There has been a lot of confusion related to CAT preparation and Profile building. To clear these doubts, Illuminate organized a webinar on June 28th, 2020 about CAT PREPARATION and PROFILE BUILDING. The webinar was open to all CAT aspirants. During the webinar, attendees shared opinions, thoughts, and queries about CAT preparation. Mr. Akshay Kumar Sirsalewala and Mr. Utkarsh Kumar were invited as guest speakers for the session.
Mr. Akshay Kumar Sirsalewala is a Chartered Accountant and has cleared all levels of CFA and FRM. He is pursuing MBA in Finance from IIM Kozhikode. The second guest speaker, Mr. Utkarsh Kumar is a senior associate at BCG, IIM Kozhikode merit scholar, and has gone to IIT Guwahati. They spoke about a variety of problems and methods for CAT Preparation and strong Profile building.
The webinar began with a warm welcome speech given by Ms. Anshika Batla (General Secretary). She gave a brief explanation about CAT and then introduced the keynote speakers. Mr. Akshay Kumar Sirsalewala and Mr. Utkarsh Kumar started with their introduction and explained what CAT is.
They started explaining about the idle time for CAT preparation. Then they continued further explaining the ways and techniques which are to be used to start your preparations for CAT. The other idea they suggested during the webinar was to start contacting people around your small groups and then the world, who are ahead in the field, and reach them with proper research and queries.
Further, they suggested a routine for CAT preparation. They divided the period from January to November into three segments. According to them, January to March is a period for light and basic preparation and one should devote about 1.5 to 2 hours per day; March to Mid-September is a period of thorough preparation for all the topics, devoting about 3 to 4 hours per day; Mid-September to Mid- November a period for revision and betterment of the weak areas, giving about 4 to 5 hours per day; and then 3rd week of November for going through all the mocks and solve just the mistakes.
The second segment of the webinar revolved around the most awaited topic of Profile Building.
They divided Profile Building into four different aspects, that were:
- Academics
- Work Experience
- Positions of Responsibility
- Extracurricular
They suggested that different certifications and scholarships will always boost up the academic section. They also suggested that working for good brands can boost your work experience section. Some kind of proof for your work experience is a must.
Important clubs, committees, and IGs should be mentioned with your role under Positions of Responsibility. Hobbies and some kind of certification to it or being on a national or international level can boost the profile. Case Competitions are given high importance during the interviews.
After explaining all of the topics, they asked queries from the attendees. Many of them asked questions from both preparation strategies and profile building. Both the speakers, Mr. Akshay Kumar Sirsalewala and Mr. Utkarsh Kumar solved all the queries and marked an end to the interactive Q&A session.
After the end of the Q&A session, Mr. Vinayak Tuksiyan (President) thanked both the speakers for addressing the webinar as guest speakers.
The webinar ended on a great note with positive feedback from both attendees as well as the speakers, Mr. Akshay Kumar Sirsalewala and Mr. Utkarsh Kumar.
