Meet Mallika IIM-A PGP 2024 speak about Life at IIMA, CAT prep tips, MBA career options

Considering the popularity of IIM-A among MBA aspirants, Shiksha.com got in touch with Mallika from PGP Class of 2024 to understand life at IIM-A. Mallika shared about her experience at IIM-A, tips to crack CAT, her transition from a working professional to an MBA student and more.

After overtaking IIM Bangalore in 2020, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad has been ranked as the best b-school in India thrice by NIRF. Established in 1961, the management institute has built an image as the ‘most prestigious management school in India’. The hard-to-get-in image of IIM-A makes it most desirable among management aspirants. Students who start preparing for CAT often set IIM-A as their target for admissions.

Considering the popularity of IIM-A among MBA aspirants, Shiksha.com got in touch with Mallika from the PGP Class of 2024 to understand life at IIM-A. Hailing from Ludhiana, Punjab, Mallika was a Strategy Insights and Planning Associate at ZS Associates before she took a leap toward her management career. Mallika shared about her experience at IIM-A, tips to crack CAT, her transition from a working professional to an MBA student and more. Check out some interesting excerpts from the interview below:

Q: What was the key part of IIM-A’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?

A: Starting with an honest answer, I got inclined towards IIM A simply because it is IIM ‘A’. But after knowing more on how the institute functions, the pedagogy, the faculty, the aura, the company and the campus, the inclination took the form of an earnest goal.  After seeing IIMA from the inside, I can say that another reason is that IIMA provides you with opportunities of any and every kind. You just need to have the passion to pursue anything in any area, either professionally or leisurely, and there would be people from within the community with similar interests waiting for you to collaborate and harness the benefits of synergy!

Q: Which one habit that you followed during your CAT preparation helped you crack the management entrance exam?

A: With utmost certainty, the answer to this is consistency- both in terms of devoting time for CAT and the timeline of mocks. There were days when I could devote multiple hours to CAT prep, but there were days when I barely had any time. It took conscious effort on my part to devote at least 15 minutes towards CAT even on busy days in interest of keeping the flow going.

The second area where consistency paid off for me was the schedule of mock. My score in previous mocks and the extent of subject-wise prep did not impact my resilience (well on most days) to sit for the next mock.

Q: Describe your educational background.

A: I graduated in Bcom (Hons.) from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in 2020. I attempted CAT 2019 and had calls from all IIMs except IIM B. But I could not clear most of the interviews then and decided to obtain some work experience for a while, instead, and sort of skipped CAT 2020 and sat for CAT 2021 with utmost seriousness and made it to IIM A.

Q: Describe the biggest accomplishments in your career so far.

A: consider realization of my interest towards management as my accomplishment. I opine that we all possess the capability to achieve anything. The only requirement is that we should be able to identify such a goal that pushes us hard enough to work for it! For me, that was the goal of Masters in Management and the holistic understanding of business that came along with it.

Q: Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far?

A: I would answer this specifically in the context of IIMA. Life at IIMA is so fast-paced that you would always operate under time crunch. If you are doing task A, it means that you are prioritising it over tens of other tasks. This continuous game of prioritization not only made me more active cognitively, but also made me cognizant of my own subconscious long-term priorities.

Q: How MBA would help you to transform your skills as per industry?

A: MBA enhances skills on various fronts. The academics would make me aware of every field that is related to running any organizational entity (ranging from HR to statistics to operations). The rich real time discussions have added to my awareness of the current business world. And lastly, the opportunities that MBA would bestow would help me implement the above knowledge and skills.

Q: What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what is the next milestone you want to achieve after graduation?

A: Being a commerce graduate, MBA always looked like a natural career trajectory to me. I gave my first CAT in the third year of graduation but could not clear any interviews. Having worked for around 1.5 years with ZS, my motive towards MBA became stronger and stronger. I am hoping to pursue consulting for a while after MBA.

Q: Important advice for aspirants aiming to gain admission into IIM-A?

A: First and foremost, have a strong 'Why' behind your MBA aspirations.

And as far as CAT is concerned, do not neglect any section. We all have some strong area(s) and we tend to devote more time on perfecting the stronger area(s) simply because we enjoy it more than facing the weaker area(s). Another piece of advice from my end would be to devote ample time to analysing mocks. The time put in analysing a mock should be approximately double the time you must have put in attempting the mock.

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