Business school competitions are a great avenue to test yourselves against the best. Participating in these through the year at ISB can be a very useful addition to your self-development initiatives.
Though competitions aren’t always directly relevant or helpful during placements, they can be a useful talking point during interviews and a way to showcase your willingness to go beyond what’s required of you.
Given the demanding nature of ISB’s curriculum, it can be hard to make time for competitions. One approach that has worked for some of us is to choose competitions that are aligned to our career goals and invest time in events that offer greater learning value. This also helped us stay updated with the economic and political developments around the world , and truly speaking we can now give Wikipedia a tough competition
Don’t spread yourself too thin. The numbers will be different for each one of us, but try to strike a balance between breadth across a number of events and intensity of effort in each one of them to maximize your takeaways and wins. Trust , you will enjoy every bit of the grind and the pressures to keep up with the timelines. At least, for us, we started enjoying participating and winning . For us , it provided the adrenaline rush to see ISB s name on top of the list across the various national platforms.
ISB is filled with incredibly talented folks from diverse backgrounds, and every competition has varying demands. It is very easy to make the mistake of staying within your comfort zone and targeting competitions with the same set of 2-3 friends. By doing this, not only do you reduce your chances of winning, you also miss out on the opportunity of collaborating with classmates who you may otherwise never have a chance to work with.
A final word of caution: competitions can be intense and involve a lot of hard work. Take up group events only when you are absolutely sure of your commitment to the task. Leaving your team mates hanging and not showing up when the team needs you is completely unacceptable. The bonds that you build with your classmates and the reputation that you hold among your peers are the biggest takeaways you will have in your ISB journey. Do not risk losing it by a show of insincerity and indifference.
Work together and carry forward the glowing name of ISB. There’s no feeling like the winning feeling, and at ISB winning is a habit. So, as the title suggests, you need to believe that you’ve hit the F1 circuit and speed is just a number …
Go break the limits !!!!
About the authors
Rahine Bose, ISB Class of 2017
Rahine has worked for over 9 years at ICICI Bank before joining ISBs PGP program and in his last role was the Chief Manager & Regional Head for businesses in Kolkata region specifically handling institutional and government clients . He has led many digital transaction initiatives of the bank in West Bengal . Rahine , is a passionate writer and has authored various papers on banking sector reforms in India.
Name – Gaurav Jha, ISB Class of 2017
Gaurav is the President of the Public Policy Club at Indian School of Business and an Economics and Engineering graduate from BITS Pilani. He has previously worked at JPMorgan Corporate & Investment Bank and holds keen interest in the interface of business and policy. He has also been a writer for a Data Science start-up, Social Cops and published 4 papers in international journals.