About Me
My name is Pratik Mishra. I walked the same traditional path - did an engineering from BITS Pilani, followed it with a software development job at Citibank. Learnt a few things about finance and IT and decided it was time to pivot. I studied for CAT, XAT and GMAT and finally cracked XLRI. I have recently graduated and thought, lets mentor folks. This stems from a personal pain of paying close to 50k INR for consultancy services during my preparation years. Welcome to Left turns and I hope this adds value to your MBA preparation journey.
To know why the name left turns - read on !
Asymmetric Bets
July 2021 - Jan 2024
Jan 2024 - Jan 2025
Jan 2025 - Jan 2026
Left Turn #1 :Choosing Software Development after Civil Engineering. Why? A lot of core jobs disappeared during COVID, making the transition more of a necessity than a choice.
First time experience of corporate culture with good folks who taught me how to navigate IT along with nurturing my growth ambitions.
Left Turn #2: Could not crack CAT, XAT, or GMAT on the first attempt. That phase brought a year of self-doubt — so I know exactly how this bet feels. Asymmetric?! I can answer this: “Does studying again for 1 year actually make sense?”
Talked to my peers and friends who advised me to prepare again - so I tried again
Left Turn #3: Finally cracked the B-school entrance exams, followed it up by converting XLRI, NTU, and ISB. “Why not ISB?” is a question I’ve been asked more times than I can count — the answer is on the blogs.