u/Shekhar-TheBodhiTree

Most of you will start or might have already started the 1st sem of B-School and probably the summer placement process. Due to this we recently conducted an AMA session with Shobhit, ISB alum who works with L'Oreal. We tried to answer as many questions as possible and there was one common question which was asked the most, " How can I get my dream job with low acads?"

Trying to answer this in detail here :

1. Stop chasing companies. Chase problems.

Don't say, I want McKinsey. Say, I want to solve business strategy problems.
Companies change. Roles don't.

The more clearly you understand the job itself, the easier it becomes to prepare for it.

2. Reverse engineer the person who gets selected.

Take the last 10 people who got your dream role.

Ask:

What internships did they do?
What competitions did they win?
What certifications do they have?
What clubs were they part of?
What projects are on their resume?
How do they answer interview questions?

3. Most students prepare for interviews.

The smart ones prepare for resume points.

A good interview cannot save a weak resume.

But a strong resume gives interviewers something interesting to discuss.

Every semester should end with new resume bullets.

4. Your CGPA matters...

...until it doesn't.

If you have an 8.5 CGPA, great.

If you have a 6.5 CGPA but you've built products, led teams, won competitions, completed internships and have interesting stories, many recruiters will remember you more.

Academics open some doors.

Your overall profile opens many more.

What if my academics are poor?

Don't waste energy wishing they were better.

Ask, What can I add that recruiters cannot ignore?

Examples:

National-level case competition
Internship
Live consulting project
Research paper
Leadership position
Startup experience
Analytics portfolio
Industry certification

A weak area is difficult to erase.

But it can be outweighed.

5. Become known for one thing.

Every campus has people known as

the finance person
the marketing person
the analytics person
the operations person

Generalists often become forgettable.

Build a reputation before placements begin.

6. Every conversation is a mini interview.

Faculty.

Alumni.

Guest speakers.

Seniors.

HR during pre-placement talks.

The MBA world is surprisingly small.

People remember students who ask thoughtful questions.

7. Network without asking for referrals.

Instead ask, What surprised you most after joining this role?
If you were in my position today, what would you do differently?

People enjoy sharing experiences.

Few enjoy being asked for favors by strangers.

8. Your internship is a three-month interview.

Many PPOs are decided long before the final presentation.

Be reliable.

Meet deadlines.

Ask good questions.

Take ownership.

People hire colleagues they'd like to work with.

What if I have no work experience?

Then create experience.

Recruiters value demonstrated responsibility.

Examples:

Freelance projects
NGO work
College festivals
Consulting projects
Startup internships
Personal business
Research assistantships
Student council
Building an app
Running a newsletter
Content creation
Event management

The question isn't

Did you have a salary?

It's

Did someone trust you with responsibility?

9. Depth beats quantity.

Ten average internships don't impress.

One internship where you owned a meaningful project often does.

10. Case competitions are underrated.

Many students discover consulting, marketing or product management through competitions.

Even if you don't win, you learn structured thinking, teamwork and presentation.

Those skills appear everywhere.

11. Build stories.

Interviewers don't remember facts.

They remember stories.

Instead of saying, I have leadership skills.

Tell the story of the event that almost failed, the conflict you resolved, or the impossible deadline you met.

Stories are proof.

Use STAR methodology or Simon Sinek's Golden Circle or TBT's Christmas Tree.

12. Don't optimize only for Day Zero.

Students obsess over Day Zero companies.

Five years later, very few careers look exactly as they imagined.

Think about where you'll be after your second or third job.

Sometimes the best first role isn't the most glamorous one.

13. Luck exists.

Preparation increases the number of lucky moments.

Maybe the interviewer likes your project.

Maybe someone from your hometown interviews you.

Maybe your internship mentor recommends you.

You can't control luck.

You can control how often you're ready when it appears.

If I had to summarize everything in one line:

Your dream company doesn't hire your marksheet.

It hires the version of you that has consistently built skills, solved problems, taken responsibility, and can convince another human being that you'll make their team better.

And if your academics or lack of work experience aren't ideal, don't let them become your identity. Treat them as constraints, not conclusions. The strongest MBA profiles are rarely perfect, they're simply difficult to ignore because they've accumulated enough evidence that they can perform.

I see a lot of non-engineers asking how to start with Quants, specially because if you haven't done maths properly for a few years, it can feel very overwhelming in the beginning.

This is what worked for me.

1. Don't start with difficult questions :

First I used to understand the concept properly. Not just mug up the formula, but actually try to understand what the concept is trying to tell me and where it can be used.

Once I was done with the concept, I used to solve maybe 2-3 easy concept based questions.

The point was not to test myself. Just to check if I actually understood what I had studied.

If I couldn't solve even those, I knew there was no point going ahead.

2. Then the solved examples :

After the basic questions, I used to go through the solved examples for that topic.

This helped because sometimes you understand the concept but when you see an actual question, you have no idea how to start.

The solved examples kind of bridge that gap.

Then I would take a topic test.

My target was atleast 60% accuracy before moving to the next topic.

But 60% didn't mean I was "done" with the topic. Infact, I used to consider it as the minimum level at which I could move ahead.

The aim eventually has to be much higher. Around 80% accuracy.

3. One thing that helped me a lot with word problems

I stopped reading the entire question and then trying to figure out what to do.

Instead, I started reading it line by line.

Read one line then try to form an equation.

Read the next line then add something to the equation.

Next line then modify it (the equation)

This sounds very basic but it helped me a lot, specially with word problems involving arithmetic.

Basically you start converting the English sentence into maths instead of trying to understand the entire question in one go.

4. Don't completely ignore calculations

I know CAT has a calculator, and some other exams don't.

But even where there is a calculator, I think you should be comfortable doing basic calculations yourself.

The on-screen calculator is honestly quite slow sometimes. If you're using it for every small calculation, you end up wasting a lot of time.

So I used to practice things like fraction-percentage conversions, multiplication, approximation, squares etc.

Nothing crazy. Just enough so that calculation itself doesn't become the bottleneck.

5. I had a separate notebook for "weird" questions :

This was probably one of the most useful things I did.

Whenever I found a question where the approach was unusual, or I made a stupid mistake, or there was some shortcut/way of thinking that I hadn't considered before, or the question was of the pattern I am seeing for the fiest time I used to put that question in a separate notebook.

Even if I had seen the question before, but found a different solution to it, I would write it down.

Over time this became my actual revision notebook.

Before a test, instead of going through hundreds of questions again, I could just go through these questions.

6. Analyse WHY you got a question wrong

This is something I feel people don't do enough.

After a test, don't just see that you got 12/20.

See why the other 8 went wrong.

Was it because you didn't know the concept?

Did you understand the concept but couldn't figure out how to start?

Did you not understand the language of the question?

Was it a calculation mistake?

Or was it just a stupid silly mistake?

These are all different problems.

If it's a concept problem, go back and study the concept.

If it's a calculation problem, doing 20 more questions on the same concept probably won't fix it.

7. And don't forget the previous topics

This was another mistake I used to make initially.

I'd finish Percentages, then move to Ratio, then Averages, and mentally declare Percentages as "done".

It doesn't work like that.

You need to keep revisiting old topics because Quants is pretty interconnected. A new topic will often use something you studied 2 weeks ago.

So while moving forward, keep some time for old topics as well.

For me the whole process was basically:

Concept --- 2-3 easy questions --- solved examples --- topic test --- analyse mistakes --- move ahead --- revise old topics

And one last thing for non-engineers specifically.

Don't get intimidated by someone saying they've been preparing for CAT Quants for 1 year or that they were always good at maths.

You don't need to catch up with them in one month.

Just make sure that every week you're slightly better at understanding a question, forming the right equation and solving it.

That compounds pretty quickly.

PS - I am the co founder at The Bodhi Tree, an online platform for MBA entrance exams. I scored 99.76 in CAT with 100 in Quants. I converted IIM L, MDI Gurgaon. I am an alumni of IIT Madras and JBIMS.

My aim was never to go for a job post MBA. I wanted to always start something of my own. This was also the reason why I left PwC, post my graduation, within a year even though the team I was working with was great.

Please note, during my time, there was only a slight difference between the levels of JB and IIM L. In the recent times JBs level has been going down due to numerous reasons.

Choosing JB over IIM L :

1. Fees : Since I wanted to do my own thing post MBA, I did not want the stress of a loan.

2. Location : JB is in the financial hub of the financial capital of India. There are many head branches of MNCs in Mumbai and that too in Churchgate (JB is in Churchgate too )

I am from Maharashtra and wanted to start my startup/business from Maharashtra.

3. Not hunting for a tag : I was not hunting for a big tag. I already had a great tag.

4. Faculty : JB boasts of one of the best external faculty line ups across India, again due to the location.

It is not everyday you get to learn from :

President of JSW group

General Counsel of Johnson and Johnson

An IAS who worked with Ministry of HRD

MD of Reckitt

CEO of Kotak Mahindra

Senior Editor of TOI

Founding Chairman of Fino Payments Bank

CEO of Birla Sun Life

Early Minority stake holder in HDFC

To name a few.

Some of these people are angel investors and venture capitalists too.

So, if someone asks me today did you choose JB because you felt it is better than IIM L ?

Definitely not.

For the life and career I wanted, JB > the marginal advantages IIM L offered me.

I chose JB because I wanted the Mumbai ecosystem, the network, the ROI, and the exposure.

Ironically, I eventually used all that to start a company and make considerably less money.

PS - I am the co founder at The Bodhi Tree, an online platform for MBA entrance exams. I scored 99.76 in CAT with 100 in Quants. I converted IIM L, MDI Gurgaon. I am an alumni of IIT Madras and JBIMS.

I recently posted about what needs to be done once you get into an MBA college, be it tier 1 or tier 2 or tierless, and I was asked why could I not convert IIM ABC even when I scored 99.76 and my undergrad was from IIT Madras.

Just because I am from IIT Madras does not mean I did well in IIT Madras.( basically CGPA was average)

You see I was introduced to the 8th wonder of the world that is LAN in my engineering days.

Coming to IIM ABC, I will give a bit of background.

I had a lot of scholarships and academic honors during school days, sports too, 91 in tenth, 87-88 in 12th, (which were great scors during my days) got into IIT, worked with PwC as a consultant, sold designer umbrellas, and then took CAT, got calls from almost all the colleges except A and B. ( If anyone wants to check my CV for CV format or reference, do let me know)

Prepared well for the C interview.

Coming to the interview, there were 2 male professors. The interview started well. They were asking about my work ex and other things in my CV plus the current affairs. It was going very well. They were happy, I was happy, this went for 20 odd minutes and then they asked me something that I will never forget. Don't know/remember why was the question asked but the question was :

What are your thoughts about Nathuram Godse assassinating Mahatma Gandhi ?

And everything went downhill from there. There was no recovering back after the discussion.

My opinions might be debatable but my principles are not for sale.

I did well in IIM L and MDI Gurgaon interviews. Converted them. I had calls from FMS, IIM K,I, others. Can give interview experience of those colleges too if anyone wants.

PS - I am the co founder at The Bodhi Tree, an online platform for MBA entrance exams. I scored 99.76 in CAT with 100 in Quants. I converted IIM L, MDI Gurgaon. I am an alumni of IIT Madras and JBIMS.

Congratulations.

You made it into an MBA college. 

Now, for the love of God, stop optimizing for things that have almost zero impact.

Every new batch goes through the same cycle.

Week 1:

"Which laptop should I buy?"

Week 2:

"Finance or Marketing?"

Week 3:

"Should I start CFA?"

"Should I learn Python?"

"Which specialization pays the most?"

Week 4:

Everyone buys a INR 3,00 notebook they'll write exactly 17 pages in.

Here's what actually matters.

1. Learn one business tool really well.

Excel. PowerPoint. SQL. Power BI.

Pick one.

Become the person everyone calls when they're stuck.

2. Talk to seniors.

Not because they have notes.

Because they have mistakes you don't have to make.

One 20-minute conversation can save you months of trial and error.

3. Stop collecting certificates.

Start collecting stories.

Interviewers don't remember your Coursera certificate.

They remember:

"I convinced 200 companies to sponsor our fest."

"I led a team of 15."

"I negotiated with a CEO."

"I failed at something and fixed it."

Stories beat certificates almost every time.

4. Figure out what jobs actually look like.

Half the batch says,

"I want Consulting."

Ask them what consultants do on a Tuesday afternoon.

Silence.

Don't choose a role because LinkedIn told you it's prestigious.

Choose one because you'd actually enjoy doing it every day.

5. Your network is an asset.

The people sitting next to you today,

Five years later they'll be founders, consultants, marketers, VCs, product managers, bankers.

Don't only make friends.

Build relationships.

Finally,

MBA isn't an extension of your undergraduate degree.

It's a two-year audition.

Companies aren't asking,

"How intelligent are you?"

They're asking,

"If we throw this person into a client meeting on Monday, will they survive?"

Become the person the answer is "yes" for.

Everything else, laptops, hoodies, fancy stationery, aesthetic notes is just expensive character customization.

And please,

Stop asking, "What's the highest paying specialization?"

Start asking, "What am I becoming good at?"

The second question is what gets you the first answer.

PS - I am the co founder at The Bodhi Tree, an online platform for MBA entrance exams. I scored 99.76 in CAT with 100 in Quants. I converted IIM L, MDI Gurgaon. I am an alumni of IIT Madras and JBIMS.