From Ara, Bihar to Havells: How a Parul University MBA Marketing Student Earned His Placement

Success in campus placements is built through consistent learning, industry exposure, and continuous self-improvement. For Nitish Kumar Ray, an MBA Marketing student at Parul University, this journey culminated in securing a placement with Havells India Ltd, one of India’s leading electrical equipment and consumer goods companies.

Coming from a non-business academic background, Nitish transformed his communication skills, gained practical industry experience, and made the most of the university’s placement preparation ecosystem. His journey demonstrates how determination, mentorship, and the right learning environment can help students build successful careers.

He did not arrive with obvious advantages. He came from Ara, a small town in Bihar, with an undergraduate degree in mathematics rather than business, and an early fear of speaking in front of a room. What he had instead was a willingness to treat each weakness as work. That is the useful part of his story, and it is the part any student can repeat.

Nitish Kumar Ray grew up in Ara, Bihar, where he completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Mathematics at Veer Kunwar Singh University before moving to Parul University for his MBA. The mathematics background is not incidental. It nurtured analytical habits, structured thinking, the ability to interpret data, and a problem-solving mindset that later shaped how he read markets and consumer behaviour.

Coming from a small town, he had self-doubts from the beginning about whether he would be able to compete with peers who had more exposure. He chose to find the answer to that question through effort and hard work instead of dwelling on assumptions.

After finishing his degree in mathematics, Nitish opted to study an MBA in Marketing because he was drawn to marketing’s unique combination of analytical and creative thinking. He saw that the problem-solving skills he had developed during his undergraduate degree matched well with the study of consumer behaviour, branding, advertising, and sales.

He chose Parul University for its industry-focused MBA programme, training-oriented learning methodology, and strong placement support. As a student of the Faculty of Management Studies, he experienced an academic environment that emphasises industry exposure. Early in the programme, he realised that academic knowledge alone could not guarantee professional success and understood the need to develop the practical and professional skills that employers value alongside technical knowledge.

The turning point in Nitish’s preparation was not a subject. It was a skill he did not have when he started.

Despite a solid academic base, he struggled to communicate fluently and openly. Group discussions were the hardest task for him. He hesitated to speak in front of others, and low confidence made him hold back exactly when recruiters were watching for the opposite. He understood the risk clearly that employers assess how a candidate communicates and presents itself, not only carries academic knowledge.

Instead of the weakness that set his ceiling, he worked on it every day. He built vocabulary, rehearsed presentations, and practised speaking until structure replaced hesitation. Gradually he could hold a point in a group discussion while still listening to others, this balance of a good discussion rewarded him later. The transformation was gradual, and it was the single change that made the rest of his profile usable.

A major step in Nitish’s MBA journey was an internship at RSA Automotive Pvt. Ltd., a Hyundai dealership, where he had the opportunity to apply the marketing theories he had learnt in the classroom to real sales situations. He followed the end-to-end sales process, from first contacting a potential buyer to closing a deal. It was here that he connected classroom concepts with actual customer behaviour.

What the internship taught him in practice:

• Customer relationship management and how consumer behaviour actually plays out in a showroom.
• Product positioning and branding as practical business decisions rather than textbook definitions.
• The complete sales cycle, from prospecting to closing.
• Discipline and adaptability while working in a professional corporate environment.

Apart from his own efforts, Nitish also benefited from the structured support of Parul University’s Training and Placement Cell. The placement preparation programme strengthened his aptitude, communication skills, group discussion performance, interview readiness, and overall personality development, all of which played an important role during campus recruitment.

After every mock interview, he received detailed feedback that helped him identify his weak areas and improve before the actual placement drives. This combination of consistent practice and guided preparation enabled him to approach the placement process with greater confidence and readiness.

The mock interviews were the most useful part. Each one exposed something to fix, in communication, body language, or composure, and the feedback afterwards drove steady progress. By the time he sat his actual Havells interview, the panel was not unknown. He had rehearsed the pressure.

He credits his mentor, Mr. Ankit Pandya, for much of that focus. Consistent mentoring kept him working on weaknesses instead of avoiding them, and built the confidence that carried into the interview room. Nitish Ray now documents his professional journey confidently on his LinkedIn profile.

When Parul University’s MBA student Nitish received his placement offer from Havells India Ltd, he described it as one of the most emotional moments of his life because it represented years of hard work rather than a single fortunate day.

“Getting selected at Havells was one of the happiest moments of my life. It reflected years of hard work, continuous learning, and self-improvement.” – Nitish Kumar Ray

He attributes the achievement to a specific combination of factors: strong communication skills, confidence during group discussions, practical exposure through his internship, conceptual clarity, and a positive attitude. None of these came by chance. Each was developed through consistent effort.

One placement is one data point, but it fits a documented pattern for management students at Parul University, not only engineering students.

The university has been recognised by ASSOCHAM as the Best University in Placements for three consecutive years, and more than 2,200 recruiters engage with its campuses. Management placement outcomes sit alongside technical ones. The same campus that placed B.Tech students at Microsoft also places MBA students across leading corporates, and cross-disciplinary career journeys are common, as seen in the case of a B.Tech student selected by Amazon for an operations role. Nitish’s journey, from a mathematics degree to a marketing role at Havells, reflects another example of the same pattern.

The lesson from his story is practical and specific. For MBA placements, communication skills and group discussion performance are not optional extras. They often make the difference between knowing the right answer and receiving the offer, and they are skills that any student can build through consistent practice and early preparation.

Reflecting on his own experience, Nitish urges students to begin preparing for placements early rather than waiting until the final semester. “Developing communication skills is as important as good academics, as your confidence and clarity while sharing ideas will stay with you throughout your placement process, during interviews and group discussions,” he says.

He also recommends that students make the most of every internship, as real industry exposure helps build confidence and prepares them for the job market. Finally, he advises students to treat rejection as a learning experience, believing that “you learn from every rejection.”

Also Read: How the Mavericks Programme at Parul University’s MBA programme prepares management students through intensive industry-led training, mentorship, and corporate evaluation before campus placements.