The result season has finally begun with some of the top B-schools declaring there admission lists in past couple of weeks. For every person expressing happiness by posting “convert”, there are equal or even more, like me, who are still trying to figure out the root cause behind another reject. I am one of the many candidates who got booted out of these lists.

This is the most frustrating time of the year for people like me. Some are stuck with the notice period in their respective jobs, while some had already quit the jobs to prepare. There will be many who didn’t go for a job switch to avoid instability during exam and second round preparation. There will be others who have already spent thousands and are in no position to spend thousands more. But behind the scenes, everyone has one single question in their minds – “What exactly went wrong?”

This is perhaps the toughest and the most important question I have faced till now. Toughest because we believe that we did everything right and still failed, like pitch in with 2-3 points or be one of the first 4 speakers in case of GD and write in a proper structure in case of WAT. One may not be so sure about WAT but still in GD, if the whole group was civilized, you gave 2-3 good examples and there was no fish market, then you expect good chances. PI may be tricky as you never know what the panel notices in you. The question is important because if one plans to take the whole process again in the next season, then how would one improve if one doesn’t know where everything went wrong?

The question also raises other concerns and insecurities. In my case, I have started feeling a bit less confident with each passing day. I have started doubting my own decisions, which was never the case earlier. I have started hating my current job. Basically I am getting more and more desperate everyday. With an IT experiencing approaching 3 years and not so diverse profile, the question is not if I should give it one more try, but whether I will be able to land up in a field of my choice even if I convert some college next year.

But if we make an attempt to calm our minds and think beyond (not violating IIPM’s intellectual property) the current situation, then we may find that it may just be one bad season in whole life. May be it is just the push that we needed for pursuing our dreams with even more dedication. Ultimately, the motive behind doing an MBA is also the same, to follow your dream. Think of it this way- if Brian Action had not been rejected at Facebook, he would never have developed Whatsapp.

This, I believe, is the best time to look deeper and deeper inside one’s soul and find out what we really want and then give it one more shot because it is not the end till you succeed.