#1. Amulya, can you please briefly describe your profile?
I completed my Bachelors in Dentistry from Malla Reddy Institute of Dental Sciences in 2022. I worked with Shine Projects as a business development intern for one month during my third year of undergraduate degree. I also worked as an Academic Counsellor for a month. Post that, I completed my internship as a dental intern in April, 2023. Subsequently, I had a brief stint of 3 months as a Sales coordinator at Prime Power Generators, Hyderabad. Alongside, I pursued a 6 month pre-MBA program with Global Governance Initiative as a part of their Young Leaders program. I am a certified Kuchipudi dancer, and have been training in this art form for 17 years now. I also run a small-scale business on Instagram, where my paintings and resin art pieces are available for purchase. I am a community volunteer at the Indian Red Cross Society.
#2. You are a Dental graduate. Why did you decide to pursue an MBA?
I was quite intrigued with the functioning of hospitals as a business, the buying and selling decisions, procurement decisions at hospitals, having understood the functioning and operations at hospitals, I wanted to explore other industries as well, this led me to pursue a corporate internship as a sales and Marketing intern. The turning point in my time at dental school when I realised my passion lies beyond clinical practice was my interaction with a professor where I worked towards creating innovative approaches to market his newly launched clinic and creating a strategy to approach the consumers. An MBA would be the right catalyst to help me bridge the gap between healthcare delivery and nuances of business. Hence, I chose to pursue an MBA to have a comprehensive knowledge of multiple industries and the different verticals and a well rounded understanding of the cross functioning of the various domains in business.
#3. Why did you choose Faith Career to be your mentor for your BITSoM MBA application?
I stumbled upon my mentor’s YouTube video on how to transition from Dentistry to MBA. Subsequently, I connected with him via a Topmate call. My first call with him was an eye opener – he provided initial yet significant insights and laid the foundation for my journey to a B-school. The wealth of experience that he has is unmatched. The glowing recommendations from his mentees who got into ISB and other top B- schools, his unparalleled success with guiding ISB applicants throughout their application and interview journey, and his keen insights on curating a B-school-oriented application, made me decide that he is the mentor I needed.
#4. What tips would you want to give an aspirant who is working on their BITSoM MBA application?
For the essays, one thing that has significantly helped me was, making a list of all the experiences which truly described me as a professional and as a person. Try and ask yourself deep introspective questions about your life experiences, your leadership experiences, values and beliefs and journal them leading upto the application. Eventually that’ll help you understand the common thread that might help you base your essay on. I had done this way before starting the essay so I’d suggest you do the same.
If you’re unable to think of instances to talk about, talk to people who know you closely and ask them about how they’d describe you as a person, professionally and personally and reflect on what they have to say and then work on building the points for the essay.
Go through the website thoroughly, this will give you significant information about the clubs, committees, subjects that peak your interest, the curriculum and how that fits in with what you want to do and then correlate them to how you’d contribute to that and how they would fit in with your goals for the future.
For the remaining part of the application, I’d suggest that aspirants work on creating a list of all the extra curricular activities that they were a part of, since school, significant achievements throughout, their previous work experiences so that it’s convenient to summarise the key responsibilities and key achievements and describe at length in the extracurricular section of the application.
#5. How was Faith Career’s mentorship important while working on the BITSoM MBA application?
The guidance call for essays that my mentor conducted helped me break down the prompt, and gave me a better sense of what experiences to talk about and how to structure them. The success/failure essay which is the second essay in the application was something I struggled with. My mentor took the time to break it down, providing guidance on structuring and highlighting points that truly portrayed my experiences. He edited my essay drafts, encapsulating our learnings in a structured and concise manner, ensuring they were articulated with a distinct B-school orientation. His guidance on handling the non-essay components of the application provided me with valuable insights, allowing me to craft those sections more effectively, with a focus on key areas. He was available 24/7, clearing every minor doubt.
#6. How did you prepare for the interview after submitting the application? What all steps did you take?
Firstly, I went through my application thoroughly, end to end. Especially my essays, a significant portion of questions in the interview are asked from your essays.
I revised all the MOOC that I had taken up, you can expect questions from these courses as well.
I started going through BITSoM’s website thoroughly, to understand the courses and specializations that they offer, curriculum, the clubs and committees , the winning at workplace courses, the corporate and social live projects that are a part of BITSoM, the faculty, in depth. I acquainted myself with the faculty that teach the subjects that I’m interested in, and also read about them and their work briefly.
I went through the videos posted on their official YouTube page and an Instagram page to understand more about the interview process, along with videos of students sharing their interview experiences, and worked on answers for those questions as well. I also went through their Instagram page to acquaint myself with any recent events at BITSoM, and found inspirational stories that I later talked about in the interview.
I started working on fundamental answers like, why MBA, why BITSoM, short term and long term goals, behavioral and situational questions along with the list of questions my mentor provided me with.
I also tried to keep myself abreast with the current developments in the business world and current news.
#7. What questions were asked to you during the interview?
During my BITSoM MBA interview, the panelists asked me the following questions:
1. Talk about your Kuchipudi dance experience.
2. What leadership qualities and what qualities did dance teach you?
3. What were the problems you faced while leading the dance ensemble?
4. What does leadership mean to you?
5. How will you bring about inclusivity in your team?
6. How will you deal with any misunderstandings as a leader?
7. How will you establish trust as a leader?
8. What drove you to marketing?
9. What is your understanding of consumer behaviour (asked about the case with Maggi)?
10. As a dentist, what were the pain points you had?
11. What is your long-term goal?
12. What is your short-term goal?
13. How can you contribute to the cohort at BITSoM?
14. Which departments in Dentistry did you work more?
15. Talk about your friends and how would they describe you?
16. Which leader do you look upto and why?
17. What qualities do you wish to imbibe from them?
18. What is the financial market for dental products and services in India (in rupees)?
19. Pitch yourself as a leader to the cohort.
#8. How do you think you performed in the interview?
I believe I performed well during my BITSoM MBA interview. The interview was very relaxed and conversational. The panel was interested in knowing you me a person. They asked a lot of questions based on my essay, my journey to becoming a classical dancer, my time at dental school, a lot of emphasis on behavioural questions, about my values as a leader. A lot of questions were situational, they tried to understand my values as a person and my approach to issues.
#9. Amulya, what are your final ‘To-Dos’ and ‘Not-to-Dos’ for a BITSoM aspirant?
Do:
Be rational in your answers
Keep a smile
For situational questions - Take a moment if you think you need a minute to gather your thoughts and then answer. The panel would be open and happy to do that.
Try to be very calm, it will help you think better especially when situational questions are asked.
Try being in the driver's seat for the interview and make sure to set the flow right
Don't:
Don't lie about anything. Embrace your failures if any.