I Got 1st Place In A Radio Jockeying Competition - Shashwat Dharmadhikari, XLRI Jamshedpur, InsideIIM’s Best 30

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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.

In my undergraduation, I was selected from my institute to become the campus ambassador by IIM Indore for executing promotions & marketing campaigns for IRIS 2016 – the annual cultural and management fest of IIM Indore. As a single point of contact, my job was to spread awareness and bring registrations for the fest from my UG institute. For Drona - a unique mentorship event designed for undergraduate students, the first round was a national level online aptitude-based quiz which was scheduled on the day when midterm examinations were scheduled in my college. Initially, there was apprehension among students for registering due to time constraints. To overcome this challenge, I created a buzz about the event on my college social media groups, did direct marketing by personally announcing the details of the events in different classes, and modified my sales script by keeping more emphasis on the perks of participation. All these efforts helped me to generate maximum registrations and I became the best campus ambassador in a network of 350+ campus ambassadors in the country. Also, I received a trophy and a Letter of Recommendation from IIM Indore for successfully executing marketing campaigns.

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

The level of education in India is the one socio-economic issue that I am most concerned about. I believe that all other socio-economic problems can be solved by providing good education to the children belonging to underprivileged communities. During my 3-year volunteering stint with Gramiksha – an NGO that works in the fields of community development, child welfare, education, and literature, I got an opportunity to be the head of Project Street Meet aimed at providing the meaning of education & learning to the underprivileged children. As a part of the project, our team visited various slums to map out the situation of street kids in Indore. We addressed basic issues like sanitation and hygiene by providing knowledge to them. We identified children who were not attending school and counseled them to shift their boundaries up to schooling. We got these children admitted to nearby schools and also kept a check whether they continue to go to school or not.

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

In my journey from engineering in Indore to an MBA from XLRI, I have strived to achieve the best results in anything I take up. In my final year of engineering, I was preparing for the MBA entrance examinations. It was a challenging task to manage both engineering examinations and entrance preparations at the same time. My friends were apprehensive about whether I will be able to manage successfully or not. I decided to prove their apprehensions wrong by targeting top scores in engineering and high percentile in MBA entrance exams. With persistent hard work and stretching my limits, I became the mechanical branch topper and secured a high percentile in both CAT and XAT. I was awarded a gold medal by the college director in recognition of having achieved the highest percentage of marks in Bachelor of Engineering in a batch of 120 mechanical engineering students. Also, I was awarded the Chancellor Scholarship 2015 by the Governor of Madhya Pradesh.

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?

Radio is an integral part of my life. Be it long hours of traffic, or maybe just day-to-day chores or a jog, just switching on the radio adds life to my mundane routines. As a music lover, the job of a Radio Jockey (RJ) and their spontaneous, pleasant, friendly personality always fascinated me. My developing interest in radio jockeying encouraged me to participate in a radio reality show organised by a leading FM channel in Indore. Fortunately, I got selected in the top 30 finalists among 10,000+ audition takers after multiple rounds of screening. As a part of the radio reality show, I got a chance to go on-AIR with a famous RJ in Indore. This experience motivated me to learn and develop radio jockeying skills. In my leisure time, I started reading books on radio jockeying and closely observed how RJs engage their listeners with their voice and selection of words. With time, I developed decent Radio Jockeying skills and secured 1st position among Top-25 finalists in a Radio Jockeying Competition. My past experience in radio jockeying helped me to develop a spontaneous, pleasant, friendly personality with good people management skills which helped me during my MBA at XLRI.

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?

Personal (₹ 20 Cr)