Tape dots and tracing paper are still very much part of Akshay Kulkarni’s life but they are not the first thing he picks up every morning to school. Akshay who is currently pursuing his MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research is an architect by profession and while he is happy with his new academic pursuit, older memories just refuse to go.
MBA was never on Akshay’s mind right through schooling and college (The School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi) days. And when he landed his first job as an architect, definitely not. He recalls: “Life as an architect was a pure dream. As a student, it gave me great joy to understand how an architect could create not just a building but a whole spatial experience for the user. And as a professional I experienced how a germ of an idea conceived in my head could take shape in larger than life proportions in brick and concrete.”
Akshay started his career with renowned Conservation Architect in Mumbai, Abha Narain Lambah in 2010. He worked on some of the most beautiful heritage sites both in Bombay and across India – Townhall Mumbai, GPO Mumbai, BMC Headquarters Mumbai, CMM Court Mumbai, Viceregal Lodge Simla, Jaivilas Palace Gwalior, Swaraj Bhavan Allahabad, National Museum New Delhi, Gol Market New Delhi, Terracotta temples of Maluti, Jharkhand and many more.
After a year or so, Akshay joined the RLDA Studio New Delhi to work on more contemporary stuff. “There I got to work on everything, residential projects, commercial ones. So in about 2-3 years I had done a variety of work” Akshay told PaGaLGuY.
Life was busy and active and Akshay began dreaming of becoming a great architect. However, it was the same time that he began feeling the urge to study more. “I kept getting this feeling that there was more to learn and so I started applying abroad,” Akshay said.
He finally got through TU/e (Eindhoven University, Netherlands) in 2012. “But things did not work out and I finally could not make the trip,” remembers Akshay.
In 2012, the architect decided to take the CAT exam just to see where it would take him. He enrolled in a coaching centre and gave it everything he had. Hardwork paid and he was able to secure a 99.32%ile with 99.85%ile in Verbal Section.
“However, I was extremely disheartened when I didn’t receive a single interview call from any of the older IIMs. But calls came from FMS, XLRI, SPJAIN, MDI and the new IIMs. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to convert FMS and XLRI but I did convert all the others. I chose to do my majors in Marketing from SP JAIN,” Akshay informed.
So does marketing and architecture mingle at all?
“Not really, but MBA will open up more avenues for me especially in the field of marketing. I hope to leverage my creative skills in a different kind of role more suited to my tastes. However, it is too early to take a call on the sector.”
Akshay admits that he has to let go of the core design centric kind of a job which he enjoyed earlier “but that was a conscious call and unless I go on to become an entrepreneur to establish my own architectural practise, taking a U-turn seems improbable.”
Would it have made sense to stick to architecture then? “No,” says Akshay, adding “ The few options that I had included either to pursue my master’s in design, or to switch jobs in search of a better role and better projects or be audacious enough to struggle for projects and try and establish my own practise like some of my friends did, or to choose what I
So what is the career goal now?
“There is no ideal career goal, and I believe there shouldn’t be either. One might argue the lack of focus in the absence of one, but I personally believe we tend to wear a myopic frame once we have a too romantic idea of an ideal career goal. The most important thing for me as a professional is to be passionate about what you do.”