‘We dint know we were making memories, we were just having fun!’- A line that aptly describes my experience of the engineering college days. It is said college life is the best phase- you make new friends, learn new stuff, and go on adventures which involves a lot more fun. After graduating and starting a job in the corporate sector, I got nostalgic. I started missing the good old college days!
On the other hand, I realized that the corporate sector is filled with people competing to reach the top of the ladder. I also felt that one needs a holistic view of the corporate sector and a better understanding of the wheels driving the company to move up. I made up my mind- I must do an MBA.
After a tiring experience involving exams, interviews, GD’s etc. I finally managed to get into one of the top B-schools in India-SIBM Pune. Let me shed some light on the case study and the interview experience. My case study topic involved a dilemma a certain company faces with respect to its policy on the specially abled class. The next stage, a presentation, was set up to test our knowledge and public speaking. I had to choose three slides out of a six slide presentation titled- Narendra Modi. The interview had 2 panelists- both were very friendly and made me feel welcome. The results were soon announced and voila! I was back in the good old college days.
SIBM is one of the colleges which shares its campus with the other Symbiosis schools. A campus so lush and green, it reminds you of a hill station- Lonavala or Mahabaleshwar. The weather here is amazing. The sports facilities provided for the students are impressive- a pool table, a swimming pool, squash court, badminton court and a huge football and cricket stadium. I always thought that mess food is supposed to be messy- as the name says mess. But the mess at Symbiosis is an exception. The mess food is quite good. I was startled to see the way the administrators manage the campus. Kudos to that!
Coming back to the first week, our induction programme started with a bang. An inspiring lecture by Mr.Prakash Iyer not only gave us the impetus to move ahead, it also solved the ambiguities in the minds of some of my colleagues. On the evening of the second day, we were split in teams and were informed that a talent round will be held the next day. We had to perform a skit and showcase any talent within the stipulated time. This activity made us realize that we are in a B-school now, an uphill task in an inadequate time-frame. But the next day, we relinquished any apprehensions anyone could have about our batch- Some of the performances were mind blowing.
The next few days of the induction programme involved meeting the alumni’s, an industrial trip and some team building activites. The Alumni’s we met made us confident of the decision we made to join SIBM.
The last week at SIBM has given me a trailer for the yet to come thrilling experience. Classes conducted by experienced professors and guest lectures have been informative and fun. But I am eagerly waiting for one of the most important part of the college life- senior interaction. Be it any college-engineering, MBA, Arts, Commerce, seniors are the ‘Margdarshak’ of the juniors.
I believe that the SIBM experience will be a concoction of everything I have mentioned and a few surprises too. I also hope that the 2 years here mould me appropriately and help me and my colleagues to achieve success. Lets create some new memories!

MBA – I year