Below Average Engineer's Journey To An IIM

And hence begins the second part of my story:

The final year of college or what I would like to call – ‘Just in time’: This final period in NSIT is the only period of time where I can safely say that I lived up to my potential and am actually proud of myself. This is the period where one can say that ‘I got my shit together’. The chances of clearing my backlogs were looking very slim and the easier way out was to give up and say I will drop a year and clear them next year. But my family and friends were with me. They helped me get up, encouraged me to start planning my year and more importantly, execute it. To my surprise, I cleared eight exams in one go which actually was a huge morale boost as what seemed impossible at first, looked achievable now. With the resulting positivity, I turned my attention to CAT 2016. I joined T.I.M.E. coaching institute which helped me a great deal in getting a good percentile score. Now, as the interviews came, the lack of decent marks in college became a very difficult question to answer, because truth be told there was no answer. Hence began a series of rejections from various top b-schools such as IIM C, IIM L, FMS, etc. Then finally in the third list of IIM Indore, I was given the green light. But, this was not the end because I still had a few exams left, failing which, would mean not being awarded my engineering degree. And here came my friend to the rescue. She taught me in spite of having better and more important things to do. The results finally came out a few days ago and I did pass my exams. I will be getting my degree and will be allowed to continue my course here at IIM Indore.

Now, I may not be a great engineer. I may not know ‘C’ or ‘C++’ or any other programming language for that matter to the extent that most of the friends do. But, I am here at IIM Indore, in spite of being an under achiever and in spite of scoring poorly in my undergrad. This is because I had the courage to get up when all evidence pointed towards me being defeated and because I had a great set of friends (it’s the quality that matters and not the quantity) and my family, who stood by me and never doubted my ability for a second.

So, if you are not doing well in life (not just in engineering), the first thing you must do is get the negative thinking out of your head. Remember, you are good enough to achieve anything and everything in life. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The first step to get your life on track is to get up, stop thinking and start doing.