<strong>By Shrey Bansiwal, Batch of 2015; and Shivangi Saxena, Batch of 2014</strong>
Another year has passed, and NSIT has climbed up a few more notches on the mount of success as three NSITians – Mansi Aggarwal, Sakshi Tomar and Manjot Pahwa- have achieved great laurels by getting into London Business School, London School of Economics and Google,USA respectively. Here is an insight into how they prepared for their exams, their plans for the future and their years spent at NSIT.
<h2 style=”text-align: center;”><strong>Mansi Agarwal</strong></h2>
<p style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”http://alliancensit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mansi.png”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-843″ title=”mansi” src=”http://alliancensit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mansi.png” alt=”” width=”243″ height=”272″ /></a></p>
<strong>Q. You preferred to go for a post graduation without any work experience. What were the reasons behind this? What is your take on the necessity of having some prior work experience?</strong>
Ans: Work experience is definitely necessary for students aspiring to pursue MBA. The course I have taken up is Masters in Management. It is a one year program and is not equivalent to an MBA degree. The reason for which I am not going for a work experience is that this program teaches the very basics of business. After doing this program, I will have even better opportunities of jobs, where I would be able to muster better work experience. After that I can contemplate on the fact whether to go for an MBA or not.
<strong>Q. What are the pre-requisites for gaining admission to this college?</strong>
Ans: The most important requirement is the willingness to apply. One will have to forgo and subside the thought of placements and be committed to his/her decision to go for a post graduation. Other than that, one must explore new boulevards and opportunities. As far as the GMAT score is concerned, it should be around 700/800. Polishing one’s writing skills is also very important as it is required one writes a lot of essays. It is always an advantage to get your essays checked and rechecked by your guardians, peers, parents and mentors.
In addition to that, it definitely helps if you have a prior international exposure through a competition, or an internship.
<strong>Q. According to you, what is it about the international institutes that give an edge to students over Indian colleges?</strong>
Ans: If you compare the international and domestic institutes, the former are definitely difficult to reach from the financial perspective. However, the exposure that they offer is incomparable. They offer you amazing, highly paid and front end jobs. Also the congregation is explicitly diverse. There are people from different backgrounds and different cultures that help you learn a lot of other things apart from just academics.
<strong>Q. What all internships did you go for during the course of 4 years in college?</strong>
Ans: In management, the brand name of internships matters a lot. I went for ADNIG which was a software development internship. I then went for marketing internships in DULCET, with Software For Education, Entertainment and Training Activities (SEETA) as a consultant, and mergers and acquisition internship in Pricewaterhouse Coopers(PWC).
<strong>Q. You have been active in different societies, co-curriculars in the college. You have even won the Harvard National Model United Nations. How did you manage to balance the different activities, your academic performance as well as getting into the prestigious institute?</strong>
Ans: I would like to give all the credit for that to my peers and my classmates. They were the ones who kept me updated about my assignments and their deadlines. They taught me my lessons in case I missed my lectures and were always there by my side through all ups and downs.
<strong>Q. What advice would you like to give to the future aspirants of the course for the preparation of these exams?</strong>
Ans: One should do all the Manhattan GMAT tests, Power Score CR Bible, at least 80-100 questions for English everyday for two months and the 1000 series. Also one has to practice the questions a lot.
<strong>Q. Please share with us some of the most memorable experiences of yours at this college?</strong>
Ans: As you reach the last year of your college, you begin to cherish each and every moment spent here with your friends. Everything from a trip to Goa to starting your own clubs and organising various events, your failures, last minute studies, group studies, makes you feel nostalgic.
<h2 style=”text-align: center;”><strong>Sakshi Tomar</strong></h2>
<p style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”http://alliancensit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/sakshi.png”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-844″ title=”sakshi” src=”http://alliancensit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/sakshi.png” alt=”” width=”260″ height=”245″ /></a></p>
<strong>Q. What particular course have you taken up at London School of Economics and what are your future plans?</strong>
Ans: The course is Masters in Economics (M.E.). It is a two year program especially for students having no prior economic profile and comes across as a stepping stone to PhD. I am hoping to go for PhD in the future.
<strong>Q. How necessary is it to have prior work/research experience?</strong>
Ans: It depends a lot on the career goals of the person. If one wants to gain field knowledge and experience and have his own start-up in the future, then work experience is necessary, but if one has an inclination towards research, then there is no reason for him to not go for a post graduation degree straightaway. So, it is a subjective concept.
<strong>Q. As per you, what does it take to get into a reputed college as LSE?</strong>
Ans: All it takes is being very clear about your ambitions. A person must cultivate his own interests instead of going after the bandwagon. He should stick to his interest and explore it as much as he can. This requires talking to a lot of people about it, taking their advices and finally planning your goals for the next five to ten years.
<strong>Q. What was it about LSE that made you choose it?</strong>
Ans: At London School of Economics, economics is the most coveted department. It offers good research opportunities. Not only this, it has avenues for political science and finance. Also, it has a very good alumni base, excellent research facilities and many Nobel laureates as its faculty. So, these reasons made me choose the institute.
<strong>Q. You chose to graduate as an engineer and are now planning to go for an ME course which is an entirely different domain. Do you think having a technical background helps in one’s competitive endeavours?</strong>
Ans: Not only technical, but having a mathematical background in particular helps you exceptionally in such competitive exams.
<strong>Q. What all internships did you go for during the course of 4 years in college?</strong>
Ans: I took up internships at the Institute of Economic Growth, Reserve Bank of India, and the Planning Commission of India.
<strong>Q. What advice would you like to give to the future aspirants of the course for the preparation of these exams?</strong>
Ans: The students should know what they are going for. If someone is research oriented, then commitment is a very important virtue that one should have. Also, one should submit applications as soon as possible, go for a lot of online tests and practice a lot.
<h2 style=”text-align: center;”><strong>Manjot Pahwa</strong></h2>
<p style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”http://alliancensit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/monjot.png”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-845″ title=”monjot” src=”http://alliancensit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/monjot.png” alt=”” width=”234″ height=”266″ /></a></p>
The COE gal who accomplished the task of getting a job in Google, USA. Read about her journey to the software giant!
<strong>Q. How did Google happen? What was this entire journey like?</strong>
A: Google for me was a dream company like it is for so many others. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I will ever get a chance to work there.
I started as a clueless first year who had the qualities of Tai in Kung Fu Panda ! Like most of my peers, I too squandered time. However I don’t regret it as they were the moments in which I enjoyed the most.
In my second year, I learnt the basics of coding and algorithms as I was determined to explore myself and do substantial work. I also worked on a project with Anand Gupta sir and did internships at various start-ups. I learnt a lot from these experiences which greatly improved my technical skills.
During the third year I coded a lot and had a work stint in RBS thereafter . This did not hamper my placement preparations as its very much possible to manage both work and preparation.
<strong>Q. You won the Google woman engineering award. Tell us something about it.</strong>
A: Getting the Google award is one of those memories which I cherish the most. It was my first big achievement and I am proud of it. I applied at the end of third year. I made it to the final rounds after which the winner’s name was announced only at the award ceremony. The application was exhaustive and demanded online essays, leadership skills, and projects. People who are applying for it must write their essays very carefully.
<strong>Q. Your advice to juniors who look up to you?</strong>
A: My advice would be to try out things rather than just sitting idle. It is always better to try out things and explore yourselves. The more you indulge in activities, the more you will learn about yourselves. It is also beneficial if you try out various internships in start-ups as you get to learn a lot. However do differentiate between serious and non-serious start-ups!