Meet the genius, Aakash Neeraj Mittal from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur), who applied for the position of an Associate Product Manager at Flipkart by creating his CV that mimicked a product listing page, on Flipkart. After his CV went viral on the social media platform, he received a lot of job offers from various companies. He is studying each one of them and plans to opt for the best one. Aakash is studying in the fifth year of undergraduate studies at IIT Kharagpur. He is also the author of the novel, It Wasn't Her Fault. Corporate Citizen talks to this young, vibrant and dynamic gentleman on his life at the campus, faculty, on the book he penned and tips to juniors to succeed
During the campus placement which happened in December, Flipkart came to our campus with this profile. They were offering RS.27,60,200 as a salary which was one of the highest packages for a domestic placement. They were going to choose two to three students out of the 1500 who were to apply. I knew that if I went through the traditional way, I would not make it to the interviews, since my competition was with best of the minds of the country. So, I thought of doing something different. What I did was, I designed their layout on Photoshop and showed myself as a product. I made a CV that resembled a product page from the e-commerce site. They wanted someone creative and who could think out-of-the-box, so I showed them my creative side in this way.
I got two jobs from the campus - one was in an analytics firm called Affine Analytics and the other was in an e-commerce start-up called Voylla Fashion. I got placed on day 14. In the IITs, placements start from 1 December, which is called as day one. Till December 14, more than 1000 students had got a job and I was not even getting a call for an interview, the reason being my low Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA). I realised during the placements that CGPA has become a criteria to judge the capability of a candidate.
Anyway, on day 14, these two companies came in and conducted an aptitude test. I had prepared a lot for these tests so it was quite easy for me to crack them. We later went through group discussion rounds, followed by three interviews of approximately one and half hours each, where they were asking puzzles, questions from probability and statistics, case studies and usual HR questions.
I am going to miss IIT Kharagpur a lot, once I am out on a different journey. IIT-KGP taught me a lot of things. One of the best things I learnt here is how to cope up with failure. I was a topper throughout my school life. But after coming to IIT, within the first six months, I tasted failure. When the first semester results were out, I was in the bottom ten, reason being the life at IIT Kharagpur. IIT is a place where you meet so many different people and get to learn something new from each one of them. Apart from that, the resources which we get here, I don't think we can have them in any other college. They all help you in finding your real passion and then you start doing things which you haven't done before. I realised that my passion was not engineering. I found my interest in creative things. Somehow I came across a heart touching story and started penning it down and after three years I got successful in creating a novel.
The academic schedules at IIT Kharagpur is not all that hectic. For the first three years, I had classes for 25 hours in a week, from Monday to Friday. In the fourth and fifth year, we usually had 10-12 hours of classes in a week. So, we did get a lot of time to do several other activities. In my case, I spent all my time in writing. It took me three years to pen down my book. I am specialising in Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture. I did my internship in a company called Radius Infratel Private Limited. I was a finance intern where I did a project on Working Capital Management.
Faculties at IIT Kharagpur are world-class. In terms of knowledge, they are excellent _ though in my case, I was not a good student for my professors since I was not academically sound. After my book got published, things definitely changed for me. They never expected that I would write a book and now since I have, they are really proud on me. I remember I went to the head of my department to gift my book and he said to me _ "I always used to scold you for your poor academic performance because I thought you are not doing justice to your capabilities and the resources which you are using here at IIT Kharagpur but now you have made me proud. I am really glad that you found your passion and have done a marvellous job."
"It Wasn't Her Fault" is based on a true story about a girl who was raped at the age of 15. It's a story of two friends, Kavya and Aahan, and how the traumatic incident of rape shook their lives. The book explores the trials and tribulations of the victim as well as her best friend, who battles between the role he needs to play as a friend in her life and the immense love he is unable to express for her until it's too late.
The book condemns the social stigmas attached with rape survivors and the culture of ostracizing and shunning them. I strongly believe that if we want to evolve as a society, we need to step into the shoes of the victim and only then, we can understand the pain a rape victims goes through. So, with this book, I have tried to do the same thing.
I have tried to connect the readers with the plight of a rape survivor so that we can change the persistent inclination of society to blame the victim.
I am currently a final year student at IIT Kharagpur, majoring in the department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture. It's a five-year dual degree course, B Tech. plus M Tech. I was born in Moradabad, UP and currently live in New Delhi. I completed my 12th from Kalka Public School, New Delhi and my 10th from KCM Senior Secondary School.
We are three in the family - me, my mother and my elder sister. I lost my father five years back when I was in class 12th. My sister is a school teacher while my mom is self-employed.
After my resume went viral on social media, I received lot of offers. I am studying them and will choose the best one. Storytelling is something which I am really passionate about
Reading, writing, playing chess and poker and collecting obsolete currency.
After my resume went viral on social media, I received lot of offers. I am currently studying each one of them and will choose the best one. That apart, a lot of people from the corporate world have messaged me. They have appreciated my thinking and asked me to start something of my own. I am now working on one idea. If I get successful in this, I will open my own company. Storytelling is something which I am really passionate about, and so I will continue doing that. Looking for a story that can inspire people. The day I get it, I will start penning it down.
By Mahalakshmi Hariharan
