The management session of the Alum Talks featured four panelists from the inaugural batch of the MA Program. Ten years after their graduation, these alumni speak about their careers in management, emphasizing that their journeys were above all serendipitous; taking them down career paths that they did not foresee.
Know Your Speakers
- Vaish Srivathsan is currently she working as the Head of Business Operations and Chief of Staff to the CEO at Box Inc.
- Aditya Harit is currently a strategic consultant for Accenture, based in London
- Nikhil Joseph works in New York, as a Strategic Partnerships manager for SoFi, a digital bank.
- Shyam Nair is an Associate Manager – Talent Acquisition Group with Atos.
What They Said
The talk started with addressing the question of transitioning from being a student to a corporate employee. Aditya Harit, fondly called ‘Gensec’ by his classmates had always been fairly focussed and motivated within the campus. Standing for the position of Hostel General secretary right in his first year, and being actively involved in organizing large events like Shaastra and Saarang helped him get a jump start on networking. In fact, he was the first to bring the World Bank to a Shaastra event, being able to strike up with one of the Project managers. He located his interest in climate change and energy, and centred his Masters thesis, internships around the same. He found his first job with the IFC – the private sector wing of the World Bank. Wanting to travel as much as possible and experience a variety in the projects that he undertook, Aditya was allured by the idea of a global career, and an MBA helped him build this.
As for Nikhil, his journey was much less calculated. He decided to pursue a Fellowship in Hyderabad, closely related to Development Studies. He decided to study further and attended Graduate School in the US, pursuing a degree in International Affairs. His Masters thesis had been about India-China development aid and policy in IIT, and this propelled him to carve out a space for himself in the line of Financial Services. When asked about his life in insti, Nikhil candidly replied that he had simply wasted a lot of time, wishing he had taken academics more seriously.
Shyam felt that the tag of IIT-Madras carried quite some weight in Indian universities. His first job as an editor in the Oxford
University Press was based right here in Chennai, a nice start to his career. The alums made it clear that being willing to learn on the job was essential to coping in the workplace. They observed at the outset that being able to synthesize information and having reliable learning methods was valuable. They also stressed on the importance of striking a balance between hard and soft skills by going beyond what the department has to offer and taking other useful courses. They felt that they had a slight edge over most other humanities departments because of the unique positionality of studying the Humanities at IIT Madras – a liberal arts course in a technical institute. They said that being exposed to new technology, and having techie friends were crucial in removing any mental block they had towards acquiring the requisite hard skills. The skills picked up through extracurriculars and PORs were as crucial as the skills picked up from the course itself. The conversation then went on to the course itself, and each of the panelists shared which courses they had felt were important on hindsight. Aditya Harit said that on hindsight he felt that he underestimated the usefulness of some courses like Modern History and Foundation of Social and Political thought. This seemed to be a shared sentiment, and they fondly remembered the ‘cocktail courses’ that came to aid them in the most unexpected situations.
Vaishnavi stressed on the importance of taking on foundational courses like logic, statistics, etc. In general, the alums advise the students to stay on the lookout for courses that provide foundational skills, and demand good writing skills. Vaishnavi also spoke about her MITACS internship, and the importance of having some exposure to data science and mathematics. They also said that our final years would be really fruitful if we picked a Masters thesis that we would really enjoy working on, and stay motivated through it.
Fresh out of the institute, they each had different paths. Shyam took an editing job that was pleasant, Nikhil went on to do a fellowship in Hyderabad, Aditya worked with the World Bank. Here they stressed on the importance of being flexible and willing to try new things. Vaishnavi recounted that coming into the department, she had been sure that her studying would only be complete with a PhD but this changed along the way. Her taking on an MBA led her down a career path that she now seems happy with. They guaranteed that there may be some low-points coming our way, but that we are to keep an open mind.
Finally, they went on to speak about Grad School itself. Vaishnavi said that during the applications, we must be clear why we would be a good fit. She said, “Have a spike, have a brand, think of yourself as a product to market”. The brand can really be anything, acads, extra curriculars, what have you. Then, she went on to speak about the some of the best reasons to go to Business School like if you want a career change, and a pivot to combine and elevate different skills you have or if you want a change in geography or network in a different country.
They all reiterated that Business school is indeed expensive with an opportunity cost of salary, which only increases with time. When asked by one of the students if they really needed work experience before getting an MBA, they said that the MBA had a good return on investment in the Corporate world. They said that an MBA is not very book-ish, and one could participate better in a lot of the classroom discussions better if they had some work experience. Above all, they said to build a story – a logically coherent story and have the conviction that an MBA is indeed the next logical step before making the leap.
In Conclusion
In the end they said to always factor in the opportunity cost of time. Looking back, the speakers said that they regretted not travelling more in college and exploring places. They said to continuously try new and interesting things, ‘say yes to everything.’ A lot can be figured out and connected only on hindsight, we can not to force fit any career, and we should just do what keeps us motivated. Working in groups are important, and who you work for, is important. The one thing they realized was that there are good people, one just has to find them. To sum up, they seemed to say, it is okay to be scared, it is okay not to have our careers not figured out now. In fact, it’s okay not to have it figured out five years later. What matters is that we take risks, and learn from our mistakes.
Article 19 