Meet Bhavna Kukreja, who completed her post-graduation from one of the leading management colleges in India, and is successfully placed with a leading multinational in the country
Today, Bhavna Kukreja, who has specialised in the Human Resources (HR) stream, is successfully placed with the Vedanta Group in the HR department with a fat package coupled with all kinds of incentives and perks. She talks to Corporate Citizen about her journey from the campus to the corporate world.
“Our placements began during the third semester. We were quite anxious about the interview process, questions that will be asked and the entire procedure. When the renowned Vedanta Group came to the campus, I was quite excited and slightly nervous too. The company is quite known for coming up with its fixed set of rules in the interview process, saying no student should have had any kind of backlog till date, there should have been no gap between the education degrees and the student should be open for any location given by them,” says Bhavna.
The company later short-listed the résumé of students based on their academics, work experience and other parameters. “They came back to our campus, after a few days, and informed us about the work culture at the company, style of working and so on,” recalls Bhavna.
The process started off with a Group Discussion, followed by a Personal Interview round.
“They began short-listing us on the basis of our performance at the group discussion round, which was followed by the personal interview. I was asked to talk about myself and my family background at the personal interview round. Later on, they grilled me on my résumé to check if I had enough knowledge on labour laws in India and if I had enough knowledge on my subject. The process was tough and quite difficult to get through to but I decided to do my best, have patience and achieve it,” reminisces Bhavna.
“They began short-listing us on the basis of our performance at the group discussion round, which was followed by the personal interview. They grilled me on my résumé to check if I had enough knowledge on labour laws in India. The process was tough and quite difficult to get through to but I decided to do my best, have patience and achieve it”
“We started our two-year PG programme with Ganesh Puja, followed by the BAM presentation. Our induction programme for a week really helped us as we got to know more about our batchmates, faculty members, college, which also helped us make friends. We were also shown the epic, Mahabharata, during the start of the college. Even though the schedule was hectic, we thoroughly enjoyed it. There were regular DJ nights, extracurricular activities, along with studies, which made it light,” says Bhavna.
Bhavna’s faculty members and the college helped groom the students in such a way that they get ready to enter the corporate world.
“We had no holidays in the first year of college. We had to work all seven days of the week, with no public holidays too. While it was too exhausting then, today when I look back, I realise it was all done just for our growth/development—basically to groom us. Our college invited industry leaders for regular lectures, on regular basis, so that we could network/interact with them and gain more knowledge,” said Bhavna.
“Our college shaped us in a way that we live the corporate life. Truly, we came like a seed but they helped us grow,” she added.
Bhavna did her internship with Future Retail Ltd, which helped her know more about the corporate world. The visiting faculty members were experts from their respective fields, knowledgeable and class apart. “My teachers helped us a lot in preparing us for the placement process, by giving us directions, encouraging us to do well,” she notes.
Bhavna completed her SSC, ICSE Board from St Xavier’s Sr Sec. School, where she was involved in a number of extracurricular activities, along with studies. She was also the house caption then. Later, she did her HSC, CBSE Board from Maharaja Agrasain School, Sirsa and her graduation from Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar, Haryana. Bhavna hails from Sirsa in Haryana.
“I was a dynamic and vibrant student in school and often took part in a number of activities,” she recalls.
Bhavna’s mother, MA in Economics (honours), is a homemaker and her dad is a businessman.
Bhavna is into calligraphy, painting and being creative like making the best out of waste. She also liked to travel, explore different places.
By Mahalakshmi Hariharan
