Challenges, hurdles, adversities have been an old friend. From a chaotic joint family environment, dissolution of dad’s business, losing our family home, moving into a small 2-bedroom hall kitchen flat, loosing my dad and building our family again I have experienced it all. But I would like to share something that happened with me very recently.
Leaving my job and preparing for CAT was one of the biggest risk I had ever taken. But the risk and the hard work paid off, I didn’t secure an outstanding score but a descent score of 88.59%ile. I got shortlisted for TAPMI, KJ Somaiya, GIM and Nirma. Nirma was as low as I was willing to go and going below that did not make any sense to me. Among the colleges I was shortlisted in TAPMI was my 1st preference and incidentally TAPMI was the 1st to conduct its selection process among the colleges that shortlisted me.
The D-day had arrived. I reached Mumbai for my interviews, the group discussion goes well, team building exercise goes well. Now was the time for the interviews, we had been informed earlier that there will be separate interviews for all the programs offered by TAPMI (PGDM-Core, PGDM-BKFS, PGDM-MSM, PGDM-HR). And I had applied for PGDM-Core and PGDM-BKFS. First up PGDM-Core interview – I enter the room greet the panellists, introduce myself and one of the panellist questions me based on my S.O.P., I could not answer, and that’s when the interview started going south. As the interview progressed I got more and more nervous and gave more and more vague answers. This was by far one of the worst interviews I had ever given. Finally, it got over. I came out and learned that I had only half an hour until my PGDM-BKFS interview. I was completely devasted for jeopardizing my chances of getting into the B school I wanted to get in, I was shattered. Contemplating on how can I get out of this? How can I over turn this situation? I sat in a corner, collected myself, my thoughts, encouraged myself telling ‘you have hit the bottom, there is only one way from here and that’s up. What’s done is done, and you don’t have any control over the outcomes of your previous actions, but you can change the outcomes of what is yet to happen, focus! Focus! FOCUS! You can do it.’ I regained some confident. I entered the PGDM-BKFS interview room, ended up being the most confident interview I had ever given. One of the best I had ever given. Result? Got selected in the first list of PGDM-BKFS, was waitlisted in PGDM-Core and eventually converted PGDM-Core as well. And finally joined TAPMI the best choice I had and the college I was willing to join.
Also, I would like to mention, I cleared interviews of all the subsequent colleges that had shortlisted me.
