MBA from rear view mirror[Part 1]

During my two years of MBA,I always felt that one needs some considerable amount of time for self-introspection and to be in total control of the situation but MBA doesn't gives you that privilege. Now time has taken a complete U turn.MBA is over and you are grappling to find something worthwhile to do at home. I do realize that it’s going to be the last "long" vacation of my life. One has plenty of time to look back in time and understand what MBA was all about!

In this post I would only look at the academic part.

Before joining a Business school, the three most important parameters for any aspirant for judging a B-school is

• Placements
• Industry Interface
• Faculty

Almost all B-school rankings are a mere mockery and are in some way "paid listings" just like the paid ads that you see in the Google search page.

Every aspirant craves for loads of industry interface but when on campus, he’s bogged down by the sheer quantum of alumni talks and other CEO talks held in campus.

Before joining a B-school, every guy who thinks he has some grey cells aspires to be an i-banker and makes up his mind of majoring in finance. In the very first term with much fanfare people register for CFA exams. Registration for CFA exams is a sure shot way to be christened as a "fin stud". The fear of failure for some make them go underground and register for it secretly, fearing that they might lose their reputation if they fail, as if they have lot of it!

But only a couple of terms are enough to hook people back to the ground. Floundering grades and diffidence gets people on dusty ground. CQPI maximization becomes the only goal in life. People take up subjects to maximize grades even if they have no interest in those and learning is almost zero!

As a rule of thumb, be it engineering or MBA, always the sub-standard faculty bestow lavish grades for hiding their incompetence and winning the confidence of the students. Students give them good feedback in return for generous grades and the incompetent faculty survives at the institute with ease. This is a huge lacuna in our education system.

Whether grades are important or not in B-schools is a million dollar question. Seniors drum it into your heads that running after grades is a waste of time and extracurricular is what matters. Summer placements are like a trailer of final placements. After summer placements and having more information of final placements, somewhere in term -3, most of the students are stupefied to know that grades does matter in short listing. They start to panic, curse their seniors and take up papers which are of no value other to maximize grades! In final placements, apart from a couple of firms, none of the others shortlists only on the basis of grades. Your class-10, 12 and engg. Academics matter much more! Situation in top 5-6 campuses might be different where management consulting and i-banks come for recruitment, which categorically looks for the toppers.

Some of the firms even go for random short listing. Even a guy in bottom 5-6 percentile of his batch and no great pre-MBA academic record or pedigree finds his resume shortlisted and a guy from a top notch engineering college with an enviable pre-MBA academic record and work-ex is shunted from further evaluation. This might be boon for many but definitely not a scientific way of selection!

In placements anything can happen. Toppers' dreams might be put to dust while the underdogs might walk away with the most coveted jobs on campus. I believe placements are not completely in your hands but what you learn in 2 years is something on which you have control. So, the focus should be on learning. After all we are in a knowledge industry and we are paid commensurate to the skill set that we have!

Getting placed in a big brand with differential profile and pay is worse than getting into a not so exclusive brand company which treats you in league 1.It's the nature of work that you do that matters and not the company for which you work for.

If you track the career of any of your former classmates or any other acquaintance from a premier institute, you would find most of them end up fighting their way to the top. Campus placements are just a launch platform. One has got the maximum bang for his bucks only he has maximized his learning.

Cheat sheet to survive the rigour of a Business School

Here is a cheat sheet which encapsulates few ways to survive the rigour of a business school and yet come out of the journey satisfied and rejuvenated.

• Most important of all..don't worry too much about final placements...they just happen..you can't plan it out.If your peers sneer at you,show your middle finger,ignore and keep trying.

• If you feel you are in the bottom 30-40 percentile of the batch..don't worry.You have higher chance of landing yourself with a envious job than the toppers.

• Randomness is the truth of life.When a Professor gives you random grades..never question it.Nature has been designed that way.The job that you get,the first crush that you have,the girl that you marry and the way you'll die is highly likely to be a random phenomenon.

• If you haven't landed up with a cool summer internship...there is reason to cheer.A small analysis of historical figure will prove that in general the guys to be placed last in summers are the ones who are the first to be placed in final placements.

• If you don't have the skills to do DCP(Desperate class participation)..don't panic.People doing DCP rarely top.Go to the last bench and watch these monkeys performing and have fun!

• Don't have too many attachments with worldly objects.Have a peaceful 10 hours of sleep everyday,go for 4-5 kms of jogging and do what you feel like.

• No point running after girls if that's not your core competence.Stick to what you do best...be it sleeping..watching movies..reading..coding..researching etc.

• There are numerous ways to earn pocket money while your still in college.Instead of killing all your time doing non-value activities,look out for part time work or other free-lancing opportunities in your cities.It's a cool way to have industry experience and make enough money to have a lavish lifestyle while still in college.Other way is to win competitions but then not all end up winning the big ones!

• Always remember its about 16 years of education that matters,not just 2 year of MBA.What you are today is the culmination of the quality of school and engineering college you have attended.B-school is just a finishing school.

Disclaimer:Try at your own risk :)

IT industry ain't bad!!

It's a fad in B-school to look down up jobs offered in IT.In the first year,every one wants to join an i-bank or work for a fmcg major or work for the management consulting biggies!!

But then everything that you want is not what you get!

Lets face it! More than half of the engineering and management graduates would be jobless had there been no hiring in IT industry.It's more of a fad than a conscious decision to work in a given industry or a given profile.Most of the people don't have the leeway and privilege to work in their dream profiles and companies.

Seniors are like preachers and juniors are like disciples.They blindly take whatever is thrown at them from their friends,seniors or some distant relative working in some profile and industry

and making big money.

The truth in most campuses(other than the top 5) is:

• Some big banks come but they hire you in some backend crap profile and market the job as an essential part of the company's existence. Candidates with CFA and FRM or even a major in finance are definitely overqualified for the job.It's really amazing how a person majoring in HR and a person majoring in finance with all the fancy certifications end up with the same profile :)But then as students we fail to appreciate the importance of a job if its not what we studied or lacks any quantitative stuff!But if you closely track the career path of people who have gone in such profile are also doing well because as a manager you really have to manage your people and your project,though in the initial few years getting along with the monotonous no brain type work is challenging.
• Every time there is an alumni talk by a any alumni from sales/finance side,at the drop of the hat they try to project IT job as a "commodity" and "nothing special" type.But not all engineers doing MBA would like selling under wears,handwash,coldrinks etc.In fact majority of them don't.Again most of the people get lured because sales/marketing career offer faster growth and is seen as sure shot ticket to a future CEO post.But then most of these don't become CEO.

The truth is IT is a cool industry to work.Sit in a KT-you have diet coke,imported tissue paper,your favourite cream and butter biscuits.You get to dine in the best 5 star and 7 star hotels during the annual town hall meetings,you get free tickets to essel world and you have 2 days a week off to chill and watch your favourite movies. You get to travel exotic places and get to work in the best work environment.

It's again a myth that if you are in IT you can't break into the CXO type jobs as if you see many cases of IT firms which are headed by people who joined as a MT or a s/w engineer and went on to become a CEO.

It's important to do what you are good at than what you would like doing,just because other are doing the same.Being mediocre one has to fight to remain afloat.Excellence fetches money not a particular industry!!!

The footnote is IT ain't bad...it's just projected to be so!!