After Deloitte debacle, i cried at home......!!!!!!

You are not lost till the hope of winning is not lost…………!!!!!!!!!

When Deloitteans were taking the holy bath, he took the pride in waiting for his turn, when CSCians were doing the same, he exhibited a never seen behavior, for his every nuance there lies logic and an unstoppable laugh, but when it comes to serious business, this man had the last laugh lately but in a stylish fashion. 

Praveen Kumrawat- who would be building better lives in the times to comes- placed in Ujjivan Finance has waited for his turn and finally thrashed all the adversities and failures that he faced in preceding companies.

I hooked up with him recently where we discussed about his new accomplishment…..here are the excerpts-

1. Praveen, let’s get directly to the business. Talk something about your interview and how you managed the situation thereon?

My interview was sterling and diversified as well as according to me; it was segregated into three parts. Initially, they were appraising my interpersonal communication skills by asking HR based questions and some direct questions from my background.

Then they assessed my technical knowledge by asking questions based on ratios, balance sheet, basic financial terminologies. At last but more importantly, they checked my situational response by giving me a case study which was a sort of real life problem and I handled the cross questions very well.

“Interview is just about showing how much perfect you are for their organization”

2. You have faced two rejections yet accepted them with a bright smile. How was that phase and how you coped up with that?

Honestly speaking, I prepared well for both the companies but in Deloitte’s process there were some technical glitches which exposed my concentration level and I was not able to clear through that round. After reaching home, I was into tears as luck has played its part for me but in a negative manner. Then I decided to follow ‘let bygones- be bygones’ theory and started preparing for CSC the very next day.

But as luck would have it, I was fired in second round but was living in a hope of getting a handsome job which I finally got. For me, the journey was quite tough as I have my own set benchmarks and when I don’t perform to that, it hurts. But, the experience of rejection helped me to improve upon my skills and come good next time.

“Remember, 1% hope is stronger than 99% pessimism…….therefore believe that you can and wait patiently for your turn”

3. How you improved upon your communication skills and technical knowledge?

Let me bifurcate this answer into two parts so that others can get it easily. Initially, we were not passively connected with our seniors and hence we were not able to gain comprehensive knowledge about essential things for cracking placements. And hence, it was all upon me to remain conscious about shortcomings and improvise.

A never lost man.......who finally had the last laugh.....Praveen Kumrawat

For my communication, I had enough treasure of words but I felt spontaneous fluency was the part I need to work on and hence by the start of 3^rd semester, I worked on my communication by joining classes where I worked hard. With that, I personally did a lot of mirror speaking, writing and self-talking to dwell deep into my abilities.

In technical, there were two parts into it-mainly aptitude and financial knowledge. I identified the level of aptitude by taking help from few seniors and worked upon that. I glued myself to basics and kept working hard. Also, I see a lot of engineers at IMS having phobia about finance, but seriously speaking even commerce students don’t have a bank of knowledge. My accounting part was a bit on a stronger side and therefore worked on other feathers of finance such as security markets, financial management etc.

“Good preparation leads to good execution of strategies……..”

4. How you prepared for the interviews and what are the key points to be kept in mind in an interview?

Well, I believe that no matter how much hard you work on your communication skills it is important to get a feel of interview before you face the real ones and hence I gave 3 mock interview and every interview came as an eye opener for me where I became aware about my faults and how much long I have to go to crack a tough interview. The best thing with mocks is that you face people who are actually working in industry and therefore every interview gives a whole new experience and learning to you. I worked meticulously with few classmates and we sat together to frame the best possible answers. Key points to be kept in mind while interview are:

1. They are not searching for a perfectionist, they are searching for suitability.

2. Try to connect the dots while answering questions.

3. Don’t take anything lightly as one mistake can become a lifetime mistake.

5.  A message to juniors?

With juniors I am very frank but I would seriously suggest that you must have heard a phrase “Don’t put all eggs into one basket” same as that is “ Don’t become egg on one basket” which means go and have participation in each activity whether formal or informal. Have strong communication with your seniors but no lip service, maintain a professional relationship. Start working on different aspects such as technical knowledge, communication as early as possible and don’t compare or compete with anyone.

“ Remember, where you end describe how you started………”