From jeweller to gazetted officer, these IIM Bengaluru students redefine MBA journey

BENGALURU: When the Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru (IIMB) holds its 51st convocation on Friday, the B-school is also celebrating the diversity of the students who will graduate from the flagship Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in management. TOI catches up with some students with distinct profiles, who spoke about how different their journey in the management school was.

Siddharth Sharma

Siddharth Sharma was a gazetted officer before he joined IIM-B. "As a gazetted govt officer with six years of experience, I was the only one of my kind in the batch. Leaving behind that stability to start again with an MBA programme was not just a career move; it was a total disruption of my identity. I spent my career navigating slow, hierarchical systems, and I quickly realised that to survive, I had to unlearn almost everything I knew. This meant trading the comfort of seniority for the vulnerability of a student. It meant staying up late, collaborating with peers who were younger than me, and finding my voice in a culture that moved at a velocity I had never experienced," said Siddharth.

But he recalls how his transition hit a brutal wall during summer placements. Despite his credentials, he received zero shortlists from over 200 companies. "To the corporate world, my unconventional background was a risk they were not ready to take. I wondered if I had made a massive mistake. Instead of backing down, I went back to basics. I put my head down and worked harder than ever. By the time final placements arrived, the resilience I had built through the lows of the previous year paid off," he said.

Riddhi Dugar

Originally from Tamil Nadu, Riddhi is a sportsperson, who has competed in state and national-level tournaments for tennis. Alongside sports, she has a strong track record in debating. But, above all, she is the first woman in her family to pursue a formal college education. "Coming from Stella Maris College, Chennai, a place with relatively few students traditionally progressing to IIMs, I had limited precedents to follow. As a BCom fresher, I had to chart my own path, often figuring things out independently without a clear template. This meant being proactive in seeking opportunities, building conviction in my choices, and continuously pushing myself beyond my comfort zone," she said.

Her father runs his own business, and her mother leads an activity centre for children.

Akanksha Nene

At 19, fuelled by curiosity for natural gems and accessories, she founded, operated and ran her own gemstone jewellery business. "I come from a humanities background with a deep interest in the creative side of things. I started this venture without any family business background. The 1.5 years I spent running this business provided a foundation that was later validated by formal MBA learnings at IIMB," she said.

She put up the stall for a campus fest and even fetched a revenue of Rs 1 lakh. "The venture still exists. While it was on a small scale earlier, the vision is to make it a better, viable business that reaches more people and creates jobs. I will work on it part time after graduating," she said.

"There are very few peers who have come in with this kind of experience and background, and I'm very proud to have paved a way for younger aspirants and talent from backgrounds like the arts and humanities, entrepreneurial and creative fields," she said.

Zothanzuali Khawlhring

Growing up in Mizoram, a small state in India's northeast, where life moves at a quieter pace and communities are closely knit, institutions like IIMB felt like places that existed somewhere far away, geographically and mentally, for Zothanzuali Khawlhring. Stepping into a highly competitive national space brought a mix of pride and uncertainty for the 24-year-old.

"What helped me most during my time at IIM Bangalore was realising that everyone arrives here with their own story. Some journeys are very different from others, but they all carry a shared sense of curiosity and ambition. Being in that environment pushes you to grow not only academically, but also personally," she said.