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Ahmedabad: ‘I could not clear the final summer internship interviews for my top 3 preferred firms despite being on hotlist inone of them,’ writes a student. Another writes, ‘I failed in Class XII exam as I didn’t know how to write in English.’
These are just the two of the 26 and growing ‘CV of failures’ by IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) students posted on Instagram. Aproject, initiated by Prof Devasmita Chakraverty and carried out by PGP students Aarushi Agarwal, Ashutosh Rungta and MehulBhola, intends to highlight that any failure is not final – even those getting admission in the top B-school of India could haveacademic or professional failings that they overcame. The project went online on November 20.
Prof Chakraverty developed ‘Managing self-limiting beliefs in education and training’ course and 2020 marked its maiden year. “In the course, students learn to critically look at education system, theories of learning and motivation, and concepts such as imposter syndrome. In one of the sessions, we started developing a combined CV of failures,” she said. “The students realized that we take pride in discussing our successes and accomplishments, but often forget to talk about failures.”
The concept was introduced a few years ago by Johannes Haushofer, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, to make a broader audience realize that all encounter failures in one form or the other while eventually achieving success. The project is also inspired by the popular ‘Post Secret’ initiative. “Students were hesitant to write about their failures at first. But soon, we created a seven-page long ‘CV’ in 15 minutes. Someone could not get into their dream college or pursue the field they wanted to, whereas someone could not find a position after several internships. Someone had given up on the dream of becoming a musician for a career in engineering,” said Prof Chakraverty.
The students participating in the initiative said that there still exists a great hesitation in sharing our stories of failures with others as it’s associated with weakness, even when such experiences teach valuable lessons. The project thus took shape where the community members are encouraged to write anonymously on a postcard and put it in a drop box on the campus. An anonymous online form is also introduced. The project intends to broaden its horizons with inclusion of all current and past students, faculty and staff members.
Excerpted from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/a-cv-of-failures-penned-by-iim-a-grads/articleshow/79357685.cms