IIMB grad opts out of placements to chase his dream

In November, five students with over 34 months of experience opted out

At that time of the year when IIM graduates choose to join global companies for hefty pay packages, a student from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) has decided to take the entrepreneurial route to chase his dreams.

Aditya Kulkarni, a student of the 2011-2013 batch at IIM-B, has decided to opt out of the campus placements during the final placement season this year. Around 380 students of the IIMB are attending the campus placements which started on Tuesday.

Kulkarni, along with his friend Rishikar, an alumnus of IIT-Madras, founded ‘Learning Outcomes’, a company that aims to make child assessment in schools a holistic process. Kulkarni, a graduate in electronics from BITS-Pilani, is from a family of teachers.

“There are quite a few standard tests available on Wednesday to evaluate a child’s performance, but there is a serious need for an effective diagnostic tool,” said Aditya Kulkarni. The company’s aim is to make assessments at schools a pedagogical tool and not a tool for measurement. It will help in analysing data and generate results that can in turn be used as a feedback mechanism that will complete the learning loop. The young entrepreneur is also planning to make Learning Outcomes an efficient way for teachers to engage parents in their child’s growth.

Presently, the venture has tie-ups with schools in Pune and they are slowly expanding to Mumbai and Bangalore.

Earlier, in November, during the PGP summer placements, five students with over 34 months of work experience opted out of the summer internship to pursue other opportunities. During the present final placements, around 120 companies from diverse verticals like banking, finance, management consulting, sales and marketing are participating.