2016-10-01

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here is the much awaited story of Unique aka Namrata.

Name: - NAMRATA DASH

Qualification: - B. TECH in ECE (2014 pass-out with 83%), 12th (84.16%), 10th (91.5%)

Final Selection: - LIC AAO 2016 (Roll No. - 2661011912)

Category: - GENERAL

Place:- Bhubaneswar, Odisha

I

t’s not a success story; because “Success is not final, Failure is not fatal.” Still you can say it’s a hard fought battle won by me. ‘Life’ Insurance Corporation of India became my ‘life’ line. You may think all these things which I have written here are rubbish, but I feel relieved while expressing my thoughts through writing. I will be very happy if you go through my story entirely. I want all my fellow aspirants to learn from my mistakes and take an experience. So my appeal to all of you is to kindly go through it even if it is long and forgive me if you find it boring. Well, I will take 10-15 minutes of your time only! You may be thinking that I am MAD! You might be thinking I am writing all these things as if I got IAS! (I aspire to become an IAS also one day, this is just the beginning!) But for me, it is more than that, quite a relieved moment! You will get to know as you proceed.

Just two days before my birthday (9th September), I got a “SPECIAL GIFT”; I can say a “SURPRISE GIFT” on 7th September 2016 in the form of LIC AAO. The PROUDEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE arrived when my NAME was in the FINAL SELECTION LIST of LIC AAO 2016. That 17-page PDF changed my life. I am so habituated to sadness that I am unable to feel the success and be happy at this great moment.

The journey was emotional, yet exciting!

Termination from Infosys & Infosys Nostalgia:

After passing B.Tech in ECE, I joined Infosys (selected in written, interview) through the so-called campus placement by our college. But after only 3 months of training, I was terminated from Infosys, because I could not secure a mere 65% marks i.e. minimum (I secured 56%) in their training programme exams. I couldn’t write a JAVA program and DBMS Oracle Query! I was depressed and I went through depression for few more months. Then gradually with the passage of time I forgot that scar as well as sweet memories (Infosys’s world class training centre with world class facilities, delicious foods, and multiplex) and time healed me. And today I can say those past memories have been deleted from my mind automatically and permanently. I no longer have any relationship with the bitter truth (Termination).

There are two darkest days in my life till now. First; the day when I was thrown out of Infosys and second; the day when I didn’t qualify IBPS PO-V Main Examination. Coming to the first one, when Infosys fired me, I was plunged into darkness. Infosys gave me only 2 days to vacate their campus that too upon my request. Then I immediately called my father and he said it was very difficult to get air tickets in 2 days. Still he managed to book 2 flight tickets of Rs. 20,000 each for to and fro journey. I cried the whole night of the termination day and the remaining one day stay at Infosys. My friends who were there with me tried to make me feel better by saying that, “Everything in life happens for a reason. Something better than this, is waiting for you. You go out of here and enjoy.” But I didn’t know what to do, which way to go, for which job to prepare for, so many thoughts clustered my mind.  I was completely shattered. I was nowhere. Some of my friends there had earlier persuaded me to cheat in the training exam and get passed. But I am NOT a CHEATER, whereas some of them cheated and passed the exams. The only difference between them and me was that; they got their job confirmed by passing the exams by cheating from each other’s computer screens and I lost my job because of no cheating. After coming home my parents also told the same thing, they asked me, “Why didn’t you cheat in exams? Your friends were giving you the opportunity to cheat, but you were a fool. What did you want to prove; that you are the most transparent image in the whole world? Why did you want to show off? If you cheated at that moment, you could have been doing job in Infosys today like your friends!” I wish my ears were not there to hear all these things!! I do not have the power to CHANGE this type of LOW MENTALITY of such HIGHLY EDUCATED and QUALIFIED PERSONS.

I have a REASON to succeed i.e. “Unsupportive Parents” as stated in one of the success stories I read recently.

Then the real story began; I struggled with myself mentally. Those people, who once poured their blessings on me for my getting into Infosys, started ‘cursing’ me. In the mean time, I decided not to run after private sector jobs and showed interest in banking sector. So to get start and guidance, I joined Mahendra’s coaching classes and started my preparation for banking exams formally in December, 2014. My parents and other family members were simply disappointed at my decision to go for banking sector. They had only one question; after spending 6 lakh rupees in studying Engineering, will you do job in bank where a normal commerce or BSc. Graduate is there?? The million dollar question indeed!!!

Anyways, those verbal attacks on me by my parents made me stronger and motivated me to work harder and excel in exam and interview. I am thankful for them for this purpose. Often my eyes were filled with TEARS by listening to their harsh words, but I didn’t pay heed to them. Tears are good for eyes!! I was on the path of my preparation. I was on my way and they were theirs. My father forced me to again apply for private software companies like TCS, Infosys etc. but I didn’t listen to him. My mother used to give examples of my two cousin brothers (elder to me) and say, “See, they are earning huge amount of money in dollars in foreign countries; you are nothing in front of them.” Most often, my mother was uttering the word ‘Infosys’ like chanting a ‘Shloka’ of Bhagvad Gita! She used blame me and my inability to perform at Infosys. She was stuck up at ‘Infosys’ as if it was the greatest among all and highest paid job! She was repeating the sentence “You failed in your previous job, you couldn’t do it, so you also cannot achieve anything more in life” as if that was the ‘only’ job available on ‘earth’! She was refusing to move further. Every sentence she uttered, she included the ‘Infosys drama’. My parents were against me. I was fed up with all these, but didn’t give up. The impact of termination from Infosys was so powerful that I developed an unusual type of anxiety (a strange sensation in my eyes), according to my eye doctor. With passage of time, it became normal.

When I returned from Infosys after one month, my mother had a New Year party with her school days’ friends. All the family members were invited. But my mother refused to take me to the party because of shame, as she feared that what her friends would think of her whose daughter has been thrown out of a renowned company!! I ate my lunch at home (she had cooked for me only). I was weeping silently after they left.

‘If you have lost a job, remember this: There are other jobs out there, may be better than the one you lost!’

My childhood friends; Umakant and Rubi stood by me. They fully supported me and my decision. Umakant referred me the wonderful website ‘ExamPundit’ and Rubi suggested AC....and without AC’s 1-month online course named ‘Stratus: LIC AAO 2016’, I couldn’t have scored more marks in LIC AAO written exam. And I myself discovered other banking preparation websites (mentioned in strategy part) gradually.

I bought some bestselling motivational & inspirational self help books such as:

1.
“The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale

2.
“The Power of Now” by Echkart Tole

3.
“Who will cry when you die” by Robin Sharma

4.
“YOU CAN WIN” by Shiv Khera

5.
“TOUGH TIMES NEVER LAST, BUT TOUGH PEOPLE DO !” by Schuller

6.
“The Magic of Faith” by Joseph Murphy

7.
“Success is Never Ending, Failure is Never Final” by Schlluer

8.
“Finding your strength in Difficult Times” by David Viscott

9.
“Believe in Yourself” by Joseph Murphy

I took help of the above books and those books were my treasures, they were my friends and everything and will be friends forever. That’s why I am alive today taking a positive view towards ‘life’. The first five books I mentioned above are amazing, the best and of must buy! Read at least one page from these books everyday and you will definitely get inspiration. While studying and working, remember those words, sentences and move ahead.

In order to forget the Infosys incident(flashback), almost every day I kept listening to motivational songs (of Hindi films) like; ‘Aashayein..’ sung by KK, ‘Tu na jane aas paas hai khuda..’ sung by Rahat fateh Ali Khan, ‘Itni Shakti Hame Dena Daataa..’ etc... Do the same. It surely helps to get your spirit up.

I was always the centre of attraction and discussion. My parents fought with each other over my job. Sometimes I thought World War-III was going to happen any time! They think I am alive only to give them explanations of each and everything. They found out every possible way to annoy me. But as I love remaining silent (by nature), I tolerate everything without having spoken a word.

I don’t believe in the words; ‘Destiny/Luck/Fortune’. I only believe in “work”. But my parents want instant success without any hard work like 2-minute instant Maggi noodles! Even I don’t believe in Astrology. But my parents are quick believers and lovers of astrology; as they are protestors of ‘work’. So they have to believe in Luck and those Gemstones prescribed by astrologers. So they forced me to wear two costly gemstones and yes, I couldn’t escape it! I am still wearing them forcefully against my interest!

The ‘GATE/PSU Coaching’ Drama:

After being terminated from Infosys in Dec 2014, I can say, my head (brain) was separated from my body. I was so mad about getting a ‘job’ that I unintentionally took some quick and wrong decisions/steps. I was somewhat driven by my parents’ words. In between attending bank coaching class, in February 2015, I took admission in a well known GATE coaching Institute for PSU (BSNL, Nalco etc)/GATE coaching by paying Rs. 10,000 in advance and then after paid the rest of the amount i.e. Rs. 48,500. So total admission fees were Rs. 58,500. After attending classes (6 pm-9 pm) for first few days, I realized that I have made a big mistake! Those very high standard engineering subjects, questions/answers were going over my head. I thought, I was walking on the wrong path and suddenly changed my mind to discontinue going to the coaching centre. My friend Umakant also made me aware of the current job scenario, how difficult it is to get a job in core technical sector nowadays, on the other hand, rapid growth in banking sector jobs. But what to do?? I had already paid such a huge amount of money to the institute which cannot be refunded! I searched and found one refund option i.e. replacement of another student. I enquired about this in their office. The main co-ordinator said, “This process cannot be done, you have to continue for the whole 1 year.” He gave me another option that I can drop this year (2015) and attend classes from next year (2016). But I had already made up my mind that I would fully and only focus on banking exams and not waste my precious 1 year in this GATE/PSU coaching. So although he and other staff refused to listen to me, I used to request them every day to refund my money. I started spending sleepless nights and stressful days in this tension. Somehow, I arranged a Civil Engg student who wanted to take coaching there itself, we both agreed on this replacement proposal, but a few days later, again that small ray of hope instantly turned into despair for me; as she also changed her mind and denied to take admission and it meant I would never get my money (of course my father’s money!) back. I could not force her for my sake also. Then I went to their office and begged in front of them for my own money! The co-ordinator at first told he would himself arrange someone to replace me and assured me that he would refund money by deducting Rs. 10000. 2 months passed. I still had faith in him. But at last he himself called me over the phone and directly refused to return money. And the chapter ended there itself. So in this way, I simply threw away Rs. 58,500 into the dustbin. Then I have apologised to God for this unpardonable mistake. I guess my parents have already forgiven me as they are saying nothing regarding that incident. I had written an apology letter to God also. I think God also pardoned me after 1 and half year in the form of bestowing upon me LIC AAO. I got a lesson; I shall never repeat this type of mistake in life.

Everybody called me a loser after returning from Infosys. On that day itself, I decided to prove and show my worth to the world. Whenever my parents say something to me, I become speechless and turn into a mute spectator. I don’t have any right to utter a word from my mouth.

About IBPS PO-V Debacle:

The ‘dark’ future ended there at Infosys and a whole new ‘Bright Future’ was awaiting me. Then I never looked back again after getting started towards a bright future. On 16thNovember, 2015 result of IBPS PO Main was declared. After seeing ‘Thank you for appearing’ on screen, I became totally blank for a while. Everywhere darkness was there. Then after 2 hours only, tears came into my eyes. I cried a lot and could not sleep that night at all. My eyes were swollen. It’s very heartrending to fail in the 2nd stage (Main Exam) after clearing the 1ststage (preliminary exam). One time happiness in seeing results, then another time negative result; unhappiness. That means no meaning in clearing the preliminary exam! Wasn’t that Infosys termination tragedy enough for me that God battered me with another tragedy?? I could not qualify IBPS PO Main. What matters most is; I lost the CHALLENGE with my father which he gave me to clear a bank exam in today’s cut-throat competition. Again I was shattered. He won, I lost. My success story remained half-way. It could not be completed. Dreams dashed, hopes dashed...Perhaps, it was my punishment by GOD for throwing away Rs. 58,500 in PSU/GATE coaching, earlier that year. Yeah! That’s a possibility...

But see, again 1 year later, I WON the challenge given by my father! My WIN => his DEFEAT. I think, it is the perfect ‘REVENGE’ of 3 things at a time; 1) Infosys, ) IBPS (because of ibps po main failure) and 3) my parents. I took the revenge not by getting IBPS PO 2016, but by getting even a better one; LIC AAO 2016. I didn’t have to wait and go for IBPS PO-VI exam itself, though had applied for.



God’s delays are not God’s denials.

Earlier I was dreaming of appearing in IBPS PO V interview (sitting in front of interview panel), even before appearing in online written exam. Was it my mistake?? Is it a fault to see a dream? I had never thought in my dream that I would not qualify ibps po main exam. At least I must have passed the written stage. Alas! It didn’t happen. God’s will is something different. I know, He will not again repeat that mistake of sending me to a place, where I cannot perform and I will perish (Infosys). He will give me a job or send me to a ‘safer place’ where I can perform well and live in peace. Keeping in mind this job termination fear factor, He is making me wait till a good job comes in my way. He is intentionally delaying the process of presenting me an Officer Job. That’s why He didn’t make me qualify ibps po mains 2015. He might not want me to enter into the banking sector! Can you imagine a B.Tech graduate got disqualified continuously in two important exams only due to reasoning subject!! Now believe it. I thought if I didn’t get ibps po 2015, I would have died. I was feeling like dying after seeing my result status. But the self help books saved my life. I salute to those authors for saving my life!

Again 2015(ibps po failure) turned into a disastrous year like 2014(Infosys termination).

I had already used each and every resources for preparation starting from coaching institute to books (EP recommended ones), online video tutorials, websites’ quizzes, PDFs, notes,..Still nothing was working!

About IDBI Executive controversy:

I had appeared in the IDBI Executive (On contract basis) exam in May 2015. Thankfully, I cleared the online written exam. I prepared thoroughly for the interview (as I wanted to have an interview experience) and appeared in it. I was selected through second waitlist which was released on 3rd January 2016. The medical test was on 11th Jan. I was in a dilemma whether to join idbi bank or not. The reasons were; 1) the job was contractual (not permanent), the future seemed uncertain; 2) The bank is soon going to be privatised. Still, I went for medical test (wasted 1 day). I consulted EP and other aspirants regarding this.

Afterwards, I thought a lot and decided not to join as I was confident that, I have the capability to be an Officer. If I can become an Officer by waiting for a few more days or months with big opportunities coming; why to waste my career in idbi?? Also at that time (idbi joining date) LIC AAO exam was coming closer. As written in idbi offer letter posting was at Mumbai, I turned down the offer and brought my focus back on lic aao.

As I didn’t join idbi, my father warned me, “Mind it!! You are throwing a job which you have got. So you are not going to get a job anymore in near future. It will surely cost you heavily. You have to pay the price.” He also gave me an example in this regard. I became SPEECHLESS as usual by listening to his discouraging words.

About not appearing in Clerk/Assistant Exams:

Many people were advising me to apply for SBI/IBPS CLERK Exam and get it (Also I know I can get a clerk job easily). But tell me one thing genuinely, is ‘CLERK’ the ‘substitute’ for ‘PO’? Clerk is not the SUBSTITUTE for PO! But for me, as of now, LIC AAO is the true ‘SUBSTITUTE’ for IBPS PO.

I wanted to be an officer only, not a clerk. So I decided not to apply for clerk/assistant exams, though I appeared in a few assistant exams in 2015 for practice purpose. My father at times insisted me to apply for clerk also and said, “You can get promotion and be an officer after working for a few years as a clerk. I never listened to him! My uncle (who is in SBI as Branch Manager) also told me that if I could not manage to get an officer job directly I should appear for clerical exams. He told that he had also joined SBI as a clerk long back and today he is Branch Manager.

Despite all these advice, I was not biased by anyone and kept myself stronger enough to get only the OFFICER Job and, today I proved it also (Assistant Administrative Officer in LIC)! I wanted to become officer means officer, nothing less than that. No one could stop me from becoming an Officer.

Setting your Target:

You might have heard the proverb “Jack of all trades master of none”.

If you are really interested in banking sector, then AIM for Bank Exams only and the same applies for SSC also. If you are aiming IBPS PO or SBI PO then don’t think of preparing for SSC-CGL (My motto). I have seen many aspirants preparing for Banking and SSC simultaneously (I wonder, don’t know whether they get success or not, maybe they get but very rare cases). The fact is that the syllabus of bank exams and ssc exams is completely different although some chapters overlap, for this reason; you cannot focus well on one thing at a time. Even if studying for bank exams require less hours (6-8 hrs) in a day, stick to it. Whereas along with bank exams you can appear in various insurance exams like LIC AAO, NICL/NIACL/OICL/UIICL AO/Assistant etc.. Because both banking and insurance (both come under financial services sector) exams have the same syllabus and almost same pattern.

Preparing for bank/insurance exams do not require you to study for long hours, give much effort, only 5-6 hours after you attain a certain level, will do.

Target only one thing at a time. You are not going to do JOB at all places whichever you get. If you are getting failure in one or several attempts mean your success also lies there (maybe delayed).

As I have read in one of the books, there is nothing called ‘failure’. It’s not ‘failure’; it’s called ‘Temporary Defeat’. It is necessary. It again reminds you that a few more mistakes/things need to be corrected/rectified.  Suppose say, I fail in ibps po, that doesn’t mean I will now change my mind and stop appearing in po exams further and switch to another exam e.g. ssc and the vice-versa is also true.

My view on ‘Criticism’:

Criticism helps a human being to grow and advance in life. Yes, I was hurt with the statements given to me by my parents. But their criticism helped me stay motivated and work even harder. I am very thankful to them for this.  For getting success you must have some critics who always criticise you and your work very badly.

The ‘Waiting’ period:

The 4-month (May ’16-Aug ’16) long wait finally ended on a positive note for me. This time, it came with final selection! During these 4 months, I worked even harder than I had done for LIC AAO 2016. After appearing in LIC AAO interview on 30thApril ’16, I was anxious and worried about my interview performance and hence final selection but tried to get out of it and prepared hard for next-to-appear two important exams i.e. UIICL AO(Generalist) and SBI PO 2016 (Though didn’t get any one of them!). I was carrying on my preparation in full swing for all upcoming exams including IBPS PO 2016, without thinking about and depending on the final results of LIC AAO 2016 and UIICL AO 2016.

EVERY END IS A NEW BEGINNING!

Hadn’t I been come out of Infosys, I wouldn’t have landed in a Government sector job today! So I am very much thankful to Infosys for this (I don’t have their email id otherwise would have definitely sent a ‘Thank you’ Note to Infosys!). Hadn’t I tasted the failure in IBPS PO 2015, I wouldn’t have been able to find out my weaknesses (Reasoning) and succeed in the next big exam (after ibps po ’15) i.e. LIC AAO 2016!

Believe me; God has already set up everything for you. All you have to do is to follow HIS Path.

Failure doesn’t mean God has abandoned you...It does mean God has a better idea!

àHere are some excerpts from the book ‘You can win’:

REMEMBERà

§
Nothing worthwhile in life comes without a struggle.

§
The world only sees success. They don’t see the struggle behind the success and say, “He got lucky, he must have been at the right place at the right time.”

§
All success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they failed, they bounced back. Learn from your failure and keep going.

§
Failure is the highway to success. Tom Watson Sr, of IBM, said,

“If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”

Exams I Appeared in 2015:-

Initially, I was just applying for exams randomly without setting a target. So the failures were inevitable. Among them, first 10 were without much and consistent preparation, as at that time I had not come across all the online resources (websites like EP). However, in most of these exams, my scores were closer to the cut offs like in SBI PO and RBI Assistant.

1.
SBI Associates Clerk (first ever experience without knowing anything, score-114, cutoff-148)

2.
IBPS IT Officer (Managed to attempt only 65 out of 200!!, though read IT from Arihant book, no in-depth knowledge in IT)

3.
SBI Specialist (IT) Officer

4.
SBI PO (Preliminary cleared with 47.5 marks, Main exam not cleared, Mains mark=86 (objective) cut off=80 (obj), with descriptive (overall) marks I don’t remember)

5.
IDBI Executive (got it, didn’t join, reasons stated earlier)

6.
LIC ADO (gave just for sitting in an exam, written qualified, interview appeared, no final selection thank god, u know it’s purely marketing job, not so good)

7.
RBI Assistant (written not cleared, score-155)

8.
IDBI Manipal PO (written cleared just touched cut off, interview appeared, again thank god no final selection, u know reasons well!)

9.
IRDAI Assistant

10.
UIIC Assistant

Then with some serious preparation and strategy, I targeted IBPS RRB PO and the most important recruitment of the year IBPS PO-V.

11.
IBPS RRB Officer Scale-I (failed in reasoning by 1 mark, overall marks just above cut off though)

12.
IBPS RRB Office Assistant (written cleared, my score-121 cutoff-118, no final selection after interview, again thank god it was Assistant!)

13.
IBPS PO-V (Score in Prelims=58 [attempt 57], Score in Mains=89.25 [attempts 103, cut off 76, failed in Reasoning-> cut off 10, mine just 6.75 with 13 attempts due to foul attempts in logical reasoning])

*I got this much total marks due to very high marks in ‘GA’ and English (20.25/40)

*My GA marks were 32.75 out of 40 [attempts 34]

That’s why I felt very bad at my failure!

14.
RBI Grade B (In phase-I failed in QA by 0.5, though hadn’t prepared for phase-II)

15.
NABARD Development Assistant (qualified in written, marks-169[attmpt 164] but alas! The recruitment was cancelled afterwards because of Modi Govt. declaring withdrawal of interview process from junior level posts)

Exams I appeared in 2016:-

1.
SBI IT Officer (I was not interested in IT officer as I haven’t studied IT subject that much in b tech as my branch was ECE, still appeared...)

Then after I tightened my belt and gave much effort in the following exams. Then I started getting very closer to the cut off, for which I got the much needed confidence to give my 200% in all upcoming exams.

2.
SIDBI Grade A Officer (Assistant Manager)

*This exam was the turning point and my gateway to LIC AAO; as I got inspired to score more marks.

*My marks- 134.50 in objective [attmpt-135] (obj. Cut off 125) But couldn’t clear the overall cut off.

*My overall marks (obj.+descriptive)= 160.5 out of 250 (cut off- 162.75)

3.
IBPS IT Officer (qualified in written with very less marks in IT professional knowledge; appeared in interview, no final selection, IT officer was not meant for me as I lacked prof. Knowledge)

*However, good score in both Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude boosted me further, gave me more confidence.

Then it was the ‘turn’ of my life changing event!!!

4. LIC AAO(Finally Selected !!!) :

*Details of Score:->

I.
Reasoning                --> 89.75 (out of 90)   Attempts-30/30

II.
GK, Current Affairs--> 50.25 (out of 60)   Attempts-24/30

III.
Computer                ---> 44.75 (out of 60)   Attempts-22/30

IV.
Quantitative Aptitude-> 86.00 (out of 90)   Attempts-28/30

Total Weighted Score= 270.75 (out of 300) Total Attempts-104/120 (Excluding English)

English-> 17.75 (out of 40) attempts-23/40 [I did less in English knowingly as it was only qualifying]

·
Note- English was Qualifying in nature. Marks not added.

ü
Marks Secured in Interview- 42 (out of 60)

ü
Overall(written+interview)=270.75+42= 312.75  [cut off- 306]

5. NABARD Grade A (Prelims qualified, my score-122.75 attmp-131, cutoff 112, but couldn’t appear in Main exam due to UIIC AO exam on the same day)

6. UIICL AO-Scale I (Generalist) [Written qualified, appeared in Interview, No final selection..]

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