What advice would an IIM graduate give to students joining their MBA program?

An IIM M 2024 alumnus shared a remarkably thorough set of perspectives for students entering the program — spanning placements, academics, relationships, and personal wellbeing. We've distilled the key takeaways below, preserving every specific detail because the specifics are precisely what make this advice useful.

On Placements and CV Preparation

The clearest signal from this alumnus: CV preparation deserves "150% effort" compared to what you put into your entrance exam prep. The recommendation is to build a detailed Master CV before you even join — one that captures not just achievements, but failures, learnings, and positions of responsibility across your undergraduate years, work experience, and internships.

One important nuance on the shortlisting process: it is described frankly as "very random." If peers receive offers before you, that is not a signal to panic or doubt yourself. The advice is to stay focused on CV quality. On PPOs specifically — securing a Pre-Placement Offer matters more than delivering a flawless project. What actually moves the needle is building a strong, genuine relationship with your boss and team.

We've seen this reinforced consistently across experienced professionals: work experience quality matters more than quantity. Online courses, in their view, earn you exactly one line on a CV. An internship, done well, can generate four to five strong bullet points. That ratio should inform how you spend your time.

On Academics

The perspective here is refreshingly direct: MBA grades barely matter beyond two thresholds — avoiding failures, and staying above a 7.5 GPA. The only scenario where grades warrant serious additional investment is if you're targeting Dean's merit recognition specifically.

On Soft Skills and Peer Relationships

This is where the alumnus's advice gets more personal, and arguably more valuable. The framing: people will remember how you made them feel, not your GPA. The specific principle recommended is what's called the CATS approach — Compliment, Appreciate, Thank, Sorry. These aren't soft platitudes; they're described as the foundation of professional relationships that will generate referrals years later.

On peer groups specifically: your MBA experience will be shaped more by who you choose to spend time with than by any course or club. The advice is to choose carefully, and to invest in reciprocity through small but meaningful gestures — homemade food, handwritten thank-you notes, the kinds of things that don't scale but do register.

On Personal Wellbeing

This section of the advice is the most sobering, and it deserves to be stated clearly rather than softened. The alumnus flagged that within their own cohort, heavy drinking, smoking, and entering into casual relationships without honest communication about intentions contributed to a peer's suicide attempt. That context is shared not to moralize, but because it happened — and it illustrates why the advice to set clear personal boundaries and be honest about relationship intentions is not optional self-care guidance, but something more serious.

On finances: use tools like Splitwise proactively. Money-related conflict within peer groups is a well-documented source of tension, and it's entirely preventable.

On Technical Skills for Product Management

For students targeting PM roles: Python, SQL, Excel, and analytics tools are described as creating a genuine, outsized advantage — specifically because most MBA graduates don't have them. The bar isn't high; the opportunity exists precisely because the average candidate hasn't bothered.

On CV Verification

A practical clarification worth noting: every claim on your CV must be verifiable and approved by someone from the relevant organization using a domain email address. Managers are the preferred verifiers, but colleagues from the same organization are acceptable.

The Broader Frame

The two years of an IIM MBA represent a window that is genuinely difficult to replicate — in terms of freedom, access to peers, and available resources. The picture that emerges from this alumnus's reflection is that students who look back with satisfaction are not necessarily those who chased the highest grades or followed the most conventional success path. They're the ones who used the window deliberately: for growth, for real relationships, for experiences that compound over a career.

In our experience at Collvera, the students who benefit most from advice like this are those who encounter it before Day 1 — not two months into the program when patterns have already been set.

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