From a Gujarati-Medium School to Managing 40 People at DTDC: How Maitri Patel, the Only Woman Selected, Earned the Maverick Tag From a Pool of 2,500 MBA Students and Answered a Question About Gender in Logistics That She Had Never Thought About Before!

The DTDC interviewer told Maitri Patel the truth about the role she was applying for. Branch Coordinator. A team of 40 to 45 people. Many of them ungraduated. Some entirely unfamiliar with taking direction from a woman. Then the interviewer asked: what would you do if a rider or truck driver refused to listen to you because of your gender?

She was blank for several seconds. She had never considered this specific scenario. Then she answered: I will politely say to them, if you do not want to listen to me, stay here. I will come back to you. And I will go and talk to my senior supervisor. I will let them understand the whole scenario and then they can go and talk to them, because they are also laymen and they do not understand. So I will get the help of someone else.

The interviewer confirmed that this is, in fact, how those situations are actually handled in the field. The answer was not rehearsed. It was honest, practical, and grounded in a real understanding of how authority works in operational environments. It was also the answer that got her selected: one of 7 candidates chosen from the campus drive, and the only woman among them. You too can achieve your dreams of creating a career in logistics by pursuing MBA in Logistics and Supply Chain Management of Parul University!

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Maitri grew up in Ahmedabad. She attended a Gujarati-medium school that went up to Class 10. She describes herself during those years as a bookworm: someone who scored well but rarely looked up from the page long enough to see what the world actually looked like. She struggled with speaking in English and even reading in English. She was a textbook-first, world-later student.

She chose Parul University deliberately. Not the Ahmedabad campus, which was closer to home, but the Vadodara campus, because she wanted the distance. She wanted to come out of her comfort zone. A friend who had studied at the campus told her about it. She watched videos and read about the kind of university life it offered. What she wanted was not a degree. It was an open platform to explore, to be challenged, and to become a different version of herself. You too can explore how life at Parul University looks like for real!

When she sat for the DTDC interview, every word was in English. Not a single word in Hindi. The bookworm from the Gujarati-medium school conducted an entire placement interview, answered a scenario-based question about gender dynamics in field logistics, and secured a branch coordinator role at a national company. The distance between where she started and where she ended is the story.

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The decision to specialise in logistics and supply chain management crystallised during Parul University’s first-semester industry visit to Adani Port, one of the largest and most complex port operations in India. Standing inside a facility where global supply chains converge in real time, Maitri felt something no classroom had produced: a genuine pull toward the field.

She said: When we went to Adani Port and I saw full logistics and full supply chain, the global support team coming from there, at that point of time I felt like this is the kind of field which gives me more interest.

Before Parul University, she had worked as an assistant procurement manager at a small aviation startup after completing her bachelor’s degree. That role gave her direct contact with sourcing, parts management, and daily logistics decisions. The Adani Port visit connected that practical experience to an academic framework. Later, the Amul industry visit showed her what perishable supply chain management looks like at scale: million-litre tanks, 500+ product SKUs manufactured in one facility, all of it time-sensitive.

In her first semester, Maitri was selected as Class Coordinator. By the end of that same semester, her Dean observed something in how she operated and offered her a larger role: Super Core Coordinator. The title was created because the MBA batch had approximately 2,500 students, a number too large for a flat coordination structure.

The role required managing communication upward to the Dean and faculty, and downward across the full coordinator network. Class coordinators handled individual sections. Maitri coordinated the coordinators. This was organisational leadership at a scale most people do not experience until they are mid-career professionals. For Maitri, it was her first semester of a master’s degree, having just arrived from Ahmedabad.

The IMPACT training programme at Parul University runs for approximately 30 days. For MBA students, it culminates in the Maverick selection: a progressive narrowing that identifies the students who demonstrate a quality of thinking, composure, and self-awareness that separates them from the field.

The funnel:

• 2,500 MBA students entered the programme
• 200 after initial evaluation
• 150, then 112, then 50, then 30 through case study competitions, group discussions, and personal interviews
• Judges included senior professionals from Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, and Maersk Line
• 31 students received the Maverick tag and Maitri was one of them.

The training included daily case studies, daily GD rounds on unfamiliar topics, and a defining exercise: a communication coordinator named Renu Jha asked students to describe themselves in four words. Maitri was blank. After twenty years of her life, she could not name four words that described her personality. She worked on it. Her four words became: practical learner, management coordinator, research enthusiast, supply chain leader aspirant. Those four words now structure how she presents herself in every professional context.

She described the transformation: Back then, even though knowing the answer, I used to feel like should I speak about it or not? But after the Maverick tag, after those back-to-back case studies and interviews, what I learned is: just speak about it. Even if it is wrong, even if it is right, just speak. And that is how it changed my confidence.

40 days of impact training: how the Training & Placement Cell builds capability

The MBA programme requires a 45-day internship. The college offered references and some opportunities through its placement network, but most were not in Maitri’s core domain. So she sourced her own opportunity: Larsen & Toubro‘s construction division, one of India’s largest engineering and infrastructure conglomerates, in their supply chain department on an active construction project.

The decision to pursue her own internship rather than the easier path offered through college connections reflects how she approached the entire MBA: not by following the route laid out, but by identifying the experience that would actually move her toward where she wanted to go. If you too wish to achieve dreams just like Maitri, explore career programs after 12th, Parul University.

The DTDC process compressed everything into a single day:

• 8:00 AM: arrival and pre-placement talk
• Group discussion round
• Personal interview (scenario-based questions throughout, including the gender question)
• 9:15 PM: results announced. 7 names read out. Maitri’s was the second.
• 6 men, 1 woman. Maitri was the only woman selected.
• Offer letters issued the same evening. She walked out before 10:00 PM with a confirmed offer.

She noted something striking when comparing notes with other candidates afterward: everyone had been asked different types of questions. Some got resume walkthroughs. Some got mathematical problems. Maitri alone was given scenario-based challenges from start to finish. She did not know at the time whether that was a good sign.

The placement coordinator who noticed Maitri had not applied to DTDC and intervened was Unnati Mehta Ma’am. Maitri names her without being asked. Without that intervention, the core-domain placement might never have happened. This is the same kind of institutional attention that produced Soumya Dhakad’s 43 LPA outcome, where the Training & Placement Cell fought for his eligibility when he did not meet the cutoff.

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Branch Coordinator at DTDC means managing a diverse team of 40 to 45 people in a fast-moving operational environment, in a field that has historically not made space for women at the operational level. She knows the challenges. She was told directly in the interview. She answered directly in return. The preparation for that role was assembled piece by piece over two years: Adani Port, Amul, L&T, Maverick selection, IIMUN Mumbai, Super Core Coordinator, and a placement coordinator who noticed a gap and said something about it.

Maitri’s journey connects to specific programme features:

• MBA Logistics & Supply Chain Management: specialisation aligned with industry demand. DTDC, DHL, Maersk-class recruiters.
• Industry visits: Adani Port (Semester 1), Amul. Practical exposure that connects classroom models to operational reality.
• IMPACT training and Maverick selection: 30-day programme, 2,500 to 31, judged by Microsoft/Mercedes/Maersk professionals.
• IIMUN Leadership Tour Mumbai: interaction with industry leaders including Prithviraj Chavan (former CM Maharashtra). Revised assumptions about leadership.
• Udhyam Fest: flagship management festival. Maitri served on core committee.
• Training & Placement Cell: placement coordinator (Unnati Mehta Ma’am) identified that Maitri had not applied to her core domain company and intervened.
• PIERC: 230+ startups incubated. The same problem-solving and leadership skills Maverick builds are the foundation of the startup ecosystem.
• Head here to watch the heartwarming emotions and moments straight from Placement Day 2026, Parul University!