‘I owe my success to the faculty of this institute’

It is not very easy to accept that one has made a mistake when it comes to choosing a career path. But what is good is that today, one can take a corrective path and excel in one’s career. This is precisely what happened with Jogendra Yadav, an alumnus of Apeejay Stya University-School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“After I gave my class XII Board exam, I had Science (non-medical). To begin with, I was not interested in studying Biology. But once I had chosen my stream, I found that engineering was not something that interested me. So, while I had wanted to take the NEET, I didn’t have the subjects to sit for the exam. The next best option was to take up DPharma,” Yadav said, who is working with Apollo Pharmacy in Delhi as a store supervisor.

Excerpts from the interview.

Why did you choose Apeejay Stya University?

I wanted to do a course at a university. Also, the DPharma programme at Apeejay Stya University (ASU) is Pharmacy Council of India approved. It was also the first batch of the course that was being offered back in 2017. I did a two-year course. When I did my research, I found that the faculty was also very good. There was no reason for me to not enroll here.

Where are you working, and what is your daily routine?

I am working with Apollo Pharmacy in Khanna Market in Delhi. Since I am a store supervisor, I have a team of 16 people. My work revolves around managing the store and ensuring that the team checks the stock and deals with the customers with politeness. When there are meetings, I need to go and attend those. I am in sales and retail; there is bound to be some pressure. But it is not something that I can’t handle.

You have a large team. What are the challenges? How do you handle those?

When there are people and that too from diverse backgrounds, there are bound to be differences among team members. People want leaves as well. That has to be managed. Ours is also a 24X7 store. Most people don’t want to do the night shift. But they have to and therefore, I put everyone on rotation. One can’t show any favouritism. Plus, one has to give due respect to the staff who is more senior to you.

How was the faculty?

There are no words to tell you how good the faculty there was. Manoj sir, Amisha ma’am, and Sanjay sir were excellent. I give a lot of credit to Manoj sir. He made the lectures so interesting. Not only was he a good teacher, but he was also a friend to the students.

Is the practical knowledge that you learnt coming in handy?

I would say that it was a boon. We got to learn a lot about the business side of pharmacy. We were given a lot of practical training. Sanjay sir, who taught pharmacology, gave us so much information, it was amazing. He told us how the industry works and how the retail sector works. Besides the theory, the practical workshops that he did were brilliant. I was not much of a learner but I loved the workshops he held. For example, once she asked us to go and collect as many visiting cards from the pharmacy shops as possible.

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“There are no words to tell you how good the faculty there was. Manoj sir, Amisha ma’am, and Sanjay sir were excellent. I give a lot of credit to Manoj sir. He made the lectures so interesting. Not only was he a good teacher, but he was also a friend to the students”

–Jogendra Yadav, Alumnus of Apeejay Stya University-School of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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Would you agree that the learning you got at ASU is the reason that gave you an edge over others?

Definitely. I would say that the way we were taught, gave me an edge over the others. The way the faculty taught was interesting and I was able to retain that. I have people on my team who have been there for many years but I became a supervisor due to my sheer hard work and my knowledge.

Would you recommend ASU?

Of course. The programme is good and the faculty is just as good. I had lots of fun as well. It was much before the COVID-19 times, so we had a blast even though reaching ASU was a bit cumbersome. But this more than made up for the fun I had. I participated in a T-shirt painting competition and won the first prize. I attended the college festival as well.