Here’s the Interview of CAT Topper Rushikesh Patil who cleared the CAT exam and converted IIM Bangalore in his first attempt.
Q: Congratulations Rushikesh on clearing the CAT exam and converting IIM Bangalore. Please tell us about your Preparation journey and what made you go for an MBA.
RUSHIKESH: Starting from the school days, I was not a brilliant student, I was average in academics. I wanted to prepare for JEE and go to IIT for my engineering but unfortunately I did not clear the JEE exam and ended up in a Tier 2 college in Pune. I was interested in photography so I started mobile photography from the third year of my graduation and slowly over the time I became a college magazine editor. But, the hunger for IIT was not down so then I started preparing for GATE in the 4th year of my engineering but it got mixed with my magazine editor role so I was not able to clear that too.
But fortunately, after my college I got a good job in a U.S based furniture company who is the world’s largest office furniture manufacturing company. There I was in a team where my work was not that creative so I requested the HR team to shift me to some other team so from there I got into an Operations Project Management team with just 2 years of experience where the requirement was 8 years of minimum experience. From there I got to learn so much and completely moved into product management.
After 4 years, I was in Bangalore where I met with a severe accident and was on bed rest for 3 months. After the accident, while I was on bed rest, I realized that maybe I am not meant for all this and then I started my own website and started writing travel blogs and became a travel Vlogger and photographer and then a new journey started and I started getting calls for collaboration from Tripoto and Trivago, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Dubai Tourism. So, Being a Travel Vlogger one day I was roaming around in Bangalore and passed from IIM Bangalore and suddenly got a thought of getting inside the college campus and seeing the campus from outside. Then after some time I was at home and thought of doing a survey on IIM bangalore and other IIMs. After doing the survey I got an idea of going for an MBA as the campus of IIM bangalore had really got my interest.
Q: How did you come across iQuanta and what are your views on the curriculum and the coaching?
RUSHIKESH: Right after my decision to go for an MBA, I went on quora and searched for the best CAT coaching centers at minimum fees and finally got in touch with iQuanta and enrolled for the coaching.
So, in iQuanta, what I found was that everything was so sharp and crisp that I did not need anything else for my preparation. Later, I got into the IIM ABC batch of iQuanta where everyday I used to get questions from each section and that too with a variety. So, for me It was very simple, I just used to solve all the questions that were given in the IIM ABC batch, take the classes and do self study. Apart from this, there was nothing that I needed.
Q: How was your performance in the mocks till the CAT exam?
RUSHIKESH: Talking about the mocks, For me it was not good as the scores that used to come were very less and by seeing that I got demotivated. But, because of the motivational posts, that Indrajeet Sir used to post on a daily basis, I decided to not drop the plan of giving the exam and went on to give the exam and in the result I got a mail from IIM bangalore, that I was shortlisted for the interview.
Q: How was your IIM Bangalore Interview Experience ?
RUSHIKESH: The interview started off with a good note, but later on I made it a mess because I am someone who speaks a lot and says everything about a topic in a single shot, So it became a problem as in the IIM interviews the interviewers expect a very short and on the point answers. Whenever they asked me a question, I started off with an introduction of it and then they would stop me and say that the time is up. They asked me questions related to travel and vlogging but whenever I would start, I would go in detail and that was a problem. But there was a good thing too that I think they liked and it was that they were stopping me in between but at the same time they were liking the fact that how much interest I am putting in each and every question. So, they would stop me but also allow me to finish my answer in the next 30 seconds or 1 minute. So, overall I was not sure whether I would clear the interview or not but then yesterday only I received a mail from IIM Bangalore, where it’s written that I am selected.
Q: What’s the 1 advice that you would like to give to other CAT aspirants?
RUSHIKESH: I would like to say that never ever give up on your dreams as dreams do come true. Just believe in yourself, be in your natural state and you will make it. Don’t worry about the result, just go for whatever you feel is right for you and give your best.
