My IMT Ghaziabad Campus Experience made me a success
Campus Learning and Living Experience of a full time residential program is one of the biggest strengths of an MBA Program. MBAUniverse.com interviewed more than 15 IMT Ghaziabad graduates who passed out in last 5-7 years, and are currently working in leading companies. With great joy and enthusiasm, they recount their IMT Days and emphatically put their campus experience as the key reason of their career growth and success
Campus Learning and Living Experience of a full time residential program is one of the biggest strengths of an MBA Program. It is said that students learn as much outside the Class as much as they learn from the structured classes. To offer tangible insights from the student’s perspective, MBAUniverse.com interviewed more than fifteen IMT Ghaziabad graduates who passed out in last 5-7 years, and are currently working in leading companies. With great joy and enthusiasm, they recount their IMT Days and emphatically put their campus experience as the key reason of their career growth and success. Read this rather long but evocative article for a trip down the memory lane.
But, before we talk about the campus experience, a bit about IMT Ghaziabad and its campus to set the context. Established in 1980, IMTG is India’s premier AACSB accredited management school with a distinct focus on grooming leadership through Innovation, Execution and Social Responsibility. IMT Ghaziabad is a lush green campus spread over 14 acres with extensive Academic Block, offering cutting-edge teaching facilities with 15 smart futuristic classrooms. Finance Lab has 12 full-fledged Bloomberg terminals. Real Time Contextual Laboratory (RTCML), Media and Entertainment Lab (MEL) and Smart Analytic Decisions Lab are some of the differentiators to IMT Ghaziabad. Campus has well planned student and academic housing block, and various recreational facilities including Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Badminton, Basketball facilities.
With this backdrop, now, let’s introduce the heroes, and a few heroines (!), of this story – the young IMT Ghaziabad Alumni who are making it big in the corporate world. We present names in alphabetic order with their brief profiles.
Aadarsh Attree, Investment Banking Associate, EY | IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2016-18
Aadarsh is a Strategy & Transactions advisory professional with a demonstrated history of working in the Investment Banking and Mergers & Acquisitions field.
Ankush Bansal, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Flipkart| IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2014-16
Ankush is building Flipkart Plus, biggest loyalty program in the country. He has 8+ years of experience comprising of Product Marketing, Program Management, Product Management, Category Management, Business Development, Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Demand Planning, Business Analytics & Consulting
Arnav Singh Bansal, Corporate Banking at CSB Bank; Ex HDFC Bank; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2016-18
Arnav is currently working at CSB Bank handling entire Delhi/NCR region in Corporate Banking. He has worked at HDFC Bank as a Corporate Banker handling a portfolio of more than 2 billion. He was the Topper of his batch at IMT Ghaziabad. He won various All India competitions in prestigious colleges of India such as IIM Calcutta, IIM Rohtak.
Arpit Vijayvergia, Lead Analyst Social Media Analytics; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2015-17
Arpit is an experienced Senior Business Analyst with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. He is skilled in Social Media (Simply Measured, Crowd Tangle, TrendKite, Youtube analytics, Crimson Hexagon, Sprinklr, Talkwalker, Tubular Labs) and Web Analytics (Adobe Analytics) tools with a strong interest in visualization (Tableau, PowerBI) tools.
Bhagiradh Sista, Digital Product Management @ Accenture Interactive; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2015-17
Bhagiradh is a Senior Consultant at Accenture Interactive, (part of Accenture Digital) that offers Marketing, Content, Commerce, and Design (Progressive Experience) to fast-growing digital businesses. He has over 8 years of professional experience (off-shore and on-shore) including delivering digital solutions for global clients. He did his internship with Genpact as a part of the Campaign Analytics under Marketing Analytics function. Prior to MBA, he worked with Accenture for 40 months as a Business Analyst and was also a part of Accenture's Microsoft Technologies JV (Avanade).
Bhavnish Monga, Manager, Macquarie Group; Ex Bank of America; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2015-17
Bhavnish is currently working at Macquarie Group as Manager, Market Risk. He has earlier worked with Bank of America as Assistant Manager, Quantitative Services and also at Godrej as Assistant Manager.
Chirag Sharma, Senior Analyst, Boston Consulting Group (BCG); IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2016-18
Chirag Sharma is a Senior Analyst at BCG. He was named the ‘Rookie of the Year – 2020’ at BCG. He has completed CFA Level 1 from the CFA Institute. He has also interned at Indiabulls Housing Finance and Frontier IQ.
Deepika Kumari, Senior Territory Sales Manager-HeroMotocorp | IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2014-16
Deepika is a Channel Management & Sales & Marketing Professional with around 7 years of experience. She has planned & implemented marketing strategies and promotions to increase market penetration and to drive revenue and profitability by maximizing sales. She has also conducted training for dealer sales force.
Kapil Juneja, Sr. Assistant Manager, Casio India; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2016-18
Kapil is working with Casio India as Sr. Assistant Manager in Watch Sales - Retail Division. Past experience in EPC Industry with exposure in Client Management, Resource Management, and Project Planning.
Manubhav Goel, Manager-Strategy and Operations @ Gartner; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2014-16
Manubhav has 6 years' experience of Sales & Operations Strategy in E-commerce/Logistics/IT research. Currently, he is working as a Team Lead in Global Strategy and Operations arm of Gartner for driving client retention and growth by empowering service delivery groups worldwide through automation and process management. He has earlier worked at Shopclues and Rivigo.
Rohit Sabharwal, Manager, SBI Capital Markets; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2015-17
Rohit is currently working as a Manager at SBI Capital Markets. He has earlier worked at EY as Senior Associate and KPMG as Consultant. He is a specialist in Government Advisory and Public Policy Services.
Sandeep Mukherjee, Agile Practitioner | Project Management | Conflict Resolution | Team Coach; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2014-16
Sandeep is an Agile Practitioner with 10+ years of industry experience. He has experience in project management including Project/Program Increment planning, sprint scheduling & negotiations with the client for service level agreements / terms, balancing work distribution to meet project deliverable, project progress monitoring and delivery as per quality and time norms.
Sarthak Mathur, Deloitte- Strategy & Operations; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2015-17
Sarthak has 6+ years of experience as a management consultant and specializes in Financial planning / business strategy and operations. He is currently working at Deloitte. He has earlier worked at Cognizant Consulting and Oracle. He has strong stakeholder engagement skills, has led executions of several projects simultaneously, supervising global teams to drive results in time.
Saswata (Shashwat) Biswas, Business Head (South Region I) at Schindler Group; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2014-16
Saswata is the Business Head (South Region I) at Schindler Group. He is a vibrant professional with multidimensional experiences on various industries. She possesses strong expertise and experience in Product Solutions & Management, Brand Management, Media Planning, P&L, Revenue & People Management.
Shashank Khandelwal, Manager, Flipkart; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2016-18
Shashank is a manager at Flipkart where he helps his organization in providing a consistent customer experience by identifying the gaps across the lifecycle on an ongoing basis, optimize the process and digitize to reduce manual intervention. He has built tableau dashboards to monitor business KPIs and helped channel partners to improve their processes by highlighting their daily/monthly/quarterly performance. His key competencies include Customer Experience, Program Management, Client Relationship Management, Presentation Skills, Analytical Skills (SQL, Excel, SPSS).
Shynu Seth, Marketing | Oil & Gas | B2B Sales | ex- Infosys; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2015-17
Shynu is Assistant Marketing Manager at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. She is currently spearheading the Loyalty Program of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited in Western UP. She has interned at Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. Prior to her MBA, she was a Systems Engineer at Infosys.
Sneha Basu, Sr. Knowledge Analyst, Boston Consulting Group; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2016-18
Sneha is Senior Knowledge Analyst at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). She has earlier worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is a professional with over 8 years of experience in consulting and assurance, specializing in finance strategy and transformation in various industries such as energy, oil and gas, consumer markets, pharmaceutical and life science, industrial manufacturing etc.
Soham Dey Chowdhury, Customer Marketing Manager, GSK Consumer Healthcare; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2014-16
Soham is Customer Marketing Manager for the Digestive Health, Respiratory and VMS Categories with GSK Consumer Healthcare. Previously he was the State Head for Jharkhand at Britannia Industries Limited handling a business revenue of 15 CRs in gross sales value per month. He also did a stint as the Regional Trade Marketing Manager for East Region at Britannia. Soham is a State level swimmer and is winner of several honours at school, district and state level.
Tanmay Swarup, Analytical Lead, Google; IMT Ghaziabad PGDM Batch 2015-17
Tanmay works at Google where he is the analytical lead. He has earlier worked at Gartner, and EY. He is an experienced Marketing and Strategy practitioner with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. He is skilled in Sales, MMM, Analytics, Management consulting, and Product Management.
With these introductions done, MBAUniverse.com asked all the young leaders to share their IMT Ghaziabad Experiences. Get ready for an avalanche of emptions and memories!
“Remembering IMT Ghaziabad Days! Truly, IMT Never sleeps! Proud & Nostalgic!”
The first question MBAUniverse.com asked was what Alumni remember of their IMT Ghaziabad Experiences. Here are their responses…
Adarsh Atree: Recollecting the memories from IMT days makes me feel both nostalgic and proud! The Ghaziabad campus never sleeps and was always hustling whether it’s a 9 am lecture session or a 12 am party session. The campus surely complimented our lifestyle, no matter what personality one had – there was place for everyone to coexist! Best thing is the top quality faculty, infrastructure and peer group. I have made friends for life!
Ankush Bansal: At IMT Ghaziabad, everything was special, unique and important. There are memories from induction to convocation, it feels like the journey ended too soon, you will not realize and two years will fly. Best thing is your peer group, great faculty and infrastructure along with all the fun events and parties!
Arnav Bansal: When I hear the word IMT Ghaziabad, a rush of memories come to my mind encapsulating the madness of unlimited projects, case competitions, guest lectures. It is a hub of knowledge and there was some sort of learning going on everywhere and we, the students were grasping every opportunity we could. It was like breathing every aspect of management.
Arpit Vijayvergia: The time spent at IMT Ghaziabad was good. Had a lot of fun in the late night parties…
Bhagiradh Sista: IMT is so far the best chapter in my life! IMT empowered me to envisage the dream into reality. The place where I am is absolutely because of those IMT days. Starting from the clubs, to internship placements, to academics, to competitions, to late night parties, to summer internship, to umpteen case studies, to brilliant assignments, to final placements, to fests - the journey invisibly imbibed a valuable thing in our life, “Wisdom”. We carry the brand IMT and we are always proud of where we are from!
Bhavnish Monga: IMT days were some of the best days of my life! At IMT, you learn a little hard, party a lot harder and you make some of the best connections in your life. Late night meetings/events/parties and then skipping breakfast to catch onto those extra 10 min of sleep before the morning lecture is what sums up your stay @ IMT.
Chirag Devendra Sharma: I was part of the dual country program at IMT Ghaziabad. IMT Ghaziabad really means more than an institute to me. For someone who had never lived away from home, these 2 years were an absolute roller coaster for me – sleepless nights in hostels, parties at the Amphitheatre, GITEX experience, Chakravyuh-Aaryans, nescafe@2am, extempore presentations, Arcus and what not…
Deepika Kumari: I remember IMT as a stepping stone for my career and building friends for lifetime. I still have network of friends whom I can call and discuss about anything. I also recall Dr SR Singhvi Sir’s classes where we were not allowed in even if you are few secs late. This ensured that we had to be serious and also disciplined.
Kapil Juneja: My IMT Ghaziabad days remind of late night studying and grilling sessions in library and having those late night intense discussion with friends over a cup of tea at canteen. Preparing for case study competition was really amazing experience.
Manubhav Goel: IMT was a great learning experience. I had batchmates and professors from all over the world and from different educational/professional background, which helped in nurturing a strong network of friends/seniors/mentors which I still have and will have forever.
Rohit Sabharwal: The first recollection is about the friends and batchmates at IMT; they helped me learn a lot. The fruitful discussions on the economy, geopolitics, polity, and whatnot helped develop a holistic worldview. It helped in academics and understanding the microcosm of the world.
Sandeep Mukherjee: My time spent in IMT was one of the best 2 years of my life. Beyond learning and friends I also grew as an individual and acquired many life skills. IMT gives you an environment which excites you to try new ideas, explore your potential and be a better version of yourself, at the same time enjoying every minute of it like a song.
Sarthak Manoj Mathur: My first year was filled with memories from the SAWC TEAM. But the friends beyond that and the time we spent together was brilliant. The classroom learning sessions were one of the finest memories.
Saswata Biswas: My days at IMT are that of study hard and party harder. We would try to study and then end up not doing anything. We would later party till 6 in the morning and also go to classes at 9. I used to stay at IMT CDL campus in the second year which had a different life from the main campus with many games and sports going on.
Shashank Khandelwal: IMT Ghaziabad has all that an MBA college should have; a fantastic environment, be it 3 AM in the night or 5 AM in the morning, the campus is alive. It amazes me. The late-night chats, assignments, Business Case, the time spent in the hostel were memorable for me. I took part in Mahindra War Room, RIL TUP and won prizes. I recall roaming on campus and brainstorming on the ideas. I interacted with some Best minds. Truly IMT Never sleeps!
Shynu Sethi: I had joined IMT Ghaziabad after working for 2 years as a Systems Engineer with Infosys Limited. I came with my own expectations: to move to a managerial role and to grow into a team leader. Summarily, I was looking for a way to grow exponentially in my field of work. IMT had so much more to offer and I did get my share and beyond. When I look back at my experiences, I think about the numerous debates in classroom, the brainstorming sessions for projects and competitions, the group study sessions during exams, pulling all-nighters to meet deadlines and so much more. The campus was always abuzz with activity, the coffee shop and the canteen used to stay open all night to keep up with the students. Even amidst all the project deadlines, examinations, presentations and competitive placement processes, there was a feeling of accomplishment and camaraderie. I look back at those days and smile at the beautiful memories I collected. Apart from the curriculars, there were plethora of extra-curriculars to delve into: Annual College fest, Chakravyuh- flagship event of SportsCom, the pizza days at the Mess, the Bengali and Onam feasts brought by the students, the Marketing events, the Startup Weekend, E-conclave, the new year, freshers and Farewell parties. Never a dull day with IMTians.
I went for a short-term exchange program to NEOMA Institute, Rouen (France) for 3 months. In the exchange program, I came across business students from all over the globe. I picked up several interesting subjects during the semester which aren’t taught very extensively in Indian B-schools: Economics & Mgmt of Sports, Global Marketing, Managing Fast Growing Companies, etc. Of course, we travelled around Western Europe on our free days. Needless to say, that experience will always stay etched in my mind
IMT Convocation: A high profile event that gets corporate leaders on campus
Sneha Basu: A treasure trove of memories, the 2 years spent in the IMT campus will always be the most interesting years of my life so far. We made memories at every nook and corner of the campus, be it chai between classes at Nescafe, long nights before exams at the library, events at the Amphitheatre, throwball and badminton matches at the courts, chatting with friends at the BBC (basketball court), bingeing on cheese garlic French toast and Maggi at Arcus at 2am, discussing life’s curveballs walking around the parking lot, racing up the Academic block stairs to reach class on time and sharing life’s stories with friends who became family in our hostel rooms.
Soham Dey Choudhowry: IMT is a place which has made me what I am today and it is a place where I have learned a lot of things and it is not just from the faculties but also from the peer-to-peer learning as we had massive batch size and students coming from across the country from different states to the campus bringing with them different kind of knowledge, talents with lots of different kinds of specializations just amazed me and helped me learn a lot from them. We were talking about finance, cultural programs, case studies, it was like a place which I will always recollect fondly.
Tanmay Swarup: My years at IMT were the two most memorable years of my life, I remember Professor SR Singhvi telling us during the orientation, it’s your 21 for 21 to make your life! i.e. 21 hours for 21 months to make the life worthwhile! It was immense accelerated learning along with so many memories and new experiences.
“So, what made IMT Campus Experience memorable…!”
Then MBAUniverse.com asked what made IMT Ghaziabad Campus Experience Memorable. Alumni remember their 2.00 AM discussions and late night parties…
Adarsh Atree: When I joined, I was always nervous of public speaking! Fast forward 2 years and countless lecture presentations & speeches later, I overcame the nervousness without much hassle due to the constant support of my peers and faculty. Safe to say I enjoyed my academic as well as non-academic life at IMT.
Ankush Bansal: I enjoyed both the academic and non-academic life at campus: be it the rigorous case studies assignments, class discussions, group work, class quizzes, sitting at 2:00 A.M. at Nescafe with friends.. Memories are what we are left with in the end, so enjoy your college life to the fullest, experience each day with great spirits, the time won’t come back.
Arnav Bansal: The IMT campus experience was quite different from what I had at graduation. The late evening lectures and all night assignments, the endless projects caused all the IMTians to “never sleep”; we used to see students all around the campus irrespective of the time. Also, we had the advantage of a well-furnished library with a Bloomberg portal which was quite beneficial. Overall it was a holistic experience.
Arpit Vijayvergia: Late night parties in the hostel. Having discussions at the amphitheater is also a memorable experience.
Bhagiradh Sista: The peer group and the faculty advantage catalyzed the campus experience to cater the delight. Also, the diversity added flavor to the batch. Our batch had people from 26+ states and 25+ industry backgrounds. This made me realize the importance of peer group. Some of the notable things that made my campus life memorable are – nominated for Business Standard Best B-School Internship report from IMT, Campus Finalist in Mahindra War Room. Last but never the least, I’ve made many good friends who made my IMT Campus Experience memorable.
Bhavnish Monga: Opportunity to work on a lot of curricular & extra curricular activities and the connections that you made with people doing that, are some of the best memories.
Chirag Devendra Sharma: It has to be the vibrant campus life at IMT. You find yourself acquainting with a new face every single day. With a big batch size, the institute attracts students from all walks of life. And the initiatives taken up by the sports and cultural committees just made the experience so much better
Deepika Kumari: I can remember the late walks after Dinners with friends and discussing about anything random to subjects, also our walk to nearby tea stall and we still have a watsapp group named after that - ‘IMT Kulhar Chai’
Kapil Juneja: Having a perfect group of friends who were there for every ups and downs in life and ready to support any time. Classmates who pushed you to do even better and learn new things every time, we had discussion in classroom. Professors who made learning fun and interesting by sharing their ocean of knowledge.
Manubhav Goel: Living in the hostel, working and winning as a team, hanging out with friends, creating memories.
Rohit Sabharwal: A good lot of events were organized now and then; I enjoyed the memorable fests and case competitions a lot.
Sandeep Mukherjee: Participating in MWR and going till the finals. All the late night connects specially during the winter chills, the parties in OAT, and the healthy discussions we had in our classes. When I look back at who I was in 2014 and who I came out in 2016, each day spent in IMT becomes memorable. Most memorable is the rush to have a quick coffee before running towards the classroom.
Saswata Biswas: It is a residential campus and had a different life all together. Going with the saying, ‘IMT never sleeps’ was what we were doing. We never slept. Campus life taught me to work anywhere at any time, owing to our habit of doing the projects and submissions at odd times.
Shashank Khandelwal: I almost won 4-5 case competitions. I was the Campus finalist in Mahindra War Room. An interesting incident happened during RIL-TUP. We were in the last round, and it didn't go well. We presented the case, and somewhere felt it was not good. We were disappointed with no hopes of winning. We stood out of Auditorium, and some people came out of AUDI and saw us standing outside. A friend came and asked me why you were outside; you won, they are calling your name! We rushed inside, took our prize, collected a cheque!
Shynu Sethi: IMT Ghaziabad is a feeling that is hard to express in words. Every routine task used to be an event. We would be discussing the effect of demonetization on the fake currency racket over the evening coffee and the US Presidential Elections over the dinner. There was not a single moment of monotony. We would be hopping across hostel rooms, library, Committee hangout spots and other spots trying to keep up with the projects, assignments, competitions, etc. We celebrated all the festivals with each other: Onam, Lohri, New Year, etc. Our friends were our families, we ate together, we partied together and we lived together.
Planning for Competitions & Event build valuable social skills
Sneha Basu: It was the campus as well as the people who made the experience so memorable. When I joined IMT, I was a very reserved person, mostly kept to myself. IMT encouraged me to come out of my shell. I realized that for two years, my batchmates were all I had, so I had to open up and make friends. I forced myself to attend social gatherings and volunteer for activities and I ended up with some great people, who I am thankful to call friends. I believe the experience of being a part of such a huge campus may be daunting at first, but the takeaways are far greater than the effort you put in and it changes the way you look at life.
Soham Dey Choudhowry: IMT Ghaziabad was a culmination of brilliant young minds coming together, be it seniors, juniors, faculties. For me IMT is an entire community and that is what I still recall even after 5 years graduating from campus. From participating in case study competitions, meeting the deadlines for various assignments, engaging case study analysis these all made the experience memorable.Tanmay Swarup: The overall culture of self-learning, along with the apt infrastructure (24*7 library), the peergroup and the committee experience, placecom in my case which was obviously a huge part of my MBA journey and definitely one of the best decisions.
“Clubs & Committees: Grooming the Future Leaders”
One of the highlights of IMT Ghaziabad is that much of the campus experience is student led, with a lot of clubs and committees supporting student expectations. So how did participation in these clubs and activities help IMT alumni…Lets check their responses from some of them…
Arnav Bansal: I was a part of the Corporate relations committee. I was at the Dubai campus for my first year where we conducted a lot of events for the corporates. I also remember that we conducted a round table conference for corporates in Dubai. Overall, being a part of the corporate relations committee was a rewarding experience.
Bhagiradh Sista: I was a part of the then Finance club, FinNiche. Being a part of this club was memorable experience to me and the team. Together, we were like an intrapreneurial family working for one cause. We’ve hosted RisKon, Survivor and many other field activities and national level competitions with elite guests of honor. Above that, I made my best friends – Shilpa, Nishant, Alankrita there.
Bhavnish Monga: As part of Alumni relationship committee, had the opportunity to interact with some of the alumni on different forums and facilitating more engagement.
Chirag Devendra Sharma: I was part of the Corporate Relations Committee at IMT Dubai. It was fun networking with corporates and startups seeking internships, short-term projects and full-time jobs.
Deepika Kumari: I was part of toastmasters club which is a club where you develop communication and leadership skills. Every week arranging all role-players and planning the meeting was an experience which helped me to develop my project management skills.
Kapil Juneja: I was part of Mess Committee and I was the Secretary. We used to manage mess related activities and preparing menu and managing the budget. We used to organize Pizza Night where we used to serve more than 800 fresh hot pizzas to all students and it used to be really memorable night.
Rohit Sabharwal: I was not part of any clubs or committees, but I participated in sports. I was a member of the college Cricket Team and was thrilled at winning events across B-Schools. The best time on campus was during the Chakravuyh Days and Sports Nights.
Saswata Biswas: I was a part of SAWC but I left after a year but I had great friends in the committee. While it is important to be a part of one, I had the chance to explore both the sides.
Shashank Khandelwal: MADF. One initiative I remember was going to school, arranging school necessities, and volunteering in teaching. We used to do this twice a week during the hectic course and teach orphans kids. It was a good experience. It developed a sense of kindness, and we also learned from kids.
Shynu Sethi: I found my calling with E-Cell, the Entrepreneurship committee of IMT Ghaziabad. Our role at the campus was to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship among IMTians. Entrepreneurship extends beyond startups, unicorns and funding. Every manager runs an enterprise of his own in his won domain. My favorite memory, however, is the re-creation of the E-cell Logo. I came up with the idea of Tetris to use as the building block for the logo. We created the design overnight, printed hundreds of Logos and spread them all over the campus.
Sneha Basu: I was a part of the Mess Committee, one of the oldest committees of IMT. We catered to the dietary needs of over 1500 students and faculty. One of the best memories that I have is of Mess Day. On this day, student volunteers take over the operations of the mess and cook all meals for the entire campus. The preparations start from 5am in the morning for breakfast and continue throughout the day. The Mess workers are felicitated and served by the students, thanking them for their relentless service throughout the year. Pizza Night was also one of our most loved events, where students were served unlimited freshly baked Domino’s pizza.
Tanmay Swarup: I was part of Placement committee and that has been another amazing aspect of my life at MBA, no doubt that it is a huge responsibility in itself and the overall learning is immense, but the days when you are able to place your fellow peers to good jobs and see them making those calls home and sharing the good news! That feeling makes all the sleepless nights worth it.
Placecom: IMT Placement Committee plays a vital role
“Residential Campus Life: A Boon or a ….?”
So, how did IMT Ghaziabad Life help alumni shape their careers? Looking back, were all these social engagements a boon or a bane…? Read the very emphatic responses by IMT Alumni.
Adarsh Atree: The Campus never sleeps here at IMT-G! I was always actively participating in after-class activities as it used to bring all of us together and enjoy the moments together, whether it is as interesting as a wild party or a fellow-teaching or meetings & discussions for a project. The IMT life never made me realize at that time, that it was a testing ground for the working life that lies ahead. And today, I feel that lifestyle helped me in becoming a better professional to deal with high pressure job and enjoy life no matter what the time is!
Ankush Bansal: I think B-School is about finding peers smarter than you and solving business case studies, assignments, group discussions and assignments, and various corporate competitions. During the first year we had a subject where we used to do the class assignments at 2:00 in the morning and we needed to present the same 9:00 in the morning, it taught us how to manage the stakeholders at midnight. Aalso we used to hangout at amphitheatre and Nescafe which were hotspot in the campus
Arnav Bansal: I recall the time of placements, when we the students of IMT used to form our own GD groups and mock PIs to practice. I was also a part of the toastmasters club which was again a very different and enriching experience. The most fun-filled days of IMT life were when Passion – the IMT fest was conducted; I thoroughly enjoyed the dance and singing performances, competitions and the various stalls at the event.
Arpit Vijayvergia: We used to have late night discussions about our projects at least once a week in the amphitheater. There were a lot of late-night parties in the hostel as well.
Bhagiradh Sista: After the classes, we used to start the day with a short sport. Every day was a new day in IMT. Club meetings, group assignments, library sittings, late night badminton matches, tons of parties, placement preps, ongoing fests, and national level competitions – I’m glad that I’ve lived every moment of all those activities.
Bhavnish Monga: After class, activities are the best time to engage with your peers and that learning that you drive from them is perhaps more important than your in-class learning
Chirag Devendra Sharma: IMT campus still has a buzzing night life. Groups solving case studies, meeting for committee discussions, strolling around, or partying on someone’s birthday/ placement, etc. After lectures, we had our regular football sessions. Post dinner we also had some jamming sessions. We spent countless nights playing counter strike at the computer lab. Important to note that discipline was always maintained, and the fun part usually started once we were done with our assignments and stuff.
Deepika Kumari: I recall the discussions and rigorous market visits we did for one of the sales and marketing subject –that was to study the two wheeler industry and it was enthralling. My experience of market visits for the course also helped me to crack my campus interview.
Kapil Juneja: Our campus used to have best parties and Amphitheatre used to be our permanent hangout spot for all late night parties and birthday celebrations. The campus atmosphere was lively all throughout the night.
Manubhav Goel: We used to have committee meetings, place com sessions, project group meet ups and campus parties
Rohit Sabharwal: My friends kept themselves busy with the clubs or Committee works, and I and a few others would enjoy the sporting activities. We conducted lots of GDs, informal discussions, and preparatory interviews to prepare and train for the companies' process during placements.
Sandeep Mukherjee: The fact that we all stayed in hostels was an important decision for me while choosing IMT. I loved the discussions we had soaking the winter sun in the ground, the lookout for a quite spot to discuss the project with your group, time spent during evening sports. You need a balanced social growth and I think IMT understood it well. To become better managers you need to be in an environment where decision making is fostered and you learn to live with the fallout of your risk. One fact that they allowed females to go freely male hostels shows that they trust their students to make good decisions.
Saswata Biswas: It was all about projects and parties. We would start but not finish during the evening but at the end everyone made it through with the submissions. We would also play football and hang out with friends.
Shashank Khandelwal: We used to roam on the campus, late-night chats and committee-wise bonfire parties for the entire night created a lot of memories. We started ten at night, party goes all till 5AM. We used to party without a proper speaker, we just had a small JBL Speaker. We used to keep playing songs, dancing and partying all night.
Shynu Sethi: We were introduced to the after-class activities by our seniors through the PDP Program and then the Committee/Club recruitment process. We used to sleep through some of the lectures in the First Semester. Post that, the after-class activities became addictive to certain extent. I remember countless brainstorming sessions with my mates from the APO group coming up with idea for the presentation next day. A major chunk of the 24-hour pie went to the activities of the committee. We actually boasted about the number of all-nighters we used to pull at a time.
Sneha Basu: The IMT campus comes alive at night. Our first experience was the Personal Development Program (PDP), which was designed by our seniors to give us a mock experience of handling group discussions, presentations, and interviews. Our committee selection process, committee meetings and preparations for any event was also after class. We also spent a lot of time tucked away in the library teaming up with friends to participate in inter college case competitions.
Soham Dey Choudhowry: In the first year there used to be a lot of assignments, studies so it used to take a lot of time. But in second year post our internships we got much clearer idea as to what industry we wanted to be part of. So, we used to have a lot of discussions with the like-minded people with similar career aspirations, we used to read about latest developments in the industry, marketing strategies of various companies, apart from this discussion on sports, music used to happen.
Tanmay Swarup: Too many to recollect, however the best aspect of it was the 24*7 library and then the Nescafé counter chats in between breaks, probably the most mentally stimulating time!
IMT Campus Experience: Helpful for Placements & Career Progression?
One of the key expectations of every MBA student is to get the dream job from the campus. MBAUniverse.com asked IMT Alumni if and how IMT Campus experience helped shape their career.
Adarsh Atree: I always wanted to enter the ‘Investment Banking’ league and due credit to IMT, I have achieved it. The IB life is all about hustle and having the fingers on the pulse, IMT pedagogy and way of life made me a better professional to be able live up to challenge and do my best. IMT peers and faculties till date are in touch and share valuable thoughts on professional as well as personal front.
Ankush Bansal: By pursuing an MBA, I developed a holistic view of the world around me; my goals both professional and personal became clear to me. The thought process though changed a bit, but I achieved what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to accelerate my growth in an Ecommerce company, and it is what I am currently pursuing.
Arnav Bansal: IMT has groomed me when it comes to aspects like confidence, networking and communication skills. It has caused an overall change in me and transformed me from an introvert to an extrovert.
Arpit Vijayvergia: IMT helped me gain confidence. I had an opportunity of interacting with a diverse peer group and faculty which gave me immense experience and I have gained a lot of confidence from them.
Bhagiradh Sista: Soon after IMT campus experience, I got placed in Accenture. The learnings and the experiences I’ve had in the campus made me stand apart in the organization. I’ve also been given a chance to travel to Germany to the client location. My career growth propelled steeply after IMT campus experience. The resilience and ethics gave me the wisdom that boosted my transition from India to Germany and finally to Canada.
Bhavnish Monga: Your time at IMT helps you to grow in different facets of professional life, ranging from learning how to deliver as a part diverse team via your project groups, ability to work simultaneously on different deliverables and still have a social life. List is long, but it essentially prepares you well for your professional journey ahead
Chirag Devendra Sharma: Like I mentioned, this was the first time I stayed away from home. The campus experience at IMT helped me build perspective. The diversity helped me gel with people from all walks of life. The assignments and deadlines helped in building stakeholder management skills. Sports and cultural activities brought a good mix of work and life. Friends made on campus stay with you for the entire life. There’s a lot to explore, really.
Deepika Kumari: IMT helped me in shaping the individual I am today. Even from being of IT background, it helped me to transition to sales profile that too in automobile industry.
Kapil Juneja: IMT helped me develop confidence and overcome my shortcomings to improve my communication skills. The case study method of teaching provided a more holistic view of market understanding and learnings for real life scenario.
Manubhav Goel: I think staying on campus helps you create those eternal bonds and a solid network that you can leverage at any point in your career
Rohit Sabharwal: Working in the different project groups and collaborating with different people who had varied skills and personalities. Someone was good at presentations and designing, other at analytics and numbers. It is the same in the corporate, and this ability to understand teammates' strengths and use them for the overall benefit of the team is something I learned at IMT.
Sandeep Mukherjee: Before IMT I had survival skills, IMT gave me skills to succeed. I developed skills to speak in front of a huge crowd, how to manage time and expectations and how to be patient and listen. All helped to become a good people manager among other things. Humans are a big variable in any situation and knowing how to effectively manage them makes me who I am
Sarthak Manoj Mathur: The teachings were the main learning. Also, surviving in the most competitive crowd was a great experience.
Saswata Biswas: Living on campus with people from all over the country really exposes you to many experiences, good and bad. You learn to behave according to different situations and take the right judgement call. IMT had helped me immensely with learning to make the right decisions as you do it every day at college.
Shashank Khandelwal: Three professors I can recall from whom I learned the most. Jishnu Sir was one of them. They used to share corporate experiences, real stories, and cases. Theories and terminology from these three were their real-life stories and case. I can now relate to that time also and even now. These helped me learn the nuances of marketing and are helping even now in my career.
Shynu Sethi: The biggest advantage of learning in an institution like IMT lies in the extensive alumni network. I had the opportunity to work on a short-term project on Automobile purchase behavior with a leading company. This project was handed out only to select IMTians through a thorough selection process by the Alumni Committee. A big chunk of the project involved primary research with the help of detailed questionnaire along with secondary research on the subject. Our mentor, an IMT alumnus, guided us through the vision behind the project, the goals of the project and methodology to execute it. It was a beautiful demonstration of the industry-academia interface that IMT provides to its students. The mentor helped us hone the skills of research, communicating with strangers, listening and looking out for key details in a vast data set. I got the opportunity to lead a team of peers at a very early stage in my career. The acquisition of these skills has made me a better leader, a better sales person and a better employee. IMT has helped me realize my strengths, work on my weaknesses and taught me to grab every opportunity. My Long Summer Internship program at Godfrey Philips India Limited was one such opportunity. I spent 5 months working on marketing to a real brand in the International Business Division for Candy and Tea. It gave me an experience in Brand/Product Management. I worked on the product formulation, branding, packaging and pricing for the candy as well as the tea products. The products have been put into production and nothing gives me more pride than to see my efforts fructified. It has given me bragging rights, for sure.
Sneha Basu: I joined consulting post MBA and I can surely say that my experience at IMT has made me a better consultant. It has improved my social and interpersonal skills vastly. Dealing with people from different backgrounds made me more confident and flexible. Multitasking between academics, committee work, competitions, friends, and sleep made me understand the importance of compartmentalizing and prioritizing life.
Soham Dey Choudhowry: The case study-based approach of learning, case study competitions, these all have helped a lot in increasing the knowledge and gain the exposure. Another important thing which IMT taught me was how to deliver a work under a short timeline, how to work under pressure and deliver the results in the most accurate and efficient way. And in a way the college helped me in improving the temperament and the overall prospective it builds and staying in that competitive environment helped me my personal growth and delivering under pressure is one of the most crucial aspects to succeed in a professional career and IMT helped me develop it.
Tanmay Swarup: I really wonder and worry about the current MBA batches during the pandemic. I believe it is the overall campus experience which makes MBA, an MBA! It is inclusive of everything, the situations one encounters, the peer learning, the casual brainstorming and the fun. IMT campus life exemplifies all of this in an outstanding manner.
Campus Learning Experience & Social, Interpersonal Skills: Important for Careers?
So while it is clear from above answers that IMT Campus Experience did help Alumni shape their career, MBAUniverse.com probed this further to understand its impact on Leadership and Social Skills, which are being highlighted as recipes for success in technology driven workplace.
Adarsh Atree: Being a business leader requires domain knowledge, technological knowhow and holistic development. In that sense, an IMT MBA and its pedagogy provides the quintessential multi-disciplinary learnings that provide all round capability to manage processes and people (even in fast paced start-up environments), which is something that our world of work requires strongly. It is all about thinking out of the box!
Ankush Bansal: It’s all about case studies, stakeholder management, group discussion and assignments, you will not realize how these things are adding value within campus, but once you move out you will stand out of the crowd in many ways, specifically during corporate connects and discussions.
Arnav Bansal: IMT Ghaziabad played an instrumental role when it comes to providing opportunities where I could build, and enhance my interpersonal skills and leadership skills. I participated in case competitions and I won a national level competition at IIM Rohtak. My journey of becoming a leader started and took off from there, where I received opportunities to lead these teams.
Arpit Vijayvergia: As said before, IMT helped me in gaining confidence and working on my interpersonal skills, which are still helpful in my career.
Bhagiradh Sista: People Skills is one of the key takeaways for me during IMT days. Not only on the professional grooming but also we had a synergy to refine our interpersonal skills. I’ve served as a coordinator for the finance club – learned and unlearned many things in people management front. The peer group interactions, cross-cultural dynamics, resolving intergroup idea-conflicts etc. helped us gain the intangible power of people management that takes us to the summit.
IMT Ghaziabad – A buzzing Campus that never Sleeps!
Bhavnish Monga: I think we have discussed all of this above but to summarize I think the Opportunity to engage with the diversity of thoughts (people) at different levels helps you learn the rules of the game called leadership. You learn to listen, observe, put your point across and handle difficult conversations. All of this happening so fast that you never think it coming. But if you step back and assess yourself as a leader or even as a professional pre and post your IMT days, you do realize that the learning is immeasurable and end product is definitely a much more refined professional
Chirag Devendra Sharma: Let’s talk about academics first. During assignments, students are paired with different groups most of the time. You may be a part of 4-5 different groups at any time. Different courses, committee, sports, friends etc. Managing time and expectations with everyone is important. Assuming a leadership role within these groups is important as well. In hindsight, it feels right to have been part of such small groups which have helped me develop the ability to understand different ways of working of different groups; be a good team player; lead teams and so on.
Deepika Kumari: The campus experience helps in inculcating various behavioral skills which go a long way in impacting your career-like communication, etiquette-these are few things which always helps no matter at what level you are
Kapil Juneja: IMT Ghaziabad campus was driven by student committees and this helped us to plan and implement our ideas for betterment of campus and helped us to learn from our mistakes as well. IMT provides an environment which is very competitive which helps us to be groomed for taking up future leader role.
Manubhav Goel: It gives you confidence, makes you aware and receptive, teaches you team work
Rohit Sabharwal: The two years at IMT helped build Social and Academic skills. The time spent in the library reading books and reports and understanding the developments in the different industries helps to analyze the business environments and changes. So when in leadership roles, understanding people and processes becomes very important, and IMT played a crucial role in preparing me in this field.
Sandeep Mukherjee: Leadership is beyond your trade skills. So be it finance, marketing or IT, as a leader it’s not just important to be good in your trade or craft but also have additional skills like Oration; Communication; Empathy; and the ability to shield your team during difficulty, and keep them in forefront during success. These social skills I was able to develop and hone during the 2 years by working in group projects, competition, seminars etc.
Sarthak Manoj Mathur: It’s the experience which can’t be put to words. All these skills were definitely improved. I think the fact that the campus being run by students, and the academic structure has helped a lot
Saswata Biswas: The most important part of being a leader is to understand. To understand how they think and behave. Having lived with so many people on campus really teaches you to dig deeper into the minds and take judgement calls accordingly. I think this was my biggest learning that helps me to thrive each day.
Shashank Khandelwal: Assignment, committee, daily standup required leadership skills. Taking part in Case Comps was also one of them. When you go outside to represent the school, interact with an industry leader, and get feedback. It then builds confidence which helps practically and groom one as a leader who learns and then applies them. While we had social NGO interaction with Goonj and some orphanage. We used to share joy and cherish moment. We taught village kids some computer skills which help them get some job. These all helped me becoming an empathetic person.
Shynu Sethi: The top qualities for a good leader are Vision and Inspiration. A good leader possesses the ability to focus on a vision, a bigger picture for the organization and for their team and inspires them to achieve greatness. It takes a very clear understanding of team’s strengths and weaknesses to achieve the required goal. This requires a great deal of communication with the team. The student pool at IMT Ghaziabad was greatly diverse in terms of education, work experience, geography, culture and age. We were constantly thrown among varied teams, every member bringing a new perspective to the group. This helped me to foster open-mindedness and creativity. We were required to be great team leaders as well as highly efficient team players. This constant churning helps an individual acquire great negotiation skills and hone interpersonal communication skills. It showed me how to develop meaningful working relationships and engage in active listening. Since, we were all juggling multiple groups and multiple tasks at all times, we developed flexibility, patience and also developed a strong sense of responsibility. We all understood well that we were all cogs in a very complex machine and we all had to pull our weight.
Sneha Basu: Being a part of the Mess committee and leading it as the Coordinator in my 2nd year enriched my leadership, team building and problem-solving skills. Grievance redressal and building vendor relationships improved my social and interpersonal skills. Apart from committee work, working with classmates on projects and competitions made me a team player and an effective communicator. Living with new people in the hostel prepared me for change and taught me adaptability. Overall, the campus made me a more open and emotionally stable than I was when I joined IMT.
Soham Dey Choudhowry: Skillset is a basic requirement for achieving success but working in silos is not possible while working in an organization. People interaction, people management is something which is necessary if you want to succeed in your corporate career not just in India but anywhere in the world. People in leadership position are more into people management and how to take the team forward. So being in a dynamic environment of an MBA college has helped in developing the people management skills which I believe is a crucial skill to develop for being successful in a corporate environment.
Tanmay Swarup: I came after 3 years of workex and having worked in one of the Big 4. However, still what IMT did for my professional growth and learnings as a professional is something I would always be grateful for, to this institute.
Phew! Those were a lot of emotions with genuine gratitude for alma mater! Hope this article helps underscore that indeed Campus Learning and Living Experience of a full time residential program are the biggest strengths of an MBA Program. Interested in IMT Experience?
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