Background:
I’m Sooraj and I’m essentially a Mechanical Engineering graduate
from Kerala, who worked in Software for a year, had enough and pursued design.
My story here will probably be a little different because more than anything
it’s just one of determination and endurance.
I wrote CEED three times - Failed to qualify in the first,
Got AIR 101 in the 2nd and AIR 58 in the 3rd. I went for
the IDC interviews on my second and third attempt and got shot down both times
(more on that in a bit). Finally with all my cards on the table I got selected
at IIT Kanpur.
I always drew, be it doodles, wall scribbles or professional
portraits. I love football so I started out drawing football comics in my
second year of college. At about 11pm one night last year in my stuffy Software
Company, I decided to quit and devote myself completely to design as that’s
what I wanted to do. To fund myself I opened up a caricature page on Facebook,
did some freelance cartooning and graphic design. I moved on to newer stuff like
using a graphic tablet & graphic design like infographics, posters, logos
(attached below) but still loved drawing. All this was extremely handy in the
end for visualizing and speed of thought for the CEED exam and help expand my
portfolio.
The CEED Exam:
In my opinion, the CEED exam isn’t something to pull your
hair out. All you need are:
·
Basic sketching ability (With a little
experience with shading – probably for one question only)
·
Visualization ability: Cannot emphasize this
enough. Comics and graphic novels will help you in a long way here just to
understand how to put out a scene on paper.
·
Basic general knowledge – Just got through all
the links here on TeaCupBlog and you’re covered. Prasanna sir has brilliantly
collated everything you need.
·
Speed of thought: This is the main constraint.
If you are reading this, you probably can draw. But getting it down on paper is
the hurdle. Just use your pencil - no rulers, protractors, compasses and what
not. Your drawings don’t have to be flawless, just get the idea across.
On my second attempt, I made a big mistake of not getting to
work on my portfolio after the exam. You’ll get a little more than a month
after the declaration of the results till when you’ll be sitting in front of
the interview panel. Get cracking at it immediately.
IDC – IIT Bombay
It was my 2nd time at IDC when I appeared this
year and the interviewers did remember me. Over here I leant the most basic
lesson during these interviews. This is not a crappy software engineering
interview where you can be pretentious. You’ve got to be truthful and honest
(it’s harder than it sounds) otherwise they’ll call your bluff. In the end the
interview was a #fail and I went out pretty dejected for the Second year
running
This was possibly the lowest I sunk in my life. I’d given it
a lot and probably blew it right at the end. With some effort I pushed through
all the criticism and applied for IIT Kanpur. I tweaked my portfolio a little
to showcase more creative content and remove redundancy. I shortened it from 42
pages to 27.
IIT Kanpur
There wasn’t any sort of a test, rather only interviews.
When I was called in for my interview they immediately looked through my
application form and questioned my “slightly” wayward history (B. Tech in
Mechanical to Working in Software to drawing cartoons). There are so many
answers you can say (like you learned something from each experience). I got past
all my natural pretentiousness and just told them that I realized it isn’t the
best history and I’ve made wrong decisions but this is something I’ve given
almost three years of my life for and never did I feel it was a mistake and I’d
keep going until I get there.
They then moved onto my portfolio which had my caricatures
and asked me to sketch one of the members of the panel in one minute (he had
significant features so it was easy). They also asked me about what is the main
attraction of the place I stay in Kerala. I said the Fishing nets of Kochi.
They replied that I being a Mechanical Engineer should be able to provide a
solution to ease their workload. I answered that it isn’t difficult to put in a
motor and automate the thing but it’s a part of our culture and is important
that it stays like that.
They also asked me to plot the graph of y = |x|+5. It came
out of the blue but I managed to answer. Other simple graphs were also asked
for some other students.
That was it! It wasn’t the most satisfying interview but I didn’t
stumble like in IDC. They were friendly and chilled out.
Final Words:
A little moment to thank Prasanna sir again and Trivakram
Annamalai sir for their amazing work and Ashish
Verma for telling me to be honest during interviews. Also I just want to insert a word for my
brother, sister-in-law and parents who kept supporting and believing in me even
when I didn’t.
Getting through to an M.Des program requires a bit of skill
and a LOT of perseverance and more than anything - a passion for it. It’s a
cliché to say that if you keep trying you’ll get there but that was my case.
Just be yourself, ride the storm and sunny days will come.
All the best you guys!
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