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.
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction. - John F. KennedyDuring my engineering days, I was an active member of a number of clubs and societies, primarily the Youth Club of my college. As a result of my involvement in such societies, I was very much intrigued by the management side of every club and wanted to know as to how people from various backgrounds came in and worked for a common goal. As a matter of fact, I had started considering an MBA in HRM as my desired career path, and had simultaneously started preparing for CAT 2019 in my final year. Meanwhile, during my campus placements, I bagged a core-offer from an International Construction Firm headquartered in Sydney and was given the Dubai project. Initially, I was mighty pleased with this job offer and was looking forward to moving to Dubai.But then, after a month I started having second thoughts. While the idea of moving to Dubai did excite me, yet I was not sure if that was actually the right call for me. I knew for the fact that I was more interested in the job location than the role itself. Moreover, moving to Dubai in itself was supposed to be quite a decision because that way, CAT would have become a distant dream. After enough contemplation and deliberation, I finally decided to take CAT 2019 (which meant letting go of the lucrative job offer that I had) and pursue something that I really wanted. This decision, however, was not an easy one to take by any means.Now, looking back in retrospection, sitting here and pursuing an MBA from MDI Gurgaon, I can safely assume that I took the right decision of going for CAT 2019. This not only increased my risk-appetite, but also helped me believe in the fact that great things can come along your way if you are willing to try and go out of your comfort zone.
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 don't know if this incident was purely a selfless act, but it's surely something that I feel had to be done at that point in time. I was in Gurgaon recently and was going to a restaurant with a friend of mine to get some dinner. We had booked an Uber Auto and were on our way to the restaurant. When we were passing through a secluded street, we heard feeble cries of pain coming from somewhere. We looked around to see that two bikers were lying on the road, drenched in a pool of blood.We immediately asked the auto driver to stop the rickshaw, and then we hurried towards them. Upon talking to them briefly, we learnt that the two of them were brothers and had a severe collision with an electric pole on their way. As a matter of fact, the one who was driving was critically injured and was not able to breathe properly. It was also evident to us that the two brothers were in an inebriated state, and hence, were not in their proper senses.Soon, looking at us, people had started to crowd up and it was leading to a commotion. Without further ado, we (with the help of the crowd that had gathered) transferred the two injured bikers to our auto-rickshaw so that they can be taken to a nearby hospital. The driver, however, was more concerned about the ongoing trip that we had booked with him. He opined that firstly, he will be deviating from the initial drop location, and secondly, he will have to bear a loss since there wont be anyone to compensate him for the trip (given that we were going to pay him via cash for the trip).Given the time crunch, we asked him to leave for the hospital immediately assuring him that we will pay him back for the trip, no matter what. Once he left, we booked ourselves another Uber and after reaching the restaurant, we communicated with the driver using the Chat Feature on Uber App. We asked him for his UPI details and paid him back the entire fare (from our pick-up point to the hospital). We also offered him a few bucks extra, which he, however, politely declined to accept.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
During my Summer Internship with Tata Sky, one of the projects that I was entrusted with involved a lot of internal benchmarking, where I had to conduct several one-on-one interviews across regions, grades and departments in order to understand the internal perspectives and expectations of employees in the organization. The initial plan of the management was to identify a few employees from each region, grade and department and gather their insights on the survey. However, after conducting a few interviews, I realized that there is a lot that needs to be figured out, and speaking to only a few internal stakeholders might not help us address the pressing issue in the best possible manner. Therefore, I devised a strategy and suggested my team to let me conduct a formal and a comprehensive organization-wide survey, besides conducting the scheduled one-on-one interviews. The management, after inspecting the survey designed by me, was very supportive. They gave me a green signal to go ahead and execute the same.This strategy not only helped us reach out to a larger focus group, but at the same time, helped us get better and genuine insights in the form of numbers and statistics, which would have otherwise been difficult to achieve had we touched upon only a select group of employees.
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 honestly believe that I am still too young to claim any level of expertise in any given field or domain. However, one thing that I feel to be reasonably good at is Content Writing. I have a very keen interest in writing blogs and have published many featured articles. This actually has a lot to do with the fact that I am a passionate follower of Sports (Cricket in particular), and I really like penning my thoughts down on the same in my free time.During my undergrad, I freelanced with a media agency called CricFit, which is one of the fastest-growing cricket websites in India and covers news and all the happenings in the cricketing field across the globe. During this stint, I covered various facets of the game such as IPL, International Cricket, and penned down my analysis on the same. Prior to joining MDI, I joined Rubeus Consultancy as a Content Writer and published a plethora of blogs where the primary focus was on graduate admission tests such as CAT, GMAT, GRE, etc. Back in those days, this was very useful to me as well since I was preparing for CAT myself. Currently, I am a senior team member of the HR Direction club at MDI Gurgaon, where I am a part of the Content and Editorial Team and am primarily responsible for drafting, compiling and generating relevant content for HRd magazines and newsletters revolving around the field of Human Resources.This, in a way, has helped me to hone my writing skills tremendously, and therefore, be more cognizant of the things going in and around me.
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?
10 million dollars is indeed a huge sum of money, and can certainly help one bring about a momentous change in ones lifestyle. If given this corpus, this is how Id go about it:Investing/Personal Security: I would invest about 40 Crores in long-term equities with constant dividends, gold and real estate to profound my personal wealth. This will go a long way in bolstering the financial security of me and my family.Travel: Being an avid traveller and having a keen interest in learning about different cultures and ethnicities of the world, I would use another 10 Crores to sponsor my and my family's/my friends travelling expenses across the continents. Also, I would rather travel as a bag packer (at times) than stay in lavish hotels, because backpacking enables you to experience the local culture more transparently. Social Welfare: My mother runs a local social welfare initiative wherein she, along with her friends, donate clothes, cereals, blankets, food items, basic electrical appliances, etc to orphans and senior citizens of a neighbouring village who cannot meet their basic human needs. I would be more than happy to help her in this noble cause by donating an approximate sum of 10 Crores to fund the education of all these underprivileged children and provide a decent lifestyle to the senior citizens of not just one, but many villages nearby. Family: I would hand over the remaining sum (approximately 13.5 Crores) to my family members i.e., my mom, my dad and my sister for their personal disposal.
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