IIM A Sample Essays from Past Clients: 1
IIM A Essay 1 : Please describe some of the challenges you faced in the last three years of your work life and how you were able to overcome them.
Over the past three years of my career, I’ve served as the Operations Officer on a frontline frigate and as a naval tactician with the premier tactics-making organisation of the Navy.
Both positions presented me with diverse challenges, allowing me to develop the ability to overcome obstacles and learn valuable lessons from those experiences.
My ship was about to undergo an inspection and I knew it wouldn’t be easy as we recently experienced a major shift in our team, and had lost a few seasoned professionals. This inspection, which assessed the ship’s readiness to carry out critical missions, was no ordinary event. A poor score would tarnish the ship and its crew’s reputation throughout the Navy.
While entering the dangerous harbour of Kochi for inspection, my team and I had a major incident that could have resulted in our ship grounding. Unfortunately, the incident was mostly due to poor communication within the new team. Although a team member had noticed the error, he was not confident to speak up. I realised that despite being highly qualified, the new team was not comfortable pointing out others’ mistakes, resulting in a breakdown in communication.
This incident prompted me to create a culture of openness within the team. We trained together, ate together and more than that, we talked to each other freely and frankly. I was finally able to create an environment of trust and confidence, and as a result, my team performed exceptionally well and aced the inspection.
During my tenure as a naval tactician, one of the greatest challenges I faced was to decide how the Indian Navy should undertake surveillance with aircraft in the Indian Ocean. Traditionally, the search was undertaken haphazardly with little rationale behind it. After numerous reports of missed contacts, the navy considered revising the philosophy.
My organisation and I were tasked with the responsibility of making these modifications within a three-month deadline.The sheer magnitude of the project was overwhelming, and the thought that the solution will have far-reaching consequences made it all the more formidable. I decided to break the project into small parts.
I then examined techniques used by other countries, gathering data from various stakeholders, and researching white papers.One major challenge was to determine the efficiency of the method we would eventually deploy. After careful consideration, I managed to come up with a metric and conducted hundreds of thousands of simulations of our methods until I was satisfied. The methodology was implemented throughout the Navy, yielding outstanding results. Throughout this remarkable journey, I was presented with the extraordinary opportunity to spearhead a revolutionary transformation in the Navy’s operations, fundamentally reshaping its core philosophy.
Both of these incidents taught me invaluable lessons. The former showed me the value of communication and trust within a team. The latter taught me a lesson in how to tackle complex, large-scale problems.
IIM A Essay 2 : Tell us what is special about you that makes you a good addition to the classroom.
I believe that my diverse professional experiences, personal qualities, and creativity make me a great addition to the classroom.
The Navy is a unique environment that presents many challenges. Your room is a metal box the size of a minivan, and you have no connection with the outside world. You are eating, sleeping, and working with the same 200 odd faces, all spending upwards of 100 days at a time away from home. Above all, you are undertaking the most critical of missions. I’ve spent 7 years of my last 11 years at sea doing this, and in the process, I believe I’ve developed a unique set of skills – high-stakes management, empathetic leadership, and the ability to handle strenuous work.
Growing up in a middle-class family, our ethos dictated no waste – whether it was food, water, or electricity. These early lessons in resourcefulness became the driving force in my careers. I was awarded the best team employee in two months of me joining a project for workflow optimisation. When I was doing my Specialisation in the Navy, I conceptualised and developed a navigation app for plotting bearings, a seemingly mundane yet crucial task. I pioneered the development of an inhouse Data Visualization tool because MS Excel was time consuming. My commitment to optimising processes extended to every appointment I served on, be it minimising paper waste to devising efficient strategies for locating threats in vast expanses.
These diverse professional experiences and personal qualities will help me contribute to peer learning and thereby add value to my class at IIMA.
On the lighter side of life, I’m a cartoonist, an avid reader, and consider myself quite creative. I’ve always been passionate about visual storytelling and have designed magazines and newsletters. I’m also working on an anthology of my own comic strips that I hope to publish someday. I truly believe that I could bring more colour and vibrancy to the PGPX community in my own unique ways.
IIM A Essay 3 : What will a management degree bring to you at this stage of your career?
Throughout my decade-long career in the Indian Navy, I honed invaluable leadership skills and gained extensive operational experience in my specialised field.
Leading the team through tense deployments such as the ones during the Galwan clash and abrogation of article 370 have trained me on high-stakes management. Visiting 13 countries and planning bilateral exercises with many have contributed to my communication and collaborative skills. My four years as an Operations Officer on major warships have honed my operational skills. My current appointment, where I focus on the tactical aspects of the Navy’s operations, has helped me develop my strategic thinking skills. While I’ve gained a wealth of knowledge during my time in the navy, I recognize that it may not directly align with the demands of the corporate world. As I progress in my career, it’s crucial that I adapt and apply the skills I’ve learned to meet the requirements of the corporate setting.
Moreover, I firmly believe that in order to succeed in business, you need to have a cross-functional understanding of every aspect, including finance, marketing, and more.
The conclusion of my compulsory service marks a clearly defined career phase of my life as I transition into the corporate world. I had an exceptional career in the Navy, with increasing responsibilities and progressively challenging roles each year. I believe that now is the right time to pursue a top-notch MBA so that I am equipped to succeed in the corporate world.
My goal is to secure a General Management and Operations Manager position within e-commerce and technology companies or large conglomerates. In addition, my experience could be valuable to companies with projects in the aerospace and defence domain. My long term goal is to become a COO of a company focused on the growth and sustainability of our country. By learning from a world-class faculty in the fields of Operation and Strategy at IIMA, I believe I can qualify myself for such leadership roles in the future.
Lastly, having 12 years of experience under my belt, I want to make a swift transition into the corporate world. My career in the Navy has taught me how to handle rigour and thrive in challenging situations. As a result, I am very comfortable with a rigorous and intense education. I strongly believe that the intensive and focused curriculum of IIM A can bridge the gap in my understanding of business and help me excel in the corporate world.
IIM A MBA Sample Essays from Past Clients - 2
IIM A MBA Essay 1: Please describe some of the challenges you faced in the last three years of your work life and how you were able to overcome them. 500 words
I would like to take this opportunity to describe biases that I have faced in my professional projects. I joined SBI as a probationary officer under a special category called “physically challenged employees”. Under this category, employees are given only a limited number of roles irrespective of their capacity or will to do other projects.
During the probation period, each officer has to undergo certain trainings and work in different verticals of the bank to learn nuances of each vertical . After probation, The officers are given roles based on their performance during the probation. In Spite of having tremendous performance during probation, especially in the credit section, I was assigned a designation of a support officer – an officer who assists loan processing and sanctioning officers – because of my multiple disabilities rather than my capabilities.
Working at this position would definitely inhibit my professional growth, so I decided not to accept this designation. I raised this concern with senior authorities. The authorities contacted previous supervisors and asked for their recommendations. Even after receiving good recommendations, I was asked to give an undertaking that I will be liable for my actions if I am not able to perform at the same bar as other physically able people.
I took the risk on my own career, gave the underwriting and accepted a challenging position with Mohali branch. I was posted in the SBI Mohali branch in which I was tasked to turn around an underperforming branch as the branch was not performing upto the mark in retail segment banking.
Suffering from multiple disabilities, I have had to deal with everyday tasks leveraging out-of-the-box approaches. Being innovative has become my second nature and it has given me a strong foundation to approach professional challenges. I conducted comprehensive competitor-analysis and implemented a first-of-its-kind hub based model for loans disbursement.
But innovative thinking didn’t provide a solution for all my problems. My staff, my customers and even my own team sometimes doubted my capabilities just because of my disability, just because I looked different and talked differently. I faced multiple biases and basic rejections when the clients asked if someone more capable can handle their request. From my understanding of psychology, I realized that I just had to win the clients over by showing my respect for their expectations of great work, fast approval and easy documentation process. I outworked all my teammates to earn their respect as well and slowly built a reputation within the branch. This allowed me to then take on more challenging projects and engaged in cross-border international negotiations with SBI branches in Canada, USA and Sri Lanka.
Today I can happily say that my efforts paid – I sanctioned more than 1500 loans within a financial year. After this huge success, my efforts were recognized by the DMD of SBI for my creative-thinking for reforming an inefficient loans disbursement process as well as for my grit to overcome my physical limitations. I was designated as Youth Icon for my contribution.
IIM A MBA Essay 2: Tell us what is special about you that makes you a good addition to the classroom.500 words
As someone who was unlucky to be born with a physical disability, survived with the help of 4 plastic surgeries and lived a life full of struggles just to fit in with the normal kids; the quality that makes me special is my never give up attitude and the biggest value which i think i can teach my peers is how to be open to different perspectives and promote diversity and inclusion for those belonging to communities groups like physically disabled people or LGBTQ+.
Since birth, I have suffered from facial palsy – a condition that affects facial moments, vision and hearing ability. During my formative years, I was unable to independently perform simple daily tasks such as brushing my teeth, speaking fluently, etc tasks which other kids took for granted and made fun of me. During one parent-teacher meeting, my school-principal suggested that I attend a “special needs school” which can teach me how to live life differently. My parents refused and pushed me to overcome these hurdles.
Thus began my journey and thereafter I joined all sorts of clubs – including Saksham – to understand about my disability and to learn to minimize the impact of the disability. Delving deeper, I joined meditation, reading and speaking clubs to overcome these and make friends. I always stuck to my intuitions; stopped living up to others expectations; explored my right to life, education and employment.
The club involvement gave me confidence to live life like a normal kids. After two years, I led a team at the club to help other “special children project” as well. In Partnership with NSS, I along with 25 other members decided to adopt a nearby village. I took charge of the education department and mentored 20+ disabled kids to learn and educate them self while overcoming their disabilities. Over the span of 2 years, our first batch of 20+ students got admitted in 5 schools and passed their examinations. This project helped shape my life’s mission to be a strong proponent of inclusivity.
I think that the biggest challenge we face today is to create a workplace that is inclusive of differently abled people, different perspectives and backgrounds. As a person with multiple disabilities, I have personally faced biases in my professional projects. And that’s why I pay special attention to removing such biases from my actions, be they gender-oriented or influenced for any other reason. Through my own experience, I am deeply motivated to create an environment that understands the value of diversity and inclusivity and work towards uplifting each other.
Overall, I believe, more than technical skills, it’s my never-say-die attitude and motivations that have driven me to overcome my physical limitations and to be a successful government of india officer.. Having a disability is definitely difficult, but it is also one of the richest learning-curves a human can experience. During my time at IIM A, I wish to help my fellow batch-mates in overcoming adversity.
IIM A MBA Essay 3 : What will a management degree bring to you at this stage of your career? 500 words
I have more than 5 years of experience with State Bank of India as a credit underwriter. Post-MBA, I would like to continue building my career within the finance domain but preferably shift from retail banking to a financial auditing or consulting jobs with the likes of Big 4 which can set me up towards a long term goal of being a CFO.
In these 5 years, I have successfully led a team that implemented the largest merger of retail segment loans of SBI with 5 of its associates. Apart from credit underwriting, I have hands-on experience in portfolio management; audit and resource pool development; and cross-border negotiations with international clients in the USA, Canada, Dubai and Sri Lanka;. These projects have helped me understand fundamentals of credit and finance, build teams and lead them to deliver ground-breaking projects. My efforts have been recognized by the Deputy Managing director of SBI and was designated as Youth Icon for my contribution.
However, after graduating as an engineer and working with SBI for 5 years at various leadership positions I have realized that there are critical knowledge gaps in my basic understanding of business and finance fundamentals. In order to grow my career in finance domain, I think now would be the perfect time for me to pursue a business education which can equip me to bridge these gaps.
IIM A’s induction program would help in gaining perspective and developing an action plan for the coming year. Its extensive core curriculum with focus on case based study model combined with learning programs like the capstone module, faculty model that provides global perspective and practical knowledge, guest lectures by prominent figures and customizable electives in the field of my skill-gap areas coupled with CFA, would help me in building a strong foundation and further hone my skills.
Complementing rigorous coursework, IIMA’s finance club, events such as National Level finance competitions and The Red Brick Summit, case competitions, speaker series and preparing for top management program would help in developing industry specific knowledge and would give me an opportunity to interact with finance leaders and provide a holistic experience in finance for which I am deeply passionate .
I would leverage IIMA’s international immersion program to gain perspective of global economies and form new connections and would leverage IIMA’s tight-knit alumni network to strengthen my candidature to make a shift from retail banking to a financial analysis role and work for big financial services firms and ultimately become chief financial officer at a financial services firm.
Therefore, I firmly believe that IIMA’s unique approach to leadership, diversity in class and focus on career transformation would be a perfect stepping stone towards my goal.
IIM A Sample Essays from Past Clients: 3
Essay 1. Can you narrate a few incidents from your professional life that would illustrate your ability to handle volatile situations? (1000 words)
I have more than 13 years of experience spread across 5 countries. In these 13 years, I have been put in the spotlight multiple times to manage volatile situations or difficult people. I would be lying if I say I didn’t struggle in these situations and never thought of backing out. But success is like intoxication, you taste it once and you always crave for it. I believe it is the success in managing such situations that have helped me succeed in my career and rise up to be a team leader now.
One of the most peculiar and politically volatile situations I have managed happened when I was deputed to the United kingdom (UK). TCS was offered one single position in the client’s portfolio, my manager gave me the responsibility to handle the client and see if we can secure more business and expand our footprint at the client’s UK location. But on day one I realized that the entire technical portfolio of clients had individual contractors. They did not represent any company, and to keep their contracts safe, the entire technical team was at odds with me coming onboard to represent an Indian IT firm which was a clear threat to their contractor positions being offshored to India. Technical team, at every opportunity, tried to put across the message that I am not fit for the job and I had to go the extra mile to defend my every suggestion or recommendation.
Within the first month instead of working to grow our footprint, I was struggling to first ensure that TCS does not lose the contract for my position. It was a very politically charged situation where contractors wanted to defend their work scope from being Bangalored. I discussed it with my manager and figured out the best way forward would be to be patient and use diplomacy rather than superior technical knowledge. To win everyone’s trust, while raising any conflict in the meetings, I always ensured that I am also praising the technical team for their efforts and started developing personal connections over coffee and lunches. After 10 months, I was able to establish a personal connection with everyone and successfully added two more positions at the UK office for TCS. I also opened a communication channel between TCS and client leadership to improve TCS’s future prospects as well. Pleased with my achievements, my management gave me a promotion as well. I was also humbled when the entire team organized a farewell party for me when I left that project for another opportunity. This experience taught me how to work and succeed in an intimidating and unreceptive environment. I learned how sometimes you can detach your emotions and feelings while working with people. And the biggest learning of all was that don’t let perception of others affect your confidence.
Another difficult and volatile situation that I successfully navigated through, and somewhat also proud of, was when I joined Axtria as an Engagement Manager for one of their largest projects. When I joined Axtria, the project was behind schedule and we were in fire-fighting mode. To meet the deadlines, the team had to consistently put in extra hours. After more than a month of late nights, the team’s patience started to wear off and we saw clear signs of burnout among team members. We saw a few attritions, some started to take unplanned leaves, others simply refused to stay back and work extra hours. Soon things started to escalate, and deliveries got impacted. The client also started to question Axtria’s commitment and capability to deliver the project. Axtria, being a startup then, couldn’t afford a failure. Senior leadership pushed me to ensure proper delivery ele i would fail to even pass my 6 months probation period in my new job.
At the same time, I also felt responsible for my team’s well-being and the work culture being pushed by senior management. While I knew that delivering the project successfully is of paramount importance, I also had full empathy for my team. I spoke to my team with empathy to make sure they realize that I understand their situation. I divided the team into groups and distributed work such that everyone got one complimentary day off in a week. I personally stayed back with the team in the office every night. I also negotiated with leadership and our client to rebase a few deadlines. I also persuaded my leadership for a monthly team party to blow off the steam and organized a few other team bonding activities. After four months of tireless efforts, we as a team delivered the project in time. I was also able to keep the moral of the team high throughout. I can say this confidently because I received a word of appreciation from HR after my team’s connection with HR, a monthly practice that was followed in Axtria.
After the successful delivery, the client sent out an appreciation for all the effort the team put and turned around the situation. Our team received a word of appreciation from the CEO of the company. It personally felt very rewarding. Not only did I deliver the project successfully, I was also able to earn immense love and respect from my team. This experience taught me one of the greatest lessons – you can succeed only as a team and you are only as strong as your team.
Essay 2: What is so special about you that professors and peers would like to have you in the class? (500 words)
Learner by heart, leader by behavior and compassionate by nature. These are some of the qualities that I will bring to the IIMA and enrich the classroom.
Till date I have lived and worked across four countries, and travelled to more than nine countries. I have worked with people from over twelve countries and by working with people from so many different countries, I have gained true insight about the benefits of diversity in a team and how people’s working style is influenced by the culture they belong to. A German will probably want a lot of details and a well thought aggressive plan whereas a French or Italian will frown on the aggressive plan. This international experience has also given me the ability to look at the problem from multiple perspectives. Perspective allows you to be more creative in problem solving and open in the workplace. With these learnings I believe I can add immense value and enrich the classroom case discussions which can enhance my peers’ learning experience at IIM A.
More than anything, I believe international experience has given me life experiences. I always made sure that every country I visited, I went out and tried local cuisines, tried local drinks and interacted with local people. I discovered a French delicacy Foie Gras and Italian drink Sambuca like that. I loved Sambuca and hated Foie Gras. But every experiment, every experience turned into a story and while gaining all these experiences, I also made a global network of colleagues. I will use these experiences to enhance the cultural knowledge of peers and be their local guide during international immersion. I will also be able to help my peers who have international aspirations to expand their network in various countries. The ability to value alternate experience and recognize the importance of different opinions makes me an excellent team player.
The last quality which I believe would make me a valuable addition is that I am good at keeping my team motivated and have fun together even in the difficult times of a pandemic. Last year, when everyone started working from home, as a manager, I felt responsible for keeping my team motivated and connected together. I initiated a biweekly 30-minute call with my team, just to have fun where the only subject of discussion was our personal well-being and team bonding. I was surprised by how much of a crucial stress buster this became. We also organized virtual Christmas and New Year celebrations. Working hard is important but so is mental wellbeing and having fun. In a rigorous PGPX program, we will face difficult situations time and again. My ability to remain calm in stressful situations, take initiatives to be motivated and optimistic, and extend optimism to others around me makes me unique.
I strongly believe that my unique skills, excellent international perspective and ability to harvest them into something consequential makes me an invaluable asset for both professors and peers alike.
Essay 3: Do you have anything special that you would want the Admissions Committee to know? (500 words)
I was raised in a working-class family, where I had the importance of hard work and mutual respect instilled in me from the very beginning. My father had a very lavish and comfortable early childhood, however his fortune turned when my grandfather suddenly passed away. My father was only 12 years, and post my grandfather’s passing away my father had a very tough life. Through sheer hard work my father was able to make a successful career to be the superintendent of police (SP) in uttarakhand. I was both humbled and honored to hear his success after so many struggles. I was fortunate that I did not have to go through any such struggle, but his story has always helped me stay grounded and focus on working hard.
From my early childhood, I was taught to respect people. My father as a senior government officer later had access to a lot of luxuries that most people don’t have. We had a big house, chauffeur-driven cars and lots of servants. However, both me and my brother were not allowed to call any servant or driver by name. We were told that they were my father’s employees, not servants and that my father is their boss, not us. That was the first lesson of my life and foundation of what I would be for the rest of my life. I learned that no work is lesser than others and that our culture is to respect elders, not their profession. That learning instilled humility at my core. Till date I give people elder to me, be it my driver or guard at my office, due respect. I remember, my father once told me that all everyone is looking for, rich or poor, powerful or weak, potent or ineffectual, is respect. It might not mean anything to you but might mean a world to everyone. I took these words to heart.
At the same time, I also abide by the rule that I work to live, I don’t live to work. Career growth is very important, but it cannot come at the cost of personal sacrifices. I want to succeed and reach heights in my career, but not at the cost of life experience. One instance changed my perception of life. It was September 2016. Me and my wife were in Rome celebrating my wife’s birthday. There were certain street musicians playing music, families busy capturing photographs and some just soaking themselves in that moment. At that moment something inside me changed. I realized that it is the experiences that will define the life I live. 30-40 years from now, I will not remember the projects I delivered successfully, the client appreciations I got or the promotions I grabbed.
What I will remember is experiences like these, the lives I touched and the people I have. At that moment I determined that both my personal and professional life would be more than succeeding. It taught me that your success or failure does not make you better or worse than others. It also told me that few successes or few failures will not define you. What will define you is your character and the experiences you lived your life with.
IIM A Sample Essays from Past Clients: 4
Essay 1 : Can you walk us through some challenges you faced in the last three years of your work life? Please describe how you were able to overcome them. (500 words)
In my 15+ years of professional career, I distinctly remember the 2 biggest challenges which have shaped me into the empathetic leader I am today.
The first one happened in 2019 when I voluntarily used to take up duty on some holidays to help my erstwhile team with coverage on weekends. I remember, in the last quarter of CY 2019, I was on Incident Manager duty operating out of Bangalore on a weekend overseeing the technical support center operations of Bangalore and Sydney centers. I got a message that one of the female employees has lost consciousness and fallen down at Sydney center.
It was a very unexpected situation to deal with on a weekend especially in the absence of support staff in the empty offices. In my personal and professional life, I always keep my team’s and my safety as the utmost priority, and being unable to help a remote employee in a different company made me very nervous.
First of all, I tried calming down and holding up my nerves. Asked another fellow female employee on the floor to check the sick female employee quickly and take care of her while I informed and tried finding the medical support services number in Australia. I quickly got hold of the Sydney emergency line number and called for an ambulance. The ambulance arrived in around 5-10 minutes and the employee was taken to the hospital for treatment.
For handling this situation, I was appreciated by the management. For me, it was a unique challenge and a learning experience. I am happy and satisfied that I was able to keep myself calm and did the right thing during a time-critical situation. It was a lesson and experience I mentioned as a learning moment in our team meeting and encouraged all my team members to prioritize health and safety first.
The second one happened more recently. Where I am leading an effort from the Cisco Asia Pacific region for one of the product lines in my business vertical. On Dec 9th, 2021, one of the leading software foundations, alerted the global technology community about a security vulnerability discovered in the software framework that is widely used in web applications. Cisco uses it in several different products. This vulnerability has the potential to give a hacker unauthorized access to information and can lead to financial losses for the end customers.
As soon as Cisco became aware of the security vulnerability, emergency operations processes were activated. Given my expertise, I was asked to join the investigation team and provide the inputs regarding the product line I am dealing with while keeping a vigil and liaising with some of the big customers in the Asia Pacific region. As part of the investigation, I led an extensive exercise to quickly close the vulnerability.
To date, we have not detected any intrusion in the Cisco network and this high-pressure situation really brought out the team leader in me who can handle intense situations.
Essay 2 : Tell us what is special about you, which would make you a good addition to the classroom? (500 words)
One of the early failures which taught me the most on how to be a leader was when I got my first managerial role at Tata Communications Limited. As a manager, I was a bit harsh and cutthroat. I was born and brought up in an environment where pure hard work and putting in the hours was the only way forward. Because of this mindset, sometimes I used to doubt the capability of others at work, especially one of my reportees Ankit Sanghani.
Whenever I used to allocate him work, his output felt consistent but I never actually saw him putting in the hours. I developed a negative opinion about his work performance. One day he invited me for dinner at his place. That is when I saw the very humble background he came from and when I understood the context of his situation. I was able to understand that despite all the hardships he was good at collaborating and delivering consistent work which was actually good.
It was my failure to look down upon him just because he was not putting in the extra hours at the office. Over the period of time, we became best friends. At the same time, I failed to recognize that all people are not the same and if you are good at doing smart work by collaboration you can actually achieve great results, it was my personal failure as a first-time leader. Some of the key learnings out of failure were understanding the importance of collaboration, teamwork, and inclusion in diversity. This key learning, later on, set the stage for my life’s biggest achievement when I started dreaming about having a patent to my name.
Having a technology invention patented to your name is the dream of every engineer. But I know I can’t come up with something in isolation on my own. I proactively started collaborating and taking initiatives with my global colleague. I came up with 8 different ideas in the next 3 years but all were rejected by Cisco’s technical committee. Finally, on my 9th attempt as part of a team with members from Argentina and the USA, our idea was approved to be submitted and finally got patented. For the first time in my life, I went outside of India to meet my co-inventors on their invitation. One of my co-inventors happens to be a CTO at Cisco. Today I have 4 patents, 2 papers published to my name all credit to teamwork.
Currently. I am leading the delivery effort for the Dubai Expo event. For my excellent performance, I have been awarded performance awards and bonuses this year.
So given the qualities and skills that I have developed over the years such as innovative mindset, collaboration, teamwork, leadership, inclusion in diversity, and international experience, I believe I would be able to share my unique experiences bringing in a networking industry perspective with the class and it would be a good addition to the class.
Essay 3 : What will a management degree bring to you at this stage of your career? (500 words)
Life is about becoming a better version of yourself, never stop improving yourself while contributing towards the world around you in a positive way – sums up my life.
My journey started in an economically backward South Indian village in a community living well below the poverty line. My father imbibed the ethos of hard work when it came to achieving success in life and my good fortune of growing across various states which provided me the exposure to develop my soft skills in life. Today, I can speak/understand 7 languages, I have 2 patents, 2 IPs, and 2 published papers on the internet. My life story from by-cycling 40 kms every day to save bus fare to becoming a technical leader at a fortune 500 firm like Cisco is a story of hard work, perseverance, and dedication.
Over the last 15 years, I have worked close to 5 years at Tata communications limited (TCL) and then for 10 years at Cisco Systems; each step taken is to get me closer to my immediate short-term goal to transition into a Product Portfolio manager’s role. My journey began at TCL where I garnered fast track promotion based on my performance and delivered a 300% quarter-on-quarter increase in revenue as part of the pre-sales team. Now at Cisco, as a Technical Leader, I lead technical teams of 21 members and manage high value customers.
The next step in my career progression would ideally be that of a Product Portfolio Manager leading go-to-market strategy for multiple product segments. At Cisco, product portfolio management is more akin to venture capital, combining technical prowess and business acumen. Having majored in engineering, my business knowledge to date has been acquired informally through executive mentoring. Now, I especially look forward to fulfilling gaps in my business acumen and leadership perspective which have started to hinder my career progress beyond the technical leader engineering level.
After thorough research, talking to one of my friends and IIMA alumni – Rahul Parekh, I think for a technical leader like me, IIMA’s PGPX would be the perfect stepping stone to upskill my business acumen and leadership skills. I especially look forward to attending courses of the best professors like Amit Karna about Strategy and Arindam Banerjee about Marketing. I would love to join IIMA’s CIIE.co to hone my management, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills. Dedicating a year to the program, especially at this stage of a successful career and family life, is a bold but decisive investment in my future. The residential program would be ideal for personal growth and professional network.
In the long term, I would like to be in a position likely as General Manager or VP of Engineering and Operations. IIMA education at this stage of my career, coupled with my extensive experience in operations and engineering would help me not only reach my short and long-term goals but also allow me to make decisions that would bring life-changing products to market and society.
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