About Myself - Personal Essay

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to specialize in one of the areas in financial services and along with considerable knowledge of the field; I would like to expand horizons of my career by taking leadership roles in the industry.

Question 5:

Give an instance when you stepped in, took charge, mustered support, and influenced the outcome of a project/decision by assuming a leadership role.

While working in Infosys, I was a part of SAP FICO travel and expense module implementation team. I was a part of the team for 3 months and then I was transferred to the support team where clients used to raise issues faced in the processes. There was a resource crunch in the support team and we were facing delays in meeting KPIs. I took up a role of a trainer where I imparted training on basic financial concepts to the batch of newly recruited engineers. Some of the trainees were placed in the support project. I mentored them along with the day to day responsibilities of the project and that improved the situations and we were able to meet KPIs well in time.

Question 6:

What has been your greatest achievement till date? Why do you think this is your greatest achievement?

I believe that clearing CA exams in the first attempt is my greatest achievement till date. I had done my schooling in vernacular medium and I joined CA right after high school. CA curriculum was academically rigorous and demanded considerable efforts on my side. I learned how to multitask as I had to handle graduation studies, CA studies and articleship training at once. I cleared all the levels of CA in the first attempt. I also got a practical exposure of various areas such as audit, taxation and finance. I got a monetary reward of Rs. 21000 from my training firm for my significant contribution in a debt syndication project. While in high school, I never thought that I would be able to be a CA with such a fulfilling learning experience. So clearing CA final exam is my greatest achievement till date.

Question 7:

What decision(s) do you regret the most? Why?

• While preparing for my CA final exams, I invested a lot of time in referring bulky reference books on the subjects. As a result, I was not able to manage my time and fell short on revision. I missed all India rank by a few marks. Although I believe I gained a lot of insights on the subjects from reference books apart from course curriculum, I could have prioritized and focused more on the examination aspect along with additional insights.

• After clearing my CA, I chose an IT consulting profile. I had majority of my exposure in finance and audit and those learnings were of little use in my job experience .

Question 8:

Tell us about a situation when you faced an ethical dilemma. How did you overcome the situation?

Being an accounting professional, I had to deal with the financial information of the entities. During my articleship, I was working on a stock audit project where I found anomalies in debtors and stock accounts. There were no audit trails for some transactions and we were given a responsibility to report on the working capital position of the company by the lenders. Owners urged us not to give negative report on the working capital position. But as an accounting profession we had to exercise due diligence while giving the audit report and I reported all the details to my principal who was responsible for signing a report.

Question 9:

Why Finance/Marketing/Consulting/HR/Operations/Information Management?

(PGPM & PGPIM Students: Answer for all specializations except HR, in order of your preference)

(PGP-HR Students: Answer only for the HR specialization)

Why Finance?

During my articleship, I gained exposure on Debt syndication projects which involved understanding and analysis of financial data, preparation of Credit monetary analysis, revenue and cost models, Cash flows and important financial ratios like NPV, IRR, DSCR, Sensitivity analysis. I gained fulfilling experience working on finance projects. I have also worked on Audit and Taxation projects which inculcated analytical skills in me and comfort with numbers. I believe that with this background, ‘Finance’ will be the best specialization to opt for. MBA in finance will further strengthen my concepts in finance as MBA curriculum is structured for the contemporary industry scenario and it will equip me with the required skills with the relevant academic inputs to prepare me for the career in financial services.

Why Consulting?

Having worked in a CA firm, I used to be a part of the team where we were involved in providing services ranging from Auditing and taxation to fund raising. As project finance consultants, we used to provide advisory to clients for their capital structure, working capital and term loans. This experience inculcated the consulting mind set in me as many times we had to step in a client’s position and liaison on their behalf with the external authorities such as banks and various government departments. My job profile at Infosys was of SAP consultancy which involved analysis of problems, exploring alternate solutions and pro actively suggesting solutions that improve their financial processes for efficient reporting. Given this background and my inclination towards strategies and numbers, consulting in finance is my preferred choice for career.

Question 10:

What are your key interests? Explain with instances what you’ve done till now to pursue them.

One of my key interests is to read about current affairs in economy and politics. I like to read about various events and policies that affect economy and stock markets. I follow ‘The Economic Times’ to keep abreast with the latest developments in various industries. I also use Quora (Question-Answer platform) to gain different perspectives on various economic, social or political issues. I also enjoy watching TV sitcoms. In sports, I like table tennis. I used to play table tennis in my college as well as in my company. I intend to take part in TT competitions here in MDI also.

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