Ashwini Muthineni
We bring you Ashwini Muthineni!!! She graduated in 2015 in the discipline of Electrical Engineering. Read on to know more about the razzmatazz from an Electrical Engineer to an IIM Lucknow graduate.
How was your college life?
During my stint at IIT Indore, I was part of the placement cell right form my first year as representative first and then manager for EE department. I was also part of team FLUXUS and briefly a member of the basketball team to represent IIT Indore at the 47th Inter IIT sports fest. The journey throughout my under graduation was a great learning experience for me, presenting well opportunities to be better at everything I do. My most fond memory till date is to be part of the placement cell and be part of IIT Indore’s first industry-academia conclave, talking to industry experts, managing the schedule for the event, this stint has knocked the interest for management in me and steered my career path towards it.
What are you doing presently?
I graduated from IIM Lucknow this year and am currently working as a Management Consultant with Deloitte USI. I am aligned to the Technology, Media and Telecom industry and my work revolves around Business Transformation projects in this industry. The past one month at Deloitte has been a roller coaster ride with steep learning curves. I had interned with Deloitte during summers-2019 and was offered a PPO to join them, which I gladly accepted. Life at a B-school is much different from what’s perceived from the outside. You learn not just from attending classes, but also through interacting with peers from diverse backgrounds- education, work-ex, lifestyles etc. Each one has a different story to tell, with all these amazing people around even Hel(L) felt not just tolerable but fun. Life at Deloitte during my internship was exciting, there was no day that I spent feeling, I have done this before. Each day was new and filled with interesting challenges.
What inspired you to dive into this specific field?
My interest in research in upcoming trends and analyzing markets across geographies and having a knack for problem solving has led me to choose consulting as a career option. Learning curve in the industry is steep and the sheer amount of network you build through peers you work with is rewarding.
How did you prepare for the profile?
To prepare for Deloitte, mostly went through a series of case workshops with seniors at IIM and had in depth discussion about projects at Deloitte to garner the level of work in consulting. Preparation involved a bunch of mock interviews -about yourself, Why MBA?, long term and short term goals, along with solving guesstimates and consulting cases.
For my CAT preparation (which I did alongside working at Qualcomm) I joined TIME for weekend classes and meticulously solved their test series-this really helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses across subjects during the preparation. Their test series and the analysis they give on each paper is really helpful in assessing the accuracy of solving and choice of questions picked in the given time. The weekend classes helped me track my syllabus coverage and always was a reminder to focus on the prep despite the weekend musings I get post Friday :P
Your message to those whose dreams resonate with your reality?
If you are preparing for MBA post work-ex, try to give it within 1–2 years. Else you’d be seen as an SME in your field of work. Try to talk to people who have similar education, work-ex background as yours and understand their journey in a B-school to gauge the fit.
Summing up
Fly high ‘çause dreams are within reach!!
