How I landed into PGDM HR @ IMI

" I am now in third year.. with 4th semester's exam getting over on 9th June 2005.. (I survived 3 days back on 6th June 2005, when the ceiling fan in my room fell just beside me, while I was getting ready for my end semester exam of Microprocessor 8085). After the exams the CAT halla started.. everyone was thinking whether they should join a coaching institute or not.. I too was involved in such discussion.. On 14th June 2005, Career Launcher organized a seminar for MITS students on CAT awareness or something like that.. I with Nitin went there... We alongwith about 60 odd students from MITS gathered in a Hotel. I alongwith Nitin reached there 30 minutes prior to the seminar and as we had guessed Ankur (Tiklu) was already there...
the general chat there was as below:
" CL wale bahut paise kharch karte hain na.... sirf ek seminar ke liye itna bada hotel book kar diya.."
" Kam se kam 50 hazaar to lage hi honge.. itna bada seminar hall hai.."
Then came some CL people and gave us some cards which will serve as entry passes... We entered the seminar hall and again the wait continued.. after about 20 odd minutes it started.. Head of CL gwalior, Abhinav Garg started the discussion and went to speak for about 1 hour...then his wife Monika talked for 30 minutes then one more guy.... after which we were given a sheet of paper to write about our strengths and weaknesses, 5 each in 5-7 minutes and as usual we found it difficult to write the same... (these coaching class people know that this is the most difficult thing to do for a to be graduate and hence use it as a tool which never fails... and as usual none of us were able to write them and they announced that here is where we could be of great help and blah blah... they gave us few examples of numericals which could be solved within few seconds and people were like aaahhh, wow, amazing.... (1 year later everyone was master in those skills) So, I would say they all were good sellers and were able to buy nearly 90% of the total supply.. after the boring/inspiring lecture they arranged for lunch as well.. the seminar ended at around 3 pm and I went back with Nitin, only to find that he is now interested in MBA.. wow... I had my decision made even before the seminar and went to the seminar just coz of the fact that the lunch arranged by CL is supposed to be a good one n I wasn't wrong.... Nitin within no time went to CL and deposited the fees.. (Nitin just 2-3 days ago would come to me and had discussed his plans of M.Tech... :P but kudos to Abhinav Garg, who succeeded in getting him interested)
CL classes started a few days later and I joined the morning batch which started at 6 am.. I was quite regular to the classes but not more than Nitin and Tiklu. CL conducted a test in august in which the top 10 candidates from all over India were to get some waiver in fees.
We all sat for the test no at all prepared and then 2-3 days later in the class Abhinav Sir said that we all have done bad except for one student who has impressed him a little bit.. I was praying "God please my name, I promise I would work double harder".. and he announced "Kundan" wowww so I am on right track..may be .. may be not.... I still remained focused but could not hold on to my promise.. was working hard but not doubly hard.. Some info about CL foundation course (when one joins CL 1.5 years prior to sitting in CAT, he/she undergoes foundation course for 6 months.. basics of maths, DI and language are taught.. but these classes really helped me to get accustomed to the basics and fundamentals.. very few students focus on these 6 months.. I was one of them) then came our semester ending exams and 5th term also got over.. I used to study real hard those days.. would spend whole day studying and making notes, solving numericals and doing those parts of the subject which were tougher and normally are left by students..
Came January 2006... new year new resolutions new josh and old hopes... We again joined CL (which closed in November only to give B.E. students time to study coz none of us would study before that)... First class, Abhinav sir took the class, and greeted us with asking some concepts and to his no surprise we all had forgotten them.. we got another lecture on how should we focus and ........... I went to home and again made my diary with time table and milestones to achieve.... Later in january the halla of CAT faded away and placements halla took its place.. we were very apprehensive about the number and quality of companies since there was no communication till jan end.... our seniors had a decent placement last year and that had raised our hopes of the same.. CL was no laggard and they took the opportunity to add a few more students.. they called a seminar again and the same story got repeated.... but I dont know why we the regular CAT batch students were now given coaching for the placements... What used to happen in campus placements classes was nothing but similar but less tougher questions booklets were prepared by CL people and distributed as the important ones for campus placements... those were so pathetic at times that I stopped going to the classes after a few days... A funny incident happened during the same time.... A special class was arranged for students to get mentally and physically fit by CL and I went there only to find that this is a one time affair... We were made to dance and do some exercises and thats it.. Overall those were the free days from CAT preparation. But I somehow and to some extent used those days fruitfully by reading a few books.. I was not regular in reading but used to read 50% of the books and at times the whole book before returning them back to CL library. CL gwalior also had an online library but I guess very few people would know that there was nothing as such.. But Abhinav sir is a dreamer and has visions also and works real hard in achieving them and I respect him for that. The campus placements started in Feb end and I got through the very first company that came to our campus.. The CAT preparation went in a slow motion for a few days coz a lot of students were now in mood to join the company rather than prepare for CAT. I was uncertain to some extent for a few days but later to find that I should go for CAT. Talked to my senior who was to join the same company and he also guided me to work for CAT and try and bell it. By mid April CL classes again got shut off.. and we got preparation leave..??
By May 2006 esams got over and I went for my industrial training at ONGC. I reached there on 1st of June and on the same day IIT JEE results came and my coursin bro Sunny (Abhinav) got through and later on got into IT-BHU. My uncle, who is now Senior Engineer in ONGC took me to his office on the second day of June. He made me to sit in the Ankleshwar office for some time during which I went about to see the warehouse. People over there were very friendly, I asked them about their work and they explained whatever they could.. they offered me to have lunch with them but I declined coz the the place was real dirty.. I really liked the place but would require me some conviction to work in those environments.. In Gujarat too I had my CL material with me and I went about dong my work when everyone was enjoying their summers.. that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoyed my training.. I went to the drilling stations which they call RIGs for approx. 7-8 days and utilized those days to full extent.. I made my report over there and saw every nitty gritty of the RIG functioning during my visits.
By june2006 I was back and CL started.. again on the first day we got the same feedback and Gyan of how to bell the CAT, I again prepared the time table (this time with more conviction and more promises.. later most to be broken). the way forward was going to be tough and more tougher coz of mock series.. The first of the mock tests happened well before the decided date just to give us a feel of the real mock series.. We actually got the taste of what was in store for us in coming feew months. I really became serious bout CAT (really..) Coordinated my thoughts, made some ground rules again a changed time table and started to prepare well. I was dedicated to such an extent that I was one of the few students who were not attending classes in college even to an extent of 50% and preparing at home. I was actually very deidicated during that period. I used to solve the material given by CL, take FLTs keeping the CAT timings in mind almost regularly. Then came mock tests in august.. first mock CAT and I scored 91+ percentile.. hmmm I felt this is a nice beginning... redid my mock once and agian prepared for the second one with more enthu.. second mock the percentile went lower to some 87+ percentile with very low marks in Quant which used to be my foray.. subsequently I scored few good ones and a very few moderate ones... I used to rush to my home to check the scores asap and then would eat lunch.. I scored 99.4 percentile in the 8th mock CAT and was elated to see my performance with all cut-offs cleared I manaaged a good rank in the CL's tops performer's list at 73rd position.. very few from MITS would do that... so I was very proud of myself and became more serious as I saw an opportunity ... a real opportunity.. the 9th mock CAT too gave fruitful results as I again scored a good 98.7 percentile but with a little low marks in quant.. and the 10th was an eye-opener.. I was very sceptical about the last mock and wasn't willling to give the same.. as I feared if it went bad then might affect my preparation... stilll... my friends specially ankur didn't do bad either in mocks and he was one inspiration for me to work harder. I always wanted to over score Ankur and hence more dedication...
Came the D-Day. I reached Bhopal on 18th November at around 8 pm. I already had a hotel room booked in my name coz the hotel was at walking distance from the exam center and it was difficult to get a room before the CAT day so near to the center. Could not sleep till 2 am coz some people in the hotel room close to room were playing the lobby. But still got up early at around 6:30 am and did some light exercises and then got ready for the exam. Took a little light breakfast (infact quite heavy one.. with 2 aloo parathas with curd). Then left for the CAT center, asked the hotel receptionist about the center and the direction and he told the opposite.. but I got some hints coz lot of people were going in the opposite direction and were of the similar age and then I again asked someone who told me go in just the opposite direction. Reached the center about half an hour before the exam time. There were a few of my friends at the center. I took a lone place and sat and gathered my thoughts. Then we were called in and a long line was which I saw and fortunately my exam room was in different direction and I reached there earlier than most.
CAT paper was given and to everyone's surprise it contained only 75 questions (the lowest till date, as far as I remember). I decided to give ample time to questions before moving to the next one.. since the paper had less questions I had an apprehension that quant will be Ultra tough.. I started with the paper and did DI first. I managed to solve 2 caselets in around 30-35 minutes. Moved to Language and solved 1 comprehension (kya solved koshish kiya but managed to answer 2-3 qustions with no confidence !!!) and then solved one more caselet of language. It took me approx. 35 minutes to do that. Then moved to quant with an apprehension that it would be tough. Managed to solve 4-5 questions in no time.. then moved slowly and made sure I did not make any mistake and hence managed to answer 11 questions in 35-40 minutes. Then I again did one comprehension in 15-16 minutes without success. Then came the deadly Judgment question caselet and I decided that I would give it a try. I spent 15-18 minutes in solving them and was very happy after my attempt (later only to find that I solved them all wrong) I guess that was a bad decision since I could have solved 4-5 quant qustions in that time and could have secured some more marks. After doing language I did solve some quant and DI questions and with that ended the paper. I was happy to an extent of 80% and was pretty satisfied. Did not discuss the paper with any of my friends. Came back to my hotel and had my food and saw TV. In news everywhere CAT was the only talk. I came to know that language has been found the real tough one. I after coming back had calculated my score with gut feel to be quant 35, DI 35 and language 30 and was expecting the percentile to be about 97.
I went to the station for my train. Saw a lot of my friends with the solution in their hands. I calculated my score and found that Career forum is giving me 47 in quant, 43 in DI and 14 in language and my percentile to be 98+. My friends were getting very low marks so I was quite satisfied with the result till now. Reached home at 3 am in the morning next day. Mummy was waiting and gave me something to eat. I instantly checked my score by CL. I was getting 52 in Quant (all correct), 38 in DI and 4 in language. I was stunned. such a low score in language would mean that its all over. But had a nice sleep (which I always get, whatever be the situation like). Next day I told Nitin that I am scoring around a 100 in CAT and got to know that there are a lot of students who are scoring more than mine. Reason being they are scoring 65-70 in quant. Now this was bad. I got to know that people have checked their quant and DI score and are scoring well above 100. the CAT paper helped candidates who are good in maths and have gone to give CAT only for mere pleasure, score good. I know several of them who did not even bother to look at language have scored same score to that of mine. I opened pagalguy to discuss CAT paper, I was addicted to pagalguy those days so much that I used to spend about 5-7 hours browsing various discussions on pagalguy. What I saw on pagalguy was that people were talking about a reCAT. WHY?? the reason being that quant had a few (2-3) questions which did not have any correct answers printed on the question paper. I also joined in the discussion. I used to visit and give my views almost daily and was also involved in writing a letter to the President regarding a reCAT. The IIMs ended this ho halla by declaring the result before the pre-decided date and also by giving the process by which the problem of the wrong questions or the unprinted answers would be taken care of. I too checked the result as soon as they got declared. I scored 93.74% overall (quant 98% with 56.43 marks, DI 89.7% with 38 marks and language 49% with 4 marks !!! ).
After CAT I gave a few more exams: IIFT, JMET, SNAP and XAT. The results were: IIFT did not qualify, JMET qualified but rank low 734; SNAP scored a fairly good 74.5 and XAT scored 92.84%ile (Quant 85%, DI 94%ile and Language 84%ile). So the exam season ended and the results I got were fairly good. I had better hopes but nevertheless.... I started applying in various IITs and applied in 2-3 IITs without success. In SNAP i had applied in only 2 colleges SIBM and SCMHRD. I got call from SCMHRD. In XAT i had applied in XIMB and XLRI. I had big hopes of getting call from XIMB but did not. Later CAT calls start coming in.. No calls from NITIE, MDI, SPJain, IMTG and now on 17th January 2007 I got te news that I have not got the call from IMI also. the cut-off for general PGDM course went up to 95%ile and for HR batch it soared to 93.75%ile... missed by a whisker... I could not sleep that night (not the whole night, but for about an hour or so...:P). I got call from UBS chandigarha nd IMT Nagpur. The interview dates were 12th Feb for SCMHRD and 14th Feb for IMT Nagpur. I gave interviews to Abhinav Sir and attended the GD sessions regularly. SCMHRD: i went there with the feeling that this is the chance for me. The GD group was full of people with work experience and with good marks in higher 70s or early 80s. Before the GD I spent a nice interactive time with all the group members. I think that helped. in the GD we were given a paper on which a picture was there. In the pic, there was a bowl filled with water and a fish which is jumping out of the water, resulting in a splash. in the GD the group went like crazy. it was a fish market but the good thing for me was that whenever I was speaking everyone was listening to me. Only I got through the GD from a group of 10. The interview was scheduled the next day. The interview also went well with most part of the interview into my hobbies mainly cricket and football. After that I left for Nagpur. in the journey i was joined by my father. we stayed with my father's friend. i reached the interview center at around 1 pm. the college is in the outskirts of nagpur (35 kms Milestone). with not even a chai wala outside the college i had made up my mind that i would not join the college. But still i gave a good performance in GD and interview.
The result of SCMHRD came on 22nd Feb and I was not selected. I had a feeling that later in the wait list i might be there but to everyone's surprise SCMHRD did not declare a waitlist that year. I had the interview of UBS Chandigarh on 13th March 2007. Chandigarh is a lovely city and most clean city I have ever seen, I took a dharamshala to stay. I reached the center well in time and met Utkarsh Nigam (my batchmate in MITS, IT deptt.) the GD group was a huge one with about 18-20 people in the GD. still my GD went good. in the interview panel there were about 5-6 people sitting on sofas (they were not sitting but looked to me like resting on the sofas) with 2 panel members sitting behind me, it made me look vulnerable sumtimes while answering. nevertheless interview went of good and I and Utkarsh now left fot gwalior together. With no results coming good for me and the wait killing my every hopes... I started making up my mind to join the IT company and give CAT again.
On 20th June 2007, at around 1:00pm the postman delivered a mail. The letter was from IMI, New Delhi. I opened the letter, and it read that I have been "Shortlisted" :P for GD and interview at IMI. I was thrilled as well as shocked as to what d heck is this.
I went to meet my coaching head the same evening and he said "Book your ticket, go there and get me an offer letter... aur haan deposit de ke hi aana.." OK??
The interview was on 25th June. There were some 30-35 people gathered in IMI. Few of them were from Delhi only. There was a girl who knew the Director of the college as he had given her a call for interview (LOLzz). The process got over by 3 pm. We got the news from some seniors that there are some 19 seats available in HR. For interview they had selected only 19. So, we were sure that all of us would get through. Result came at 4:30pm. they selected 9 people in all.
It was a special occasion for me. After that the life changed in lot many wayss..
I would come with my IMI experience in later posts...

Blogging...

So, finally I (too) started my blog..
It had to come one day or the other.. I had been thinking of writing something somewhere somehow about my daily experiences and activities and to share my views with people..
Finally have started on 15th January' 09..
Will post something or the other in near future..