Want to give back to society, say UPSC toppers

Aditya Srivastava who secured the top rank in the Civil Services Examination (CSE), quit his job at Goldman Sachs to prepare for the examination.

Aditya Srivastava who secured the top rank in the Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), results of which were declared on Tuesday, quit his job at Goldman Sachs, an investment banking company, to prepare for the examination as he wanted to get away from his desk job and work for the betterment of the society.

A B. Tech in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur, Mr. Srivastava, who hails from Lucknow, topped the examination in his third attempt. At present, he is undergoing IPS training in Hyderabad as he had cleared the examination in his second attempt as well.

Also read | How does the UPSC Civil Services Exam work?

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Srivastava said consistency and self-motivation are the key to cracking the examination. “I like reading and that helped me unwind during my preparation. I particularly like to read about dinosaurs. Infact, in one of my interviews I even mentioned to the panel that the popular movie Jurassic Park is not accurate,” Mr. Srivastava said. He added that his journey to the top of the ranklist was full of ups and downs and his advice to aspirants would be to learn from the experience of previous attempts.

A total of 1,016 candidates (664 men and 352 women) have been recommended by the Commission for appointment to various services. Among the top 25 successful candidates, 10 are women, two of whom are in the top five.

Animesh Pradhan from Talcher in Odisha, a BTech in Computer Science from NIT Rourkela, secured the second rank. He cleared the examination his first attempt. Appearing for the examination was a culmination of his childhood dream and a well thought out career decision influenced by his childhood experiences of growing up in rural Odisha.

“Having grown up in Odisha and having seen a lot of socio-economic injustice around me, I wanted to come back and serve the people of my state in sectors of health and education,” Mr. Pradhan said. He said he has seen a fair deal of setbacks in his personal life, having lost both his parents, and especially his mother a month back.