Thursday, July 28, 2011

Corporate Roadies - The Unheard Story Part 1

It's been a long time since I last blogged and therefore probably if something this interesting did not happen I was done with blogging for life. But recently Harshit's blog about the Corporate Roadies experience compelled me to write about the Event.

Ideation Phase
Vinit called and asked me to come up with an innovative event for the Juniors and I had casually suggested him that we should hold Roadies for our Juniors. The initial plan we had devised was a much more raw form of the final product. We had planned tasks like Table Tennis Competition with one hand tied behind the back, running competition starting from the ninth floor to the ground floor but all these tasks had to be discarded because of the potential trouble hazards. Then after a lot of brainstorming we finally came up with the so called "Corporate" Tasks.

Interview Phase
Though I remember most of the interviews this is too small a platform to write about the entire interview process which spanned over 8 hours. So I will just talk about the interviews of the finalists.

Lalit was the second guy to come for the interview and his was arguably the best interview we took in entire Roadies. Though I and Shanky (My co interviewer) managed to catch him off guard at times he had a spark about him which was unmistakable. Like most of us he had entered B School as a dreamer and surely these two years of continuous grinding will help him focus and I am sure once he zooms in on what he wants to do he will do great in life.

Harshit's interview was on the second day and he appeared sorted out unlike Lalit and we found it difficult to fluster him. However, the primary issue we had with Harshit was the fact that he stayed within his comfort zone and did not really try to stand out. His interview was a 50-50 as we could not decide how he will react when he was put out of his comfort zone. But all the same he knew what he wanted in life and the conviction with which he answered was splendid.

Deepayan was the toughest choice for us as even we were divided as to whether we should select him or not. While he lacked the spark that the other participants had, his no nonsense composed way about doing things was praiseworthy indeed. His composure actually earned him the nickname of Ashutosh during Roadies and he emerged as a very strong contender indeed.

Sreekar's was probably the most interesting interview as he almost bored us to death for the first half in spite of being so fucking talented. We were about to ask him to leave before we asked him to entertain us and his singing and knowledge about music was fascinating to say the least. He was probably the most talented person but he simply did not know his own talents.

Some other interviews I distinctly remember are Prashant's, Ashwin's, Ankit Madan's and Apoorv's. However, regretfully I can not elaborate on them because of its controversial nature or the space is not enough out here. This is probably the most productive thing someone did in our Industrial Marketing class. However, the class is almost over and I will write about the details of the how the actual event unfolded some other day.
















2 comments:

Harshit said...

Bravo.
Firstly, thanks again for taking all that effort and bringing Corporate Roadies to us.
Secondly, very keenly observed eh, I mean now that I think back to the interview, I did come across as exactly what you said. Good only that you all decided to take risk with me. I think I didn't disappoint ;)
Btw, who all were the interviewers for me? I remem you and Vipul being there but somehow I have ended up blocking the third. Kaun hai woh teesra?
Oh and here's Harshit's Blog that compelled all this ;) http://harshitd.posterous.com/corporate-roadies

P.S. Waiting for the Part 2-3 :)

WoW said...

good to know there are people utilizing their class in such a manner :P
thank you for coming up with such a brilliant idea,it was the most fun part of that time. although i would have still loved the event had you gone with the other set of ideas(hopefully we could have a hybrid of both next year,with Harshit's blessings).
i agree with Harshit,the observations are very keen and accurate. i am thankful for the kind words and will take care of it.
this event made a lot of us realise a lot of things, about ourselves,about our desires,about our personalities and about our fears.
to put it all in a line-Corporate Roadies has done more good to me than anything else in IIFT so far and for this I owe you one Souptik.

Lalit Gupta
P.S.:i hope i didn't make it senti :). just like Harshit, eagerly looking forward to the next post!