Every year the final session that I do for all of those who have secured admits (or are waitlisted) into the Top 30 schools is called How to make the most of your MBA.
I had hoped that we will be able to conduct at least this session for CAT 20 students in person and that I could may be meet a few of you who have attended my Masterclasses over the course of the year.
The world has bigger problems than this and so we go ahead and do the session online.
Date & Time: Sunday, 13th June 2021 @ 11:00 AM
Register before Friday, 11th June 2021 till 2:00 PM via http://tiny.cc/Achievers-Meet-21
Note: Students who have registered for the Campus meets need not fill up the registration form again. They will automatically get a zoom invite for the achievers’ meet session.
The CAT Writer 
Hello Tony Sir,
super excited for this session !!! All the posts related to CAT not only helped me to achieve my dream college but also helped me to balance my everyday routine. I have started meditation and pranayam too.
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Congrats, Aishwarya! Looking forward to taking the session, it’s been a while since I have done one 🙂
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Sir I just missed the deadline to register, anyway I could attend the session, was really looking forward to it.
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Drop in your email-Id here.
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Send a mail to abhishek.srivastava@imsindia.com
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Sir it is guptaainesh@gmail.com
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Yes sir I’ve dropped an email to Abhishek sir, thank you
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Hey Sir. Greetings. Sir, I am confused between choosing IIM A FABM and IIM L ABM. I am a BSc Agri graduate and I am a fresher. Looking forward to your reply.
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Hi Yugant,
If you are looking at core ABM roles — IIM-A.
If you want roles closer to a General Management program with a lot of overlap with regular MBA placements, IIM-L.
All the best!
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Sir what if I am not sure about this right now. Actually I cant figure this out and thats why in a great dilemma.
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That will be tough for me to answer. Choose the one that will leave you with more options. The first factor should always be the stream and not the brand.
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Hi Sir. Hope you are doing good. Sir, I am confused which one to choose between IIM C and FMS. I’m a dental graduate with less than a year of work experience. Please guide.
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Hi Aneesha,
Congratulations on the admits!
This is a good problem to have!
My personal take and short answer is IIM-C
The long answer and the reasons can be found here — https://thecatwriter.com/2021/05/16/iims-versus-fms-xl-mdi-and-other-top-schools-4/
All the best!
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Sir
Can we get the recording of the video
YouTube link if any please
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Hi Sir,
I have 16 months experience in IT industry with engineering background. I am confused between IIFT Kolkata and IIM Ranchi/Trichy.
Also I am a bit worried about the competition at IIFT considering huge proportion of students from IIT/NIT/SRCC, etc considering that I have an average profile. Please guide.
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Hi Jay,
I do not have much of an idea about the batch composition of IIFT-Kolkata, I am unaware that it is full of IITians, NITians, and graduates from other premier schools.
Choose whichever college attracts the larger proportion of firms in the domains that you are interested in apart from of course average salary and other parameters.
The new IIM brand is still nascent and whether you want it or is more of a personal preference, short-term outcomes will definitely be better at IIFT-K.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Sir, I graduated in 2020 from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi with finance specialisation. I have converted IIM Indore & IIM Kozhikode, and I want to specialise in Marketing. Which B-school should I join? Please I request you to reply soon as last date of initial fee submission is approaching.
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Hello sir. Big fan of your sessions. Right from ‘How to manage stress’ to the one one month before Cat (who’s pointers i have written in my notes, they still feel fresh and relevant, The question doesn’t care!) And finally this one as a conclusion and a reminder of the bigger picture that is to come. Thank you so much for everything. Though i was not your student directly you have been a big part of my journey with these sessions and blogs.
I am inclined towards marketing and more specifically understanding the Indian consumer and working in the FMCG sector. I have calls from Mica, baby iims and MDI Ib. My inclination is towards MICA, would that be your suggestion as well?
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Hi Akshit,
Congratulations on the admits!
Glad to hear that you found the sessions and the blog useful — the question doesn’t care — seems to have resonated with quite a few students 🙂
You are right in eschewing the baby IIMs and maybe considering only MDI and MICA but given that the fee of MDI (IB) is quite high it makes sense only if you want to seriously pursue settling abroad or can afford an extended holiday!
The only catch with MICA is that it is an advertising & marketing campus and both are very different in terms of roles, and salaries; the advertising roles will be in client servicing — between the brand and the creatives — whereas the marketing roles will be on the brand side and since brand pays the advertising agency, marketing roles offer much higher salaries. MDI will have only marketing roles and not advertising roles.
And yeah, you can go with your heart, you will not be making a mistake choosing either!
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Been an ardent follower of your posts and a big fan of your sessions. Thank you for the same ! If it is alright I wanted to seek your opinion on deciding between IIFT Delhi and MDI G. I want to specialize in finance with a few electives in marketing and I know that consulting roles are not so prevalent in these colleges hence I am seeking to get placed in core finance roles like asset management, equity research etc at a reputed firm. Many have said that finance is better taught and overall good at IIFT and their placement reports for Delhi are even higher which can be trusted because they are audited, but many have even said that at MDI the brand is better and a better cohort, hence really confused sir. Its been a very 50/50 response from everywhere and seeing the placement reports alone I am not being able to decide if they are genuinely verifiable information. My profile in short would be – GEM 9/9/8 with 2 years great experience at Deloitte consulting and 1 year at a boutique IB. Decent ECAs, good internships and few good certifications (none of them CFA or FRM though). Since these colleges are really comparable and location is also same, really would like to seek your help in deciding between them. Please do let me know Thank you sir!
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In addition the above, I also withdrew my admission from NMIMS Mumbai core program. I had read in a post choosing between the Bschools other than old IIMs that NMIMS was ranked higher in finance specialization as compared to both MDI and IIFT Delhi, however I felt that both these colleges have a better brand name as compared to NM hence I unfortunately withdrew. Please could you let me know if it was wiser to stick with NMIMS itself for Finance specialization instead of MDI and IIFT, just want to know for information. I am really anxious and confused Sir about the right college amongst these three for Finance. Apologies for any inconvenience
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Hi Anonymous,
Congratulations on the three admits!
One of the major conditions of our (or maybe I should say your) times seems to be anxiety stemming from FOMO, despite having great options! The fear in FOMO also stems from the fact that the cost of education has gone up drastically.
But since it is a given that you have to spend a certain amount of money for your education, we can go back to the basics and evaluate the options.
Both MDI-G and IIFT are both primarily Marketing heavy firms given their location, while IIFT seems to have an image for Finance, in terms of placements it is not exactly a finance-recruiter-magnet.
To put things really in perspective — even if you got into IIM-C, without a CA or a CFA, Finance jobs would have been hard to come by for you both on and off-campus. The biggest requirement for a great Fin job is the professional degree of a CA and CFA since everyone else will have the MBA Fin. So, unless you get a CFA your resume will not be competitive.
A student of mine with one of the best resumes I have seen, who finished in the top 50 at IIM-A, could not crack a core Fin job and had to settle for Fintech start-up. He got one only after he finished his CFA off-campus.
This is only to say that you need not worry about losing out on great Fin jobs; more than the college, it is your resume that counts.
Given all of this, all I can say is that you will not be making a mistake in choosing either of the two options you have. Choose whichever college you are inclined towards based on your personal preference — campus, fees, brand, glamour, reputation for Fin, whatever works for you — but it has to be a conscious choice based on what you like and not an outcome of some great internal confusion.
Enjoy your MBA, and do your CFA (Level 1, 2022 December, Level 2, 2023 June).
An MBA from a good college is just a good start, which both MDI and IIFT will give you, it does not guarantee anything beyond that.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
ProTip: The NMIMS question is irrelevant; wanting to know just for information betrays a strong internal need to whip oneself (like one of the Gangs of Wasseypur characters) to which I shall not be a party :-). Let go.
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Respected sir, Due to lots of pending work at office,I missed session. Can you please share the recording of,”Achievers meet’21 :how to make most of your mba”with me.
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