The One with Everything About Sympulse

Everything is fine!

// The Good Place music plays in the background //

We are not pretending that you are in 'The Good Place', but everything is definitely okay.

Do not worry about not having been selected into the clubs. There are bigger, better things up ahead. Over these coming weeks, we will introduce various things you can do with your free time that will add just as much value to your CV as clubs do. The articles will all be detailed and guide you towards your interests.

Before we go ahead with this article, here’s a heart-to-heart for all the amazing folks who didn’t get into clubs. It’s OKAY. Clubs/Cells/Boards/LITERALLY any other college activity is not the end-game for CV building and socializing in college.

And we can prove that with facts, figures, and actual examples from the senior batches. But again, we understand the solemn feelings rejection brings with itself, no matter how much consolation we give you.

So, live through these post-rejection blues for a couple of days, rant all you want, use coping strategies, unfollow the club pages which rejected you (petty but helps sometimes), BUT then remember to get back up and plan your college journey ahead rationally. We will be by your side throughout it all.

As part of those efforts, today we’ll talk about the closest alternative to clubs in symbi, i.e. Sympulse. Since all promotional Sympulse content has been memes that have only confused you all (based on the DMs we got), here are the answers to the most common questions pertaining to Sympulse that might bug you.

Q- What is Sympulse?

Sympulse is the annual cultural fest of SCMS, Pune that brings in real business and money to the college.

Q- How are Sympulse selections done?

Exactly the same way as the club selections. You fill out an application form, give three department preferences, give an interview, and then you get selected.

Q- What is the difference between wings and departments?

Wings in Sympulse are responsible for conducting the various events that attract the crowd to the fest. For example, Ananya, the cultural wing, conducts events like the fashion show, street dance, other literary and cultural events, etc. Sprint, the sports wing, conducts sports events like football, boxing, cricket, etc.

On the other hand, departments are responsible for back-end work and looking after the overall execution of the fest. It includes marketing, public outreach, bringing guests & sponsors, looking after accommodation, creatives, technicalities, hospitality etc.

Q-What are your chances of getting selected?

More than the clubs. Sympulse has a much larger core than all the clubs combined (500+ students are involved in Sympulse every year from all batches), so yes, your chances of getting selected are higher.

Q- Will not being in a club decrease my chances of being in Sympulse?

Yes and no. Some club heads are also Sympulse heads. Since their core members have already impressed them once, they might lean towards selecting the same people. But this doesn’t mean that your chances have reduced significantly. Every department has more than one heads who decide on the core team together, so one person’s bias doesn’t have that much of an impact on selections. Secondly, the heads will anyway steer clear of such blatant nepotism because it brings bad rep (especially now that we are there). So, go ahead and apply to the departments you know you will be an asset to without any pre-thoughts.

Q- How to choose a Sympulse department/wing?

First go and refer to the Symbi cheat sheet’s Sympulse section. Then read the Sympulse handbook the council has shared. Finally, shortlist the three departments/wings you want to go for, based on your skils and interest (and not on fake marketing gimmicks). Now you can either talk to us through DMs or email for a transparent, customized answer or directly approach the HODs through Instagram. Get all your doubts cleared before you make a decision. Sympulse is going to happen in March or April probably so you’re in for the long haul. If you don’t enjoy the work, you will regret joining.

Q. How to Prepare for Sympulse Interviews?

Go refer to the Symbi cheat sheet and the Sympulse handbook to understand what every single department and wing does. Then follow these steps-

1. Make a list of your own strengths and skills. Every little thing from being proficient in Excel to knowing origami counts (if it’s relevant to the department/wing).

2. Make a list of your prior experiences that highlight those strengths. Even having cosplayed as your favorite anime character counts as having experience for a fashion show.

3. Identify what kind of things the department does. For example, when applying for Press, make sure you study the previous Sympulse live videos and give suggestions on how you can improve them. If you are applying for a wing, read about all of their events and mention how you think you can help with them. For example, when applying to Sprint you can mention your experience in sports.

4. Apply to departments that correspond with your skills. No department is dispensable or uncool. Everything is equally important. Departments that don’t advertise aggressively like creatives or tech are especially integral to Sympulse.

5. And please for Heaven’s sake do NOT apply for the ‘coolness’ quotient. Everything is gonna be equally lame.

6. Give an honest interview. You don’t have to agree with everything the heads say. You can very well disagree with them if what you are saying is making sense. Most importantly, the interviews are going to be more or less like club interviews so if yours didn’t go well, see where you faced problems and improve on it.

Q. How NOT to choose a Sympulse department/wing?

Viral marketing has a place in promotions but why has everyone restricted themselves to only that? Where is the creativity? There are so many ways the department heads can make themselves known and using the outdated Kanye West dank meme format isn't it. The only wing which has sent out informative and helpful content is Symulate. So well done Symulate!

We don’t understand why everyone is marketing themselves as being the "fun department" when the FYs are already saturated with that narrative. Sympulse is a real business for the college. It's a real-life first-hand experience of becoming a business person. All the departments and wings together make it happen and they all have their own very important roles. THIS should be highlighted but no, not on their watch. Fun should be secondary. Drives and lunches should come next. If they want to capitalize on the fun quotient so much, then why not talk about the parties they literally force people to go to?

This obsession with ‘cool’ things in symbi won’t stop. But you can save yourself much of the troubles by making a rational decision. At the end, your recruiter doesn’t give a damn about how many road trips you went to or how many night overs you enjoyed. Your MBA application won’t be judged based on the scrumptious lunches you had with your core. So, let’s get to the point. Question the HODs. Ask them relevant, important information about their departments- the events they do, responsibilities core members are given, and skills they look for. Don’t reduce yourself to an extra application to be flaunted by a department that is completely irrelevant to your skills and interests. Don’t reduce yourself to a commodity, and respect yourself enough to choose your future plans wisely.

Signing off with that! Answering questions in DMs or via emails.

Love,

HH