Ex-police chief hopes to use skills from leadership class
Know Your Classmates
Anusha Seetharaman, WG'07
Issue date: 10/16/06 Section: Insider
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Rajan Singh, WG'07, is your typical Wharton student : an Indian engineer with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). But the typicality stops there: rather than pursue a job at a multinational or pursue a Master's degree in Engineering, Rajan chose to become a cop! After going through the highly competitive and rigorous Indian Administrative Services (IAS) examination, Rajan chose to join the Indian Police Service. In order to understand him better, and to learn more about his atypical trajectory to business school, I sat down and had a chat with him.
Tell me about yourself.
In College they tried to teach me Electrical Engineering. Pretty soon I realized that the weird mathematics and convoluted equations were not likely to excite me. So I decided to do something more 'real'. I chose to join the Indian Police Service for three reasons:
1. No other career option would have given such authority and power to make things happen.
2. I loved the challenge of commanding thousands of people in daunting situations
3. I could not think of any thing better to do!
For a few years, I was the Commissioner of Police of Trivandrum City. Life as a cop had its excitement; controlling violent mobs, negotiating under stressful situations, and dealing with the meanest politicians was part of the game. And then there were the daily challenges of commanding a large police force and motivating officers to put their lives in danger to do their job every day.
What was the most exciting/thrilling memory from those days?
Some of them included:
tackling a violent murderous mob of 25000 people without using lethal force and heading a rescue operation after a landslide killed 50 people.
But the most thrilling memory is when my daughter was born!
Why did you come to Wharton?
1. Once I got used to the job, the challenge started ebbing
2. I did not want to walk a knife's edge every day
3. I realized that the stress would otherwise kill me soon
Does Wharton make you fall asleep?
I would not blame Wharton for that.
What will you do post-MBA?
I will likely rejoin my summer employer (McKinsey). I would like to go back to India within a few years and find something meaningful to do. Or maybe I will join politics and test the skills I learned in the Leadership class (I hope they don't backfire!)
Tell me about yourself.
In College they tried to teach me Electrical Engineering. Pretty soon I realized that the weird mathematics and convoluted equations were not likely to excite me. So I decided to do something more 'real'. I chose to join the Indian Police Service for three reasons:
1. No other career option would have given such authority and power to make things happen.
2. I loved the challenge of commanding thousands of people in daunting situations
3. I could not think of any thing better to do!
For a few years, I was the Commissioner of Police of Trivandrum City. Life as a cop had its excitement; controlling violent mobs, negotiating under stressful situations, and dealing with the meanest politicians was part of the game. And then there were the daily challenges of commanding a large police force and motivating officers to put their lives in danger to do their job every day.
What was the most exciting/thrilling memory from those days?
Some of them included:
tackling a violent murderous mob of 25000 people without using lethal force and heading a rescue operation after a landslide killed 50 people.
But the most thrilling memory is when my daughter was born!
Why did you come to Wharton?
1. Once I got used to the job, the challenge started ebbing
2. I did not want to walk a knife's edge every day
3. I realized that the stress would otherwise kill me soon
Does Wharton make you fall asleep?
I would not blame Wharton for that.
What will you do post-MBA?
I will likely rejoin my summer employer (McKinsey). I would like to go back to India within a few years and find something meaningful to do. Or maybe I will join politics and test the skills I learned in the Leadership class (I hope they don't backfire!)
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