Campus Placements : Ensure You Don't Remain Unplaced

As a young mind fresh out of college or professional course, little do

students know what kind of a professional life and challenges associ-

ated with it lie ahead of them. They only have a myopic view of the

immediate future, which would be another three to five years ahead.

Neither do they plan nor are they capable of planning their career

20 years down the line. Therefore, with the partial information they

might have gained in their college, they start making plans, which see

a sea change in the next five years. The immediate plans that stem

out of this planning are materialistic in nature and lack vision for the

long-term.

An MBA degree has become synonymous with being the surest

and shortest route to achieve professional success, dream job, cushy

life, luxurious cars, and much more. Most of the students aspire for

materialistic gains, barring a few who plan to work for a social cause

and the social sector. As a student progresses through dierent stages

of getting into the course starting with preparing for entrance exami-

nations, applying in dierent colleges, appearing for interviews, and

getting final admission, these materialistic aspirations start becoming

more convincing and achievable than ever before. Until this phase, it

is but natural for any human being to attach expectations and aspira-

tions with the hard work put into the course and skills attained in the

journey.

After completion of the course, you are presented with numerous

job opportunities through the placement cell. And with this, students

start their final preparation to realize their long-awaited dreams.

Most of you get into the arena with the confidence that your hard

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Creating Plan B for Success 177

work would definitely materialize into securing the one coveted job

you have been eyeing since the beginning of sign up of the place-

ment process.

While most of you prepare well for that one job, some do not pre-

pare for a PLAN B! In doing so, you fail to anticipate that things may

go wrong or not exactly as planned. Most of the students when asked,

end up questioning the very need for preparing a plan B. The usual

responses that we get to hear from the students are:

• “Why should I prepare a plan B when I am the batch topper

(or am on Dean’s list), and I am confident that I have in me

what the company is looking for? If they don’t employ me,

then who else will they?”

• “I have already cleared the written test and two preliminary

screening rounds. The business head was very impressed with

my answers and made it evident that he would hire me only. I

will not even sit for the two other shortlists I have for the day

and only concentrate on this interview!”

• “I am not going to apply for the next few sign ups because I have

already applied in my dream company, and I am pretty sure that

they will shortlist me. As the shortlist has not yet come, I am

not applying in other companies because if they shortlist me, I

will have to appear for their process. This way, I might miss the

golden chance of being selected by my dream company.”

• “I am only applying for investment banking roles as that is what

I have done my MBA for. Though I am an expert in risk, trea-

sury, and, even corporate finance, and there are a lot of jobs

that I am sure I can crack, I am not even looking at them. I am

only interested in joining investment banking and private equity

companies.”

• “Since I am in the final round of an interview conducted by a lead-

ing marketing company, and there are only four students left, I see

that my chances of getting this job are really high. Earlier in the

day, I was also interviewed by another conglomerate, and the CEO

was keen on hiring me. They were oering a leadership role with

a two-year global posting in their four foreign oces. I rejected it

because after the completion of my global exposure, I was required

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