MBA from rearview mirror [Part 2]

In this post, I’ll focus on the non-academic aspect of MBA.

B-schools are a very different place than engineering colleges. There are a lot of festivities, DJ parties and lots of other recreational activities. There are numerous interest committees which most of the people take, not because of interest but because of C.V value. There will be a committee for every damn little thing from finance to cleaning bathroom!! In every committee or in every group assignment, Pareto principle can be seen in practice.20% of the members would be doing 80% of the work.

You would find three classes of people in a B-school.

Class 1: Over enthusiastic guys, may be, haven’t participated in any extracurricular activities in their undergraduate college and want to make up for it or have been the same over-enthusiastic in UG days and want to carry the same form in B-school.

Class 2: Do everything for the C.V value. Even if they give “bakshish” to the mess worker or bathroom cleaners, they would do so for the intention of C.V value. Even if they help a blind person cross a road, they will immediately come back to their room and update their resume with this.

Class 3: “Care a damn type”. These classes of people are usually the intelligent and studious ones and think such activities as sheer waste of time. They would have talked to some close friends in their senior batch who dispels the myth that involvement in committees has no C.V value and quote examples of numerous seniors who walked away with the most coveted jobs on campus without getting involved in any extracurricular.

The truth is that one should be involved in an interest committee only if one has interest in that else it would be a recipe for disaster!

The culture at a B-school is very open, much different from an engineering college. Students as well as some of the faculty members use slangs with a lot of freedom. Ironically, for some slang is a litmus test to know if someone is cool or not.

B-school is a place where everyone preaches honesty and ethics but almost none practices it. I seriously feel the pedagogy for subjects like ethics should go for a complete transformation. Such subjects are indeed extremely crucial in today’s world of greed but I feel it’s difficult to teach such thing to grown up people. Such value system should be instilled in school else we land up with the current scenario where everyone talks about in public in fancy conferences and lectures but none put to practice. Such state of affairs is indeed pathetic!

Although B-schools is a place of intense academic rigor, they are a great fun place too! It’s an amazing finishing school!!

With this I'll put an end to the series of posts on Business schools,guess I had too much of it :)

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!!

Some random observations!!

Some of the observations that I've made as a student :

• In engineering colleges,being a topper or one of the toppers can be a crime! You are outcasted as an anti-social homosapien and are ridiculed by the victims of the bell curve who live no stones unturned to make the topper's life miserable.Even if a topper is seen peeing in the toilet,one of the below average/average "smart" guys mocks saying "Abe time waste mat kar,jaa ke padh le! ".This might sound amusing,but such incidents does happen!In B-schools,its a bit different though :D
  

• Not the best of students get the best of jobs on campus but then life is great leveller.Eventually,most of the hardworking/talented guys get what they truely deserve in the long run.It's important to turn a deaf ear to sarcastic comments and focus on the task at hand.

• There definetely IS something called as "luck" but then bad luck can screw up things for you only in short run.Life's extremely fair.In long run,your returns are commensurate to your abilities and investments.
  

• Most of the so called "Campus heroes" who are always in the limelight and seem to have an habit of showing off their smartness at everything aren't the ones who fair the best in their lives.Such breed of people are brilliant multitaskers but are great frauds too! They try to compensate for their incompetence/lack of preparation using all sort of unfair means.I've seen many down to earth humble guys maintaining a very low profile on campus doing much better than these "oversmart" guys.
  

Blunt bottomline: "Humility and substance matter"

• Students madly drop years after class-12 to prepare for getting into top engineering colleges but in retrospection it would look really stupid.Most of the engineers eventually try hard to get into top B-schools where you have junta from some ordinary private college to IIT/BITS/NITs and other premier institutes.Also,it's fascinating that in terms of quality,the private colleges chaps are as talented as the premier institute guys and many end up performing much better than the premier institute guys.Surely,no dearth of talent in India!
  

• Nothing goes waste in life.Very often it's said academics don't matter much in life but that's really a misconception.Its true only if one is really gifted and can outsmart his/her peers.But such cases aren't many.Look at the selection procedure of any B-school or any other higher education institute,academics play a very important role in selection process.Needless to mention,many coming to hire in top campuses,shorlist candidates on the basis of past academics.

B-School Mania!!!!!!

After working in a non-rewarding IT profile for 1 year,I planned to venture into the rat race for a seat in a coveted b-school.
I spent almost half a lakh rupees for preparation and buying the forms.Slogged my a@# for 1 complete year and at the end of 1 year had eggs to hatch,all credit to the 3lakh strong "frustu" indian candidates.Luckily,I managed 3 calls XIMB,SP Jain and IIM Shillong by virtue of some academic/extracurricular stuff.

Before call:

1)Open pagalguy.com everyday in office
2)Open timesofindia.com,beta.hindu.com,livemint.com,nytimes.com in office.
3)Come back to home,slog like a donkey.
4)On weekends,waste your time on "stupid"coaching classes because you have paid for it.
5)After may,write aimcats every week and get screwed every time,no matter how much you prepare.

After Call:

Shit!!!Now,I realize,MBA is completely a different stuff,not just about QA,DI and VA.
Why MBA?Why IM?Why not MS?What are your long terms goals? such deadly questions start haunting you after you get a call for any b-school.You start showing deep interest in Indian Socio,economical,political,legal and technological issues.

The call ratio will leave you completely dumb!!!

SP Jain:10:1 ratio...for 40 seats in Information Management,400 calls.
XIMB:180 seats...900+calls....ratio much better...........
IIM Shillong:20:1 ratio...60 seats..1100+calls(seats supposed to double this year....)

Lady luck helped me crack XIMB but SHE wasn't very generous with me today.
Today,I got kicked off from SP Jain group interview........no clue why???????

With 1 year of efforts,I have just one egg to sit on and hatch and that's XIMB.

Really never thought of in cl-12 while giving AIEEE exams that engg degree is good for nothing!!!!!

But feeling really happy........I won't have to give these "stupid indian entrance exams" any more in future!!!!!!!!