Mystory@Hasnain Sayed: How I chose my course and college

Mystory@Hasnain Sayed

I chose Science stream in school because I Initially wanted to become a pilot. But like many school students who take up Science, I later felt that I must go for making a career in engineering or medicine or pharmaceutical sciences. Slowly and steadily as time passed, I observed that I am not so hard working and committed towards achieving my goals, and experienced many hurdles on my way.

During my graduation days, I switched to Commerce stream and decided to do BCom. Choosing Commerce again was difficult as I had to manage with an entirely new stream and adjust to new concepts of accounting, business and trade.

The reason behind choosing to do MBA or my post-graduation was towards the objective of achieving good placements along with a good package to start a comfortable career.

How I cracked MBA admission in ICFAI Business School

We all know it’s very difficult to get admission in a good B-School due to immense competition. I too faced a lot of difficulty in the beginning trying to clear entrance exams. I gave CMAT, NMAT, SNAP, CAT, XAT, CET, IIFT, and finally IBSAT. Initially, I got a very low score in few of the entrance exams but later I managed to get average marks. I took coaching classes from Ideal Credence, Vile Parle (Mumbai), which is known for coaching in various entrance examinations and slowly with relevant amount of practice I picked up the tricks of clearing entrance exams. Finally, I scored well in IBSAT with 83.9 percentile.

I went to IBS Hyderabad to participate in the group discussion and personal interview (GDPI) session where there were thousands of candidates on the day of selection for various IBS centers all over India. The GDPI went very well by God’s grace and finally I got selected for IBS Mumbai Campus. It was a dream come true!
Before trying for IBS Mumbai, I had tried for NL Dalmia, Narsee Monjee institute of Management studies (NMIMS), Symbiosis Institute, Pune, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, Indian Institute of Management, Welingkar Institute of Management Studies and Research, and Amity University, Panvel.

My college life: Classes, extra-curricular activities and more

I enjoy going to college every day, giving presentations, enjoying with friends and class mates, chilling and relaxing in the canteen, enjoying and studying in the reading room and library and doing lots more. In first year of my course, we had only one section as all subjects were common and there were no specializations. In first year, some of my favourite subjects were cost accounting, financial management, and Business Analytics. I used to like class of Marketing management, Business Research Methods, Business Statistics and Mathematics.

In my second year, there were few common subjects and rest of the classes were based on the specializations selected by students. As far as extra-curricular activities are concerned, I am part of the PR team of our Entrepreneurship club called E-Cell, Sponsorship team of Marketing called Markophilia, and also part of the creative team of IT and Operations club known as Tecknix. I even participated in Konflux – the flagship event of my college.

If given a chance I would suggest my college to encourage more of guest lectures as much as possible. My college experience has changed me as a person in many ways. Now I have become more confident, I take quick decisions and look for various possibilities before executing a plan. I got placed in one of the leading real estate companies in Mumbai, though I wanted to make a career in FMCG or event management companies but couldn’t get through the competition at the time of placement process. Still I am very happy having got placed in a real estate company. Man Proposes, God Disposes; but whatever happens, happens for good.   

About the Author:

I’m a marketing enthusiast and have pursued full-time PGPM course from ICFAI Business School (IBS) Mumbai. I’m a person who has learn from failures in life. I never had any ambitions, but later on I realized that it is necessary to have dreams in order to plan, execute, achieve success in life. Believe, faith, and confidence in yourself is the biggest key to success.