Graduate From IIT Kanpur to Silicon Valley: The Journey of Varun

Following his graduation, Varun secured an internship at Samsung Electronics’ IoT lab during his third year at IIT Kanpur. He worked on projects related to smartphone ecosystem development and voice assistant technology enabling users to control smart devices through gestures paving the path for a full-time role at Samsung after graduation.

As a software engineer at Samsung, Varun honed his skills in backend application development, gaining a solid foundation in product development. Eager to broaden his expertise, he transitioned into a product management role at an Ed-tech firm in India. This transition not only showcased Varun’s adaptability and leadership potential but also his commitment to building products that change people’s lives.

Varun’s unwavering commitment to innovation, coupled with his exceptional academic and professional track record, positioned him as a standout candidate for MBA programs at M7 business schools. Simar, a fellow MBA Admissions Consultant from our team recently sat down with him for a coffee chat to discuss his application journey. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

Question 1. Hi Varun, congratulations on getting through Stanford, Wharton, and Kellogg! How does it feel to get through these schools?

To be frank, even a few days after I received the result from Stanford, I was not able to believe it. I was calling my parents and friends and telling them that I got in and it was just unreal. And right now I’m feeling on top of the world because it’s always been a dream to go to my dream school. So yeah, I think I’m feeling great.

Question 2. Can you tell us a bit about your personal background? Where did you grow up and study?

Sure, of course. I was born in my mother’s hometown. It’s a small village in South India called Kakinada. But I grew up in Visakhapatnam, also known as Vizag. We moved there a couple of years after I was born. I grew up there most of my life and did my schooling there.

My parents are both in the medical profession. My father is a government doctor and my mother works in a hospital. I think that’s most of my background.

I went to Hyderabad for my studies, to do my 11th and 12th. For my undergrad, I went to IIT Kanpur to pursue computer science.

Question 3. How did you choose to become an engineer in a home of two doctors?

Yeah, it’s a question I get a lot of times. Until 10th, I was not sure, since I was equally interested in math and science. In fact, I was better at biology than math. A couple of friends even joke today that I chose engineering despite being bad at math.

I think it was more because of my passion for technology that I went into engineering. Since childhood, I was very fascinated by new gadgets and inventions and always wanted to someday invent something of my own, like build a product. So that dream took me into engineering and I was glad that my parents also supported me.

Question 4. So what did you study at IIT Kanpur and how was your experience there? IIT Kanpur has an excellent alumni base. While studying there, did you build anything in your college that you later on ended up launching?

I majored in computer science engineering at IIT Kanpur.

I felt IIT Kanpur was an amazing place in my later years of studying there.

But initially, I was not sure how it would be. I was quite skeptical until the moment I joined because I’ve heard stories about UP and that place and how IIT Kanpur is also far from the city.

But once I got in, the notion completely changed. The people, professors, and alumni are quite friendly and cordial. I got to learn a lot there. I was quite explorative in my first few years.

I joined every club that I could. I was part of a robotics club for a long time. I was actively involved in the entrepreneurship cell.

I did some mentoring and academic tutoring to fellow students and volunteering as well in my free time. An interesting thing that I worked on was a robot. As part of the robotics club, we were working towards participating in a competition called EuroCup. We built a miniature-scale humanoid robot for the competition. The robot could walk and do basic movements like throwing a ball and following a set path. In fact, we received funding from the Science and Technology Council.

My juniors visited South Korea to participate in the World Championships after I graduated. I’m proud of having been part of the initial team and building that project.

Question 5. Where did you start your professional journey after IIT Kanpur? Can you please give an overview of your professional journey and work experience so far?

Sure. During IIT Kanpur in my third year, I got an internship from Samsung Electronics. It was based out of South Korea.

So I joined that as an intern in the IoT lab. Because of my robotics and entrepreneurship cell experience, I got placed in that lab and primarily worked on developing products for their smartphone ecosystem and voice assistant technology. I built one project, that enabled users to control their smart devices with gestures.

Like you can shake your phone or swipe your hand over it and do actions like that to control your AC, TV, washing machine and so on. This project led me to get a full-time offer at Samsung and that’s where I joined for my first job after graduation.

This was during COVID, in 2020. I was stuck at home for six months after graduation and it was a long wait before I could go there and join my first job. But we somehow managed to get there and that’s where I took up the role of a software engineer in the same lab.

I was primarily working on developing backend applications, and more advanced functions for smartphone control and voice assistance. I held that role for two years, did various projects, and got the experience.

I wanted to get a more holistic experience in product development. Being very passionate about building products, I shifted into this product management role at Samsung after two years. It taught me a lot, beyond the development part, about interacting with others and working with different kinds of people. I worked with many Korean executives and people from design teams, sales teams, and marketing.

I worked on a few interesting projects like new features in Bixby, which is like Siri for Samsung, which got deployed in the latest Samsung smartphones, including the fold and flip phones. Recently, after working there for three years, I wanted to work in a start-up environment. So I decided to move back to India.

Last year around this time, I moved back and joined an edtech start-up as a product manager. I’ve been working there since developing their new online education platform, which they plan to expand throughout India.

Question 6. What led you to join this organization, apart from getting more hands-on experience and a start-up? Why specifically did you choose the education sector?

Most of my life has been revolving around education. During childhood, I was quite studious and competitive. I used to write Olympiads and appear prepared for GE.

I went through a coaching cycle. Along the process, I was also mentoring fellow IIT students and developed a passion for improving education as a whole. So hearing about this Ed-Tech company’s new venture of expanding quality education to rural parts of India, I felt connected to that cause. And I felt that with my skills, I could contribute to this organization since I was one of the first few people to join them while they were building from scratch.

I realized it would be a good learning experience for me also, because I have plans of starting my own company, and working from zero upwards would give me valuable experience.

Question 7. When did you realize it was time to start thinking about an MBA?

I always wanted to pursue higher studies, but I was unsure if it would be an MS, MBA, or PhD. However, my parents always pushed me to study further, because I had done my bachelor’s, and both my parents had a master’s degree. They recognized the value of a master’s degree and added benefits.

They pushed me to consider higher education. But I already had a job. So I didn’t get the proper motivation.

Back in Samsung, I was always passionate about building products that would solve pressing issues for people. So I was always trying out new stuff, thinking of building something of my own. My friends and I together started building a fintech app.

We tried to make investments easier for first-time investors. We were all engineers and were building something new for the first time. We perceived everything as engineers and just developed the app.

But later on, we failed to get the product market fit. Hence, we could not find any suitable investors, and no traction. I realized I have a solid engineering background, but I need some business and people management skills to become a good founder. This motivated me to seriously consider an MBA a year and a half before I applied.

Question 8. Is this when you started preparing for your GMAT?

Yeah, I would say about three to four months later, I was talking to people, figuring out if an MBA is the right decision, because it’s a big investment of time and money. I spent a few months talking to seniors and people who had pursued an MBA. Fortunately, I was able to connect with a few people from my IIT Kanpur alumni community.

Three to four months later, I took my GRE, because I was considering MS or MBA. So, I took the GRE to be safe.

Question 9. What was your GRE score and how was your GRE preparation journey? Any roadblock you faced? How’s the preparation like?

Since I knew that coaching required time and dedication, which I didn’t have, I prepared on my own. So I was doing it at my own pace. I spent two weeks, mainly preparing the verbal part of it.

The biggest roadblock was developing that focus. To sit focused for that amount of time and solve questions fast wasn’t easy.

I improved that through practice and also memorized vocabulary, which we don’t usually use for the exam. I scored 334 on the GRE. My practice worked out well.

Question 10. Did you apply to all the schools with this GRE score then?

Yeah, because I feel there’s a lot of misconception around how schools look down upon GRE scores. So it’s good to clear that up.

Question 11. Which schools did you apply to and how did you come up with a list of target schools?

As I told you before, I always dreamt of studying at one of the top institutes in the US. So, Harvard, and Stanford were my top choices.

I only knew the rankings of the university and the reputation. I spoke to current students, my seniors, and some relatives who live in the US to know their perspectives on the university. Unfortunately, I was not able to visit them. But talking to people and researching revealed that there’s a lot that makes a university unique.

I browsed YouTube videos and the schools’ sites to determine academically and also culturally if the university felt like a good fit. I eventually picked five top universities apart from Stanford and Harvard. I applied to Wharton, Kellogg, and MIT.

I also got to know a lot about my target schools from these conversations and my research. Stanford values people who change things, who set out to change lives, organizations, and so on. Harvard on the other hand, really believes in leadership, impactful leadership. So each school has its own thing. And that is what the school will drive you to develop.

It is also what the school will look for in people that they select. So the culture aspect became clearer to me as I explored and talked to Nisha and the seniors. At the end, I went for a mix of both reputation and culture and my post-MBA prospects as well. That’s how I decided.

Question 12. Can you tell us about your short-term and long-term goals?

Immediately post-MBA, I plan to try building a startup while in college, since I’m headed to Stanford and it’s a great place for starting up even while in college, and I’ve talked to quite a few people who have done so.

Apart from that, I’m thinking of recruiting in tech, either in big tech or startups, since I also want to gain more experience working with previous founders and people who are working in spaces that interest me. In the long term, I feel that India is a place to be and build in the coming future. I plan to return to India in a few years and either build my own venture here or join a venture that aligns with my interests in a leadership position.

Follow up: Do you have any specific industry you’d want to work in mind, especially when you come back to India?

It will definitely be an impact sector. I cannot pin down that it would be this sector because based on the timings, the industries change. While right now one industry might seem like the place where everything is happening and the most impact is driven, in five years, that might be another industry. So I really don’t want to restrict myself and I’m open to exploring that.

Question 13. Can you talk about any struggles you faced when you were writing, thinking about your application, or before you started? Also, I’d love to hear about any interesting story you mentioned in your application.

I think the biggest problem for me while writing was choosing what to write and how to write it. I’m someone who likes to be very descriptive and write in detail.

But there’s a word limit for all the essays. So the primary roadblock for me was that I was writing initial drafts of double, or triple the size, and I was unwilling to cut down on most parts.

That was the biggest challenge. Once I figured out what to focus on and what to keep in essays, it became easier for me.

Coming to interesting stories, I would say there are many combining my personal and professional experiences.

I dug deep and spent some time recollecting experiences from childhood to very frequent times and picking out stories that convey some kind of value. I was lucky to have some key figures who really influenced me in my life from my family and friends. These were the people I recollected and mentioned in my essays and talked in detail about how they changed me as a person.

So I would say those were some of the kind of stories that I mentioned in my application.

Question 14. How was the interview process for you? Stanford has very human-centered interviews, and Wharton has a different take on the interviews. Any interesting anecdote you’d like to share from your experience?

You’re totally right. Each school has its own way of interviewing and I had to change myself from one school to another the way they want to interview me.

I had to put my mindset in one way for the Wharton TBD where I had to be more collaborative and understand others before speaking. For Stanford, it was very personal and it was more about my thought process and why I took the decisions that I did.

So, I had to adapt myself according to the interview.

There were certainly some interesting moments. Stanford gives us names of interviewers prior to it, so before my interview with Stanford’s alumni interviewer, I researched him and did some background checks, like who he is and what he values.

He was a CEO, so I was quite nervous to speak to him. He is quite elder to me and an alumni of Stanford from 20 years ago.

I gave him a structured response and spoke with a sense of passion, although it was not a real feeling. He immediately recognized that and told me to relax and have a friendly conversation with him. That really changed my mindset about him.

The rest of the interview was very conversational. I realized that irrespective of the interviewer, it always helps to be yourself and talk as conversationally as possible.

In the Wharton interview, we have to be ready for whatever comes. There’s no way you can hundred percent be prepared for it because it’s like a TBD. You have one out of five or six people. In my case, I had done a lot of mocks, but in the end, it was me and five other girls.

I was initially taken aback thinking I would feel awkward, but all of them were friendly. So that helped. And I had to be really adaptive to the situation. I had prepared for one topic, but another topic might actually be discussed.

So adaptability and thinking on the spot were essential for the Wharton interview.

Question 15. How has your experience been with Nisha? You can start off with a resume and goals. How was that process? And then later on with your other essays, personal essays, and as well as your interviews.

First of all, a big shout-out to Nisha. I really loved working with her and I would go about it all again.

If I had to, I would choose Nisha. What I liked the most was that she was very patient and understanding. Sometimes I lost my nerve during situations where I was very tense.

I had been preparing and giving a lot of my time and energy. So there were times when I did not have the full picture.

I was looking at everything from a microlens, especially the time when I got a rejection from a university and it was my first school. I was really freaking out.

I was thinking that I had put in so much effort, and the result was not expected. But then Nisha calmed me down and motivated me that there were better universities going forward.

That helped me stay on track and prepare for the coming months.

Coming to individual elements of the application process, she helped me bring out aspects from different parts of my life very well into the application.

She gave me a lot of food for thought and really critiqued whatever I had originally thought of. We went through multiple iterations. My first one held no resemblance to my final one.

Nisha spent a lot of time helping me go through one iteration to the other and very patiently answered my questions. I’m very curious and I cannot take anything for granted.

I used to analyze each sentence and rephrase the meaning. Nisha patiently understood me and helped me improve it rather than just shutting me down.

For the interviews, we did some mocks and she helped me prepare for the curveballs rather than just helping me practice the regular ones. She surprised me sometimes by asking curveballs and changing the whole pattern of the interview itself. This really helped in making me ready for the final interviews.

Question 16. Lastly, you probably started with workshops by Rajdeep. How was your experience with those workshops?

I thoroughly liked the workshops by Rajdeep. One, because they were very informative. It takes a lot of time to do the research and talk to people and get all the thoughts and best practices, but it was all in one and that really saved my time as I could look back upon it anytime.

Another thing, it gave us a good structure to follow. Since I’m very descriptive and tend to overwrite, having a good structure helped me frame my thoughts clearly. The workshops were very helpful.

Question 17. So now you’re all set to go to Stanford? Are you looking at any Pre-MBA internships before going?

Yes, I’m preparing for it. There is a long visa process, so I’m still preparing for it.

I’m searching the VC space as it’s close to start-ups and I can work with founders and see what they’re working on and how they work.

I hope you have the best time at Stanford! It was great talking to you.