“If you go into the interview as an IAS officer, you will come out as one” – NALSAR grad and UPSC Rank No. 6, Sakshi Sawhney

“I did not want to use my education only for myself”, she says when asked the typical question on why she wrote the civil services examination, “and the civil services allows you to use your education for something much bigger.”.To describe Sakshi Sawhney as an idealist would not be too inaccurate. Securing the sixth rank in the UPSC exam, the NALSAR graduate is certainly a firm believer in hope. “Without [ideals], she says, “I don’t know what would happen to the country”..Although she entered law school determined to be a corporate lawyer (“I even took commerce because I wanted to do company law”) her interests soon veered towards constitutional law, and governance issues. After interning at different law firms, she realized that it was time to re-think her original intentions. It was in her fourth year that she decided to write the civil services examination, and made her first attempt in 2012..That year, she made it till the interview stage but was unable to clear the final hurdle. Looking back, she says that she learnt a lot from that first attempt..“I was much more mature this time around,” she says, “and I think I learnt to take the ups and downs with a far greater degree of equanimity.” Writing the civil services exams takes a lot out of a person, she says, and it requires, “a lot of patience and emotional investment.”.It also requires hard work. Although she did join a coaching class, these classes were seen more as a revision rather than the primary method of preparation. And when it came to the number of hours she put in, Sakshi says that she never studied by the clock. “On days when I could absorb a lot, I would study for hours”, she says, “on other days, I would not.”.Throughout her preparation though, she was clear that she would not be shutting herself out from the real world. “I made sure I was out every Friday” she says, “It is important to know that there is a world outside of simply clearing the examination.”.And this is where the idealism parts way to reveal a deeply practical side of her personality. The daughter of an Indian Revenue Services official, Sakshi admits that she has seen some of the unpleasantness that comes with working in the government. She also knows that what the services require is an individual who can come up with practical solutions..Opting to join the IAS over the IFS, Sakshi says that the administrative services offer a more diverse range of opportunities that are field-based. Explaining the move, she opines that, “A lot of international problems are often more to do with governance” and the IAS offers plenty of opportunities to deal with governance related issues..When it comes to advice for those writing the examination, Sakshi says that perhaps the most important aspect is to understand why you are writing the examination in the first place..“The [civil] services are for serving the people. Things like status, power, the lal batti (red beacon) are here one day and gone another. If these are the things you want, you may end up frustrated and not do a good job. You need to be honest with yourself.”.And when it comes to more practical advice, such as clearing the interview stage, she says that it is important to be thorough with your application form. The interview, she says, is more of a personality test rather than anything else, and if you try to “hide who you really are”, the interviewers will spot it in a second. She says that one should read the application form and try and frame possible questions. Above all, you need to be confident..Sharing a piece of advice she was given, she says that,.“If you go into the [interview] room as an IAS officer, you will come out as one.”.As for her own interview, she says that perhaps one of the things that worked for her was her sense of idealism, her sense of optimism. Nonetheless, even the optimist within her could not believe the results when they were eventually declared..“When one of my friends called me up, screaming that I had got the sixth rank, I simply did not believe it. I have a common name so I thought there was some mistake. It was only later that evening, when I checked my name and my roll number, that I found out it was all true!”