Time: 9 AM, 11th Feb'07
Venue- IRMA Campus, Anand
First of all IRMA is a great place, few things which all of us on day 1 felt you can do which will make the admission process an even better experience,
- talk to seniors, folks in college are extremely approachable and ready to co-operate at every time, they will give you a campus tour if you want to, tell you about there projects and about life@IRMA in general.
- roam around the campus, I had a morning walk too, felt real great
- Visit Amul shops nearby, or
phatak (1.5km from gate) for some good shrikhand
Anyway back to stuff, we were greeted by Raju Bhai followed by Mr.Rakesh Saxena who gave us a presentation on IRMA. Clear your doubts here. Anyway nothing much to talk about it.
GD:
Topic was the same as mentioned by Prathik up- "Easy Job at Call Centres/BPO hindering employees to look for other avenues like-higher studies and better jobs" (something like that, it was actually quite huge".
The panelists involved an external member and an IRMA faculty member. Anyway the rules and all are quite simple and the discussion was quite good.
Everyone gets his/her airtime so no need to panic, if you remain quite, you will get a chance to summarize stuff and its quite well moderated so no worries!!
Some good points came up and everyone more or less contributed.
When our GD ended another activity was given. We were given 8 prefs on statements by economists to improve the present economic situation of India, we had to fist rank them on order individually and then the group had to reach a consensuses on ratings.
Most of us came on conclusion but we ended up most of the time discussing just the first option (lots of people were trying to sell the first choice to just one guy and he was not buying it, anyway we somehow convinced him). Not much discussion on the second choice also, but the other groups didnt even reach agreement on first so in a way we did ok
, atleast the discussion and points raised were quite Okishly good.
PI:
this thing is mostly about a single question, which throughout the interview will appear in different avtaars, thats "Why IRMA/Rural-Dev sector etc etc???"
Panelists- 3 of them, the prof at centre reminded me of my college's sociology prof, rest two were also very good and responsive throughout the interview. Lets name the central prof as p2, rest are p1 and p3 from left to right.
Anyway my interview transcript,
After entering room I took more than 20 secs to close the door
p2- So Abhishek, How you doing
deshh- fine sir!
p2- when did you reach the campus
deshh- yday sir, from that time onwards it has been lots of roaming around the campus, meeting students, nice campus.
p2- good, coming here for the first time
Deshh- Yes Sir, but I have been to Anand once during second year, Amul Factory visit from college
p2- Did you hear about IRMA then?
Deshh- Yes then also, but I heard for the first time I was in a rural internship in Chota Udaipur Region with Prof Ganesh Devy. Heard then that something like IRMA is there.
P2- Why didn’t you go for higher education directly after college?
Deshh- Don’t know exactly, maybe it was a gut feel that I should go for job, my family and friends thought I should go for education, but I somehow had a feeling that I should try out with a job.
P2- So now your gut feel tells you to come for higher education?
Deshh- Yes Sir. Anyway I have enjoyed working in my job, I have achieved a bit and realized some of my interests in a better way, but going ahead with it I don't see myself leading a life which I actually desire.
P2- Ok, I am not able to find a co-relation between your engineering degree, Rural sector and your current work, I think you will be better off for corporate world?
deshh- I differ sir, I definitely see something
p2- Then help me visualise it
deshh- Specifically looking at the development sector, I believe there are lots of roles which a technologist can play. Look at the knowledge kiosk, they are helping villages to network and realize themselves as bigger entities(I also mentioned PURA, some pvt sector contribution). Something which will help overcome the problems of scaling which are there in Rural areas. I am confident in my technical background and I believe with a good tech knowledge along with he understanding of rural sector, I can have a challenging career available in the developmental sector.
p2- You mentioned PURA, whats that??
deshh- told about that and Mr. Kalam's vision.
p3- Will you be able to work in Rural sector?
deshh- I would be able to take on challenging roles I believe in most of the sectors. From what I think for me its more important to lead a life which is simple and happy enough, I think the work I do should complement life than the other way around, 10 years from now I should be happy with my life along with my work.
I think IRMA/Rural sector will provide me opportunities towards such a life.
p2- You are giving us a completely new approach for joining the sector
deshh-
p1- Why leave your job, I cna see the package you earn is nice enough
deshh- Package is relative to the place you live, I definitely think I would be twice as happy living in Anand in half the package than Bangalore. Honestly I am bit pissed of city thing.
I lived in township for around 17 years and then in Gandhinagar, both the places were quite nice and I really want to get back to a life of those days. There are lots of people who want to do that, my room mate in Bangalore for instance, he himself is going for higher education abroad but he too has that feeling in him to get back to where he belongs. If I am getting that opportunity at IRMA why not take it.
there are both kinds of people, one who cherish cities,have high career aspirations, I have nothing against them, but maybe I think I would be better off in the second category.
p2- Let me put you in difficult situation, how many calls, which one to take?
deshh- I told about all the calls and then , I haven't decided on anything. It may be something negative on my decision making abilities and resolve but I think a 23 year old like me, and most of the people in my age group don't know what they want to do with exact conviction, I am just one of them.
p2- Still something you might have thought?
deshh- I gave you my reasons for looking at higher education, the possibility of leading a better life, something that would keep me happy, when I look at it, MDI looks at the corporate world , its what my notions are, so does IIFT. IRMA looks at a different sector. But in IIFT I have chance to work on something interesting, I may well get that life passing out from IIFT working with some kind of policy making/influencing organization. Maybe not at MDI.
Right now I think if look at what I desire, I will go for IIFT or IRMA, I don't know actually. I will go back to my friends, few of whom think I shouldn't have applied to IRMA in the first place.
p3- Why?
deshh- Don't know, they have different priorities, I have my own, finalkly I am the one who makes the choices.
p1- Ok, you goto a village, no water, no electricity, what will you think?
deshh- If there is good food I will survive
everyone laughs...
p1- but still?
deshh- I will live as others do, so many people do so can I. At the start I maybe not comfortable, but I adjust to such things easily. I am not guaranteeing that I will live throughout my life in a village comfortably, I may not be able to.
But I know I won't be able to live happily in a city, I am sure about small towns, about villages I can't say because I have lived only for 1.5 month during my internship.
p1- Do you know anyone from IRMA?
deshh- I told about the person I knwo, about where she works and what she told me. They asked what and I told she asked me that you lived and worked in villages for 1.5 months and enjoyed it, will you eb able to do it as a long term thing in yur lfie, if you know the answer to this one any faculty will take you at IRMA
Everyone smiles....
It was long interview so I am tired of writing, some other points discussed were mainly about my college, my education till now, technology in villages etc etc.
I was quite impressed by the honesty I brought out in this interview, said everything as it is, no stupid
bakbak which I do, but real solid answers. Its a great place and maybe that brings out the honesty in you.
I respect IRMA because they have philosophy which they have stuck to since its inception, its very different. The batch diversity is quite good, from a railway TC, to docs, to vets, to IT guys, to JNU grads, everyone is here.
Although as always I am still confused about joining (given that I get a call), leaving all what you have for IRMA maybe a confusing decision, but one thing is certain that after you go there, you will end up having tonnes of respect for the place and its people.
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