SoM'12 Interacts with Alumni

Being an NRI candidate, working in Dubai, I was quite skeptical about joining SJMSOM. But with every dawning day my decision is proving to be a wise one. The seniors organized excellent sessions for us to understand the working of various clubs and interacting with each other and our seniors. But one of the most memorable was the alum meet, which was held on the 18th of July 2010. SOM12 got the opportunity to interact with three of our alums namely Mr. Rohitash Gupta (1999 batch), Mr. Pawan Kumar (2006 batch) and Mr. Aswin Mani (2007 batch)who are currently working for e-Clerx, IBM and JP Morgan respectively. Rohit being a 99 pass out came across as a highly experienced professional. He gave us his entire professional summary, which was very inspiring for all of us.

My interest in finance was strengthened when I heard Ashwin answer all our finance related queries. The answers were very reassuring as they gave us the confidence to deal with finance, in spite of not having any prior work experience in the same. The alums explained that though initially we have to work hard to cope up with the Charted Accountants and finance experts we could catch up with them later and even advice and guide them later. Additional qualifications like CFA etc. were emphasized to be knowledge gathering tools, though they would definitely help us down the line they were not the necessary criteria for recruitment. Ashwin gave examples of his contempories, who got placed in top notch finance firms without CFA etc. The concept of consulting was explained by Pawan. All three of them dealt with the enormous volley of questions, which our batch threw at them, very efficiently and spontaneously.

The pool of questions was varied in nature. It was advised that we should not rush in our stream decision making process. The reason for selection of a stream could be very abrupt and momentary. The interaction sort of broke the pre-conceived notion that just acing the exams will ensure good placements. It was cleared that the even an average grade would take us through, provided we would back it up with competitions, club participations, events etc. The seniors encouraged us to break free from the confinements of our room and get involved in the various activities of SoM, the more the better. The seniors emphasized on the fact that the many times decision regarding the streams are subject to achievement of offer letters, which was very much on the lines of the fact that change is the only constant. The seniors were very nostalgic about SoM. But Ashwin seemed to have fought it as he was a frequent visitor to the campus.

The seniors categorically emphasized that the ethical code of conduct had to be maintained in order to have a clean track record. We were very frankly told that all our adventures must be very discreet as the repercussions could be severe. Cheating, giving proxys, doping, boozing would have very serious implications. All in all the interaction served as an awakening call, a doubt clearing, interactive and inspiring session.

written by,
Shreya Banerjee,
SJMSoM’12.