I decided to go into finance in my third year while doing a minor in it.

I sat down one day and made a flowchart. It had 3 branches: 1. Coding 2. Direct job in finance after college and 3. MBA. I didn’t add core because I didn't feel I had strong fundamentals and was focused on other things. I did learn coding for a few months but it was a struggle. I felt more inclined towards finance. That left me with two options out of the three above. For a finance job after college, the best way or I’d rather say the only way is to get a PS2 and convert it to PPO or get an off campus role based on that PS2. I had messed up my PS2 preference and ended up in an operations role at JP Morgan instead of finance. I got a PPO as well. I spoke to HR and according to them, it ideally requires 18 months to switch roles from Operations so that was off the table and I went for an MBA. Operations at JP Morgan was good and I learned a lot like macros and how the company functions etc. But after PS2 I felt there was nothing more left to learn in Operations for me.

Wall Street Club at BITS Goa was really helpful in this respect. Seniors gave me reading material and suggested various finance sites. The discussions there were very insightful regarding the day to day changes like the stock market and economic news. I got to know various things which my batchmates didn’t know and things like quantitative finance was introduced early to me through Wall Street Club. Along with that, the courses at BITS helped. I had the second-highest offshoot score in finance and scoring in finance is not tough. Just attend all classes of finance and we had a really good faculty in Goa. I was sincere enough which helped me score. Do questions and solve the exercises and you are done.

I was intrinsically interested in finance and not in any other field. When someone spoke about the stock market I was genuinely interested in that discussion but that wasn’t the case with coding. While I was practicing coding I realized I can’t do this for the rest of my life and left it. Flipkart: operations is basically sourcing the material from supplier to customer. Anything in between is operations and supply chain.

I wanted to be sure that I wasn't missing out on any career option and I wanted to try consulting. I also thought if I apply for a good consulting firm later then I should have something on my CV and some practical exposure. It was a 2 month internship before PS2 and it was an off campus internship.

After my PS, I was called on campus on Dec 18th, 2018 and it was like 10 days before placements so I prepared for a week. After that PPO results came out and I got it from my firm, JP Morgan. I didn’t sit for placements after my PPO. One advice I’d like to give to all aspirants is that HR and behavioural questions are important. But in that one week I was preparing cases and guesstimates to apply for non-core and I didn’t focus on HR answers but then I realized in MBA that they are very important.

I was in my 4-1 for my PS2 in Mumbai. I had joined Goa TIME from campus itself in my 3rd year but I didn’t attend any classes. The actual preparation started when I was doing my PS2. I used to give 1 mock exam every weekend (either of the 2 days). During weekdays, I didn’t have time to study as my job was from 9am to 9pm. I used to get my score by Monday and used to analyze the score by Tuesday. On Saturdays, I used to practice my weak topics. So I didn’t do any subject specific study. I had a 99.85 percentile.

I had applied for the top 6 IIMs (ABCLIK) and XLRI, FMS. Out of these I got a call from all except Bangalore because they take 9+cg for freshers or work experience and my CGPA was around 8.1. I messed up IIMC interview and was completely zoned out. My IIMA was the best interview I had. For Lucknow, I messed up the written assessment as I misinterpreted the topic. I didn’t go for Indore and Kozhikode interviews as I was sure of not going there. For XLRI they asked me some core EEE questions and this was a weak point for me. Finally, I converted and got admission in FMS at last. I was waitlisted for L as well and was rejected by the other institutes. IIMA rejected me maybe because of my lack of work experience or my CG. Freshers are at a disadvantage unless you have a very good profile. A very good profile means a few good internships, at least 1-2 good POR and a good extra-curricular background which is not necessarily sports, it can be debating, having a start-up (ideal in this case), etc. I actually wanted to go for a finance role at a company after college and then get an MBA after 2 years of work experience as that was the ideal scenario for me.

I will actually talk about my first year as it was on-campus. The college MBA life heavily revolves around placements. Two months after the day you enter, you have summer placements for the summer break after your first year, so you have to prepare your CV, complete your subjects, prepare for HR interviews etc. It is highly intensive. Major mind space in the first 3 months of your MBA in India goes into all this and you will be pulling out around 14 hours of work and 3-6 hours of sleep maximum. BITS was relatively very chill (at least for me). In terms of friends at FMS, it was a very diverse crowd compared to what I saw at BITS. Everyone was very intelligent and hence classroom discussions were very enriching. MBA is a field where you have to talk to people and get the job done. Academics is the same and you’ll see good and bad professors everywhere.

I have two options and I haven't finalized yet. It is either product management or venture capitalism because I see a lot of smart people in both these fields based on what I see on my twitter feed and in my friend circle. I am also looking for good startup ideas for myself but that isn’t much in focus right now.

I would definitely increase my CGPA as it does matter (like 8.5+) and talk to more seniors as now I know it helps a lot.

If you are in your 4th year then you don’t really have time but for 3rd/2nd year people just list out every possible option, core, data science, etc. Remove those options which you definitely don’t want to do, and then filter further. A very important skill later in work life is communication skills. You should be able to explain clearly what you are thinking and get your ideas across. I also want to stress upon the fact that Excel is really important in the non-core roles so get your hands on it.