This doctor got into IIM Bangalore while spending hours in Covid-19 duty

How many people have you met who thought of pursuing an MBA after MBBS? Very few, right? Dr. Nuhad Bardai is one such ambitious individual who did not take a random decision but devised a well-thought plan on why she wanted to go for MBA. Despite spending hours in COVID-19 duty as a part of MBBS, she managed to prepare for CAT and seek admission in one of the top B-schools of the nation, IIM Bangalore.

Good news on the eve of Eid

The fateful admission offer letter came on the day of Eid which marks the end of the Holy month of Ramadan for Muslims. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for one month. “I felt as if my prayers were answered. I was doing Covid duty for about a year and found time only between two shifts or during the mandatory quarantine period to study for CAT. Yes, there were apprehensions but I am happy to make the cut in the end,” she said.

Nuhad’s stellar performance

Dr. Bardai belonged to a family of businessmen in the city of Rajkot. Being a bright student from the beginning, Bardai always remained among top 10 students at BJ Medical college, regarded as one of the top medical colleges. By securing 96.4% in her class XII, she was ranked 30th on the merit list of medical colleges in Gujarat.

After marvellous achievements in school and college, she kept her stellar performance in the CAT exam as well. She scored a good 96% percentile in CAT and was invited for interview by several top colleges such as FMS Delhi, NMIMS Mumbai, IIM-Kozhikode and nine new IIMs. “As a medical science student, I was used to studying for ten long hours. So, it was not a big challenge to study six hours a day for CAT. The bigger challenge was when Covid-19 cases began to rise and we had to step up our efforts and work relentlessly,” she added

Being true to yourself can help ace interviews

Getting interview calls from b-schools is just the start. The bigger challenge is to crack those interviews to get the admission offer. For Nuhad, “Major part of my interview was about the shift that I am making and why I am doing so. And the other part was related to the business and innovation aspect of the healthcare sector. Immense reading in the couple of months prior to the interview about everything going around me helped me a lot. The most important aspect was to be myself and be very confident in what I say,” she said.

What after MBA?

There is a concrete reason behind Nuhad’s decision to pursue MBA. She has ambitious dreams to bring a change in the healthcare sector through her management education. A woman with an entrepreneurial mindset, her main goal is to get into healthcare consulting, later building on to her own venture.

Quite disturbed by the mismanagement in the healthcare sector, especially prevalent in current pandemic, she strives to do something about it. She adds, “I think it is quite out of the box for medical professionals to go on to do an MBA. However, I believe there is a dire need for such people and the pandemic may have shown us why we need better management in healthcare and the medical field”.

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