As I pass out of IIT Ropar and move on to to my professional life, I wanted to make a 'signing off' podcast episode of the journey at IIT. For this, I gathered 4 of my best friends and had a candid conversation about our college lives. We ended up recording for over 2 hours and we could just keep adding memories about these incredible 4 years.
I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have met so many inspiring people and have such vivid learning experiences in these 4 years but now with a heavy heart and huge dreams, I must say goodbye.
Signing Off: Shreyas Jadhav, Kartik Arjaria, Srinidhi Reddy, Ayush Mantri & Ashwin Goyal
Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar
"If UPSC didn't work out, I was not worried about finding some corporate job given my engineering background. I was willing to try for all 6 attempts of the UPSC, if that's what it took to become an IAS Officer..."
~ IAS Rahul Gupta, UPSC AIR 20, IIT Ropar Electrical Engineering
This Episode Covers (in 30 mins)
1. The Power of Networking
2. Why Side Hustling is Important
3. How to Side Hustle effectively
4. Whether or not to Start Up in college
5. Key Learnings to be taken from IITs
A short and insightful conversation recommended for all foreign masters enthusiasts with our Alumnus from IIT Ropar 2012 Batch who further went on to complete his MS from University of Washington, USA.
"No one says that 'I can work hard in Investment Banking', like, hard work is hygiene. Everyone is working extremely hard, 80-hour workweeks. You'll have to bring something else to the table to break in..."
~ Rutvik Malekar, IB JP Morgan NY, IIT, IIM
"Today, even if you're afraid to start up, you have this incredible opportunity to work for an early-stage startup and have tremendous growth very early in your career......"
~Akshat Pandey, Co-founder at Nutripal, IIT
"It is very important to keep your eyes open because there is opportunity everywhere. From a small Facebook group, we were able to build a dentistry community of over 53,000 dentists and are now changing the dynamics of the industry completely. And also, without sales, ideas are pretty much worthless.."
~ Abhijeet Singh, CEO at NineTen, IIM, IIT
"A few minutes late to the hospital and I wouldn't have survived. I went through 3 brain surgeries and was partially paralyzed for over 3 months. I was 21 and no one knew if I would even be able to get up from the bed. In those 3 months, I became stronger and realized my true connections in life..."
~ Sidhant Srivastava, Strategy Consultant, IIM, IIT
"The UPSC exam makes you realize that you know nothing. From Core technical knowledge to World Politics, the nuances of how the world works will intrigue you beyond imagination...Surely it won't be easy, but it will be worth it"
~Ashish Samuel, IFS Officer, IIT
"I experienced the joy of learning and found myself change completely across those two years at IIM Ahmedabad. Accelerated learning of life is all that IIM A teaches.."
~ Sri Ram Prasad, Asset Management, IIM, IIT
"You need not have all the answers! If you feel right about joining a startup over a bigger firm, go ahead and do it. Learn by iteration, don't overthink..."
~ Ayush Ghosh, McKinsey Consultant, ISB, IIT
"Microsoft had rejected me, I remember crying that day. Now that I look back it seems so trivial, but at that time, it was all we had..."
~ Digvijay Singh, Amazon, Columbia, IIT