Students’ Speak: Leverage experience of previous years’ students to prepare for placements

You should always try to leverage the experience of previous year’s students who have been through the same phase and are currently working in your chosen domain.

If you ask me to sum up an MBA student’s life in one word, I will choose “Placements”. This 10- alphabet word drives the entire functioning of almost all B-Schools all over the world. Fresh graduates turn up to B-schools for a good kickstart to their professional careers through campus placements, and the working professionals turn up to boost up their existing careers again through campus placements.

I will be breaking down this article into two parts. First, how they are conducted at IIM Kozhikode and second, how to prepare for your dream company.

There are different forms of placements at IIM Kozhikode, almost one-third of the batch gets placed through PPOs offered by summer interned companies, remaining through lateral placements for work experienced people. Coming to the preparation part, there are no specific paths that could lead you to your “dream job”, but there are a few guidelines followed in almost all B-schools which helps but does not guarantee a dream job. The starting point of an interview is your CV discussion so remember to be thorough with your CV. The choice of domain depends upon your area of expertise as well as the subjects you have chosen. It is necessary to have at least one expertise domain otherwise jack of all and master of none strategy might not go in your favour. Secondly, prepare the basics of the subject through your textbooks and other online study material. Thirdly, practice as much as possible. If you are eying the consulting domain then remember to have as many possible mock case interviews and guesstimates as you can. A similar pedagogy can be adapted for other domains too.

You should always try to leverage the experience of previous year’s students who have been through the same phase and are currently working in your chosen domain company. Do remember to ask them relevant questions and especially what not to prepare and obviously, you have to keep yourself updated with what’s going on in the world and newspaper is the best source for it. Sometimes, handling the HR interview gets a little tricky, the simple way to tackle HR interviews is to justify your answers in story format. Implement a few tried and tested frameworks that are available online, and you are good to go.

Finally, remember that campus placements are just part of the journey and not the destination. You will always be thriving for more even if you get placed in your dream company which is rare at B-schools. So, keep yourself flexible, focus on learning and most importantly, do not compare the salaries. Someone earning a few extra bucks might not be as happy as you are.

About the Author:

Abhishek Gautam is a postgraduate in Mathematics and Computing from IIT Kharagpur. At present, he is pursuing PGP from IIM Kozhikode. He has prior work experience in Analytics and Product Development domain. Also, he has also worked with three growing startups as an intern.