IIT boy who listed himself on Flipkart flooded with offers

Flipkart may not have taken on Aakash Neeraj Mittal, the IIT-K student whose customised resume went viral, but he is now fielding offers from other quarters. Here's how it all went down

"I thought of doing something crazy," says Aakash Neeraj Mittal, the 23-year-old student of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture from IIT-Kharagpur, who attempted to sell himself on Flipkart. Well, technically he made a clever resume for a Product Manager gig in November that went viral this month. Flipkart was to come to IIT-Kharagpur for campus placement.

Mittal says, "I enquired about the kind of candidates they were looking for, since they were going to choose maybe two or three out of the 1,500 that were to apply. The answer was the kind of candidate who knows the art of selling a product."

Mittal researched his options and came across many arresting resumes, top of the pile being Nina Mufleh's an Airbnb hopeful who created a website that mirrored Airbnb's. Mittal then spent 70 hours learning Photoshop and the resume was ready. His selling price, the sum that was also the salary bracket he was looking to fill, was Rs 27, 60,200. So why Flipkart? "Two reasons," Mittal says, "The money, and the profile they were offering." But he didn't get shortlisted.

Then on January 9, Mittal posted his resume on Facebook, just for laughs. Later, a senior re-posted it on Quora, referring to it as an impressive resume, and three weeks later, it was viral.

"I got more than 4,500 messages and a few job offers. Some start-ups have offered me the roles of co-founder or CTO," says Mittal, who is also getting advice on starting something of his own. But all is not peaches and cream. He has also been at the receiving end of some unsavoury remarks.

"I felt bad about these comments. They said I studied Ocean Engineering on their tax money and now I want to pursue a marketing job. I didn't ,6 come to IIT to study on their tax money. I cleared JEE, one of the most difficult examinations. I read recently, for every rupee invested on an IITian, we pay back Rs 15. So I want to do something on my own and show them that I haven't wasted their money." Mittal graduates in May 2016.

Author of a book based on a rape survivor's true story, Mittal says his heart lies in the creative field. "In IIT, you meet different people and realise your passion. I just feel I can't do justice to my talent in the field of Ocean Engineering," he says.

So apart from Flipkart, is there any other company Mittal wants to work with? "Uber India. As a customer, I have noticed a lot of loopholes in Uber's operations. I think I can rectify those problems," he says. But Mittal is sure about not working with food start-ups.

"Everyone is only copying each other," he says.

"Zomato was a unique idea; everyone else is just delivering food."

Source: techgig.com