Door-to-Door Campaigning For 1000 Voters Led Me To Student Council -Isha Mittal, IIM C, InsideIIM's Best 30

"I am a second-year student at IIM Calcutta who’ll be joining BCG in the coming summer. I’m also a qualified CA with articleship from PwC and experience of 18 months spread over banking and wealth management. I enjoy interacting with people and traveling to new places. A solo backpacking trip I took through Europe last year was an eye-opener. I have a blog where I talk about recondite but pertinent issues. I also love cooking and have an Instagram food blog. Good novels have the ability to make my day. The most thing for me is my family."

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.

I am a Chartered Accountant. I barely attended college during graduation due to articleship commitments. As a result, I’m very comfortable in a professional work environment however, college dynamics are extremely different. Socializing and events form a huge part of life here against work-life where projects and teams are of utmost importance. As the student council elections were announced, the post of External Relations Secretary really appealed to me. However, I was skeptical since I hadn’t held any leadership positions during my academic life. The rules of the election commission forbid campaigning through social media or in presence of groups. This meant that door-to-door campaigning for more than 1000 voters was the only choice, of course with help of friends to influence others. The idea of such a task seemed daunting along with the judgment that the council is subject to every term. Add to that, the fact that the majority of the work falls during the internship with the onboarding of the incoming batch. In spite of all this, I thought that I should give myself a chance, and even if I lose, I’ll still be at peace with myself because at least, I would have tried. I then consulted multiple seniors and with their guidance prepared my manifesto. My campaign plan had inputs from my friends and seniors. I executed it and won a very competitive post. I didn’t expect it to happen but it taught me to take more risks on myself!

When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.

I’m not sure if this counts as a selfless act since it’s a part of the culture at Joka, but I’m sure, some spend more time than others on this. Summer placements for the junior batch are just around the corner. The preparation however has been going on for the last two months. From CV Preparation to Mock GDs, consult cases, guidance on aiming for sectors and companies, moral support, and guiding through specific company processes, placement activities have consumed significant time lately. I tend to be accessible to more PGP1s since they’ve been interacting with me for over six months before the college began. The popularity of consulting as a preferred sector also has a role to play (BCG PPO holder). I’ve spent around 20 hours every week since they began. The spike was during CV prep where I spent around 75 hours with PGP1s. It gets extremely stressful along with the course work, case comps, other extracurriculars, and home responsibilities. I feel that although we don’t get anything from this directly, it is sure to aid in maintaining the Joka culture and help future batches in the placement process.

Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?

As heads of ER Cell, my colleague and I have to allocate mentors to students who have been shortlisted for the interview process at IIM Calcutta. We both had different approaches on which parameters are more important while matching the mentors. Since most of the students are engineers, that’s where most of the deliberation went. He thought that stream should be given priority over the college since interview questions can be stream specific. However, in my view, college was more important than the stream since each college is viewed differently and college-specific questions would then be difficult to tackle. In this case, we arrived at a consensus by making groups and keeping similar colleges together. Between these colleges, we gave streams more importance. In this way, both the problems were solved since both and genuine arguments and logic backing their claim.

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?

I believe my strength lies in communication. While I was doing my articleship with PwC, I was fortunate to work with partners directly on proposals for multiple clients. I also managed the web page for Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services Group (CMAAS), PwC. During this time, my seniors coached me on the granularities of preparing presentations and delivering them. I found this to be a huge help when I joined MBA. I make excellent PowerPoint presentations. My presentations are precise, graphical, and allow the speaker to build a narrative with the slides. I have a sense of design that also aids the visual presentation. My internship with BCG further helped me understand the concept of “so what?” that each slide is supposed to answer and storyboarding before starting a deck. I am able to apply all my learnings to prepare fluid and aesthetic presentations. I am able to take advantage of my decks as supports while delivering a presentation.

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?

I would want to set up a residential school where children are incorporated into the system starting from the ripe age of four until they complete graduation. Children belonging to families below the poverty level or poor/ abusive households would be given the opportunity to study here. I believe that education is the only way to break inter-generational poverty. I would set up the school with initial funding of Rs. 10 Cr. I would allocate Rs. 20 Cr. in an endowment fund (Rs. 10 crores for start-ups and remaining in cash-generating securities) which focuses on social start-ups, the cash flow from which would be used to run this school and make it independent. In due time, when students graduate, based on the values taught to them, they would give back to society and continue the butterfly effect. This is inspired by the Shanti Bhavan Project. I would allocate Rs. 10 Cr. to set up a research center for Cancer in association with the central government or build a facility where people can take cheap treatment. Again, to make this sustainable, I would set up a trust with Rs. 15 Cr as an initial corpus. I would use the remaining Rs. 15 Cr. to set up a grass-root level program through which people in poverty struck areas are taught basic sanitation habits through community centers and given an opportunity to make themselves employable with vocational training. I would use the remaining Rs. 5 Crore to secure my future and help out family members who are in need.

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