The way faculty teaches widens our way of understanding and thinking, says Nihal

When I finished my tenth grade, I was faced with a classic problem handed down from our ancestors: whether to pursue science or commerce, with arts being viewed as an unknown option. Then I made the same conclusion, opting for science believing that science offers more opportunities than commerce. Then I enrolled in PES University, focused in science, and realized within two months that I had made a huge mistake. Then, despite my difficulties, I committed to finish my 11th and 12th grades. I finished my 12th grade with a 68 percent. Parents, and especially relatives, were disappointed I realized that science was not my cup of tea and decided to pursue a BBA in commerce, despite the fact that many people said I wouldn't be able to do well in commerce, particularly ‘Accounts’.

Later, I was looking for top colleges in Bangalore, but most of them were too far away to commute to. When I was looking for nearby colleges, I came across GIBS Business School. GIBS had already established itself as a good MBA and PGDM college.

This whole thing of being the BBA batch at GIBS, setting the benchmarks, small-batch with a fully diverse group of people from Andhra, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Saudi Arabia, and even Lakshadweep Island. So, I chose GIBS for my UG, enjoyed the college and the course, which was affiliated with Bangalore University, studied hard and became a college topper, and in the Accounts part, I was able to get 98/100 as the highest, and the rest of the 5 semesters were 90+. Later, they relocated the campus to Begur Road, bringing both UG and PG students together.

Obviously, after studying UG there, I choose PG at GIBS, where I am currently in my last year and have already been placed with 8 LPA from campus.

As previously stated, after my 12th grade in science, I choose to do BBA and enrolled in GIBS for my UG. I just had a personal interview and After completing my Under Graduation and giving a PG entrance exam i.e. MAT, score was 701, 79 percentile, with this and also being a former student of GIBS, I was able to get into GIBS.

My parents lost their jobs as a result of the covid. I come from a middle-class household, so paying fees was a serious problem. An educational loan was the only choice, and GIBS supported me greatly in obtaining the loan and in giving me enough time to pay the fees, for which I am extremely grateful. I will graduate in May 2022.

My 5 years journey has been very important to me; I am extremely grateful to GIBS, where I was able to meet the most amazing individuals and have a great time. I became quite studious once I enrolled at GIBS, and obviously as I made friends, I was unable to be as studious in college, but once I returned home, I used to study a lot. It was usually a good time in college, and because I was a Bangalorean, I knew a lot of languages. I am proficient in English, Hindi, and Kannada, as well as Tamil and able to understand Telugu and Malayalam. If you were born and raised in Bangalore and do not speak more than three languages, surviving in Bangalore will be challenging. As a result, I was able to speak with everyone and make some new friends. Classes were very interesting because it was not thought in a typical way where we have a boring lecture and study only for the exam, it was not like that, the faculties were highly professional, who had industry experience and were visiting faculties, the way they teach is completely based on their years of corporate experience which widened our way of understanding and thinking. You will enjoy attending these lectures, and yes, there may be instances when it will be 3hr or 4hr straight, which will make it difficult to focus.

During my UG, I was elected as the Events President. I enjoy event management; as president of the club, I was able to organize many successful events with my team. I also took part in numerous CSR events held at the campus. Industry visits, presentations, seminars, webinars, public speaking, sports competitions, fests and other activities made college enjoyable.

Before joining GIBS, I was very bad at communication, I couldn't even give a self-introduction, I had low confidence and many insecurities, but after 4.5 years in GIBS, regular presentations, training to improve, to become the best version of myself, I put a lot of effort, relatives and friends (School & college classmates) who were looking down on me started to respect me, many things have changed, and yes, I believe I am not the best, but I am better than I was before GIBS and will continue to work hard for improvement.

In the future, I hope to become a reliable Market Analyst, and with successful end-to-end project management experience, I hope to advance to a more senior market analyst position.

About the author

Nihal is a student of Post-Graduation Diploma in Management (PGDM) with a specialization in Business Analytics and Marketing from GIBS Business School.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha