CareerCarve Activity List for Preparation Roadmap

Below are the various types of areas that you can work on to build on your development areas. All the things you do
during your MBA are essentially activities to work on your development areas. It is important to understand which
development area you are working on when you do a particular activity. To organize your thought process while
building the preparation roadmap, you need to identify the right activity(ies) to improve on the development area.

Summer Internship Project

This is an amazing platform to improve multiple development areas. Do not hesitate to keep SIP under multiple development
areas

• Irrespective of which area you have your SIP in, assess what part of the SIP can help you work on this development
area. Discuss with seniors/ professors/ CareerCarve team if you have any challenges in identifying this. During the
SIP, ensure that you focus on the part identified above, even if it is not the most critical part of the SIP. Also, identify
any additional tasks that you can do in your SIP to build on this area. Make separate sub-tasks for each area / activity
that you have identified. Some examples:
1. To improve inter-personal skills: Talk to 100 customers to collect data (marketing, sales, operations,
process etc)
2. To improve Python skills: Analyse data collected above (or data available within the company) to identify
trends in a business area. Derive insight. Use Python to make graphs
3. To improve presentation skills: Make a short 5 slide ppt to clearly present action and findings from above
analysis to your mentor/ leadership team (If they are not available, present to professors / peers)
4. To build process improvement skills: Observe and document existing high volume processes in the
company. After analysis, suggest To-Be model with clear process improvements
5. To build financial analysis skills: Lets say you are doing customer cold-calling. Build a model to identify cost
of calling and margins obtained from the calls. Establish RoIe and how a scaled model will look.

Subject Knowledge
There is a certain amount of theory - concepts, techniques etc. that are required for any job. While some of these are taught
in year 1 of the MBA, many are taught in the electives that you choose. Some areas just require reading. All of this needs
tracking - use the sub-tasks below ensure you are prepared

• Electives/Courses: which can help improve this development Area. Take help from seniors, professors and
CareerCarve team to identify electives. If there is an elective that just has research, apply for that and do the
research in your area of interest (this can also be a substitute for a not having a relevant internship)

• Online Link and Websites: There can be many online resources, websites, company webpages where you can find
relevant content for this development area. Find such links and create deadline. For example, to understand the
latest happenings in analytics, follow the analytics vidhya blog or analytics India magazine. Follow Aswath
Damodaran’s page for Finance knowledge. There is no resume points for this, but it helps build knowledge and do
well in interviews.

• Research Papers, Case Studies, Company Reports: These are handy material to acquire the most recent and
relevant knowledge about the development area. Find as per the development area and create deadline. Use
college library subscriptions to access to some of these reports as well. For example, to build industry awareness
and application theory, refer to company white papers. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/case-studies.html
gives you an understanding of how consulting happens. Identify resources like this.

NOTE: All the templates, examples and data shared above are sole property of CareerCarve and to be used only by intended receiver. Circulation of any of this
material without written consent from CareerCarve is strictly prohibited.
 Projects
After SIP, this can have maximum impact on your learning other than attracting interviewer’s attention. Use this exhaustively
to improve multiple development areas

• Live/Corporate Projects: Finalise and update a project which improves this development area. If you are unsure
about what live project you may get in a future date, create a task “To Finalise Live/Corporate Project” for this
future date. On that date, update the exact project details and update the deadline by which you will complete this
project
1. (https://www.oysterconnect.com)
2. (https://www.letsintern.com)
3. (https://internshala.com)
4. (https://www.hellointern.com)
5. TIPS: Copy of Live Project: You may or may not get a live project from above. If the project is relevant to
improve this development area, create a copy of this project, find a senior or professor who can act as your
guide and work on this.

• Academic Projects: Identify what projects can help you improve this development area; in the electives you have
chosen. Talk to your immediate seniors, look at what all projects they did. Speak to your professors. Even if these
projects are to be done in a future date, you must finalise these projects now as per the development area

• International Immersion Projects: Some development areas may require international exposure. Identify if you
need one, check with your college what options are available and freeze a plan for this.

Certifications
Certifications can improve your subject knowledge significantly. CAUTION: Too many certifications across diverse areas is
not a good choice. Instead go deeper in one area and develop solid knowledge which you can justify in the interview.

• Managed by College: Your college may have some relevant certification negotiated with a vendor like KPMG Six
Sigma. Finalise one that is most suitable for your requirement and assign deadlines

• Online Certification Program (MOOCs): There are many websites which provide various certifications free or
minimal cost. Some are more expensive if they have University issued certificate as well. Use the links below.
1. https://www.coursera.org
2. https://www.udemy.com
3. https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate
4. https://www.swayam.gov.in
5. https://www.linkedin.com/learning
6. https://www.kaggle.com
7. https://www.datacamp.com
8. www.kraftshala.com
9. www.finshiksha.com

• Company Certifications: These are provided directly by companies on whose platform you have to work. Ex-
Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. You must choose certification which is extremely relevant and meaningful for the
development area

• 3rd Party Certification Courses

1. Finance: NCFM, Finshiksha, FRM, CFA
2. Operations: APICS, CSCP, PMI
NOTE: All the templates, examples and data shared above are sole property of CareerCarve and to be used only by intended receiver. Circulation of any of this
material without written consent from CareerCarve is strictly prohibited.
 Extra-Curricular Activities
A lot of personality building happens through this. You can also look for some key responsibilities/ opportunities which can
add lot of value.

• Inter College Competitions: Check last year calendar and find out what competitions you can participate this year.
Start preparing. Dare2Compete is a great source to look for these competitions. Create separate sub-tasks for each
competition you want to take part in, along with date

• Hackathons/Company Contests: Fantastic place to expose yourself to practical problems. Ex- Mahindra Warroom,
HUL LIME etc., Kaggle/ DataCamp Hackathon. Hackathons are for more analytics roles. Dare2Compete is again a
great source for this. Create separate sub-tasks for each event, with dates

• Social Work/NGO/Rotaract Club: Your college may already have a setup do social work. Plan to join as per the
requirement of development area

Positions of Responsibility
Perfect setup within college to build solid profile. Check your development area requirement

• Clubs & Committees: Be part of a club and plan what activities you want to do over next 9 months which will help
you focus on this development area. Any club is ok, so long as it drives your behavioural training and you are able
to achieve something significant. Discuss with CareerCarve team to understand what POR can help for certain
development area

NOTE: All the templates, examples and data shared above are sole property of CareerCarve and to be used only by intended receiver. Circulation of any of this
material without written consent from CareerCarve is strictly prohibited.
 CareerCarve Preparation Roadmap Todoist Collateral
How to use

1. Click on the link

2. It will redirect you to Todoist account. If you are logged in already, it will simply add the template in your
Todoist account as a project

Blank Template

Use this template to start building a new Preparation Roadmap from scratch. It is self-explanatory and you can build
a solid roadmap using this by spending considerable amount of time

• Blank Template For Starting A New Preparation Roadmap

Example Templates

We have shared example templates to display how a final preparation roadmap should look like. Do not copy paste it
to your roadmap. Use it only for a better understanding of what your roadmap will look like.

• Marketing Example
• Finance Example
• Operations Example
• General Management Example
• Product Management Example
• Human Resource Management Example
• Consulting Example
• Analytics Example
• IT Roles Example

NOTE: All the templates, examples and data shared above are sole property of CareerCarve and to be used only by intended receiver. Circulation of any of this
material without written consent from CareerCarve is strictly prohibited.