Road to the "B"eehive!

Okay, this is it. The post that I have been hoping to write for a long time. The journey to the start of the most exciting phase of my life!

I have written time and again, in this blog-space about my managerial aspirations. 

Many people have asked me, "With a cgpa of 9.84 why don't you do Technical Research or do higher studies in Engineering?". A senior once explicitly told me that MBA is for people with bad academic records in Engineering. 

But I did not see MBA as an alternative to a technical career. It was not an escape route to me. An MBA (or rather the Post Graduate Program in Management), to me, would complement my career. 

Okay, now that sounds like a too wise and polished-for-the-interview kind of statement, right?

But it happens to be the truth. I frankly did not have such clarity when I first decided to do an MBA. It was quite an immature decision triggered by:

• My interest in Extra-Curricular activities
• My inability to do as much as I wanted (and as I could do) in the extra-curricular field due to my being the "day-scholar-girl-in-ECE-possible-nerd" - easily the worst position to be in for a girl with ambitions to hold positions of responsibility
• My discovery of the talent I had in covering up blunders and the joy I derived from the few organizational things I'd done in college

The Not-So-Good Start..

So, early on, I enrolled for CAT 2009 full-time course at T.I.M.E., though I was eligible only for CAT 2010. The classes were fun (though it was full of seniors!) and I particularly enjoyed the Verbal Ability classes handled by a spectacular teacher. I was enjoying English classes for the first time since the heavenly days in Std. X at school!

Though I attended the classes regularly, I never worked at home for CAT. The laziness was due to the extra year I had to prepare. The MockCAT season started for CAT'09 and I attempted the mocks with zilch preparation. Though I knew that the analysis of a mockCAT is more important than taking the mock itself, I rarely did it. The early bird strategy was backfiring and I was helplessly falling down the pit of not knowing what/when/where to start a serious prep for CAT'10.

The Revival..

Then came the Blessed SMS from T.I.M.E. in December 2009- "We are starting Revision Classes for CAT'10 aspirants who joined us for CAT'09 classes" 

And during those classes, which mostly ended on an inspirational note by our QA/DI coach, I got to know Bala who was also working with me for an event in Kriya'10. Post Kriya, we decided to team up for CAT prep. 

And we worked. Hard. Maybe it could have been harder. But it was much better than the laggard state I had previously been in. 

The Fever..

The mock season started. I was scoring mostly around 98%ile, with a rare 99%ile and a relatively more common 97%ile. There was also one mock where I reached the late 80s which left me depressed and in self-doubt. But these scores kept me on my toes and I never lost focus. I knew that as a General Category student I needed a 99+ to get the coveted calls.

I used to work out Quants during classes at college; a couple of teachers even caught me in the act. But, incredibly, they let me off, wishing me success :-O

Prep gained momentum with the weekly toppers' batch classes that introduced me to many serious students who shared innovative ways of solving problems. 

The Test..      

November 3, 2010, was the day. 10.15 a.m.-12.30 p.m. The exam turned out to be weird. With wrong questions and the obscure normalization, I had no idea of how things would turn out. Discovered, to my dismay, that I had made 2 silly mistakes in DI. Waited for Jan 12, 2011, impatiently.

The Call..

Quant: 98.49%ile [ :) ]

DI: 88.77%ile   [ :( ]

Verbal: 97.65%ile [neutral]

Overall: 98.70%ile 

I was terribly unhappy at 00.30 hrs on 12/01/2011. Due to the General category, my chances of top calls were very bleak. But my past deeds came to my rescue and I got a call from IIM Bangalore :) 

The Introspection..

Time for me to do some Qualitative thinking instead of the Quantitative one. I looked within me for the true reason I'd been working away furiously all those months. Those reasons I'd mentioned earlier seemed too childish and irrelevant, though they formed the seed of the thought process. I saw how management was part of every activity we did. Even in our completely technical project "Voice-Controlled Robot" I found a lot of management aspects. And I enjoyed the power-point presentations of the work more than the MATLAB coding- which is reason enough ;) 

I tried to express my purpose as clearly as possible in the SoP. 

The Interview..

The day before April Fools' Day. I'd done a decent job on the essay on Social Networking. The Interview was a random psychometric process, with me voicing my opinions on God-Men, Maoism (enacting a Maoist!), Films and Censorship. It was incredibly short (one-third of the time that every other candidate had spent inside!) and I was not sure of the result.

The Result..

April 18, 2011. A night out with the F5 button on my keyboard. The site was hacked! What an omen! I dragged myself to bed at 1.30 a.m. but sleep was elusive. The results came conveniently after 13 more hours. 

The "Congratulations!" message took time (and ten views) to sink in. 

Well, the work of one year has paid off. And I'm on my way to Bannerghatta Road, to the place which is popularly called the one to "B"e in.

The rigours of the curriculum and activities do look a bit scary, but I am ready to take it on.