A US $44.3 billion corporation, the Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. With operations spread across 34 countries, the Group has a 120,000+ employee base, belonging to 42 different nationalities. The Aditya Birla Group is a world leader in aluminium rolling, viscose staple fibre, and carbon black production. It is also the fourth largest producer of insulators, one of the top 4 cement producers (excluding China) and is the second largest telecom company in the world. Over 50 per cent of the Group's revenues flow from its overseas operations. The group has interests in viscose staple fibre, metals, cement (largest in India), viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services. The company was named the AON best employer in India for 2018 - the third time in the last 7 years. The Aditya Birla Group reaches out to 7.5 million people through the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development each year. This is spearheaded by Mrs. Rajshree Birla. It is an Indian
multinational
conglomerate, headquartered in Worli, Mumbai, India.
For me the two groups that have impacted my life are Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Limited and Vodafone Idea Limited. The brands that come under Aditya Birla Fashio and Retail Limited are Pantaloons, Planet Fashion, People, Skult, Style up , Van heusen , Louis philippe , Allen solly, Peter England, Forever 21 and many more.
Being electronics and communication engineer I have always been fascinated by idea of working with Vodafone/Idea. It is leading Telcom Service provider in India. Globally it is at the second position. The marketing strategies , campaigns and advertisements of Idea and Vodafone are so powerful and attractive.
Ever since I passed my HSC examination, I had a dream of joining IIM Ahmedabad (yes, I know what you are thinking). Exactly two years back, I had to take a tough decision either sitting for the placement process or prepare for CAT (as being from an average engineering college you land into very bad or no placements). After my 6th semester, I started preparing for CAT while ignoring placements and academics. Now my college was in Nadiad (Gujarat), a small town which is 40kms from Ahmedabad. I joined weekend coaching classes in Ahmedabad as it was the nearest possible option. Gradually it became very difficult for me to manage classes with my college schedule. I started missing many mock CATs and sessions. It was a very tough time. My college grades were decreasing, results of mocks were not as expected and was also not able to participate in the placement process. Then came the exam time. I had to appear every day for university examination in the week just before CAT 2016. Somehow, I managed to sit for CAT after constantly sleeping 3 hrs/day the whole week. Clearly, I never waited for results and started preparing for CAT 2017.
Having no job in hand, my only goal was to crack CAT 2017. After having a hectic year, I was now getting 24x7 for preparation. Late night group studies became an everyday thing. Doing 5 RCs per day became compulsory as Verbal was my weakest section. It used to take hours to solve difficult DI-LR sets but the feel of accomplishment and happiness that we used to get after solving a set was noncomparable. And then the most interesting section for engineers, Quant section. Yes, I knew that I was good at quant but still I used to solve questions for hours and hours. It became a kind of addiction. I started following many news channels and magazines for Current affairs and General Knowledge. Giving mocks and trying new strategies every time was very important. Then came the D-day. Again, due to little anxiety and pressure didn’t do well but managed to get call from good institutes. Due to low percentile I had to perform very well in Interview process and I did. I managed to impress the interviewers every time.
24th May, the day when IIM Rohtak was going to announce its 1st merit list. I got waitlisted. The number was very less which could have got cleared in next list itself (But having such bad luck in recent past, I was so sure that I would not be able to convert while thinking that there might be large number of buffer calls). So, on 29th May 2018, I got a mail from admissions team stating that I was selected for PGP 2018-20. I couldn’t believe the mail. I remember asking everybody to read whether it was true or not. I even immediately went to my mentor to show and finally when he said “yes, it’s true”, I believed it. Still the next 2 days went thinking whether I really got an IIM or it’s just a dream from which I will wake up anytime. I know it sounds a little crazy but this is what you feel when you have not converted any other IIM or any good institute.
During my year gap after graduation I tried to explore different fields and aspects of management. Also, from my past experiences I got inclined towards Marketing. I also did some small courses online and found them very much interesting. Being from an engineering background this field be very different and completely new for me. I want to gain as much knowledge as I can during this two years, by given case studies and assignments in classes to live projects opportunities that we will get. Also, being a fresher getting into the everyday routine will be challenging. I am really looking forward to joining IIM Rohtak.