Nirban Mahanta
Student, PGDM 2014-16

Being a B.Tech graduate, I was nervous about taking a field different from engineering. I was also wary about admitting myself in a management college. I chose IMI, Bhubaneswar based on its reputation. And this is how my first week went.

The first day of orientation programme went well. We were to report to our assigned classroom for our registration. It was also the inaugural day, where all the students, both the 1st year and the 2nd year students were present, along with the faculty. Prof. Bindu Chhabra introduced the faculty to us and had us introduce ourselves to the seniors and the faculty.  The Director, Dr. Ramesh Behl, also welcomed us. After the inaugural session, we had group photograph and high tea, which frankly felt awkward, since I barely knew anyone. Later, we had Icebreaking exercises with Prof. Swarup Ku. Mohanty. He’s an amazing person as he truly broke the ice between us. As I said before, I barely knew anyone there. But after the session we came to slowly trust one another and became fast friends. After the lunch, we had interaction with the staff of the Administration, coordinated by Mr. Vinay Singh. Let me tell you, he seemed a very strict person, a stickler for rules. After that, Prof. Chhabra taught us about how attitude can influence our corporate carrier. The day ended with Mr. Rituraaj Juneja teaching us about Business etiquettes and communication.

The rest of the week was also spent with doing activities and attending classes to slowly acclimatize us to the rigours of the course that we have taken. It’s during the orientation programme did I realise how different PGDM is compared to B.Tech. Here, we had to be on time, attendance and participation in class was mandatory, and there were many such rules which made me and others uncomfortable as they were related to our GPA. During this week, we also attended guest lectures from various important guests and learned many things from them.

Since, the whole programme is fully residential we were all assigned our rooms accordingly. The first time I entered my hostel room, while it did feel alien it was comfortable for me.. Overall, my experience in hostel that week was quite good. And since, all students live in the same building anyone can interact with the other anytime.

We also had a cultural programme that week, where both the seniors and freshers (particularly freshers) had to participate. I took part in a group dance. It was a fun experience, but also frustrating, as we weren’t given enough time to prepare. Especially when most of the group was non-dancer. Still they went well. The play, the song and dance events were very good, considering the short time.

This was my experience of my first week at IMI-B, which was very hectic and I guess it’ll go more so in coming trimesters. I do hope that despite this I’ll come to enjoy the life here. This is just another step towards my PGDM career.