The Reward of Being at Kellogg

What has been your most rewarding experience at Kellogg? While looking through various potential questions as I started preparation for interviews with various firms in the next few weeks weeks, the above question made me pause and think.

While, there have been several gains and lifetime experiences for me in this short span of time at Kellogg (such as a peek into the world of Finance, a bunch of great friends, etc.), it made me wonder what can be that one great experience that might have had a significant impact on me.

Well, as it turns out I did step out of the box and took a step back and am now seeing better the bigger picture. All my life and career, I had been among engineers; I have been trained to think like one and view the world through an engineer's eyes. Not that it is bad (in fact, it is one of the most successful professions/perceptions out there in the world), but my realization that there are other dimensions to view helped me to better see the diversity and its purpose.

As an engineer, perhaps I was just focused on the working of the engine and its parts, and the relentless efforts have been to perfect it. But, when I stepped back I could see that while the engine is the heart, there is more to the automobile that we can find fascinating. I even see that a soft cushion added to the seat, though may not add any functionality to the automobile's working, still adds comfort to make the drive smooth and enjoyable.

At the business school, everyday I keep meeting and interacting with fascinating people from varied backgrounds and professions - not just banking, consulting, and engineering/tech industries, but also social service, community organizing, public/government service, law, military, non-profit, journalism, and so on.

I learnt to respect more the existence of all ways and professions, however small or big their contributions are to the smooth running of the world; everything that exists has a purpose - if there was none, it would not have even existed in the first place, isn't it?

And the respect multiplies when we see that there is always something new to learn from them, especially when the time at Kellogg is so limited.