Campus Life at IIM Rohtak: “ Diverse crowd along with extremely intellectual people,” says Ankit Gupta

It was a dream come true for Ankit Gupta who made his way to the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Rohtak). Ankit says that at IIM Rohtak he gets to interact with people from diverse background and the discussions with them are intellectually stimulating. At the same time, various events are organised at the campus wherein the students participate and it gives a boost to their confidence as well. Moreover, there are opportunities which the students will get to know industry leaders. In conversation with Careers360, Ankit Gupta also talks about the selection process and the interview and shares his experience about campus life at IIM Rohtak. Read the full interview of Ankit Gupta to know more about IIM Rohtak.

Careers360: How has been the campus life at your college? Tell us something about your daily routine as in how is the time divided between study and having fun activities. Also tell us something about yourself as in from which place do you belong so on and so forth?

Ankit Gupta: Very frequently, we’ve seen people talking and discussing about the “IIM Culture”. Well, the campus life at an IIM is actually what makes it different from other institutes. A very diverse crowd along with extremely intellectual people giving rise to several networking opportunities and discussions full of wisdom gave me the best two years of growth and learning. Two year MBA is a residential program and the campus is always buzzing with energy with different events happening almost regularly.

We had classes from 8:45 in the morning till 05:30 in the evening. However, usually there are no continuous classes and on an average, a student has to take almost 4:30-5 hours of classes each day. There are no holidays. Even on weekends, we usually have a guest lecture by some industry experts to give insights on what’s going on in the actual corporate world.

However, it’s not at all hard to take out time for leisure and fun activities. IIM’s have this case based pedagogy in which we are taught case studies from the actual business world and are asked to make a presentation for the same. This gives diverse perspectives and a great learning opportunity. Activities related to sports, dance, singing, fitness etc. happen daily and with proper time management, one can easily participate in all these interesting activities.

If I were to define myself in one word; it would be: a Fighter. I have fought with my life twice, once during a major bus accident where I was very fortunate to survive and second time during a brain haemorrhage wherein I was temporarily paralysed for a few months; but I’m indeed proud of myself that because of my strong will power and positive attitude, I not only recovered from them but also achieved great feats afterwards. I have been an avid sportsman since childhood and a national level swimmer and badminton player.

I come from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. After schooling, I completed my Bachelors of engineering in Computer Science, post which, I worked with IBM as a software engineer. I interned with Patanjali Ayurved limited during the summers, where I designed and suggested an automated process flow in E-Commerce trade to improve B2B and B2C sales targets.

Careers360: Tell us something about the selection process as in the personal interview, group discussion. What were the topics on which the questions were asked. Do you have some special tips for future aspirants?

Ankit Gupta: The selection process of the college consists of a WAT (Written ability test) followed by a PI (Personal Interview). GD has been scrapped from the selection procedure of IIMs. In WAT, usually, any abstract topic is given to understand the perspective and the approach of the applicant. No answer is right or wrong. They just want to understand the mindset of the applicant and how he/she views and tackles a particular problem.

Same is the case with the personal interviews, the panellists are usually very cool and make you comfortable by asking very basic questions like how did you get here? How did you find the weather etc. The PI is generally an HR kind of interview where most of the questions revolve around the life of the applicant and information about him/her; the educational background, the work experience, the hobbies etc. Panellists just want to have a conversation and personally know about the applicant. What are his/her views on a particular subject or topic; How he/she thinks the MBA program would help? Why MBA? Why a particular specialization? Short term and long term goals; all these basic questions are asked.

My suggestions to the prospective students and future aspirants has always been the same. Just be calm and be yourself. These interviews are very subjective and the main purpose is to know one's personality and understand the thought process. Just be well versed with your past experiences and some current affairs and be mindful. The panellists ask if one has some questions or queries from them? I believe that aspirants must ask some relevant and intelligent questions not just out of desperation but to genuinely understand about the programme and the specialization. This shows the panellists that the candidate actually has curiosity and interest in pursuing the program and it leaves a positive impression on the panellists. Have a smile and behave well. Just remember one thing, they are looking for a reason to select you NOT to reject you. So, just keep calm and be yourself. The rest will automatically fall into place.

Careers360: How did you get adjusted to the new environment at the institute. Did you face any problem, if yes what were they and how did you overcome them.

Ankit Gupta: I had a work experience of 2 years before pursuing MBA. Earlier also, I lived in a hostel during the preparations for engineering entrance examinations at Kota. I have lived in Bangalore and Pune during my job too. So, as such I didn't face any particular problem while adapting to a new environment. The college campus is new and has started operations from 2018 only. It is a 200+ acre huge campus and is located far from the city. As such, we earlier did face some problems for commuting to the city for basic needs. But as the operation of the buses and setting up of shops has already started, that issue is not there anymore. Moreover, students have their own 2-wheelers and 4-wheelers which makes travelling easy and safe.

Freshers and students who have the first experience of living alone usually feel home sick and little scared initially. First few days are hectic as well. But as time passes by and they make new friends, a new family is started and students in fact start loving the new life full of adventures and new opportunities. The feeling of freedom makes them more responsible.

Careers360: Does your institute organize casual college or corporate trips. Share your experience about it?

Ankit Gupta: There wasn't an outbound trip or an ice-breaking session in particular but yes, there are informal gatherings and events which give an opportunity to know your peers better. Moreover, the college does organise corporate trips. These play a very important part and the college takes these events very seriously. As told earlier, guest lectures are organised very frequently and various summits and panel discussions take place from time to time. The college has a specific committee named Industry Relations cell which consists of members who are constantly in touch with notable business leaders and industry stalwarts who take part in Panel discussions and summits in order to provide an insightful perspective and interact with students and clarify their queries which helps them to understand the real world in a better way.

This also boosts confidence among the students and they are able to make contacts and leverage them. This also proves helpful in placements where a prospective recruiter gauges the quality of students in the guest lectures and summits and then visits the campus for placements.

Careers360: Apart from the regular studies, what are the activities that take place at your institute? Do you have clubs and committees ? If yes, are you part of them and which ones ?

Ankit Gupta: Clubs and committees are the USPs of IIMs. They are an integral part and serve as an important position of responsibility (POR). The committees and clubs are responsible for organising all activities and events at the campus. There are core committees namely, the Placement committee (Placecom), Training cell, Industry Relations and Interaction committee (IRIC), Cultural Committee (Cultcom), Public Relations Committee (PR Cell), Entrepreneurship cell (E-cell), IT Committee, Sports committee and the Hospitality committee along with the clubs such as Marketing club, Finance club, Operations club, HR Club, Analytics Club, the competition cell and Strategy consulting club. Apart from these, there are SIGs(Special Interest groups) such as Spirituality and wellness club, SPARSH, ECIS, STORE etc. One can imagine the number of activities and events that take place regularly looking at the huge number of clubs and committees. The campus hosts 5 major events, The film summit, TEDx, Marathon, a startup expo and the annual cultural sports and Management festival Infusion which is a non-stop 72 hour carnival in which most of the clubs and committees work in coordination. I was part of the Sports committee or the sportscom which organises various sporting events from time to time.

Apart from these, students take part in national case study competitions and corporate competitions from time to time and bring laurels to the institute.

Careers360: What is the faculty-student ratio at the institute? How is the infrastructure? What are the facilities that are provided at the campus that makes it distinct from other institutes?

Ankit Gupta: The faculty-student ratio is close to 1:20. Faculties have an open-door policy where any student can discuss anything with a faculty. As far as infrastructure is concerned, the college has moved to a new campus last year after it started operations in 2009. The campus is spread over 210 acres and houses more than 700 people including both MBA batches, FPM batches, staff and faculty. Although the campus is new, it provides facilities for all field sports namely cricket, football, futsal, volleyball etc. It also has a basketball court and several TT Tables along with a music room. Moreover, the campus has an open-air amphitheatre for concerts and events and a 500 seater auditorium. Fully equipped classrooms and a huge academic and administrative block offers a beautiful infrastructure. Moreover, a 4-floor library, an indoor sports complex, indoor gymnasium and many buildings are already in various phases of construction. IIM Rohtak has started the first ever sports management program of the country from last year. A 5-year integrated IPM program will start in this session.

Careers 360: How is the hostel facility? What are some of the popular hangouts close to the campus?

Ankit Gupta: The campus offers fully residential 2-year full-time program. There are 12 beautiful hostels already constructed to house 2 batches of 250 students each. The hostels have 3 floors with 3/4 flats in each floor. Each flat has 3/4 separate spacious furnished rooms with a common hall and a balcony. Each room has a separate washroom for privacy.

The hostels are very close to each other and closer to the mess and academic block.

Although, the coolest hangouts happen at the hostel rooms; people usually hang out in front of the night canteen or STORE. Moreover, the Rohtak city has many cafes and lounges which offer a great ambience to hang out.

Careers 360: What do you do during your leisure time?

Ankit Gupta: Students love to spend leisure time with their friends, discussing about random topics or playing games or partying. Many students pursue their hobbies, many play outdoor games, some go to the gym and some simply read a good novel. I spent most of my free time with friends playing different games.

Careers 360: In which particular field are you specializing?

Ankit Gupta: Unlike many other colleges, my college has started the concept of a Focus area which is synonymous to specialization. A student can either have one, two or even three focus areas depending upon the number of credits completed in a particular area from Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR, IT Analytics and Strategy. I had two focus areas wiz Marketing and IT Analytics.

Careers360: What are the types of companies which come for recruitment and how has the recruitment has been in the past few years in terms of placement.

Ankit Gupta: I actually feel proud to tell that maybe IIM Rohtak is the only institution in the NCR region to attain back to back 100% placements over the years and all the placement reports are CRISIL audited. This placement season witnessed 95+ firms vigorously recruiting from the institute with active participation from Big 4s. More than 30% of the students

bagged offers in Marketing and Sales domain from the best of firms. IIM Rohtak emerged as a preferred destination for Consulting firms with around 20% of the batch being offered roles in this sector. Companies in the BFSI sector offered roles to 30% of the batch including roles such as Credit Analyst, Financial Analyst, etc. The highest domestic CTC offered was ₹24.13 LPA while the average rose to ₹11.85 LPA. This year also witnessed a steep increase in the

number of PPOs & PPIs offered to the students. Many students from the batch also aced multitudinous corporate competitions this year, some of them being HUL Lime, Amazon Ace Challenge, IVP FinValley and Tata Motors MindRover.

This year witnessed a 55% increase in the participation of new companies. Organizations like Deloitte, EY, KPMG, Capgemini, and Infosys Technologies are among the 50 new recruiters, who exhibited interest in our students. Loyal recruiters like ICICI Bank, Arcesium, Dabur, Yes Bank, HDFC Bank, and Cognizant among others continued to impose faith in the ability of the students.

I'll try and list the companies domain wise as follows:

IT Analytics and consulting

Wipro, Infosys, Indus Valley Partners, Analytics Quotient and Indiamart, Accenture, several new recruiters like Capgemini, Axtria, Evalueserve, Denave India, Clicklabs, 4Tigo, iQuanti, Real Time Data Services and Inthree services offered roles like Product Manager, Senior Business Analyst, Market Analyst, Cloud Infra Analyst and Project Management.

Marketing and sales

Prominent recruiters included Yes Bank, Dabur, ICICI, Tata Steel, JK Group, Amul, Aditya Birla Sunlife, Essel Group, VLCC and Future Genarali. Some new names added to the list were Vivo, HDFC, Berger Paints, Jindal Stainless Limited and OYO Weddingz.

General Management

REC Ltd., Satguru Tours and Travels, MIND, Polycab, Inthree Services

and Swadhaar Finserv that confided with roles such as Category Management, Strategic Planning, Associate Engagement Partner and Management Trainees. Some of the renowned names that remained our allegiant recruiters included ICICI Bank, GMR Group, JK Tyres, ACG Wordwide and Muthoot Fincorp.

Finance

Ernst & Young, Indus Valley Partners, Thomson Reuters, Arcesium, Care Ratings, Intellect and OfBusiness. The college witnessed offers from renowned companies’ coveted profiles such as

Corporate Finance, Treasury, Credit Risk, Credit Analysis, Equity Research, Financial Advisory, Investment Banking, and Global Investment Research to the students of the institution.

Operations

Polycab, Safexpress, GMR, Inthree, IndiaMart and IBM offering profiles of Supply Chain Management, Digital Operations and Product Management.

HR

OfBusiness, REC Ltd., Tresvista, etc. With the continuously growing base of recruiters, top leadership roles were introduced by emerging players like Infosys BPM, PeopleStrong and Markets&Markets.

Careers360: Were you given any training ahead of the placements or you prepared on your own?

Ankit Gupta: The college and the placement committee along with the training call provides placement assistance throughout the season by conducting sessions for Group discussions and personal interviews. The faculty also helps in providing guidance related to any topic anytime. The placement team ensures that each student has a proper format of CV and profile suitable for various roles offered by the recruiters.