Not Just A Success Story, But A Lot More.

I have been thinking about writing this for a long time, first didn’t get time because of joining formalities and then delayed this for RBI phase 2 result. I couldn’t clear phase 2 and it's still bugging me as in where I went wrong. Guess score card will give a clear picture and for that there is still some time. Okay so here it is. My name is Tarun Joshi, I completed my BE Biotechnology in 2009, yes that’s right, from a reputed private engineering college in Karnataka. As all other students in my college I also got placement in one of the reputed MNC in my 6th semester itself.  I joined that company in December 2009. First 3 months were dedicated to training and then I was posted in Bangalore. I worked in that company till end of 2010, but for some silly reason I was made to resign.

I wasn’t given any experience letter. So here I was with one year gap after my college, not very good at what I did because I never liked IT sector, just for the sake of job appeared in placement drive, some 700 students from my college were selected by that company. I came to Delhi in search of a job, was on road searching for the job but my educational background of Biotech was a big hindrance. One day after one of the interviews at some job consultant’s place I was returning to my PG by metro where I met one of my college batch mates who was working in sales profile for a water solutions provider. Appeared for an interview through his referral and got the job in his company. Package was half of what I used to get but at least it was a start.  I worked there for an year. One day I got a call from a job consultant that Ispat steels is venturing into water business and they are hiring for their new start up. Ispat was a big group, had many subsidiaries, their corporate office was in Hotel Ashok, Chanakyapuri in Delhi, so it was a no brainer. Package was at par with my IT company package so that was an added incentive. But one day we were told that Ispat will be acquired by Jindal Steels and it will be done in phase wise manner. There were rumours of it earlier but we were still hopeful that something can be done and management will take care of it. This was June of 2013, Ispat steel was acquired by Jindal steels but they did not acquire any other subsidiary of Ispat group. I was fed up with private job and wanted some stability in my life. I started searching for govt jobs online as per my eligibility, while visiting one of the job portal sites I came across IBPS PO 3 notification. At the time I had no idea about IBPS or any bank exam. To tell you the truth I never thought of working in a bank because It was completely different from what I had learnt in my college and to the profile in which I was working. I was still working, did not prepare as one must for a competitive exam. But when result was announced, I was in. Scored a lowly 69, and I guess cut off was 63 for general candidates. So PI was held in January of 2014, in my PI I could not answer most of the questions.  Panel head asked me what I was doing and whether I had appeared for any other exam like RRB’s. My ignorance about banking at that time was so much that I did not know what RRB was. I told him about my job and company and said I don’t know sir anything about RRBs. During my PI only panel head told me my score was less and if I want to secure a job in a bank I must work hard on Banking knowledge and other subjects. In Feb of 2014, I left my job as there was no other option. So in Feb I came back to Dehradun. One day while surfing through internet I came across a very good blog on UPSC civil services exam preparation. I started with all the ncerts and moved on to recommended books. In April when PO 3 result was declared, as expected I was out. I got 12/20 PI (now I know it was a decent score keeping in mind my performance  in PI) and my written score was 69 which meant my final score was not good enough even for waiting list. While preparing for UPSC, I appeared for SBI PO 2014 exam. At that time I did not know anything about mock tests or STs. There was no time management , and I was over confident, was only left with 12 minutes for DI section. When the result came I was not selected. When score card came, as expected I could not clear sectional cut off DI section. Wrote CSAT in 2014 and cleared the cut off but mains performance was abysmal. Appeared for many exams in 2014, IBPS PO4, IBPS RRB scale 1,RBI Grade B,  UIICL AO, New India AO, SBI Associate PO but could only clear cut off PO4 and scale 1.Appeared for PI but could not make into final list. My score in PO4 was 96 but PI score was a lowly 9/20. 1 April, 2015 was the day when I was most distraught in life. After PO 4 result I was suggested by someone to join a coaching class. He cleared PO-2014, and is still working in SBI. He told me to join classes just for the sake of continuity in studies, and give Sts.  In my coaching class only I was made aware of Bankers Adda. I created my profile in the month of May with Che Guevara as my profile name. Initially I was a silent reader, but I noticed few users (like Ved, Insomniac) solving questions and explaining solutions to others. I too started posting solutions to the questions which I knew, so in few weeks time other users started asking questions to me as well. Let me tell you, this is the best way to learn. If you can solve random questions posted by users then it means you know that subject.  SBI PO 2015 notification came and I filled the form, thanks to Almighty and wishes of my family and friends my roll number was there in final merit list when the result came. Latter part of 2015, on the whole, on various levels, has been good for me. Cleared every other exam except RBI phase 2, met someone special and finally a job stability.  I remember when I gave my first ST I scored only 40 because of lack of time management, and I was thinking what if this was an actual exam I wouldn’t have cleared it, that day I realised importance of speed tests. My classes and BA quizzes helped me a lot during my preparation for SBI PO. Here on BA there were late night maths quizzes conducted by Hiccup and Rocky which helped me a lot in my prep.

I met Sammy (Suman Mandal) on BA who helped me a lot with strategy for SBI pre exam, and to this day I feel if it was not for him, I wouldn’t have cleared that exam. He pushed me in my prep, I even prepared for descriptive part just because of him. I would like this opportunity to thank some other users here . Jeevan(aka Vaibhav)  for sending me that DI question, his question was the reason I started taking DI seriously, and it really helped me in SBI mains examination . Paridhi (aka Shizuka) for her computer pdf , I am very bad at this subject and if it was not for that file I wouldn’t have scored decent in GA. Priya( aka Freezer) for her hand written notes, they were very useful in prep for mains and gd/pi. . And to all the users who asked me their queries, your queries kept me motivated and to this day I feel they were great source of motivation. BA has been a great platform for me, I have made so many friends here (I won’t take names here , because this already long write-up will become longer, but they know who they are)  and through  4 PM Maths quiz interacted with so many. I have already shared my study plan just after SBI PO result so I won’t write about that part. But one thing I would like to say, no matter what your situation is never lose self belief. I have said this many times and I am repeating this once more,” किसी को हमसे उम्मीद हो ना हो, हमे खुद से कभी उम्मीद नही छोड़नी है |”. It’s never too late to achieve what you want in your life. I am looking forward to 1 April, 2016. I have high hopes and expect many BA users to get final selection 

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