Always had a dream to write on this sacrosanct thread. So much so that, I
wanted to convert a good B-School so that I write on the thread. It
will be more of, what I want to say about my life rather than just CAT,
as CAT formed just a little part of life. 
(I hope, the post is not counted as a spam)
Life had been good in childhood. Parents felt, their son should learn in his mother tongue (Not because they support sena or mns, but because both made it big in spite of their Marathi medium background). So joined a local Marathi school. Hardly used to be in the top 5 ranks in the class in the school exams, but always topped the school in every state & national level competitive exam came in my way. Just like every other Indian student, till ninth standard, everything was fine. No expectations from parents, relatives and most importantly from myself.
But then board exams for 10th standard came. Since I was not much interested in Acads, I knew , though I will do reasonably well but was not expecting any miracle. But the miracle happened and secured a merit rank in the Mumbai board. Topped the school when it mattered the most. And that was a surprise.
The decision of choosing the stream one wants to pursue after 10th, is
one of the most important decision in the life. I knew there exist 3
streams: Science, Commerce & Arts. Heard from people that one needs
to study hard in science stream. So decision became easier. I had to
choose between Commerce and Arts. Being a son of a chartered accountant,
it became easier to choose commerce. At that time, I didn’t know about
CA etc at all. Neither the decision of taking commerce was based on the
probability of IIMs giving extra marks to candidates from commerce
background in their selection process. At that time, had not heard about IIM at all. 
So just to minimize the studies, took admission in the one of the best commerce college in Mumbai. And 11th was a breeze of air. I really didn’t have to study hard. Smiled at myself. 12th was also the same. Though a little bit more study than 11th , it was easily manageable. Then the reality started setting in. What did I want to do in life. Probably I had completed just 20-25% of the life, what about the remaining 75-80%? The news started coming in about my friends getting into IITs & NITs. Never knew the glamour associated with these institutes earlier. I felt, I have done a blunder by choosing commerce.
Seeing the friends who couldn’t clear the first level of NTSE exam
making it to IITs, I felt, being the NTSE holder, I had equal chances if
not more to make it to these esteemed institutes. I felt I have done
injustice to myself. Depression started creeping in. here was a light in the end of the tunnel. If not IIT, I had a go at
ICAI. Registered for the first level of chartered accountancy exam.
Okay, great. Still no IIM dreams yet. My image of commerce requiring
lesser studies crashed. Now I had to work hard. The best thing was I was
liking the course. Again secured all india rank in the first level.
Started getting the letters from Big 4s inviting me to do the CA
internship with them. Life was good again.
BSE Sensex was marching towards all time high and so was my life. But the future of both were in the dark clouds (okay exaggerating what happened to markets was worse than the life)
CA Internship. The most dreaded word in the CA Course. 42 months is not a joke.
But if u want the qualification, u have to undergo this compulsory 42
months torture. I didn’t join any Big 4 as I didn’t want to start
working 10-12 hrs per day even before completing graduation. So started
working in a small CA firm in auditing & taxation. Like every other
work, it was good for some time. But then redundancy started creeping
in. Anyway, In audit, the end result remains the same irrespective of
you do it sincerely or don’t. Taxation I liked but didn’t want to take
as a career. Also when you ask your client, how much tax do you want to
pay and then calculate his income accordingly rather than the other way
round, you feel frustrated.
Meanwhile, the 2nd level exam (CA Inter) was done with and again secured an all india merit rank.
Was not as happy as the first one but still it was a huge confident
booster. By this time, my obsession for all india rank in CA exams died.
The articleship continued and the life became more boring. Recession
had creeped in. So overall mood was down.
BSE Sensex was daily making yearly low and so was me. But again, the fundamentals of both were strong and just a few good news were needed for both to bounce back.
And that good news came. Out of 42 months, we can do industrial training
in last 9 months. I opted for that opportunity. Had a hang of the
financial markets in the free time. Sounded interesting. So wanted to do
something in that area. The resume was good. So didn’t find it
difficult to get into a medium size brokerage firm as an intern in
Equity Research Department. The first day in the firm, and I knew I have
found the love of my life. This is exactly I wanted to do in my life.
Entire sins of the past were washed out.
By this time, I had completed my B.Com. So was eligible for CAT. The first time I heard about CAT is when my mother advised me to take it. I searched more about the exam. Found out about IIMs, their illustrious alumni, the campuses they boast of, the respect an IIM guys commands from his relatives, friends or colleagues. Another target was set to get into IIMs. It was almost after 6 years, I was doing anything related to Quant seriously.
Although didn’t join any coaching or test series, because of lack of
time during internship, secured a decent percentile of 95.xx. Didn’t
take any other exam. Still the main aim was to complete CA and not MBA.
By the way, got a IIM S call, didn’t apply to any Non - IIMs. Just
wondered if a proper English Medium schooling would have helped more
than a vernacular schooling to get better marks in Verbal Ability. 
The internship was over. Meanwhile, the CA Final examination came. Cleared. Was happiest day in the life, not because of getting one of the most prestigious degree in India, but by the thought that now my internship was over and I will never have to open the CA books again. Filled the CAT Form again. Joined SBT 2010. Got to know about great people like Super Xero, the_hate Saar, Pendy Saar, Gabby Sir, Doc Saar. Learnt a lot from them. This time I applied to some other institutes like FMS, XLRI & S P Jain also. Meanwhile got selected in Futures First as a Gold Futures Trader in International Gold Market (COMEX). Sort of a dream job for me.
The question of doing MBA again took a back seat. In no way, I was
going to go for MBA in that year. Had FMS, K & SP Jain calls.
Attended only FMS. Anyway, there was no chance I would have left FF
experience for MBA.
PaGaLGuY has been really instrumental in my life. I got my first job (after CA) because of networking on PG. A Futures First guy on PG (Vivek.Varendra PGDT 200
forwarded my resume to the organisation. They called me for the
selection process. Travelled all the way from Mumbai to Gurgaon. When I
arrived at their office, saw a few IITians & NITians waiting for the
process. Cursed myself for wasting few thousand bucks and time in the
travel to a place, where I was any way not going to get a job with such a
competition. Those who know FF, know about their Quant Heavy Selection
Process, beating IITians was not my cup of tea. But I only thought so.
At the end of the day, I was the chosen one. Felt satisfied that I have
it in me to beat these IITians in a quant heavy process.
Futures First Experience was the Game Changer.
Its full of IITians & IIMites. Everyone is intelligent and you have
something to learn from everyone. The job is high pressure. Stakes are
high. I was doing quite well. Not to boost of myself, but set a 1 lot
pit record of more than 3k dollars in a day in the 5th month itself. Again beat my own record just after 2 months with more than 4K dollars in the 7th month.
Markets were turbulent. America was downgraded by S&P, a thing
which didn’t happen in the worst of the periods of 2008-09 had happened
in 2011.
Markets were volatile. Particularly Gold was playing havoc, with
breaking all time highs. The environment was scary. After 8 months in
FF I decided to call it quit, giving in to pressure.
I had to decide if I want to do MBA or not. I filled the CAT form. Came back to Mumbai and again joined the equity research department of the same brokerage firm. This time I was sure of doing MBA. This time or never. So filled top 10 colleges according to PaGaLGuY 2011 rankings. Cleared CAT with 97.12% with 89.97% in VA
,
enough to miss the IIM B Call by 0.03 percentile (remaining profile was
as per their standard,may be better so the only hurdle was VA).
Although received IIM I, IIM K & SP Jain calls. Meanwhile, XAT
results were announced and received a XL – BM call. Now I had 4 calls
out of top 10 institutes, I needed to clear just one. The only strength I
have is passion about finance field. My communication skills suck, my
vocab sucks, my personality sucks and I am very bad at generic answers
like Why MBA. So the task had been cut out to revolve entire interview
about finance. First was S P Jain..a little bit of finance. Second was
XLRI – overall a decent interview but had just 97.8 %ile in XAT so
chances were quite low. Then came IIM K, a very generic interview, in
which I felt like walking out in between
. The only remained was Indore.
Meanwhile, S P Jain results came in, I was waitlisted. XLRI came in and saw a reject and I was nervous.
Second day after XLRI results I had Indore Interview. I was shievering.
I had already screwed K interview. So this was my last chance. Actually
nervousness helped, I became more desparate to convert this one. Also
god listened to me and almost 80% of the interview went about financial.
The moment I was out of the room , I knew if the selection considers
only interview marks and not the CAT Percentile, this has to be a
convert. K announced the list and I was again waitlisted at a high
number. Anyway, after meeting those professors in K interview, I would
never have liked to see their face again. Indore again give me waitlist.
Meanwhile, S P Jain cleared and a few days back, Indore also cleared.
So joining IIM Indore this year.
(I hope, the post is not counted as a spam)Life had been good in childhood. Parents felt, their son should learn in his mother tongue (Not because they support sena or mns, but because both made it big in spite of their Marathi medium background). So joined a local Marathi school. Hardly used to be in the top 5 ranks in the class in the school exams, but always topped the school in every state & national level competitive exam came in my way. Just like every other Indian student, till ninth standard, everything was fine. No expectations from parents, relatives and most importantly from myself.
But then board exams for 10th standard came. Since I was not much interested in Acads, I knew , though I will do reasonably well but was not expecting any miracle. But the miracle happened and secured a merit rank in the Mumbai board. Topped the school when it mattered the most. And that was a surprise.
The decision of choosing the stream one wants to pursue after 10th, is
one of the most important decision in the life. I knew there exist 3
streams: Science, Commerce & Arts. Heard from people that one needs
to study hard in science stream. So decision became easier. I had to
choose between Commerce and Arts. Being a son of a chartered accountant,
it became easier to choose commerce. At that time, I didn’t know about
CA etc at all. Neither the decision of taking commerce was based on the
probability of IIMs giving extra marks to candidates from commerce
background in their selection process. At that time, had not heard about IIM at all. So just to minimize the studies, took admission in the one of the best commerce college in Mumbai. And 11th was a breeze of air. I really didn’t have to study hard. Smiled at myself. 12th was also the same. Though a little bit more study than 11th , it was easily manageable. Then the reality started setting in. What did I want to do in life. Probably I had completed just 20-25% of the life, what about the remaining 75-80%? The news started coming in about my friends getting into IITs & NITs. Never knew the glamour associated with these institutes earlier. I felt, I have done a blunder by choosing commerce.
Seeing the friends who couldn’t clear the first level of NTSE exam
making it to IITs, I felt, being the NTSE holder, I had equal chances if
not more to make it to these esteemed institutes. I felt I have done
injustice to myself. Depression started creeping in. here was a light in the end of the tunnel. If not IIT, I had a go at
ICAI. Registered for the first level of chartered accountancy exam.
Okay, great. Still no IIM dreams yet. My image of commerce requiring
lesser studies crashed. Now I had to work hard. The best thing was I was
liking the course. Again secured all india rank in the first level.
Started getting the letters from Big 4s inviting me to do the CA
internship with them. Life was good again. BSE Sensex was marching towards all time high and so was my life. But the future of both were in the dark clouds (okay exaggerating what happened to markets was worse than the life)
CA Internship. The most dreaded word in the CA Course. 42 months is not a joke.
But if u want the qualification, u have to undergo this compulsory 42
months torture. I didn’t join any Big 4 as I didn’t want to start
working 10-12 hrs per day even before completing graduation. So started
working in a small CA firm in auditing & taxation. Like every other
work, it was good for some time. But then redundancy started creeping
in. Anyway, In audit, the end result remains the same irrespective of
you do it sincerely or don’t. Taxation I liked but didn’t want to take
as a career. Also when you ask your client, how much tax do you want to
pay and then calculate his income accordingly rather than the other way
round, you feel frustrated. Meanwhile, the 2nd level exam (CA Inter) was done with and again secured an all india merit rank.
Was not as happy as the first one but still it was a huge confident
booster. By this time, my obsession for all india rank in CA exams died.
The articleship continued and the life became more boring. Recession
had creeped in. So overall mood was down.BSE Sensex was daily making yearly low and so was me. But again, the fundamentals of both were strong and just a few good news were needed for both to bounce back.
And that good news came. Out of 42 months, we can do industrial training
in last 9 months. I opted for that opportunity. Had a hang of the
financial markets in the free time. Sounded interesting. So wanted to do
something in that area. The resume was good. So didn’t find it
difficult to get into a medium size brokerage firm as an intern in
Equity Research Department. The first day in the firm, and I knew I have
found the love of my life. This is exactly I wanted to do in my life.
Entire sins of the past were washed out. By this time, I had completed my B.Com. So was eligible for CAT. The first time I heard about CAT is when my mother advised me to take it. I searched more about the exam. Found out about IIMs, their illustrious alumni, the campuses they boast of, the respect an IIM guys commands from his relatives, friends or colleagues. Another target was set to get into IIMs. It was almost after 6 years, I was doing anything related to Quant seriously.
Although didn’t join any coaching or test series, because of lack of
time during internship, secured a decent percentile of 95.xx. Didn’t
take any other exam. Still the main aim was to complete CA and not MBA.
By the way, got a IIM S call, didn’t apply to any Non - IIMs. Just
wondered if a proper English Medium schooling would have helped more
than a vernacular schooling to get better marks in Verbal Ability. The internship was over. Meanwhile, the CA Final examination came. Cleared. Was happiest day in the life, not because of getting one of the most prestigious degree in India, but by the thought that now my internship was over and I will never have to open the CA books again. Filled the CAT Form again. Joined SBT 2010. Got to know about great people like Super Xero, the_hate Saar, Pendy Saar, Gabby Sir, Doc Saar. Learnt a lot from them. This time I applied to some other institutes like FMS, XLRI & S P Jain also. Meanwhile got selected in Futures First as a Gold Futures Trader in International Gold Market (COMEX). Sort of a dream job for me.
The question of doing MBA again took a back seat. In no way, I was
going to go for MBA in that year. Had FMS, K & SP Jain calls.
Attended only FMS. Anyway, there was no chance I would have left FF
experience for MBA.PaGaLGuY has been really instrumental in my life.
I got my first job (after CA) because of networking on PG. A Futures First guy on PG (Vivek.Varendra PGDT 200
forwarded my resume to the organisation. They called me for the
selection process. Travelled all the way from Mumbai to Gurgaon. When I
arrived at their office, saw a few IITians & NITians waiting for the
process. Cursed myself for wasting few thousand bucks and time in the
travel to a place, where I was any way not going to get a job with such a
competition. Those who know FF, know about their Quant Heavy Selection
Process, beating IITians was not my cup of tea. But I only thought so.
At the end of the day, I was the chosen one. Felt satisfied that I have
it in me to beat these IITians in a quant heavy process. Futures First Experience was the Game Changer.
Its full of IITians & IIMites. Everyone is intelligent and you have
something to learn from everyone. The job is high pressure. Stakes are
high. I was doing quite well. Not to boost of myself, but set a 1 lot
pit record of more than 3k dollars in a day in the 5th month itself. Again beat my own record just after 2 months with more than 4K dollars in the 7th month.
Markets were turbulent. America was downgraded by S&P, a thing
which didn’t happen in the worst of the periods of 2008-09 had happened
in 2011.
Markets were volatile. Particularly Gold was playing havoc, with
breaking all time highs. The environment was scary. After 8 months in
FF I decided to call it quit, giving in to pressure. I had to decide if I want to do MBA or not. I filled the CAT form. Came back to Mumbai and again joined the equity research department of the same brokerage firm. This time I was sure of doing MBA. This time or never. So filled top 10 colleges according to PaGaLGuY 2011 rankings. Cleared CAT with 97.12% with 89.97% in VA
,
enough to miss the IIM B Call by 0.03 percentile (remaining profile was
as per their standard,may be better so the only hurdle was VA).
Although received IIM I, IIM K & SP Jain calls. Meanwhile, XAT
results were announced and received a XL – BM call. Now I had 4 calls
out of top 10 institutes, I needed to clear just one. The only strength I
have is passion about finance field. My communication skills suck, my
vocab sucks, my personality sucks and I am very bad at generic answers
like Why MBA. So the task had been cut out to revolve entire interview
about finance. First was S P Jain..a little bit of finance. Second was
XLRI – overall a decent interview but had just 97.8 %ile in XAT so
chances were quite low. Then came IIM K, a very generic interview, in
which I felt like walking out in between. The only remained was Indore. Meanwhile, S P Jain results came in, I was waitlisted. XLRI came in and saw a reject and I was nervous.
Second day after XLRI results I had Indore Interview. I was shievering.
I had already screwed K interview. So this was my last chance. Actually
nervousness helped, I became more desparate to convert this one. Also
god listened to me and almost 80% of the interview went about financial.
The moment I was out of the room , I knew if the selection considers
only interview marks and not the CAT Percentile, this has to be a
convert. K announced the list and I was again waitlisted at a high
number. Anyway, after meeting those professors in K interview, I would
never have liked to see their face again. Indore again give me waitlist.
Meanwhile, S P Jain cleared and a few days back, Indore also cleared.
So joining IIM Indore this year. 
No comments:
Post a Comment