“Empowering to Excel,” Season 2, creates more magic at Dibrugrah University, Sept 17

Endeavaours at the Dibrugarh university are adding more magic to the students and the university, empowering them to excel in life. Post my last visit in August, I had shared a short write up, here is the next post. The Videos here share what a human being can gain, how one can transform in life, in just a matter of four days. It is all about the awakening that one goes through, discovering the purposefulness in life and with determination moves in the direction that he or she ought to move.

Enjoy listening to their reflections and sharing of their delightful transformations…

Here is a video that strings together short captures of many participants making their presentations, and engaging in public speaking, for the very first time in life. Look at their confidence.

Every presenter has worked in a group of complete strangers, from other departments of the university, to study an alien topic (the topics they never ever read or studied about – due to poor reading habits), discuss, engage, share and then create a presentation to engage larger public of aliens (other groups).

I gain a lot more inspiration from the whole exercise, as it reinforces my belief that it is possible to bring the transformation in a very short span of time. I believe, I can.

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“Empowering to Excel”, Season 2 @ Dibrugarh University proves magical!

The powerful “Empowerment to Excellence” program takes its powerful strides in the second season at Dibrugarh university. The four-day intense, interactive programme enables every serious participant to transcend every barrier that one has created for oneself in our journey of life. The program has been liberating each one from the shackles and helping each to realize the infinite potential we all have. It facilitates each to believe in oneself, to dig deeper and discover, what more one can be.

This year we are initiating 1200+ students into their empowered, rejuvenated and joyful journey ahead.

Just listen to the students giving their feedback on what they have gained out of the program and experience their unshackling…..watch their confident presentation skills, even on those topics that they never even heard of, let alone study.

Since I had space constrains on my mobile to videograph the whole of two hours, I voice recorded the entire introspective session. Kindly find time to listen to the enthusiastic sharing. You will be surprised how they share about not just their own, but also how they invited their shy friends to come into public and openly share..

– The transformations they have seen in themselves and, their friends and classmates
– The cathartic experiences
– Commitment of participants for their own future and that of the group

Debrugarh University, Season 2, August 2017 – Empowerment to Excellence – Audio : Learnings, Realizations, Delight

The four day process is an engaging endeavaour to help each participant

– Explore oneself, Understand oneself well
– Make notes on strengths and areas of concern for improvement
– Realize the elements of personal effectiveness
– Understand the secrets of being an effective communicator
– Being a good participant in group discussions and activities
– Being an effective presenter and communicator
– Being a very good communicator even while writing
– How to invoke the leader in you, and take leadership
– Introspect, realize and set an agenda for personal growth

Finally

– Create a vision for oneself, for ones career and life
– Set Long term and Short term goals
– Commitment to ones own development and also development of the entire group

These sessions were facilitated by R. Sreenivasan, with Bhargav Deori and Dr. Sarvjeet Herald as co-facilitators.

Looking forward to the second half of season 2 scheduled for Sept 8-11 that will have participants from humanities, commerce and all non-science and technology faculties.

If you are reading this and are from Dibrugarh University, make sure you make the maximum out of Sept 8-11 schedule.

What Now? After class XII results : On Zee Business Panel

Every year, this time of the year is a challenging time for most students who are graduating from school. The expectation that is thrust on each by the families and society really takes toll on every child.

It is very important to understand the child and help the child have confidence in himself or herself, in their capabilities. Through the school, facilitate the child to understand self and the world around, by exposing, exploring, experimenting, experiencing, imbibing in many contexts, across a variety of spaces in those eight intelligence dimensions – linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, nature, kinesthetic, Musical (read the article Every child is gifted).

The world is looking for problem solvers and shall dish out anything to have such on their board. Money is never a problem. Be a learner for life time, have courage to push boundaries, to discover what more you are; Be humble in any given situation… So much more in this panel discussion with renowned career counsellor, Ms Pravin Malhotra.

If you have any more thoughts or doubts can surely write to me sreeni@careerlauncher.com

Believing is Seeing : Have faith in your abilities – Priyanka Phukan, ISB Hyderabad

In the next part of the series, ,”Believing is Seeing”, I am going to carry a few personal stories of youngsters who have realized their immediate dream, of securing their admissions in their dream institution. I asked each one of them to write a personal note on

a. What are the key factors that contributed to their success

b. In what ways has the personalized program (PDPP) benefited them

c. What would each like to share with the youngersters who aspire to get into these institutions

Here is a note by Priyanka Phukhan, who is now at her dream institution, Indian School of Business (ISB), pursuing her MBA.

“An electronics engineer from MIT Manipal, I have worked in Philips India Ltd., in a sales and marketing role, handling projects in Tamil Nadu and NCR region. Working in Philips and garnering a host of experiences across different geographies helped me evolve as a professional and honed my interpersonal and managerial skills. After completing a two and half year stint in Philips, I decided to take the next big step in my career and pursue an MBA.

Although MBA was the brainchild that I had conceived during my final year at college, I realized the importance of having professional work experience before pursuing MBA as it helps us to grasp and imbibe the learnings taught in the program in a much more efficient way. Considering that I had prior work experience, I was looking at colleges like Indian School of Business and SPJAIN and a couple of Business schools in Europe.

 

So with that goal in mind, I started my preparation for GMAT and CAT in the month of June 2016. Although balancing the preparation along with the job commitments was no easy feat, I maintained a very disciplined approach towards my preparation. I decided to take the help of Career Launcher material for honing my quantitative and verbal concepts. The entire coursework has been explained in a very lucid manner which aided me in gathering a clear understanding of the nuances of the subjects.  I also took regular mocks to understand and gauge my areas of weaknesses and strengths and strategically plan my next step. With each month of preparation and taking small steps towards my goal, I finally cracked GMAT in my first attempt in October 2016 with a score of 710.

The next step in the application process was to prepare for my essays and interview for different Business Schools. I joined the Career Launcher for the PDP Personalized course for interview preparation after my friend recommended it to me and it was a transformational journey thereafter.

PDP helped me in identifying my strengths and how to work on my weaknesses. The mock interviews aided me in articulating my thoughts in a more structured manner, which helped me in my actual interview. The regular sessions and snippets of current affairs helped me immensely in keeping myself abreast with the latest happenings around the world.  In addition, all the faculty members were very approachable and ready to help with all our queries. On the whole, the program helped me in gaining clarity over my long term and short term career goals and developing a holistic understanding of my profile and devising a clear road map to attain these goals.

Today, as I sit in my room in the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, sharing my journey, it still seems like a dream come true. The entire journey has definitely been a roller coaster ride with its own ups and downs, but each moment has been a learning experience and worth remembering.  For all the future aspirants, the only piece of advice that I would like to give is- Have faith in your abilities, introspect and learn something new every day, and mostly, do not get bogged down by your failures. Use them as stepping stones to success and enjoy and learn from the journey.“

Believing is seeing : ”Think about your life goals in a deeper way”- Prateek Bhutani, IIM Calcutta

Hello Sir,

I am Prateek Bhutani, and I have done engineering from Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi. I have been working as a Software Engineer at Compro Technologies from 20 months and will be joining IIM Calcutta this June.

When I was in 2nd year of college I realized that Engineering is not something in which I will be able to excel in my life. However I was convinced that I should find a good job first, gain some experience and then try for MBA. I worked for about an year and started preparations in March, 2016. I took online course of Career Launcher. I prepared using Mocks-Online material and Books.

Fortunately I was able to secure 99.60 percentile in CAT 1016. I believe regular practice and preparing well for LRDI section is what made the difference for me. I joined PDP program to prepare for GD-PI and it truly changed my life.

PDP made me think about my life goals in a much deeper way and that is what made all my interview experiences flawless. I didn’t face a tough situation in any of the 7 interviews that I gave, and the reason for that was my experience at Mock PIs with Sreeni sir and Sujit sir. PI concepts with GP sir and Personality session with Satya sir were 3 most productive hours of my life.

I am joining IIMC and have also converted MDI. I guess perseverance was my key to success. I performed better in CAT than any of the Mock Tests and better in IIM interviews than any of the Mock PI. This in my opinion is a great example of what makes Career Launcher special.

I thank CL for being Sriharikota of this launch of my career. Thank you so much Sreeni sir for being a great mentor.

Thank you once again.

Sincerely,

Prateek Bhutani

Believing is Seeing : Give your 100%, do not worry about the results – Himanshu Vaishnav, IIM Calcutta

In the next part of the series, ,”Believing is Seeing”, I am going to carry a few personal stories of youngsters who have realized their immediate dream, of securing their admissions in their dream institution. I asked each one of them to write a personal note on

a. What are the key factors that contributed to their success

b. In what ways has the personalized program (PDPP) benefited them

c. What would each like to share with the youngersters who aspire to get into these institutions

Here is a note by Himanshu Vaishnav, who heads to IIM Calcutta (IIMC) this year.

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Career Launcher – A Wingman in my journey to IIM Calcutta

“Sir’, I don’t have any achievements to show, how I’m going to crack IIM interview?”
I asked my Mentor in Career launcher.

2 Months Later
“You have achieved a lot in your life and you should be proud of yourself” – said IIM C interviewer to me.

(A link to my IIM Calcutta interview experience is at bottom)

So what changed in these 2 months? The answer is my attitude towards life.
Let me introduce myself.

I’m an average engineer from an average engineering college (YMCAUST Faridabad) with average academics (Average as per IIMs criteria). After completing B.Tech in 2013, I joined Infosys, worked there for 2.5 years, later switched to Genpact. I had given CAT earlier but didn’t score much but I was more confident this time. And I did get a good score and got calls from IIM C, K, L, S.

To be honest, when I started preparing for the CAT, it was more because of a rat race rather than any other reason. So when results came, I got scared how I’m going to convert these calls, and as I had taken a test series earlier from CL, so I joined career launcher for my Interview preparation. And my expectation from the program was that they will teach me exact answers to questions like Why MBA (Most imp question). But it was nowhere close to that.

Later I came to realize why program name is PDP – Personality Development Program instead of GD-PI preparation. Mentor assigned to me were Sreeni Sir. The first class I attended of him was an eye opener for me, he showed a glimpse of how the world is going to change in next 5 to 10 years. And how important it is for us to be aware of these things.

When I wanted to prepare for my interview, he told me to forget about it and first understand myself, introspect and go through my life journey till now. And what are the things that are in my circle of concern and circle of influence? Sreeni Sir always said: MBA should not be an end rather a means to an end.

All the session which I attended – online or offline- of Sreeni Sir, GP Sir, Shivku Sir or anyone had a common theme, they didn’t want to prepare us for an interview but for life. They wanted to find us our goals, our vision in life not just an answer for the interview.

After a lot of introspection, I did find my vision – things I want to do in life and luckily MBA is going to help me achieve me that. But I became sure of one thing, MBA is just a means to achieve that, and even if I’m not going to get selected, I will find another way but still pursue my dream.

I also came to realize an achievement is something you achieve overcoming the hurdles which need not be always some competition with others. I had very humble beginnings but I definitely wasn’t an underachiever. I have become more confident in my abilities.

My perspective towards life has changed a lot in these few months. Now I try to look more into the bigger picture. I try to look at things if they fit according to my values. And this is not something I borrowed from outside, but it was always there inside me and I gained it back.

One of important realization I had is, an MBA interview is not a platform for the interviewer to ask you questions but it’s an opportunity for us to tell them our life story, and from that story, they are going to check how well we know our story and ourselves. Our aptitude has been already checked in the exam, and now they are just going to check our commitment/Attitude towards our life.

There were sessions on the economy, current affairs, and other things as well but for me, most important were the things I have mentioned earlier.

So my advice to all future aspirants is- Find Yourself. Then any interview will be a cakewalk (not necessarily the results 😛 ) And I’m quite sure that people like Satya Sir, Sreeni Sir, GP Sir, Shivku Sir and Gejo Sir can surely help you to move towards the right direction.

click here IIMC Interview Link to know about what I went through in the interview:

Luckily I have converted my IIM C call. And if someone ask me what is one thing that worked for me, My answer is I focused on myself: my story, my journey, my areas of interest and my goals.

Try to give your 100% and don’t worry about results. Even if hadn’t been selected, I would not have been sad or disappointed for more than 2 days and would have started my journey again.

“Always Focus on Character instead of Personality.”
Carpe Diem!!!!

You can reach out to me on below:
Email:
Facebook:
LinkedIn:

Believing is Seeing : “In life there is winning and there is losing, both happen. What is never acceptable to me is quitting”. – Beulah, IIMB entrant !

In the next part of the series, ,”Believing is Seeing”, I am going to carry a few personal stories of youngsters who have realized their immediate dream, of securing their admissions in their dream institution. I asked each one of them to write a personal note on

a. What are the key factors that contributed to their success

b. In what ways has the personalized program (PDPP) benefited them

c. What would each like to share with the youngersters who aspire to get into these institutions

Beulah is heading to IIM Bangalore, with over two years of experience in the IT industry behind her.

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JOURNEY TO THE DREAM

As they say “It’s not the destination but the journey that counts”. And now as I stop to step into one of the important landing place of my life, IIM B, I sit and reminisce the journey to this place. The ride has started 6 months prior to the CAT exam. The distance was long and the terrain difficult but the focus was clear, and the destination decided. I did hit some speed breakers and reach some road blocks, but was undeterred. The first few months were stormy as I had to battle to strike the balance between work and preparation. There were sleepless nights and stressful days. There were times when I hit low trying to explore new ways, paths beyond the boundaries and was left completely astray.But I was motivated to the core to not give up. I fueled my engine with the confidence that “I Can and I will”, no matter how many times I fall.

For any journey to be successful, one needs a guide leading us in the correct path, helping through the rough and rugged times. And on my journey I did find that guide at Career launcher. The mocks were the perfect trail runs before the CAT exam. I didn’t score high and roar during the mocks. I wasn’t even the topper during any mock. But what was important was the analysis of the mocks. They gave me an idea of the amount of hard work and extra effort that is needed to reach the target. They prepared me for the unpredictable storm, and the icy winds that blow across our minds during the D day. What seemed impossible was only possible because the belief I had and the sincerity in the preparation. No matter what never give up in the middle of the Journey. Powered by the knowledge and driven by confidence I acquired through mock analysis and practice I was able to steer through the CAT Results.

But before I could rejoice and end my trip, I have just realized that the” journey had just begun”. It was not the end of the expedition but the start. The most crucial phase of the endeavor, the interviews, were on the way. To drive them was no child’s play. Myriad questions await and haunt you on the way. And the most hounding was the question why MBA? Finding an answer to this question was very important, not just because I had the impending task of impressing the Panels to reach my Spot(IIM), It was important because I had to answer myself as to why I have to leave a bread-winner, my job and pursue MBA spending lakhs. I had to discover my passion and the real reason behind me embarking on this journey.  I found myself lost in the woods finding an answer, I was not able to nail it down as to why I really want to do an MBA.

Enroute to finding an explanation I met a man who was compelling, motivating and engaging. I happen to meet him through the PDP personalized program. Through his compassionate words and engaging talks he gets the passion out of you, makes you realize your dream, makes you stand out of the herd. Sreeni Sir, an affable and empathetic teacher. He never taught me how to play safe, he taught me how to be different. And this made all the difference. I went through one of his lectures as to how to write an SOP. Every word racked my brain and motivated every nerve to think. It was because of him that I have realized my area of interest, the solution to my question. I always wanted to enter Media industry, as I always thought of it as the real business in terms of money in and money out. There is a lot of creative control involved in it. Even though many had reservations, He encouraged me to pick this interest of mine and go forward. He propelled my engines and helped me steer through the interview. He never gave me a short route to answer, but he helped to enjoy the ride by myself. He was the charioteer leading me through the battles called “Interviews”. Filled up with the much needed Confidence I was able to crack the IIM B interview and reach the Destination. All is well that ends well, and I had a happy ending with all the support form CL team. Sreeni sir, Raj Sir and Nanda sir, I can’t pay gratitude to these people enough.

Now as I set sail into another interesting journey and plunge into a sea of challenges ahead I carry with me the words that has always invigorated me.

“In life there is Winning and there is losing and in life both happen. What is never acceptable to me is quitting”.

Always believe in yourself. It Is the repetition of affirmations that’s leads to belief and it’s the belief in you that leads to SUCCESS.