Alumni comes calling!

Homecoming is often nostalgia coupled with happiness, especially when it’s to your alma mater which has given you your career and two years of a lifetime. Mr. Abhishek Kochar, senior consultant at KPMG and an alumnus of IM-12 batch of NITIE must have had similar vibes when he was stuck in traffic, on the way to deliver the first Alum talk of the year organized by NITIE’s Alumni Committee, Alumcom. We, the IM-20 batch were seated by 7pm in Syndicate 3, eagerly awaiting his arrival. At precisely 7:40pm a young man walked in. Any student would have mistaken him for an Alumcom member had he not been in a casual white shirt and trousers and white framed spectacles: typical consultant office-wear. After being greeted by a round of applause and a bouquet, he proceeded to the core word of the day’s talk: what is consulting. There were no presentations, just a regular interaction with all the consulting enthusiasts. He then took us through the divisions of consulting, the major being Marketing, IT, Strategy, PR and HR. Since Mr. Kochar was from the Management domain, he could give clear insights on it to the questions thrown at him. There were questions on freelance consulting where the effectiveness of startups in consulting were discussed. Career switching, domain switching, jumping from core/IT to consulting after MBA were some of the ready queries of the students which were acknowledged and Mr. Kochar was cogent and direct with his solutions. His views were that of a true professional and as management students that should be a benchmark we should all set for ourselves after graduating from NITIE.

Hours of work, work pressure, work-life balance were some of the candid questions thrown to Mr. Kochar and he gave an insightful idea in the life of a typical management consultant through his replies. We also got to know that he has been awarded top consulting awards at KPMG. His experience has been shaped during his stints with IBM Business Consulting Services, Infosys and Lumax Industries Ltd. Before joining KPMG.

For me, industry interactions are the best form of classroom teaching in B-schools and Alumcom should be commended for taking this initiative. We had a light moment towards the end, when Mr. Kochar interrupted the Alumcom member’s Vote of Thanks with a playful “you had memorized that didn’t you!”  The evening was a fruitful one for the batch and we went home with a clearer picture of what a consulting job was all about. We are looking forward to more such interactions with our distinguished alumni and take a bow, Alumcom, for the brilliant initiatives.