3/15/2017 MyjourneyfromGATEtoManagementprogramme

My journey from GATE to Management programme

1 Jan, 2016

Sumeet Roy@sumeetroy.betul
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Just like many engineering students, I completed my graduation in electronics and

communication from a private engineeringcollege in2010,and got a job through campus
placement in a leading IT company.It was the time when getting a job was just like a lucky draw
asglobaleconomy was still under recession. I joined that company, and I liked the job as long as
I was learning. But after working there for one and a half years as a software tester, I got fed up
with the routine tasks.The job also didn't ensure suitable professional growth inside the
company, which made me think about a job change or higher studies.
I had prepared for GATE during my college days and was comfortable with its syllabus. That's
why I decided to take GATE in 2012, and even though the paper was very tough that year, I
managed to secure a 98.55 percentile. Based on my score, I gotcallfor written tests from only
IITB and IITG for M Tech Electrical and Dual M Tech +PhDin Computer Science programmes

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respectively. However, I didn't get shortlisted for the final interviews. Ultimately, I decided not to
take admission in 2012 and wait for the next year.
While working in IT, I realized that the trend of work in IT companies is changing, and future
projects will be more on data analytics and modeling, which will need both technical as well as
management skills. The only thing which I liked about my project was that it was based on
banking and financial services. From there, I got a little knowledge about stock markets. I used to
trade stocks during lunch. It was also the time the pressure of competition got to me and I
sensed the presence of internal politics. It made me think differently about my growth in the
company.
Finally, I came to the conclusion that if I have to grow, then I have to enroll in a management
course. But forthatI didn't have a CAT score. I was already exhausted with preparing for GATE
andwork,and was not in the condition to start preparation for another competitive exam. That's
why I searched for a management course which takes GATE scores for admission. Many of us
would think it was an unwise search. But I finally found two institutes which offer management
course through GATE score.
Very few people know that there are some prestigious institutes of our country which take GATE
scores for Masters in Management Programme admissions. One is the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore IISc and the other is Indian Institute of Technology Madras IITM. Both of these
institutes are famous for their research and development works and startups by their alumni.
The Department of Mangement Studies, IISc offers a Masters in Management programme with
specialization in two streams, viz. Business Analytics and Technology Management. IISc allows
GMAT, GATE and CAT score holders to apply for admissions. The cutoff percentile is usually
above 90%ile for CAT and above 98%ile for GATE. IISc usually shortlists about 125 candidates
forGD/PI,and takes in 1525 candidates each year. Fees of the programme are about Rs. 1.55
lakh per annum.
Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras offers a Master of Science MS in Management
Studies programme, whose curriculum is slightly different from the MBA program. In addition to
completing theircourse work, students have to research any business topics of their interest,
present their research papers in national/international conferences, andfinallysubmit the thesis.
This program is popular in foreign universities, but inIndiaonly IIT Madras offers this
programme. Another benefit of the programme is that each scholar gets an MHRD scholarship
of Rs. 12,500 every month. The fees of this programme are about Rs. 19,000 per annum, which is
much lower than normal MBA fees.
I got called for interviews from both these institutes. However, I failed to secure my seat at IISc as
I was not prepared for the interview. The most difficult part was that I had to convince the
interviewer that why I wanted to take admission in management course through GATE scores, as
the exam is actually meant for admission in engineering stream programmes.
I learned those lessons and started preparing for the IITM interview. I prepared a small research
report on the bad debt problem of companies, one of the hot topics of discussion, with some
graphs, general analysis and conclusion. That report was not good but it was enough to show
tointerviewerthat I was interested in the MSFinancial Management course. The questions in
the interviews were based on practical knowledge of stock markets, as I was giving an interview

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for the finance stream. This way, my little learning about the stock market helped me in cracking
the interview and securing my admission at IIT Madras.
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