My Selection was inevitable because of CL’s PDPP – Saurabh Shubham, XLRI and SPJAIN convert

PDPP has been of immense value to me. When I cleared the written exams, CAT, XAT etc., I had no inkling regarding how to commence my preparation. There was so much to read, so much to prepare in a short span of time. I had to prepare for all the recent happenings, I also had to  remember important statistics to quote during WAT and interviews. Besides all this, I had to prepare for all the HR questions which might be asked in the interviews. To sum it up and I am not exaggerating, it is a huge task to prepare for all this in one month.

I joined PDPP of Career Launcher, as soon as my XAT was over. This programme is so comprehensive that even if you do only the minimum that this programme asks of you, you would do well in the interview process. I had to first write a comprehensive essay about myself at least of 2500 words. I also had to answer around 10 questions regarding myself in the PDPP section of the CL website. Combined, these were more than sufficient to answer almost all the HR questions. If you spend enough time and write the essay and those answere diligently and honestly, your half of the preparation is done.

We also had a telegram group where we regularly discussed the current affairs topics. Sreeni sir made us join “BodhiTree” a telegram blog(sort of) where he shared important current affairs articles from various sources. Once he shared 20 hot topics to prepare which was so important that almost nothing was asked out of it in the interview process. In fact my WAT and GD in many processes went well due to those 20 topics. PDPP also provides you with mock GDs at your local CL centres.

Then I had a personal interview on skype with Sreeni sir. Though, PDPP provides you with 2-3 interviews with mentors, but if you follow the above mentioned process diligently, one interview is sufficient for you. The interview is catered to address your personality and profile specifically. I was asked questions from my work area and general current affairs some of which were asked verbatim in the actual interviews, later. Overall, I understood the gaps in my preparation and also got to know my strengths. The mentors are extremely experienced and knowledgeable and the mock interview experience is as rich as the original ones.

After the mock interview, Sreeni sir asked me which interview is first? As I replied SPJIMR, he told me you would crack it. You have prepared well. And I got selected as he had predicted. Later I also converted XLRI.

To conclude, I would only say that the idea of preparation for MBA institutes interview processes is daunting to say the least. The interview process is extremely grueling at times and if you have not prepared well, you would suffer as a result. What PDPP does is provide a structured guidance to your preparation, boosts your confidence.

• It channelizes your time and energy towards things that are important so that you maximize your time utilization.
• It also taught me how to prepare for any interview in my life.
• It tries to make you visualize the bigger picture. What do you want from MBA, from your life?
• How would the new technologies impact the different sectors and how would you align your goals with respect to these massive changes. Trust me, this is one of the biggest differentiators between you and other candidates. While the rest of people would talk about present challenges, you would be talking about changes 10, 20 years later and how would you relate these technological changes with the present.
• The biggest change in my personality was my confidence. I was so confident during my interviews due to my preparation that I was smiling throughout. I remember that I was shivering during the interviews last year. Such was the positive impact of PDPP on me.

PDPP may not ensure that you crack the interviews on the D day but it will definitely ensure that you are one of the best candidates to be interviewed that day.

Thank you Sreeni sir for all the guidance and help. I moved my life in the direction in which I wanted to and a big part goes to PDPP and you. It would seem to many people that I got selected and thus I am praising the programme. I would like to mention that my selection was inevitable because of the preparation that PDPP provided.

Regarding written exams, I took two test series. You can take any two though I would personally suggest CL to be one of the series  because of LRDI and VARC sections. In the months of April and May I solved CL booklets for CAT which really helped me clear all the doubts. From June, I started to take mock tests and sectional tests. If you are starting now, I would suggest you devote two months for covering all the topics. From August you should take full length mocks. Till December, I took around 45-50 full mock tests. It is important to clear all the doubts however small in the initial stages so that later you can devote your time strategizing and planning time management. For VARC, I studied Economic times, The Economist and Hindu editorials daily. The Economist really helped as it covered different topics. Quant is a matter of practice and LRDI is all about patience, practicing different sets and understanding the question under time pressure. I hope it helps future aspirants in some way.

Regards
Sourabh Shubham

Converts XLRI and SPJAIN 2019

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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.“