'Everyone knows who TN Seshan is': UPSC topper Aditya Srivastava on why he left a Rs 2.5 lakh a month job at Goldman Sachs

‘Everyone knows who TN Seshan is’: UPSC topper Aditya Srivastava on why he left a Rs 2.5 lakh a month job at Goldman Sachs

Lucknow resident Aditya Srivastava, who bagged the coveted All India Rank 1 in the UPSC Civil Services mains examination 2023, left a high-paying job at Goldman Sachs to follow his civil service ambition.

A graduate from IIT Kanpur with a degree in electrical engineering, Srivastava was earning around Rs 2.5 lakh a month at Goldman Sachs in Bengaluru in 2019. Just 15 months into the role, Srivastava quit the job and returned home to start preparing for UPSC.

In a clip shared by Rau’s IAS Study Circle , Srivastava is seen explaining his reason to pick UPSC over Goldman Sachs, which the interviewer said could have got him a US stint.

A volunteering experience changed his perspective and made him choose UPSC.

“No one remembers who worked as a partner at Goldman Sachs, but everyone knows who Mr. TN Seshan is,” he replied.

Srivastava had earlier ranked 236th in the 2022 UPSC civil service exam and opted for the Indian Police Service (IPS).

“It was mostly about identifying previous mistakes or the perceived mistakes that I thought I had made. So, like in General Studies 1 and 4, I identified the reason why I was falling far behind what the toppers were getting and I tried to correct those mistakes. I would say that was the primary thing which put me from rank 236 to rank one,” he told India Today.

What did he do differently this time?

“The main thing I did a bit differently was in-depth analysis of past year’s papers, be it of prelims, or be it identifying the various patterns that USPC is following, be it in sentence formation or the kind of questions they are framing and also the kind of answers that toppers are giving to them,” said Srivastava.  He said self-motivation and consistency are the keys to cracking it.

The IAS topper said his first task when he assumes his post would be to “implement all the schemes that the government is making for the people to the best of my ability”.

“After that, if I get a chance at a public policymaking level, then I would like to work for children, specifically in health and education,” he added.

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