Sandeep Kumar Mohanty is a current student at IIM Bangalore. He scored 99.69%ile in CAT’19 Before joining IIM Bangalore. He worked with the Odisha government as a Revenue Officer for 30 months. He was also selected as Income Tax inspector for govt of India
So, Sandeep, how was the IIM Bangalore experience so for?
It is indeed very different and exciting. Considering my background, it is a completely new experience. For the initial few months, it was a challenge, the academic rigour and competition was something I was away for a good part of the last four or five years, so getting a hold of this was challenging. But now it feels routine. My learning curve has become steeper and I understand things better now. It a kind of saying, when I was clear I wanted to change the world, no I am wise so I want to change myself!
Why did you opt for an MBA when you had a good government job?
My upbringing has a lot to do with it. Born and brought up in rural areas and educated in local rural schools, a successful career meant a government job. But after a few years into the job and exploring other opportunities MBA seemed a good option to boost my career. MBA teaches corporate management and business and it’s a degree with no prerequisite for age, academics, etc and hence it fits in well. But I just didn’t want to do an MBA, I wanted to do it from one of the top ten colleges of India as the return on investment and career growth were better from my previous job. Likely I got IIM Bangalore.
How do you see now your decision of doing an MBA, and what are your plans after MBA?
Right now, I can say that I made a good choice. I will admit that I was not expecting a lot out of the degree, but into the first year of MBA, I realized the experience and learning an MBA environment provides is worth the time and financial investment. As of now, my plan is to work for 4-5 year then I will think about doing something else.
What are your suggestions for students from vernacular medium targeting MBA in the future?
The journey will be very tough. CAT or GMAT will be tough and MBA will be even tougher. But at the end of the day with an MBA you will be in a better position with it.
For CAT, plan well in advance. Most of the vernacular students are weak in English. So, a long term plan is beneficial. If you can not get into your desired Bschool right after college, find a good job and work on it over a few years. Read newspapers, magazines, and books, give mock tests and be regular and diligent at it. Concentrate more on VARC and DILR sections and try to score evenly throughout sections (if you score 99 percentile in all sections your overall will be above 99.5 percentile).
And last but not least don’t lose hope and pursue your dreams.
