Back at Amity, Twenty Years On

I passed out of Amity Business School, Lucknow in 2006. Twenty years later, on 5 October 2026, I was back on the same campus. This time I was the one holding the microphone, as the speaker in the Alumni Talk Series organised by the Corporate Resource Centre.

The title on the screen read "From Amity to Public Service: A Journey of Purpose, Passion and Perseverance." Seeing my name there, on the campus where it all started, was nostalgic and honestly quite fulfilling.

The foundation batch

I joined in 2004. We were the foundation batch, the very first MBA class of the Lucknow campus. Being first meant there were no seniors to follow and no placement record to lean on. Not much was settled yet.

The campus has grown a great deal since then.

Who was in the room

We had a good turnout of MBA and engineering students, along with faculty members and the CRC committees of both the business school and the engineering school. After the talk, several students took the mic with questions.

Here is the gist of what we talked about.

1. Your first job is not a verdict

Many students treat their first job as a final decision. It isn't. My own path has taken in an MBA, a job at India Bulls, four years of UPSC preparation and, since 2010, the Indian Revenue Service. None of it was a straight line.

A career is a series of informed bets. Make the best call you can with what you know, give it everything, and be honest with yourself about when it's time to change course.

2. Soft skills are not soft

Technical knowledge gets you shortlisted. How you speak, listen, write an email, handle a disagreement and carry yourself in a room decides how far you go. The people who rise are usually the ones others want to work with, and trust to represent them.

You can practise these skills like any other:

• Speak up in class, even when you're unsure.
• Volunteer to present.
• Write emails a busy person can read in thirty seconds.
• Learn to say, "I don't know yet, but I'll find out."

3. Don't wait for companies to come to you

Campus placements are a starting point, not the whole market. Plenty of good roles are never advertised. Make a list of the companies you actually want to work for. Find out what they do, who leads the teams you care about, and which problems they're trying to solve. Then reach out with something specific to say.

4. Cold calls and cold messages

I told the students what I used to do at India Bulls, and we talked about why cold calling matters.

Today the cold call has a cousin, the cold message on LinkedIn or email. The rules are much the same:

• Keep it short. Three or four lines.
• Make it personal. Say why you're writing to this person and not to everyone.
• Ask for something small: a fifteen-minute conversation, a pointer, an introduction.
• Follow up once, politely. Silence usually means busy, not no.

Most students never send that first message because they're afraid of being ignored. Being ignored costs nothing. Not asking costs you the opportunity.

Giving back

My thanks to the faculty and the Corporate Resource Centre of Amity University Lucknow, and especially to Ms. Archana Dhir, who extended the invitation. It was good to give something back to the campus I passed out from.

If even one student in that auditorium sends that first nervous cold message this week, the morning was worth it.