Bhagyashree Kanhere, a young, bright and dynamic student who has recently completed her post-graduation from a leading management college talks to Corporate Citizen on her first big break
Today, Bhagyashree who majored in the marketing stream from a leading management college, is placed as an Associate Consultant in the department of Information System unit with leading IT giant, Infosys.
Recalls Bhagyashree, “Being a Corporate Relations Team (CRT) member, I had the option of going through the interview process of two companies. I, initially got placed with the Idea Cellular as Segmentation Manager in Mumbai on November 3, 2015. Later on, I also got placed with Infosys Ltd as an Associate Consultant on January 13, 2016 and decided to join them. I had prepared well for my campus placements. I would often pen down complete information about the companies I would like to sit for. I had prepared well on all the general questions in advance, on the questions that are often asked like, introduce yourself, tell us about your strengths and weaknesses, why should I hire you and so on.”
“The first thing that helped me crack the interview was my confidence. I must say, confidence automatically follows when you prepare yourself in the right direction. Preparation is the key to success,” she adds.
“For Idea Cellular, there were two panel members. I first cleared my group discussion round and then went on to attend the personal interview round. The complete interview was based on the CV that I had given. Luckily it had all that they were looking for and I got through. In the case of Infosys, there were again two panel members—there was one member sitting with us and the second joined us over a call from the US. I was third to go for the personal interview round. There were two rounds, first technical, where they asked me about myself, my hobbies, my CRT work and all of that written in my CV. They then gave me certain situations where I had to deliver solutions. Thereafter, they asked me to wait and within ten minutes I had asked to go to the HR for the next round. Here, the HR discussed about the job profile, pay and other elements and within few minutes welcomed me to join Infosys,” says a happy Bhagyashree.
Bhagyashree always wanted to work for an IT firm and this was a dream come true for her.
“I had prepared well for my campus placements. I would often pen down complete information about the companies I would like to sit for. The first thing that helped me crack the interview was my confidence. I must say, confidence automatically follows when you prepare yourself in the right direction. Preparation is the key to success”
“It all started with the induction period of about 45 days where we got to know the system, students, faculties and our college in and out. I made some real good friends in the process, despite my hectic schedule. We would report at 7:55 am sharp to college or the gates would get closed. We would also read the newspapers regularly and had one such session every day. I used to make notes out of that which helped me upgrade my knowledge,,” reminisces Bhagyashree.
She adds, “One fine day, we got a notice to be selected for the prestigious Corporate Relations Team. I did apply for it and went through two rounds of interview, one with our Dean and the head of the Director, CRT. From thereon, life was different. We, at CRT, had to follow an altogether different schedule from that of others. Strategising, working on leads and networks, connecting the dots, while also managing our studies was quite a task. We used to be seated in the office, away from our friends and lectures.”
Here’s when Bhagyashree learned how to handle difficult situations, how to deliver solutions, how to be punctual, alert, give importance to minute things, how to excel, how not to lose hope, how to grow and set a target.
“It was as good as getting trained in a corporate house. During my exams, I would refer to slides provided in those classes, lectures and books. My friends have helped me a lot in understanding various concepts as I would stay away from class. I completely owe it to my college, teaching and non-teaching staff for being so kind and helpful to me,” says Bhagyashree.
Bhagyashree did her internship from ICICI Bank, Corporate Office, Mumbai. “I got inducted into Service Improvement and Innovation Group - Quality Department of the Bank where I learnt a lot. The stipend offered was `50,000, highest in the campus, which was again a cherry on the top. I received a lot of appreciation for my project from college,” she said. When asked about her thoughts on the Indian education sector, Bhagyashree says, “In my experience, which is limited, I think the Indian education system focuses more on acquiring information, than on being creative. While this certainly improves the memory of the student, it does not help in independent research. There is a transformation from existing models, from gaining more information, to acquiring relevant and essential information and learning to be more creative, by focussing on the skills and aptitude of students. Many students who complete college, do not have the skills to get employment in reputed organisations and need to be trained again for getting jobs. Most of the top Indian istitutions do not have high ranking in the international list of great institutes because they do not have adequate publications in research journals, which highlights their lack of contribution to good quality research,” says Bhagyashree.
Bhagyashree did her schooling from Adarsh Vidya Mandir, Nagpur and HSC from Prerna Junior College, Nagpur. She later pursued her engineering in electronics and telecommunication from SRMCEW, Nagpur. During her last year of graduation, she started preparing for her entrance exam to get placed with the best B-school in India. Her father is an account manager in Paras Industries, and mother is a homemaker. Her younger brother is pursuing his BBA, also keen on pursuing management.
“My hobbies include travelling, dancing, sketching and listening to music. I like to visit different places and experience different cultures. I was actively involved in all kinds of events that took place in college. I am an extrovert by nature and like to explore life,” she says.
By Mahalakshmi Hariharan
