Dreams change; if it doesn’t then you should - Vivek Gupta, SIBM Pune

After my 10^th, the dream of becoming a cricketer changed to dream of becoming an engineer. I was too novice to wonder if becoming an Engineer is worth dreaming. I was an average student, who stood in the top 5 out of 30 but never came into top 3 of my class. Despite all odds, I cleared the Bansal IIT JEE coaching class entrance exam and got the maximum marks among my other two friends who used to be top 3.

The life in KOTA took off. A new city, with a new dream of becoming an IITian. After two years, I performed badly in IIT JEE. I retook the exam after dropping for one more year but still I wasn’t able to crack IITJEE. I was having some luck that I scored great marks in COMEDK and got rank of 1265 out of 2 lakhs candidate. Eventually I joined PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore. It was ranked 37 among engineering colleges in India, which is better than many NITs and had better placement record compared to new IITs.  College life made me realize the small size of nutshell, in which I was living in. New friends, new environment, new fashion, new technology and also a new dream. An ambition to work in the best company. Eventually I joined Rotaract Club and got chance to organise various events. It was something worth to write on my resume. I got selected for an IT company, the day before our farewell in my college.  My cgpa was below average in my class but ironically the package I got, was among the top 30% of the college.

 After 3 years in my company, I tried my luck to crack entrance exams for B-school. Despite having a weak academic background and not great resume, I’m here writing from the hostel of                  SIBM,Pune – one of the top 20 B-schools in India. My dream did change again. This time, of becoming an Operations manager in a big company. Hopefully after two years, when I look at this article, I will be able to say- the dream is here and I need to dream bigger now.