Whatever happens, Happens for a reason

I had mentioned in some of my earlier posts about my GMAT and my decision to come back to India and work in the Family business. I took these decisions to try and build a strong MBA application. Since September 2009 I have been on a roller coaster ride of applying/waiting/acceptance/rejection from MBA schools.

The roller coaster started off with Richard Ivey school of Business at London, Ontario, regarded as one of the best schools in Canada with a strong focus on case studies and small class sizes. I applied in the first round and received an invitation for an interview. I was confident with my application, essays and knowledge about my industry that I decided not to stress out too much about the interview. My interview went well and I came out thinking I had a good shot of getting in. The 2 week wait after the interview was insane and finally I was requested for another interview over the phone. Now Ivey does not have two interview rounds, so this could only mean that they weren’t sure about me. The telephone interview didn’t go well and I had a bad feeling about it and my feelings were proven correct when I got a reject email in November.

In the meantime I had started my application for Queen’s in Kingston, Ontario and ISB, Hyderabad. My weakness was my interview with Ivey and I resolved not to make the same mistakes I did with Ivey. I started researching about the interview questions asked by these schools and preparing for them. I practiced mock interviews and with each run I got more confident and came up with better answers.

Fortunately, I got accepted for interviews at both Queen’s (January 21) and ISB (Jaunary 31). The Queen’s interview went very well and I had a good feeling about it. I got an acceptance email on January 28th from Queen’s which helped me relax a bit for my ISB interview.

I was very happy at getting an interview call from ISB, rated among the top 3 schools in India and 12th in the world by FT.  Admission is very competitive at ISB with an applications to admits ratio of 1:10 and I didn’t have much hope of getting in. On the day of the interview I took a flight from Kolkata to Hyderabad and arrived 5 hours before my interview. I spent those 5 hours trying NOT to think about the interview by watching Top Gear and Big Bang Theory on my laptop. This worked pretty well till about 45 minutes before my interview when I started getting nervous! I quickly changed into the formals I had brought along and went for my interview. Everyone had to write an essay and the topic was “India as a superpower”, which I had no problems writing about. I talked to a few students to take my mind off the interview and I got my interview call 30 minutes after the scheduled time. One of the panel member came out to greet me and walked me to the interview room. My interview lasted 20 minutes and I walked out  with a mixed bag of feelings. I was able to answer most of the questions but the one question that made me nervous was about my lack of experience in the family business (i had been working for only 6 months). I might have worked for only 6 months but it was the quality of the experience rather than the quantity. I was able to work with the senior management and get involved in decision making at the managerial levels about finance, operations, HR etc. I expected this to be a good enough answer but just the fact that I was asked that made me nervous.

I took the flight back to Kolkata the same day and returned home to Rourkela on the next day. All I could think about throughout this journey was ISB and my interview, which could have been better. After a couple of days ISB was out of my mind and I was focused on going to Queen’s, when suddenly on February 12th I got an acceptance email from ISB!! 3 days before their official decision date. I couldn’t believe my eyes and I was ecstatic! My search for an MBA school was over after 5 months . I got into a school that I didn’t expect to and didn’t believe I could actually get in. ISB will help me network with professionals from India and help me do business in India.

I got rejected from Ivey but it helped me prepare for ISB and Queen’s. Also, if I had gotten into Ivey, I would’ve never applied to ISB. Whatever happens, happens for a reason .

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