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How I Cracked CAT? - Venki - IIM Calcutta

Name: Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy

My background:B.A. Sociology, PSG Arts, Coimbatore; Sales Assistant, Landmark Chennai, PGDM IIM Calcutta, 8 years work and enterpreneural experience, in software industry. CEO, Maarga Systems Pvt Ltd.

Well! I would like to begin my story with this tag line, "If I can do it, so can you!".

Mine is not the typical "IIT-D or BITS or REC with work-ex at Infosys or Wipro" making it to an IIM story. Here is my detailed background and the things that I did to get into IIM Calcutta.

I hail from Coimbatore. Did my schooling in Coimbatore and passed XII Standard (TN State Board) securing a little over 60%. Subequently, I joined PSG Arts College and completed B.A. Sociology securing 59% aggregate. My interests were mostly non-academic during those three years. I was an avid reader and excelled in organizing a variety of events in the college, which were co-curricular / vocational in nature.

While in my final year at PSG, I took CAT. This was in 1990. I got calls from IIM-A and XLRI. Thanks to the fact that I did not have any guidance for GD/PI preparation, I ended up not converting either of the calls. After graduation, I moved to Chennai and got my first job as a sales assistant at Landmark Book Shop. A couple of months into the job, I realized that I had more fire in my belly and wanted to pursue a career in the field of advertisement. I started hunting for jobs at Ad agencies. Much to my chagrin, I met with negative response from most agencies. However, things took a turn when I managed to meet the branch head of one of the leading ad agencies. The branch head was far from polite to me. He told me in plain simple terms that unless I had an MBA degree, I should not be aspiring to get a job in an advertising.

Summary of my prep strategy
I took agency head's words quite seriously and started preparing for CAT. I did a lot of slogging for over 6 months and cracked CAT. My Math was pretty okay and my English was very good. I solved almost every single Mock CAT that I could lay my hands on. By the time I took CAT, I would have solved over 30 Mock CATs. I used to spend three to four hours after each of the tests pouring over how I could have done things better. After the 20th or 22nd test, I had a "great feel" for at least 25% of the questions and even knew which of the four answer choices is likely to be the answer without actually going about solving them. I stopped my preparation on the Friday before CAT. On Sunday morning I wanted to be in the best of my moods. I did what I like a lot. I took a long drive on the Marina Beach stretch, around 7:30 in the morning. (It could be different things for different people, smoking a Gold Flake Kings for some, having a coffee for others or listening to your favourite song). Out of the 180 questions in CAT 1991, I remember attempting over 175. The last 30 of the 175 were pure calculated guesses, as I was by then confident that I had done reasonable justice to the paper.

I got calls from IIM A, B, C and L. Thanks to being in Chennai, I had the first opportunity to prepare seriously for the GD and PI. And that was probably the first time I was interacting face to face with someone who was an IIM grad. The tips and goading really helped me polish my GD/PI skills. I got admissions from IIM B, C and L. I joined IIM C in 1992 and passed out in 1994. The two years at IIM C is worth reliving. Given another chance, I sure would opt for IIM C.

Post IIM-C
Two years went past in a giffy. Campus placement - I got placed in Wipro Systems, Marketing. I shifted out of Wipro in a couple of years to California Software and then to Trigent Systems, USA. Equipped with these experience, I took up the responsibility of heading the Indian operations of Photon Infotech. Two years later, I have very recently started out on my own - Maarga Systems (http://www.maargasystems.com).

Well, if someone had told me in 1990 that I will be heading a software company in 10 years time, I am not sure I would have believed him. That is the kind of career transformation an MBA degree offers. It is not just the money; it is much more. It offers dream careers which, otherwise, were out of reach for most of us.

Though, mine is a slightly atypical story, I am not an exception to the rule. Many of my classmates, irrespective of whether they are engineers or not, have had similar enriching experience in one form or the other.

I wish all of you success in your pursuit of an MBA.