayalbagh Educational Institute (D.E.I) during which I prepared for my M.B.A entrance exams to enter into a B-school which provides me with an opportunity to grow and shapes my understanding of the corporate world. Hailing from a commerce background IFMR was an obvious and ideal choice for me given my aspirations to pursue a career in finance.
The 81-year-old Father Oswald A J Mascarenhas aka Father Ozzie, as he is lovingly called by everyone, is the JRD Tata Chair Professor of Business Ethics at XLRI. Professor Ozzie did his MBA from Wharton in 1974 and then finished his doctorate in Finance and Marketing from Wharton in 1976. He joined XLRI on December 26, 1976 and was teaching Consumer Behaviour till 1983. He then left XL and joined the University of Detroit Mercy as the Charles H Kellstadt Chair of Marketing and Ethics. After 27 years, he came back again to India in 2010 and continued teaching, first in Mangalore and then in XLRI from 2013.
Close your eyes and imagine a classroom. What do you see? Probably desks, chairs and students being lectured on some subject, let’s say Mathematics, by a professor. What you wouldn’t visualize is probably a bunch of students all standing inside the classroom and indulging in a healthy dose of tai-chi or an insanely noisy room full of students looking around for trinkets and items each of whose names start with a different alphabet.
An MBA is a lot of things for people - a chance to get big bucks, to move up in their careers, to switch their careers, or to simply show the world that they are capable of going out there and achieving something. Everyone's reason is different. But regardless of what your reason might be to do an MBA, it all leads up to one thing - a job.
Arnaz Kaur Ghumman got into TISS to pursue her Master's degree in Human Resource Management and Labor Relations. Interested in management and organizing people on different occasions for different end-goals, Arnaz started learning the trade better at TISS. Through her field works and stints at different companies, she learned the real world of business that helped her understand the subject better.
Now that you are done with CAT, you are probably preparing for the interviews that await you. One of the questions you must’ve encountered very frequently during your preparation, is “Why MBA?” and to be honest, this is the single, most important question you will ever answer. Know this, there is no ideal answer to this question.
CAT just got done! Before I go on, I’d like you to take a moment, take a deep breath, and pat yourself on the back for completing such an amazing achievement! No matter how you did, getting through the CAT is no joke, and it takes an incredible attitude to even take the test. Good job!
