It all started with me getting placed in a PSU during my campus placements. Excited as I was to have finally gotten a job, somewhere at the back of the mind I knew that the job wasn’t for me. Never ever thought of working in the public sector due to various reasons. Nevertheless, I took it.
First six months at the job went extremely well. We all were made to undergo a training program which was no less than paid vacations .The company sponsored trips for us to the north – to places like Hrishikesh, Tehri Dam, Roorkie, Haridwar etc. It let us experience adventure sports like river-rafting, bridge-slithering, rappelling, cliff-jumping and many more activities. To sum it up, life in those days couldn’t have been better.
However, everything changed since the day we were allotted our final postings. All of a sudden, I found myself in the middle of a small place in M.P. which I believe is still 10-15 years behind its time. No proper roads, no connectivity; leave alone places to go out and eat ! This place is an urbanite’s nightmare. And as if this wasn’t enough, superiors and colleagues (most of them) turned out to be equally dismal and disappointing and so did my work. All in all, future looked dark and gloomy.
I began thinking of options to get out of this place and was confused between MS or MBA. Did a lot of introspection and finally zeroed it on to MS. Yeah, you read that right – MS ! MBA was rejected more on the grounds of low percentages which would have hampered my chances at any of the old IIMs – the only schools I wanted to pursue my MBA from. Thereafter, I started my preparation for GRE in full steam, cutting down on my sleep, making full use of the lunch breaks to revise those words and could finally manage a score of 1440/1600. Was really glad that my efforts paid off and I continued with the apping process balancing between writing my SOP, researching universities and my work which reinvigorated me towards MS each day. Also, in the meantime, I took my stint at the CAT just to test the waters and scored 96.xx. Nevertheless, I was satisfied with my performance and took it in good spirits.
Come Feb-March, I had few admits (MS) in my kitty and I was waiting desperately for the scholarship mail to come through. But, alas, the scholarship mail never came and there went my MS dreams down the drain. I can’t express the sense of dejection and despair I had those days. All the toil and perseverance came to naught ! The dreadful ‘what to do now? ‘ questions started to haunt me every now and then and at times, I felt like running away from my job .
But I didn’t. Instead, I held on and decided to give another shot at CAT this time. The previous years’ 96.xx without preparation had me thinking that if I put in some efforts and prepared this time, I could very well be in the 99.xx club. Hence, I embarked upon my CAT journey with IIMC as my dream school as it gave comparatively less weightage to past academic record. (yeah, I’m pretty much screwed there :sneaky: )
I would come back from work around 8 and used to start studying right away. Day in, day out I followed this routine. So engrossed was I in my preparation that I almost lost touch with the outside world. People at work started ostracizing me and so did some of my college friends. It was that time of the year wherein I put everything I could towards my preparation hoping to get out of that place.
The dreaded day eventually came. I had an above average performance that day. Was hoping for some luck too on the results’ day but fate had something else in store for me – 97.97 ! And again, everything came to a naught ! However this time, having matured a little, I waited before losing my marbles. Few days later, I had calls for the new IIMs and XL (both BM and HR) – wrote XAT and managed 94.69 that year. The disappointment turned into excitement. I started researching on XL and was thoroughly upbeat about it.
Come the interview day and I’m in Delhi with other call getters. Knowing well that my chances of conversion are bleak, I went there with utmost casualness. However, the kind of interaction I had with them ( the professors as well as co-aspirants) made me realize the bubble I was living in at my workplace – so ignorant of the outside world.
I kept thinking about it during my return journey and decided to do the unthinkable – I QUIT MY JOB on April 7th, 2013. Everyone around me told me that I had lost my mind and I would be regretting this throughout my life. But so determined I was that their caveats literally fell on deaf ears. Having given everything to my preparation, I knew well that I couldn’t exert more with this job and would eventually rot if I continued.
I came back to my hometown to live with my parents and started teaching at a local coaching institute. My determination was at its peak so were my efforts. I went through all the process again. However this time, come April 7th, 2014 and I have converted XLRI – BM and HRM both !! Phew, the satisfaction is simply inexplicable. The taste of success after so many failures is entirely different and I can say that from experience :D.
And now when I look back – exactly an year back ? – I know I did the right thing for myself. That’s why I say, ‘Sometimes you gotta take that plunge’ and follow your heart so as to become the master of your fate and the captain of your soul…
Wishing all the luck to future aspirants. Hope my experience inspire you to achieve your goals !