From Backlogs to Boardrooms

Meet Shivam Jha, a living embodiment of adaptability and sheer determination. From starting their engineering journey with backlogs and a GPA of 3 on 10 to holding leadership positions at social organisations and working with some of the world’s most prestigious organisations like JPMorgan Chase, McKinsey, and PwC, their story is nothing short of extraordinary.

As the co-founder of the 180 DC DTU branch and former Chief Operations Officer of 180 Degrees Consulting globally, Shivam played a pivotal role in establishing one of the most successful student-led consultancy branches. 

Interviewing him as a team was an insightful experience. Beyond his achievements, what stood out was his ability to turn challenges into opportunities, leaving us with valuable lessons in resilience and strategic thinking.

Q. Okay, so the first question we were really looking forward to asking you is: What were the major lessons you learned during your journey from overcoming four backlogs to building such a successful career? Along with that, what advice would you give to someone in a similar situation?

The first advice I would give is to take your first year seriously and avoid getting backlogs like I did.

It’s an interesting story because, initially, I didn’t want to pursue engineering. It wasn’t my passion or something I aspired to, even though I took coaching for a couple of years. I had imagined myself pursuing English literature and going to Delhi University, but unfortunately, that didn’t work out after my 12th grade. Given that JEE was the backup option, I ended up enrolling in Mechanical Engineering.

Throughout my first year, I thought I’d probably drop out because I felt engineering wasn’t meant for me. I wanted to pursue a career in writing, which is still one of my passions. I got an editorial internship with a news media outlet, but somewhere down the line, despite a lot of effort, I realized things weren’t going as planned. During the first year, I wasn’t attending college much. Instead, I spent a lot of time elsewhere figuring out ‘what-if-not-this’ - either participating in competitions, reading, exploring Delhi, or pursuing creative writing. This came along with several health issues along the way. Because of that, academics took a backseat and I ended up with one backlog in the first term. I thought, “Okay, one backlog, I can clear that.” But in the second term, I got three more. By the end of the first year, it became clear that my plan to drop out wasn’t working, and I had to do some contingency planning.

Starting your second year with a GPA of 3-point-something out of 10 is far from ideal. In a batch of about 1800 students, I was probably ranked 1800. That’s not a good starting point. So, my first piece of advice to anyone in this situation is to take your first year seriously. Enjoy yourself as much as possible, but don’t let academics fall behind. Even if you don’t like the subjects, you need to pass them.

In the second year, things got tougher because I had to handle core mechanical engineering subjects alongside the backlogs from the first year. This meant I had to manage nine or ten subjects in a single term. The pressure was immense, with back-to-back exams. Thankfully, I managed to clear all my backlogs by the end of the year. However, I wasn’t excelling—I was just barely managing to get through.

Entering the third year with a GPA of 6-point-something is far from ideal too, especially during internship season, when most companies have a minimum cutoff of 7 or higher. I couldn’t get a single shortlist because I wasn’t even eligible to apply. So I found opportunities with a few early stage start-ups, and delved into research. My goal for the third year was to push my GPA up to at least 7. And when the placement season began, I got through the first company that shortlisted me.

I never gave up on extracurriculars or stopped pursuing things I enjoyed, even while dealing with backlogs and other issues. Continuing to do what made me happy was the only reason I managed to survive those four years of engineering.

By the end of college, I had raised my GPA to 7.7, which was a significant improvement albeit an uphill task.

Apart from academics, I’d also emphasize the importance of club culture. Being involved in clubs becomes a big part of why you go to college every day. Let’s face it—most of us don’t attend lectures out of excitement for the content. What keeps you going are the people around you and the activities you engage in. I was involved in four to five clubs during college, and by senior year, I was leading three of them. That experience motivated me and gave me purpose.

Looking back 10 years after graduating, you won’t remember the grades you got in a specific exam or whether a particular lab class was exciting. What you’ll remember are the people you spent time with and how you made them feel. Those memories and relationships will matter the most in retrospect.

So, keep these things in mind, focus on balancing academics with extracurriculars, and the rest will fall into place one way or another.

Q. I just have a follow-up. I think you make it sound very easy, but I still don't fully understand. For example, if someone has four backlogs—like my friend, who is very good at tech—his major concern is that he's repeatedly asked why he has backlogs and has to explain them. So my question is: How often are you asked why you had four backlogs?

That’s a very fair question. I would say, apart from interviews like these, no one asks about them. Once you’ve done enough to make up for it—once you’ve covered and checked enough boxes to prove who you are—it doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s a great redemption story to tell, and I often like to wear it as a badge of pride to own it instead of being afraid of someone else questioning my insecurities.

Let’s say you look at your profile in broader terms. There are largely five aspects to consider:

1. Academics

2. Co-curricular achievements

3. Research or projects you’ve worked on

4. Internships or any prior work experience

5. Extracurriculars

If you’re lacking in one area but are strong enough to compensate in others, it balances out fairly well if you meet the basic thresholds. If your friend has backlogs, then yes, it’ll be an uphill task, but it can also be turned into a compelling narrative. That’s good news because while overcoming those challenges, you come out as a stronger person.

Q. So we all really wanted to know what inspired you to establish 180 Degrees Consulting DTU and what motivated you to continue working with the global organisation even after you graduated?

180 Degrees Consulting DTU started in my friend's hostel room. Back in the fifth semester or so, we were doing a lot of case competitions together and enjoyed the grind a lot. Back then, there weren’t a lot of case competitions happening because the consulting culture in general, even outside DTU, was pretty much non-existent. One of these was hosted by BITS Pilani, and that was my first introduction to 180 Degrees Consulting. Even though we didn’t win, it gave us an inlet into the world of 180.

After being intrigued, we looked it up and thought, “Why not have something like this at DTU?” At the time, DTU's culture was more inclined towards people joining fests or cultural societies. No one wanted to put in the extra effort of joining a club that would require actual work. People joined societies mostly for socializing or CV points — just organizing a fest was much easier than starting a society or a club focused on doing real projects and helping other organizations. Sounded outrageous at the time, and we were apprehensive but believed there could be enough interest to achieve a critical mass.

When we started, we were a team of three and the process of getting the branch was quite challenging. We had to go through three or four stages of applications, interviews, a proposal submission - a lot of heavy lifting over 2-3 months, and we eventually got the approval.

Next, we had to get permission from the administration, which was an insane task in a government college. Convincing people and finding a faculty advisor who bought into our idea and was serious about supporting us was a big challenge. So we reached out to the Delhi School of Management (DSM) faculty, which had recently set up a new building at DTU, who were likely more receptive to the idea.

When we began recruiting, to our surprise, we received over 200 applications in the first cycle just by word of mouth, and we grew to a team of 40. Then the challenge of onboarding clients began. But once you’ve established a working template, everything else gets easier—it’s just that first step that’s extremely difficult.

In the first year, we did around 7 projects with several social startups and enterprises, each at a different stage of maturity and operating in different industries. Most of this hard work happened after our placements - a time when people usually relax while waiting to graduate. However, we decided to double down during that time, working harder to secure more clients, and participate in more competitions - actually started winning by this point.

Creating something from scratch was a huge responsibility. The initial members played a critical role in shaping the culture, which was the toughest thing to establish.

Every other ‘non-tech’ club in the ecosystem back then focused only on teaching students how to clear interviews, but they didn’t do any real work. They didn’t teach hands-on skills of solving real-life cases, dealing with clients, or producing high-quality deliverables.

Establishing a culture where people worked on real projects with strict deadlines—set by actual clients, not flexible student timelines—was a big shift. This is one of my fondest takeaways.

If you ask anyone who has been part of 180 Degrees Consulting and later joined consulting, they’d tell you that the quality of work and decks we produced was at least 75–80% of the level of professionals.

In our second year, thanks to everyone’s hard work, we won the Best New Branch award globally. Competing against top business universities worldwide and achieving that was a huge testament to all the effort that went in.

Even after graduating, I continued working closely with the Global Leadership Team (GLT) in a volunteering capacity because it made sense to continue contributing to something I was so passionate about.

We had an insightful conversation with Shivam Jha Bhaiya for over two hours and learned a lot. That’s why we’ve divided the interview into two parts—stay tuned for the second part coming soon!

INTERVIEWERS