Hi Everyone,

My name is Paridhi Sharma, I was born & brought up in a conservative Brahmin family of Ranchi, Jharkhand (Dhoni’s Place). Since childhood, I have always been very competitive and a bright student. I was very passionate about learning new things and always strived to stand different from the crowd.

Unprecedented‌ ‌support‌ ‌from‌ ‌the‌ ‌family.‌

In my family, education was only for men. The girls of the family were taught to be good daughter, sister, wife or a mother. They had limited or no choice of freedom and opinion. Education for girls in my family was limited to learning the basics till the age they were to get married, doing a job or working for them was completely out of the question.

Luckily for me, my father got me admitted into one of the best schools of Ranchi – Loreto Convent. Thereafter, I did my higher education in commerce from Delhi Public School Ranchi. I had developed interest in economics and commerce and to continue my learning in same field I did my Bachelor’s in Commerce (accounts) Honors from St. Xavier’s College in my hometown itself.

Honestly, being from a traditional business family of small town, I had none or very less knowledge of career opportunities that I could pursue. In finance, I had only heard about role of CA or CS. So, along with my graduation, I also started doing CS course. But with every passing day, I was getting frustrated. I was not enjoying the field I had chosen. Though, I was attending classes and clearing the examinations, it had struck me that this was not something I desired. I didn’t want to work as a company secretary for a company and handle its legal paperwork or documentation, not yet. Neither do I wanted to complete graduation and get married as what use to happen in my family.

I was clueless about my future and career path. I wanted to something different but had no one to guide me in right direction. My frustration had started reflecting in my behavior towards my parents and my younger brother. I became very rude and stayed irritated most of the time and use to lock myself in my room for hours. My most time of the day was spent studying for exams and I was becoming impatient day by day.

It was during third year of graduation, when one of my friend told me about MBA. I started reading more and more about it. I approached lot of people in my social circle who were doing or knew about the course. Frankly, in beginning my intention to do MBA was to just to use it as a silver lining to escape from the monotonous and boring life of Ranchi. But when I learnt in depth about importance of an MBA degree and the doors of opportunities it open in corporate life, I knew I had to do it.

After lot of persuasion and literally begging, my father finally agreed for me giving attempt for admission in B-schools. Coincidentally or unfortunately my CS final and CA exam collided in Dec 2015 and I couldn’t clear both of them. I was heartbroken but then gave CMAT next month and passed with decent marks. Now the challenge was which B-school to choose. It was then, when I came across an organisation called FormsAdda, it helped the aspiring MBA students to choose college and apply for the same. Through their help I was selected for IMI Bhubaneswar and with support of my parents and family, I joined the college. I never thought, that these two years were going to be a life changing experience for me. It was a roller coaster ride. Every day was a new learning and I started enjoying every moment of life. Made new friends, made new memories and with passing time I turned from an introvert to one the most popular student of my college. I participated in all co-curricular activities, led many events and was a silver medallist.

Exploring‌ ‌opportunities‌ ‌and‌ ‌achieving‌ ‌milestones.

Meanwhile, I was still looking for my area of interest. In our first year, we have to study all the papers and it was only in 2nd year when we had to choose our area of specialisation. I always had interest in economics and finance but role of HR and Marketing excited me. Well, I knew I wanted to work in finance Industry but I was yet looking for the right role. Fortunately, I got my internship in Aditya Birla Mutual Fund Company and also did a life project for Financial Literacy for RBI, Bhubaneswar and that made my mind clear towards my choice of job role. With some important papers of portfolio, accounting and risk management in finance. I did my specialisation in HR/Marketing. I knew I wanted to be in a role that would involve investments and financial planning.

By end of 2nd year, placements had begun. As a matter of fact, ICICI was one of the first company to visit college. Honestly, I did not wanted to join a Bank. So I was very casual in my placement process for the same. But the interview turned out to be very fun and exciting. The interviewers asked me my learning during internship and asked me to design a mutual fund portfolio for them. The interview lasted for almost 45 minutes and I got selected for role of wealth management in ICICI Bank, Bangalore where I was supposed to handle HNI and ultra HNI client’s portfolios.

This was a role that I guess, I was looking for a long time where I can put my finance knowledge and persuasion skills both in practice. My human relation skills helps me to build relationship and trust with clients, my marketing skills helps me to convince the clients to opt for our products and services and my finance knowledge helps me to design portfolio for them, stay updated with the changing financial market and help the customers to manage and grow their wealth.

I firmly believe, sometimes destiny has their own plans for you and no matter how tough the journey is, you end up getting what is right and destined for you. From a small town, conservative family, I am living here in Bangalore alone and doing well both personally and professionally. I have won few accolades in the two years of working and I strive to do my best in future as well and keep preparing for growth and promotions in career and strike a right balance between work and personal life in coming years.

That’s all for now