My MBA Journey in XLRI's GMP

Future of shopping

2012-01-06T13:19:00.001-05:00

Another good HBR article explaining interesting new trends one can expect in Retail space in the future:
http://dharm0us.blogspot.com/2011/12/future-of-shopping.html

Measuring Life

2012-01-06T12:39:00.003-05:00

Interesting article in HBR by Clay Christiansen:

http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/1

Especially liked his ending, which made me reflect...success in work is not everything in life. So to think about it, like a investment portfolio, success in life probably means having success in:
1. work
2. great relations with your partner
3. raising great kids
4. making a difference in others lives (1 person is a good number to start with).
5. making parents feel proud of you (not just by work or academics necessarily)
6. getting the "light bulb" switch on in the brain once in a while after having learnt something new - maybe a different perspective, a different experience
etc. etc

Need to work more seriously on pts.2,3,4,5,6 from today. pt.1 has been clouding my life too much of late. Quite crazy how the monotony of work with the daily calls, emails, blackberrys, have made a robot out of me......crap !

Work Culture

2010-09-15T13:45:00.004-04:00

I was reading this article in HBR today and found it interesting to learn about a company where employees negotiated with Senior Management, to ensure they didn't have to check and respond to calls or Blackberry messages after work hours.

Unfortunately, respect for an individual's time outside work is something that is yet to gain acceptance in our society. Especially among the IT clan, where onsite-offshore interaction is common, onsite counterparts regularly call folks at offshore outside office hours, which in itself stretches to late evening. Similarly, there is a tendency to stretch our work-day beyond the required hours, just to avoid the bosses glare.

As a fellow colleague mentioned to me, it is time we changed the workplace, to restore some respect to work/life balance.

Back to blogging - Post 2

2010-06-20T08:01:00.004-04:00

So, to pick up from the previous post, I will write about what I do and some other things.

I now work in Pre-sales in a Tier-1 firm, where my works revolves around responding to RFPs (Request for proposals) which in itself involved highly technical activities such as effort estimation, designing technical architectures and the like. Apart from this, I also support the frontline sales teams in their sales efforts through building collateral, decks etc. etc.Many of my XL' classmates are in similar pre-sales positions in other Tier-1/2 firms.

I used to work in this same firm before my MBA in a Service Delivery Role, and have now moved to pre-sales. Personally, I dont find any differentiation that the MBA has done, except for a grade promotion, which I would have got anyways had I continued in my job. My own team consists mostly of people coming from delivery roles. There are some times when my MBA skills are helpful (e.g. building financial models, understanding the business domain aspects in the deal) but such situations are few.

Neverthless, any learning experience is valuable in its own right, and XL definitely gave me a good grounding in many fields.

But I feel the 1 Year MBA concept is still in early stages of being accepted in India, and very few of them have a clear plan of how best to utilize 1-Yr MBA grads and defining a unique career path for them in recognition of their skills. I have heard similar sentiments echoed by 1-Yr MBA grads, that there is not much clarity in their career path.

Maybe there is some merit in foreign MBAs after all, despite the high tuition fee and the risks one has to take.

Back to blogging

2010-05-07T09:46:00.004-04:00

After close to a year of no activity in my blog, I am back to my site. The reasons for not blogging would be familiar to most readers - the tediousness and long hours at work that made me put off anything other than the much needed sleep, the monotony of work that makes writing uninteresting, etc. etc.

But these same reasons made me look back at the times when I was my creative self (so I claim) and reflected upon the day to day things from a different viewpoint, and how different I have become now after work took over. So, I resolved to return to my site and pick up from where I had left it.

So, after the series of miserable blog entries last May, when the immediate future looked bleak, I was lucky enough to get a job in mid-June in a small IT firm in Chennai. I moved into a pre-sales role there, spent a few months to pick up the nuances of this area of IT which was new to me, and subsequently moved on to a Tier 1 IT firm where I work now.

More updates on what I do at work, some cribs on the relevance of 1Yr MBA's in India etc...in my next post

Job search continues....

2009-05-25T13:28:00.002-04:00

Its over 2 weeks since I graduated and my job search continues. I am still in campus and there is a concerted effort going on here for placements.

I would say the last 2 weeks have been a roller-coaster, one with steep ascents and prolonged downhills. Basically, there was a day when I had 3 phone interviews (none of which turned out positive), but most of the days I have nothing to do but see movies, play badminton and scan naukri.com meticulously.

There are some trends I observed during my job search. There is a lot of shifting of BDM roles to India, which used to be earlier done in US/UK. Companies are hiring people with some sales experience and having them do most of the sales process from India, by having them work during US timings.

BPOs have started hiring again. Most of the core sectors are hiring now, especially after the UPA Govt. came back to power.

But nothing great is happening in IT area. The big firms are still in freeze mode and the smaller one's are trying to survive the recession. These firms are looking at hiring only by end of the year, which right now appears an ice age away. We'll see.

Watch out for updates.

Done with GMP

2009-05-09T09:34:00.004-04:00

This morning I was awarded my diploma by Fr.Director for successfully completing the GMP program. So, officially I am done with the program although I would be staying with some of my batch-mates to scout for jobs together. Pic above shows me receiving my degree. Hurray !

Irresponsible leadership in this country

2009-04-12T11:13:00.002-04:00

The spate of cheap language used by the political leaders of our country amazes me, time and again.

"Dump Vajpayee, Advani in Arabian sea: Cong to BJP"
"discard Congress because it is an old party."

The kind of language these people use is hardly the type that represents a country that is trying to project itself as an upcoming economic power in the world.

It is understandable that this is what happens when 10th fail candidates take up the leadership, still !

Earth Hour

2009-03-27T17:08:00.002-04:00

To anyone reading this post, a request to you to switch off your lights tonight March 28th (8:30PM to 9:30PM) to join people all around the world who are voting for
"Earth Hour 2009".

For more details, please visit www.earthhour.org

Could this provide the much needed stimulus ?

2009-03-23T12:47:00.004-04:00

In perhaps the most actionable step till date, the US has come up with a plan to buy risky assets and clear the clogged US economy.

Details of the plan is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/business/economy/24bailout.html?pagewanted=1&hp

Wall Street seemed to buy this plan, shown by the Dow's trading up by 300 points by Noon.

I think these are bold steps by the US government and should have an effect on kick starting economies across the world.

Quiz Qn

2009-03-21T14:03:00.002-04:00

Government intervention policy during recession, as is happening now, was first recommended by one of the greatest economists in the last century. Who ? As a bonus, in which book did this economist detail this approach. (See comment for answer).

Rare Rahman Interview

2009-03-11T16:02:00.004-04:00

Every ardent Rahman fan would have seen this interview, this is for those who may have missed it:

Happy Holi Everyone

2009-03-11T09:56:00.002-04:00

Wish you all a very happy and colourful Holi !

Opinions Galore

2009-03-04T01:08:00.004-05:00

In times like these, when we MBA's are finding it tough to get jobs, there is always a steady stream of advice coming from friends, family, profs and anyone who is better off.

Following are actual advices given by distinguished people in society:

Advice 1: "If I were you, I would remove the MBA part in my resume and show my
Technical certifications instead."
Advice 2: "Why don't you apply to PhD na....my son did that 5 years back and is now a
Prof in some University there, happily married with 1 big house,
1 beautiful wife and 2 dogs."
Advice 3: "Entrepreneurship is fine, but who will give u money ?"
Advice 4: "I told you MBA is a big waste of time. Look at me...no MBA and am earning
more than what you can only dream of now."
Advice 5: "I think your resume needs some major improvement."
Advice 6: "Take any job, big or small."
Advice 7: "My cousin in US says it would take 3 years for things to recover. what do u plan till then...have u thought about it ?"
and so it continues..

I am not trying to ridicule any of the advice above, but its just amazing what all we MBA's have to put through at times like these.

Selling Vs. Marketing

2009-03-03T23:42:00.002-05:00

That good old question that every interviewer loves to ask:

This is a good explanation of the difference:
http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/operating/marketing/salesmktdiff.html

A sorrow evening

2009-02-28T14:16:00.003-05:00

This evening I watched a movie - "The Boy in the striped Pyjamas".

It brought me back memories of the grief I went through at the holocaust museum in Washington DC. Those cruel camps and those deadly gas-chambers.

Such cruelty, that which we can only imagine, but can never feel the same way that millions of Jews and other sects suffered due to the actions of an evil man who I am sure will burn many times over in hell.

My Hero gets recognition...finally

2009-02-27T12:54:00.002-05:00

It took a long while coming, and it was even surprising to note the album for which he was recognized, but nevertheless, he has finally got recognition at the highest quarters of world music...that which every ardent Rahman knew all along...Rahman is the modern God of Music.

At Oscar night, Rahman picked up 2 Oscars, the first Indian to so, for Best Original music and Best Song for "Slumdog Millionairre".

Campus updates

2009-02-25T07:01:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since I posted anything. Reason being, there is nothing positive to talk about yet. There is a lull in campus due to the slim presence of companies for placements.

I am trying to focus away from the placement scene to other areas - course work, entrepreneurship just so there is positive energy from within.

Most of us in our batch are going through the second recession experience. Last time around (2001) I had a job offer which was withdrawn in my final year. It was a tumultuous period, but that experience toughened me up to face situations like the one we are seeing one. Of course, this one's much worse than last time around, as it has hit virtually every sector one can think of.

Each day, there is a different time line we hear about when the economy would recover. But being a pragmatist, I know we have some time way away before we even see the bottom of this recession. Let's see how story goes. Till then, lets focus elsewhere...Delhi-6 for example !!

How some IT companies exploit and get away

2009-01-10T08:31:00.004-05:00

The Govt. always shows favoritism towards IT companies and allows them to get away with some things that Manufacturing firms can not.

For example, for a manufacturing firm employing women and whose size is more than 100 employees, it is mandatory to have a creche facility. However, IT firms are not required to, because they come under "Shops and Establishments" whose act (SEA) doesn't mandate them to provide creche facility.

That's how many Indian IT companies who have a significant woman work-force don't worry when they ask their employees to go on unpaid leave if the employee needs to support her child beyond the allowed maternity and paid leave periods. They don't provide creche facility within their premises ( unlike mftrg firms which have one in the premises...so the Mom can go and check on the baby during lunch or tea break).

This leaves the employee with no other option than taking unpaid leave, once she exhausts the limited maternity and paid leave period (usually around 6 months). For those who can not afford to be on unpaid leave, they have no choice but to rejoin work and leave the (still) young baby in the hands of some unknown baby sitter the whole day.

Sometimes wonder if all that hype about IT revolution really translates into better quality of life ? Some working mothers would definitely not agree.

Recruitment Vs. Selection

2009-01-09T23:45:00.003-05:00

This one's a favourite of our HR prof. We keep hearing words like "he was recruited by XYZ comp". But technically, this is incorrect as Recruitment is merely the act of attracting as many candidates as possible before the selection process. Selection is when the actual hiring happens.

The link below has more details on the differences between the two terms:
http://recruitment.naukrihub.com/recruitment-vs-selection.html

Are you really "strategic"

2009-01-09T03:41:00.003-05:00

An interesting point that a faculty pointed out in class today is the overuse of the word strategy among corporate circles. Everything that managers want to highlight has to be "strategic", strategic IT, strategic HR etc. Example: CIO's point out that investing in SAP or ERP in their firm is a strategic initiative.

Academicians are obsessed with preciseness of definition *what else can explain those billions of papers and articles, PhD thesis submissions). Such overuse of this word strategy obviously irritates them. In its pure sense, Strategy is one that gives a sustainable competitive advantage to a firm. Therefore, implementing SAP in itself can not be a Strategic action, but if the firm blends SAP into its businesses processes that is different from other firms and gives it value, then perhaps it could be a strategic initiative.

Too much fundas right...I think I am becoming a true MBA these days...more gyan...less of action.

Happy New Year Everyone

2008-12-31T13:23:00.003-05:00

To those rare people, who accidentally ended up coming across my blog:

Wish you all a very happy new year 2009.

2008 has been a tough year for most of us, but I am sure the year ahead will bring all of us cheer and fun times.

For those of you who have applied to B-Schools: Its going to be a tuf year (as applications are up everywhere) and I wish that you get all the luck in the world to get into your dream schools. I remember this time around in Jan2008 when I was in the beginning phase of a series of rejects from schools across US.
The final tally, in June, was: Admits (2), Rejects (6)

After some deliberation, I chose XL over NUS. Both schools are great. But the India factor pulled me to XLRI. It has been a great few months here, interacting with some really smart people (students and faculty alike). The MBA course has been a source of immense learning. The one thing I miss here is the support of my family, including my 6-month old daughter. This is one of the most amazing periods for any parent, watching the kid try to take their first attempts to crawl, make cute sounds and play. I miss these things much. Hope I get a chance to fly down next month. Will see.

Happy New Year !!!

Been a while !

2008-12-28T13:10:00.002-05:00

Its been a while since I posted, so thought of updating the blog with my happenings.

Well, I am in the middle of the third term here and placements are just around the corner. Feb 9th is the planned date for our placements. Its going to be a bit difficult this year, with the global meltdown. But I think XL is placed well, largely due to its top ranking amongst b-schools and also because of the extensive alumni network we have built over the years. In fact, as news reports show, even the IIMs are banking on alums to support the schools in placements this time around.

On the academic part, it has been a period of immense learning so far. My initial fears with Finance have been overcome with one of wanting to know more about the subject. The book on "Principles of Corporate Finance" whose Indian edition has been co-authored by Prof.Mohanty(XLRI) who taught us last term, is amazing. Game theory which I have taken this term, is also a cool subject, although I have my worries over what games prof.sarkar has in mind for our quizzes and exams ! CAPEX and MACR are also great, especially for folks who have decided to go into a finance career.

Weather-wise, JSR is very very cold, reaching temperatures as low as 10deg. Of course, the winters in NJ were much worse, but having enjoyed the warm summer here for past few months, I have forgotten the painful winters back in US.

Its going to be another 4 more months here in JSR till I pack my bags and join my family down South.

Yet another victim of the IT bond policy

2008-11-10T08:50:00.003-05:00

I have become another victim of the dubious bond policies that IT companies enforce to reduce attrition.

My story goes like this:
I notified my employer (IT firm - T*S) of separation 2 months before my joining date for MBA course. I could serve 2 months and not 3 months as required by my employer, because my admission offer letter from XLRI only came 2 months before course start date.

As a result, I had to pay Rs.1.6 lakhs to T*S as penalty for not having served the last 1 month. This, despite getting the approval from the geography head of the company that they have no problem in relieving me from their end. T*S HR refused to approve my request to waive the 1-month shortfall, despite clear evidence that I was leaving because of an educational pursuit.

I had to pay this as they refused to issue the service certificate unless I paid the penalty amount. XLRI requires this certificate, without which I wouldn't be allowed to sit in placements.

Finally, I had to pay this amount and I got the service certificate. Through my learning from Business law in our MBA course, I have found that these are unlawful policies that IT companies are using for their own advantage. In a court of law, it would be highly unlikely for such companies to justify why such exhorbitant penalties should be levied on leaving employees.

In the absence of unions and poor enforcement of labour laws, IT companies are applying unjust HR policies like the above for their own advantage. I am sure that in the next few years, we will see the emergence of employee unions even in the IT industry after which IT employers cannot exploit their employees like they do now.

Tamil Night !

2008-10-19T15:00:00.002-04:00

It was a great night, filled with a traditional Tamil Nadu meal followed by screening of Thalapati. This was organized by the Tamil Association of XlrI (TAXI for short). Dinner consisted of avial, sambar, vada, payasam, poriyal, thoviyal et al.

Myself and few other tam's dressed up in traditional costume and served the guests (about 300 of them). Had a great time overall.

Back from a nice break

2008-10-12T00:41:00.003-04:00

I am back to Jamshedpur after a break of 5 days which I spent in Bangalore and Chennai. It was great to spend time with my family, especially my 4-month old daughter who is right now experimenting with sitting up on her own.

Bangalore has changed quite a bit since the last time I visited there in March'06.
The peripheral ring road, new airport, NICE highway and developments around Hebbal pleasantly suprised me. Of course, the same unbeatable weather welcomed me. Hope I get a job in Bangalore itself !!

Course-wise, I am in the midst of term-2. In a little over a month, I will travel with a few of my peers to France on a study-trip....looking forward to that.

Gates Harvard Speech

2008-09-03T05:22:00.001-04:00

I have a test in an hour and look what I am reading now !!!

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.14/99-gates.html

Team-work and GMP

2008-08-17T14:14:00.002-04:00

Working in teams is a necessity in GMP.
Today was a perfect example for this. We have a quiz tomorrow and the textbook
has 12 chapters (approx 600 pages of fine-print text) devoted to the quiz topics.

Given this situation, it is impossible for any of us to do it all on our own.
The inevitable solution was to break up the task into 2-chapters per person
and do a group-sharing session (GSS) where each of us explained the chapter contents in detail. With this input, it becomes manageable to have a good grasp of the quiz
topics.

I am just back from a 5-hour GSS and feel a lot more confident about tomorrow's quiz.

Two CEO funda

2008-08-05T09:17:00.001-04:00

I am not sure if its just a "fad" or a "trend", but I have seen this two-CEO concept in couple of occasions in the recent past....Wipro has this model...and now Motorola announces that it is hiring Sanjay Jha to become joint CEO with Gregory Brown.

Read this article for the news on Motorola's appointment :
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/technology/05place.html?th&emc=th

Just a thought.

1 month done in GMP

2008-07-23T15:19:00.003-04:00

It only seemed like yesterday that the plane from Kolkata landed in JSR and I showed up in campus. But in the midst of working on my Math assignment today, I realized that it is close to 1 month since I joined GMP.

To continue where I left off in my previous post, the weekend adventure program organized by TASF (Tata adventure sports foundation) was great. On the first day, we got a chance to meet Madam Bachendri Pal, India's first woman to scale Mt.Everest. It was amazing to see the video of her Everest expedition shot close to 25 years back when Mrs.Gandhi was the Prime Minister. On a more modest but neverthless important level, in the course of 3 days, our GMP group cleared a number of obstacle exercises including rafting, rock-climbing and caving.

Courses-wise, the belt is being tightened starting this week. We have a couple of mid-term exams within the next week. Hopefully, I should do better than the quizzes I had thus far.

Last Sunday I got a chance to break away from all this sequence of assignments, studies and meetings by going to Bishtupur to celebrate a fellow GMPian's birthday.
I often refer to Bishtupur to friends and family as the "downtown" area of Jamshedpur. There is basically just one big road in the place with a few shops that vaguely attempt to capture the spirit of Commercial street in Bangalore. Of course our marketing prof might scowl at my attempt to compare two different "consumer segments", but kya kare..."Yeh Dil Mange More". Neverthless, we had a good time in the Cafe Coffee Day joint there filled with cake cutting/pasting, Freppe's and imitation acts of students and faculty alike.

Got to catch some sleep now...ciao !

Quiz time !

2008-07-10T12:53:00.002-04:00

Even as I was trying to catch up on lost grounds, the first couple of quizzes happened today. Accounting went well, but Marketing was a bit of a shock as a result of poor time mgmt. But it was a good warm-up experience and I have taken a few lessons from this.

On another note, I will be away for the next 3 days on the outbound adventure trip at the TATA Adventure foundation. From what I have heard from folks who went for this same trip last week, the trip will test one's physical and mental toughness. Hopefully I will come out in one form after the trip !!!

First week musings in GMP

2008-07-03T13:42:00.002-04:00

So it is close to a week now since I landed in XLRI. This time has been busy although
I wouldn't categorize is at crazily busy. That time had passed when I wasn't here, the time when my peers were going through the preparatory course.

I have settled in as far as day-to-day things are concerned, got my mobile connection with much difficulty and bought a few items from the store within the campus. This store has some basic things like stationary,snacks etc. but doesn't have anything beyond that (e.g. calculator). For these, one has to go to Bishtupur which is 10mins/Rs.30 away. I got my SIM card from a BSNL vendor there, who was quite amused when I repeatedly asked him if Incoming calls are charged (based on my US experience).

Coursewise, I am catching up with material I had missed for 2 weeks(which is a lot) and with day-to-day classes (which is manageable). Although it keeps one busy for most of our waking hours, I would say it is manageable.

Some of my batchmates will be heading for the outbound adventure program this weekend, while I will do next weekend. The campus is quite beautiful. One of my peers has captured several parts of XLRI in hig blog. Click on this link for pictures. XLRI Photos .

Over the week, I made acquaintances with several other peers of mine, including a Deputy GM of BSNL. It has been enriching to learn about the kind of work they did and their opinion of the particular industry/domain they worked in. Hopefully, I will come out of the IT shell and have a better overview of the different industries in the next few months.

Got to doze off now.....ciao !

First day in XLRI

2008-06-28T13:24:00.006-04:00

Long story short...Sreshta was born couple of weeks back, I finished up winding up work in Edison, got released from my company three days back and landed in JSR last evening.

The campus is really gorgeous. I will try to take a pic sometime to show you the beautiful hills overlooking my hostel. Food is great, the room is very comfortable and I have made friends with a lot of people in a very short time.

I will try avoiding talk about the hectic schedule ahead, as it is nothing suprising in a 10-month MBA. I would rather talk about the interesting batchmates I have here.

Just met one person who came from Intelligence bureau, many from IT, some from DRDO and quite a few from automotive backgrounds. So pretty diverse group of people. There are many more people I am yet to meet and I can't wait to hear their experiences.

Tonight I will be working on a Marketing presentation due next week. Signing off until my next post. Promise to blog more regularly in future.

Time to wind up

2008-05-30T14:37:00.003-04:00

So it has been a busy period these days.

Winding up formalities are going on in my company. Looks like I may have to pay a significant penalty to my company for the 1-month shortage in notice period. My last day in the firm will be 23rd June. I will be back in India on 25th, finish up resignation formalities and be in JSR by that weekend. I would have missed 2 weeks of classes and would depend on my GMP classmates to catch up on lost lectures. (GMP buddies...I hope you are reading this).

I am also busy trying to sell some of the stuff at home like my car and some other stuff. Selling the car is my main worry at the moment. I need it till June 15th (for going back and forth to/from the hospital when my wife delivers) and I will be flying on June 23rd. Some of the folks who were interested in buying the car lost interest since I could not give them right away. So, lets see what happens in that front.

I was busy all last week taking my in-laws to show them around Maryland, DC and New York. They enjoyed the visits although they were tired at the end of the trip.

Most importantly, I am eagerly anticipating the most important event amongst all this...the safe delivery of our baby, due anytime now. We had the doctor's weekly checkup yesterday and she confirmed that very little time remains for our kiddo to see the big, bright world outside. I pray that all goes well here.

1 Year MBAs in India

2008-05-16T14:31:00.003-04:00

While browsing blogosphere, came across Indy's(XLRI '08) informative post on 1 Year MBA programs :

Check this link : http://myrandomthoughts-indy.blogspot.com/2007/05/why-xlri.html

In addition to this, one can also check out IIM Lucknow's IPMX program as well as the NUS MBA which is 16 months long.

The question of whether to choose the 1Y or 2Y program depends on one's career-goals post-MBA. For folks who want to switch career completely, e.g. moving from a Technical role to Investment Banking/Finance, in my personal opinion the 2 year MBA
is a better choice. This is so because you get to do an internship in the 2-Y MBA through which you can prove to your target companies your demonstrated success in working in Inv Banking area. 1-Year MBA typically do not have internships and it would be very difficult for one to switch careers.

Folks who join 1-Year MBA are typically those with substantial industry experience (5+ years) who either plan to continue working in the same industry post-MBA (e.g. Move from IT Tech roles to Business Devlopment/Business Consulting roles) or move in to a slightly related area such as Management consulting(MC). From everything I have heard from alums in XL and ISB, even this shift to MC happens to very few people in the class.

In my case, I am attempting to research various options in an unbiased manner.
For instance, although MC is usually held favourably by MBA students for its attractive remuneration and prestige, there are several negatives, including extensive travel, long work hours etc. PLUS the fact that one starts of almost like a fresher in the firm. Whereas in an IT firm, I can reasonably expect to join in a middle-senior management role. Also, I have gained a familiarity of the IT environment through my experience in a large Fortune 20 company and it would be to my advantage to leverage this experience in the future. We'll see.

An ISB-alum I spoke with mentioned - just chill now...this is the only time when you maintain your sanity. You are bound to get confused over and over again during your MBA with thousands of opinions and options coming from placement office, brothers, sisters, friends, profs, seniors etc etc.

I guess I should....chill !

XLRI.....here I come !!!

2008-04-30T17:17:00.005-04:00

After several deliberations, obstacles and confusions, I am finally able to share the happy news that I will be matriculating at XLRI-Jamshedpur for the 1-Year MBA.

Due to extremely critical personal reasons, I will be joining the program by July 1st instead of the actual start date of June 12th. The admissions committee was kind enough to understand my situation and grant me a 2-week extension.

There is plenty of work to do in the next 2 months before joining school.
I will be winding up after a 4.5 year stay in the US. So have to clear out some stuff, sell my car, buy some stuff for my friends and relatives back home, prepare for the arrival of our newborn etc, etc.

At work, I am still in negotiations with my management to get a 1-month exemption in notice period. I am required to give a 3-month notice, but the result came only by March end and I got the 2-week extension only by April-3rd week.
I am hoping my company will waive 1 month of the notice period, given my circumstances.

From my discussions with admitted candidates, I know I will be amidst a very diverse and talented group. I hope that I will catch up on 2-weeks of missed classes and adjust to the new setting.

I am looking forward eagerly to return to India and be in a learning environment for a while.

As they say, no one "gets it all". In my case, I have to rush back just a few weeks after our kiddo is born. I was hoping I would get to spend a lot of time in the first few months after our baby is born. But I will miss seeing our newborn for a couple of months till such time my wife joins me in JSR. I am also aware that the course load will be hectic and remains to be seen how I managed a hectic course load with spending quality time with family.

I will also miss Edison and US, where I have stayed for close to 4 years. The long walks in Roosevelt park, seeing the Manhattan skyline by my window everyday, the mumbai-local-like 8:16 NJ Transit train in the morning and of course my colleagues and friends here, are all things I will miss dearly. Anyways, I hope that sometime in the future I will stop by this part of the country and checkout how things are at that time.

Dinged by McCombs

2008-04-10T09:53:00.002-04:00

Surprise ! Surprise ! McCombs dinged me :-(

This ends my application season for this year.

Although I have an admit from XLRI at this point, I am not sure if I will attend this year due to family commitments.

So net tally :
Applied : 10
Dinged : 7 (Ross,Haas,Kellogg,McCombs,Darden,IIMA,ISB)
Waitlisted : 1 (CMU)
Admitted : 2 (XLRI, NUS)

My B-School Application expenses so far

2008-03-22T11:35:00.002-04:00

Did some accounting of how much I have spent on this b-school application thing over the past year.

Guess how much ....more than $2500 !

Sometimes wonder if it is all worth it....If I had sent this to Vishranti, it could have supported full-day feeding for the 150+ Vishranti tenants for more than a month.

Hope something positive comes out of this whole thing.

Dinged by UC Berkeley Haas

2008-03-19T17:39:00.004-04:00

And the DINGs keep on coming ! Haas sent the ding note this afternoon.

I have kind of got used to these ding e-mails to the point that they no longer have any effect one me. I simply read the mail,made a note about it to a co-worker and carried on with my duties for the day. That's it !

McCombs and XLRI are the only ones left on the list now. I have almost written of CMU, what with the long list of folks on their WL.

Let's see what happens.

XLRI GMP 2008 Interview

2008-03-17T22:23:00.005-04:00

Thought I should debrief on my XLRI GMP Interview that happened this morning at 1:30AM EST !!!!

I guess the time says it all....I was feeling sleepy and dozed of at 10:00 PM. Got up at 12:00 midnight and glanced through my resume and the usual interview questions and responses that are now hard-wired in my brain.

I waited until 12:30....no call.
I got irritated (and sleepy) and called the XLRI adcom office. The person on the other end promised that I would get a call in the next 30 minutes. At 1:15AM, I got the call....finally !

Following is the interview summary :

Adcom : Tell me about yourself
Me : Very briefly talked about where I grew up and where I work. (Could have expanded a bit).

Adcom : You have mentioned GAP analysis in your resume. Talk about it and what exactly you did.
Me : Gave a bird's eye view of what I did, deliberately avoiding technical details.
But Adcom was keen on delving into very specific technical details and even asked about the choice of technology. Lasted about 10 minutes here I think, before they moved on.

Adcom : You work in Business intelligence project now. How is this different from your earlier project.
Me : raved about how I have progressed from a purely technical role to one where I have insight into how the business benefits out of the systems I develop.
Adcom really went into this one, asking what kind of business understanding I had gainied. Explained this to a limited extent. Could have picked a better example.

That's it. They added that adcom office will keep me posted on when the results will come out.

Good luck to others who are waiting for results.

CMU R2 out...no luck yet for me

2008-03-17T22:12:00.004-04:00

Round 2 results of Tepper were announced around 2:00pm this afternoon.
I was refreshing the page all morning, waiting to see if by twist of luck, I get the flash e-mail that say's "you are in".

No such luck. There were some admits reported in BW forums and gmatclub.
Tough to extrapolate the profile they are looking for purely based on the "numbers" I saw. Neverthless, I saw one Indian/F/750GMAT, one Indian 740/M/30/Engineer, one South Asian 700 GMAT in the admits list. At the same time, there was also a 740/M/Engineer who was WLed.

So, I am back focussing on the task at hand - retaking the GMAT on April 2nd. Hopefully I get a better score this time around and get off the CMU WL. Who knows ?

One thing that I noticed is that CMU tends to WL a lot of people, rather than just DING them. I believe that someone with a WL should have reasonable hope to get admitted. Going by CMU's 2007 stats - 2 out of 220 got off the WL, I think that is hardly a possibility. They might as well Ding a lot folks rather than put them in the misery of being in a WL situation for 5-6 months.

Dinged at Michigan-Ross

2008-03-15T07:31:00.003-04:00

Got the official note today from Michigan Ross that I have been DINGed.
With this, my hopes now hinges on 2 schools - McCombs and XLRI....and maybe with some random luck, getting of the CMU Waitlist.

I have the XLRI interview on Monday...lets see what happens.

Is there hope left yet

2008-03-13T22:08:00.003-04:00

With 4 Dings and 1 WL, I am in a pretty bad situation at the moment.
I am hoping I have atleast some luck in the rest of the apps, or move out of the CMU WL , although I have little hope of that at the moment.

The problem is a lot of things in my personal life depend on whether I am able to attend b-school this fall. The sooner I get the news, one way or the other, I can plan things. At the same time, I can not agree with some folks who opined that, given my scenario, I should have applied to some safer schools, outside the top-20.
I think this is a big investment of my time and money, and I am not willing to compromise on the quality of the degree I earn.

So, it goes on, with each passing day, I grow more anxious on how the outcome will be on the apps I am waiting on. Wish me luck !

The waiting game

2008-03-10T23:23:00.002-04:00

So, I am now waiting for a response from McCombs. Some folks have got response just a week after they interviewed. Hope I get a favourable response from them soon.

This is an exciting time in my life, as I am eagerly looking forward to the birth of my kiddo this June. I am hoping that this b-school thing gets settled soon so I can concentrate on the more important event in my life, becoming a dad !!!

My wife has been very understanding through the b-school application process that has spanned the past several months. I think its time I shift focus towards my family and enjoy this exciting time in our lives. I hope I hear something one way or the other from the rest of my b-school apps, so I can get on with my life.

McCombs interview done

2008-03-08T00:34:00.003-05:00

I had my McCombs alum interview a couple of days back. The alum lives just a couple of blocks away from my office. So after finishing work, just came down, crossed the street and less than 5 minutes later met the alum at a hotel lobby.

The interview was very very informal and very brief (30 mins). He started off by asking which all schools I applied and the rationale behind my choice. Next was about my goals. He asked specifically why I wanted to be an entrepreneur, when I was so successful in my current company. Next, he asked me why I thought McCombs was the perfect fit. I had a bunch of reasons for this and conveyed it in a conversational manner. He then asked about a teamwork experience that ended successfully. That's it !

He asked me if I had any questions for him and we spent the next 15 minutes talking about his experiences - pre-bschool,in b-school and post-MBA. He then added that it would take 2-3 weeks before I hear from the school.

Overall, I am quite happy with the interview. The interviewer was also very informal and it was fun talking to him.

Wish me luck !!!

Kellogg DINGed

2008-02-29T00:37:00.003-05:00

Got the news this evening that my application to Kellogg was rejected.

I though I did a pretty good job with my Kellogg essays. Looks like it was not enough.

On a positive note, McCombs sent an interview invite. I scheduled an alum interview for next week. We'll see how that goes.

No news yet from Ross and Haas. Ross decisions are around 2 weeks away...and I haven't even got an interview invite yet !!! I think my Haas app is lying somewhere in the adcom trash area in Berkeley.

Have started thinking about plan-B already, given the tragedy that I am enduring this app season. More on that later....

Meanwhile, busy preparing for GMAT-2nd attempt. Need to do it well and do it quick, if at all it can help to improve my case at Tepper. We'll see..

Admitted at NUS Business School !

2008-01-23T23:14:00.001-05:00

Got my first good news in this app season. I have been offered admission to the MBA program at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business school.
NUS is a top-ranked program in Asia and is ranked within the top 100 MBA programs in the world.

Here's wishing other folks in the MBA application process the very best of luck.

Historic Moment in Indian Cricket

2008-01-19T22:45:00.000-05:00

A proud moment for India as we beat the mighty Aussies by 72 runs at Perth.
http://card.cricket.indiatimes.com/default.cms?matchid=476

The test has been marred with controversies and poor umpiring decisions.
Kumble and his men have done a fine job in putting behind these issues and concentrating their energies on the field to pull off an amazing victory over Ponting's team.

This test also was historic for Kumble as he entered the elite 600-wickets club.
Kudos to our men. Wishing them luck to win the Adelaide test to square the series.

NUS Interview done

2008-01-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

I had my NUS interview yesterday night (around 10pm!). It was supposed to be done on Skype(video interview via webcam). But it appeared that the adcom couldn't hear me clearly in my response to the very first "Tell me about yourself" question.
So, they said they will call me back on the phone. Lost around 10 mins due to the technical issues. Subsequently, Mr.Matthew and the adcom lady called back.
These were the questions :

- Tell me about yourself.
- Am I married and Do I have kids ?
- As I am married, how can I study for 2 years in S'pore ?
- Why MBA ? Do I have to study MBA to become an entrepreneur (as a follow-up to my response).
- How will I contribute to NUS ?
- How will I fund my studies ?
- How will I adjust to Singapore ?
- What is one thing I don't like in people ? (kind of suprised by this question).
- something about my blood donation interest .
- Any questions ? I asked 2 questions.

It lasted 12 minutes totally. I was told that I will know the decision in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed for now.

Kellogg and McCombs R2 done

2008-01-11T22:43:00.000-05:00

Submitted my last 2 schools for this season (hopefully this will be the last season!) - Kellogg and McCombs. I am done with all that essay writing work...mostly. I still have to send some addtnl matl to CMU, which requires some work. But nothing heavy at the moment.

Kellogg required more work, obviously, due to the breadth of areas they try to cover through the questions.

Now, its waiting game...hopefully I should get a bunch of interview calls this month or next (Darden, Ross, Kellogg, McCombs, Haas). We'll see.

It was nice to see a flood of Ross admits in Gmatclub today. Hope I will join them in R2.

On a poor note, IIMA sent a ding today. Not unduly worried as I don't really have much interest in Indian schools. Had sent in an app in the beginning of the app season just to keep options. Have learnt during this process that it is better to be focused on where one wants to apply and put full energy in that direction.

Ross R2 Submitted

2008-01-03T23:20:00.001-05:00

Submitted my Ross R2 application yesterday. Overall, I am happy with the essays. I have clearly highlighted my fit with Ross, demonstrated extensive research of the school's offerings and how I can contribute to the Ross community.
My Resume also got a makeover thanks to comments from a fellow MBA applicant.

Let's see what happens here.

Ready to submit my R2 essays

2007-12-31T17:57:00.000-05:00

My Ross, Kellogg and McCombs essays are in shape to be submitted.
Will be submitting in the coming week. After that, it is waiting time....waiting to hear from 8 schools in all plus hope that CMU will get me off the waitlist.

Guess that brings me to my New Year wishlist.....to secure admission into atleast one of the schools...and good times after that.

Here's wishing Happy New Year to other MBA applicants who are in the same boat as I am....I sincerely hope we all make it into B-School next year.

Ross Essays

2007-12-22T21:18:00.000-05:00

Working on my Ross R2 essays which are due for submission on Jan 3rd.
The essays are brief (max 500 words) and cover major areas (goals, leadership, challenges you have overcome) with one nice essay on an alternative career interest.

Kellogg R2

2007-12-21T21:49:00.001-05:00

Submitted Part-I of the Kellogg application today. I have requested alum interview.
Working on part-II of the application. The biggest challenge is in the "uniqueness" essay. I have found couple of items that I can decribe "uniquely", but struggling to refine it further.

Waitlisted in CMU Tepper

2007-12-20T21:26:00.001-05:00

Got the dreaded WL from CMU Tepper. This really was a big shock for me.

I thought I got everything right here : Decent GMAT, visited campus before the R1 deadline, had a good interview and used the visit and my research to show clearly in the essays how I fit with the program.

Essays were good although they were not as "refined" as I would have liked.

I guess this is purely due to the extremely competitive Indian+IT+Male pool that I am part of where (I guess)scores have to be in the 750+ range.

From what I learnt talking to someone who got admitted, if you are a woman or in a profession outside the typical IT pool, the GMAT requirements are lowered....just someone's opinion...donno for sure.

Sent my reply right away asking them to keep me in the WL. Lets see what happens.

Congrats to other admits. I haven't heard of any dinges so far. If any, don't worry ...its not the end of the world.

Closing in on D-Day

2007-12-19T17:31:00.000-05:00

Only a couple of days before I hear news from Tepper. It is difficult to describe how I feel right now. I have been thinking of everything I did in the Tepper application to think of what I could have done differently. Came to the conclusion that I did the best I could and rest depends on the application pool and other factors beyond my control. As has been said numerous times in numerous situations,"We'll just have to wait and see !".

Good luck to all who are in the same boat.

Chicago GSB R1 decisions out

2007-12-18T17:18:00.000-05:00

Although I didn't apply to this one, I was closely tracking the results of Chicago GSB in gmatclub today. Already, around 6 guys reported admits there. I know some of the guys who are waiting and I know they are definite admit possibilities later in the day or tomorrow. Good luck to all the rest of the folks whose decisions should be out by tomorrow.

The essay-writing machine

2007-12-15T18:30:00.000-05:00

I feel like I have become some kind of essay-writing monster the past few weeks. First it was Haas and then Michigan (which is almost done) and now starting with Kellogg.

Writing pages upon pages of "why/what/how/" about myself has been quite a task !

Which makes me think.....I wonder what the heck I was doing in the Spring months after finishing my GMAT in Jan. I spent so many months and weeks at that point celebrating my "average" score which could have been so fruitfully spent visiting campuses, talking to students etc.

If I had put some more effort at that time, I guess I wouldn't have landed in the state that I am in now.

Anyways, no point talking about the past. The best thing to do now is to put my best foot forward and hope everything turns out well.

Working on my Kellogg essays now.....These are by far the most comprehensive set of essays I have see. Answering them all well should give the adcom a good idea of who I am and where I am headed. Most of the people i know applied to K in R1. As always, I like to be different (and wrong!) and so here I am introspecting, with less than a month for submission.

Tragic killing of two Indian students

2007-12-15T09:20:00.000-05:00

I was shocked to read the news about the killing of 2 Indian Ph.D students in LSU.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Two_Indian_students_killed_in_US_varsity/articleshow/2623565.cms

Campus killings are happening far too often. Someone should take the lead to enforce stricter policies to beef up campus security.

1 week for Tepper

2007-12-14T00:50:00.000-05:00

Based on my tragedy with ISB, I am getting worried over what I can expect next :-(

Tepper result is due next Friday.

I would gladly accept "good luck" from passing netizens who stumbled into my blog accidentally. I think I need all the luck in the world at this point :-)

BTW Here's wishing other folks who are also in similar "tension" state. (I think Wharton is sending out admits next Thursday..so good luck to folks who applied there.)

Dinged at ISB

2007-12-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

Got my first admission's decision of the season from ISB and it was not good.

From what I could make out of the admits, one needs a 740 atleast if you are in the IT+Male pool. Of course, if you have exceptional extra-curriculars or some unique personality, things might be different. But for the avg. John Doe, I guess GMAT 750 is a minimum. In my opinion, the GMAT plays a much bigger role in the ISB admissions process than any other part of the application.

Hopefully I get better news next Friday from CMU Tepper.

Waiting game !!

2007-12-11T23:56:00.000-05:00

The waiting game is killing me !
I fanatically check Yahoo! mail these days. If I see Inbox(1), I get all excited ...only to see the odd ICICI statement or a businessweek ad !

Hope the week ends well ! ISB result is due Friday morning.

Meanwhile, working on my Ross R2 essays. I finally understood what I should convey for the first short essay, the one which asks "If you were not pursuing the career goals you described in Question 1, what profession would you pursue instead? (for example, teacher, musician, athlete, architect, etc.) How will this alternate interest contribute to your effectiveness in solving multi-disciplinary problems."

The challenge is not just to identify any interest, but also to show how that interest can help you solve multi-disciplinary problems, which require either a variety of skills or a skill which is unique to that interest.
I had a few interests in mind but finally nailed it the one which can help me most w.r.t multi-disciplinary problem solving.

Haas R2 app submitted

2007-12-10T22:54:00.001-05:00

Submitted my dream school - UC Berkeley Haas School of business for Round 2.

As is the case with most things, I learnt from my experiences in previous apps to really shine my Haas essays. I especially liked my long essays. Really showed my leadership skills, goals, fit with Haas etc. etc.

My only worry is if I have been able to differentiate myself enough to get a call.

My wife doesn't like me talk about this differentiation thing. She says...."you said what you wanted to say....if XYZ school thinks that is not enough....hell with them...they probably are missing the next Gates or Ellisson!".
Maybe a slight exaggeration to compare me with such greats, but I guess she has a point. As DaveforMBA says, "the MBA is a tool not a goal".

So there goes my Haas R2 application. Lets see how it ends.

6 days for ISB and 14 for CMU

2007-12-08T22:53:00.000-05:00

Guess the title sums it best....in less than a week, I will know what ISB thinks about me. Tepper will let me know in two weeks. Wish me luck !

Getting an admit in any of these schools will considerably reduce my stress on the rest of the apps.

Interesting Q & A with HBS Prof.

2007-12-05T20:50:00.000-05:00

I found this an interesting Q & A ( with Prof.Rakesh Khurana (Harvard Business School) :

"...............Rightly or wrongly, the argument was that CEOs deserve and should be given a percentage of the value they created. The notion struck me as odd when compared to the logic of other professions. Doctors save lives; lives are infinitely valuable; so do doctors deserve to be paid an infinite amount of money? Judges administer justice; justice is essential to having a good social order. Should judges deserve an infinite amount, too?

The notion that somehow the logic of a purely monetary conception of value could be transferred to business struck me as odd, especially in a university-based business school. It seemed very unlikely that business education could have been legitimated that way..............."

More available at :
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5735.html

ROSS MBA Links

2007-12-05T15:46:00.000-05:00

Found some useful info on the net on the Ross MBA :

Day in the Life of a ROSS MBA :
http://www.mbapodcaster.com/DayInLife/ROSS_DayInLife.asp

Ross 2008 Essays analysis :
http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/2007/7/30/michigan-ross-2008-mba-essays-deadlines-tips.html

Essay Analysis of the thorny short essay 1 :
"If you were not pursuing the career goals you described in Question 1, what profession would you pursue instead? (for example, teacher, musician, athlete, architect, etc.) How will this alternate interest contribute to your effectiveness in solving multi-disciplinary problems".

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=70&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=72925

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?sr=y&msg=73265.1&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools

Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute of Entrepreneurial studies :
http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/

Admissions Chat with Soojin Kwon Koh (2006) :
http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2006/mba09062006_ross.aspx

Ross 2007 Waitlist chat :
http://www.accepted.com/Chat/Transcripts/2007/mba03272007_ross.aspx

Exhaustive links on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_School_of_Business

Darden interview invites coming out

2007-12-04T17:12:00.000-05:00

Found from BW forum that Darden has started sending out interview invites.
Despite me checking the online app status site couple of dozen times a day, it still shows "pending". Hmmm...let's see how it goes.

CMU decision is 17 days away. ISB will decide in less than two weeks.

Meanwhile, fine-tuning my Haas essays. The "creative solution" essay took some time to figure out. But have things worked out for now. I sent an initial draft to someone I know and got useful comments. Let all the God's bless this one app pls !

Lecture from Randy Pausch CMU

2007-11-29T13:19:00.000-05:00

Amazing lecture from a CMU prof who is suffering from cancer and is expected to live only a few more months.

Darden Info

2007-11-28T23:49:00.001-05:00

Consolidating info on Darden MBA I have collected in this thread :

http://sivaofperinkolam.blogspot.com/2007/10/darden-mba-links.html

Info on CMU Tepper

2007-11-28T23:41:00.000-05:00

Consolidating information I gathered on CMU - Tepper in this post :

My CMU Interview experience :
http://sivaofperinkolam.blogspot.com/2007/10/cmu-and-isb-interviews-done.html

General info, Admissions Chats (2005 to 2007)
http://sivaofperinkolam.blogspot.com/2007/10/cmu-tepper-info.html

Other CMU Tepper interview experiences :
http://www.accepted.com/mba/interviews/Search_Results.asp?SourcePage=search.asp&School=40&AreaOfStudy=-1&LastXDays=9999&Gender=0&Age=-1&Score=122&Submit=Submit&bhcp=1

Application Tips from CMU Admissions team :
http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/mba/admissions/applying-to-tepper/tepper-application-tips/index.aspx

Salary Stuff ($$$) :
http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/mba/your-career/statistics/index.aspx

ISB Information

2007-11-28T17:34:00.000-05:00

Consolidating some of the information I know about ISB in this post :

ISB Interview experiences (2007)

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/26124-isb-2008-2009-selected-interview.html

http://sivaofperinkolam.blogspot.com/2007/11/isb-interview-experience-1031.html

Q & A with ISB Alum :

http://sivaofperinkolam.blogspot.com/2007/11/info-on-isb-q-with-alum.html

Blog of an extremely helpful ISB Alum :

http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/ (He can be contacted through his Blog.)

Ask a question to Dr.Rao (ISB Admissions) :
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/25524-ask-isb-hyderabad-official-admission.html

Info on ISB - Q & A with alum

2007-11-25T00:45:00.000-05:00

I spoke to an ISB alum today to get a better picture of what folks like me can expect after graduating from ISB. My background is in IT (Indian IT firm 5 yrs exp), plan to continue in IT either in business development role or in Business Tech Consulting in firms like McK/Bain/BCG etc. My questions were therefore centered around these goals.

It turned out to be a fruitful conversation as I got a sense of where folks from IT background in his class ended up.

Disclaimers :

- All figures he mentioned were his own guesstimates and may not reflect actual figures.

- I am writing all this based on what I recall out of the phone conversation. Some facts may have been misinterpreted.
(In other words, confirm with current students if you find something odd!)

Q. Where do IT background guys land post-ISB ?

A. Varies a lot (expected answer!). But most move into these buckets :

Business Dev Mgr/ Pre-Sales / Engagement Manager in large Indian IT firms :

For US positions, they initially work for a year in India as a program manager and are groomed for BDM positions. You go overseas after getting H1 Visa, which takes time.

For UK positions, you may find an immediate posting.

BDM positions in US location - EDS
BDM position was offered to somebody for around $100K. No further details available.

Domain specialists within IT firm :

So if you are from Insurance domain, they may find it relevant to place you as a Consultant in that vertical.

Domain specialist in Consulting Division of IT firm (e.g. Infosys Consulting):
For instance, Supply Chain Management Practice where you can leverage your past expertise (e.g. If you had prior tech exp in semi-conductor industry....you might develop SC for a semiconductor client where you combine your prior semi-conductor tech knowledge with business skills learnt in MBA to develop a supply-chain roadmap for the client.)

Product Manager / Account Manager (Very few..like Microsoft):

Very selective .... 7-8 rounds of interview to decide.

You manage the product life cycle out of MS, Hyderabad. No more details available.

Management Consulting Firms (very few) (McK,Bain,A.T.Kearney):

Generic consulting practice...move from one vertical to another.

Extensive travel involved (obviously!)...but flexibility in work varies widely not only from one firm to another but also within engagements in the same firm. Irrespective of your experience in any domain, you start out as an associate and move on to principal/partner. When you become a partner, you are usually identified as an expert in a particular vertical.

He quoted an instance of an ISB grad with 14 yrs exp landing in McK as an associate. There are limited possibilities to have the firm allow you to work in the same domain you worked before MBA as these firms practice in General MC and want their associates to be well-rounded in different industry practices.

Apart from these career paths, there are those who are so fed up with IT that they would rather do anything else.

He noted that owing to the experienced student group, ISB does not allow companies to come and recruit grads for Business Analyst positions.

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Q. What is the kind of salary one can expect with my kind of profile ?

A. Broader answer: For folks with lesser exp (2-3 yrs IT), salary is around 6lakhs. Folks with 5+ get around 10-11lakhs p.a. from big Indian IT companies. Smaller companies like Covansys, Convergys give higher salaries (14+lakhs p.a.).
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Q. Do students really go on international exchange programmes ?

A. Few of them do. In his batch, about a dozen out of 340 managed to. Problem is that an exchange is a 2 way process. That is, the exchange school should have a student who is interested in coming to ISB for someone in ISB to go to that school. Very few students in US B-Schools are keen to come to ISB which limits your chances. But he mentioned a couple of his classmates who went to China.

Q.(extn to prev question) Can I do an exchange program in ISB's partner schools - W/K/LSB ?

A. Same issue as above.

First, a student from that school should be willing to come.

Two. Are the courses that you want to learn available there.

Three. Will this interfere with placement related activities in ISB.

Four. Logistical issues - Visa, stay, expenses etc.

But if all the above can be overcome, folks study for between 1-4 terms.(varies depending on school). A term is 6 weeks long.

Q. Then what is that ISB leverages out of W/K/LSB partnership ?

A. ISB has been recognised as an education partner by these schools. This allows faculty from these schools to come and teach in ISB. ISB also works with the partner schools to develop the course content. He mentioned that the partnership has really helped ISB is getting world-class faculty to teach here.
Two faculty he found really impressive were Nirmal Gupta and Krishna Kumar (Macroeconomics prof.....IIT+UChicago Ph.D...really top-class).

Q. How is the course structured ?
A. 8 terms of 6 weeks each. First 4 terms are common to all (Core courses). Rest of the terms are electives. ISB allows you to major in up to two areas (e.g. He majored in Operations and Marketing). You need to take 6 courses in each specialization to major in it.

Q. How is the class divided ?
A. His class of 340 was divided roughly into 4 sections (approx 80 students). His study group consisted of 5 people. They ensure that the group is diverse. His group consisted of him (tech background), one army guy, one HLL person, one Fashion designer and one BPO person. He found that initially the diversity of views meant that they were taking up a lot of time to finish case discussions. But over time ( By the third term), they figured out how to quickly build consensus within the group.

Q. How are the class discussions ?
A. Like in every B-School, the class has its share of bright chaps (mostly) and nonsensical talkatives (a few). The latter category was not just from folks with lower experience but also from very experienced guys. But overall, the class was very well-represented in every industry and in fact had a class representative in almost every company discussed in a case. This helped in bringing rich perspectives into the discussion.

Q. Your opinion of your class-mates ? Is the typical Indian competitive atmosphere evident in ISB as well ?
A. Yes and No. Some would refuse to come out of the room for fear of getting a less than A+ grade. Some others didn't care about the grades as much and involved extensively on case discussions to enrich their understanding of business.
This depends to an extent on one's career goals. For instance, folks with an interest in getting recruited in McK or Bain had to make sure they were in the top 10% as it is a (unofficial) requirement for such firms to hire folks with a distinguished academic background. Their belief is that your past academic career is an accurate prediction of how you will succeed in the firm.
IT companies don't care a bit about what you did and the interviews tend to be more of a formality rather than a rigorous introspection into your academic experiences.
(Emphasize again : his opinion and talk to the firms themselves once you are in to find out the details).

Q. Do companies look upon what electives you chose ? In other words, are there certain elective paths one must take to be eligible for interviewing with certain companies ?
A. Depends again. IT comps don't even care to know what you did in ISB. They are more interested in your background before ISB and try to see where they can fit you in the firm.
But if you are a career-switcher (e.g. IT to Finance), a Finance/Inv.Banking firm might want to dig deeper into what you have done in ISB to strengthen your finance skills.

Q. School facilities (library, research material) .
A. Best in Asia supposedly. Students enjoy access to a huge database of research publications. He suggested anyone joining the program to utilize this apart from focussing on course content alone.

Q. Entrepreneurial resources. (I am keen on involving in this as it is my long-term ambition).
A. In order to major in this, you need to submit a proper business plan during your elective.
WCED is an excellent resource for learning more on Etrp. Experienced VCs come and interact with interested students. Its the only dedicated Entrp. centre among Indian B-Schools supposedly. Three students in his class went ahead to start their own companies after graduation.

That's it for now. Fingers crossed until R1 results are declared on 15th Dec.

Haas MBA Essay Analysis

2007-11-20T01:47:00.000-05:00

Working hard on my Berkeley Essays now. Deadline is Dec 11th.

Haas has a comprehensive set of essays which is aimed at trying to get the applicants complete background.

My 2 cents on the essays :

Short Answer (required):
1. If you could have dinner with one individual in the past, present, or future, who would it be and why? (250 word maximum)

The focus here should be on yourself by mirroring the characters of the individual with yourself.
In simpler terms, use a person who shares many of the ideals or principles that you uphold to show the adcom what kind of person you are.

2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)
Not much words here...so the detail of the accomplishment may decide what you want to write here. Since they have not mentioned that this should be professional only, I guess it is fine to write about accomplishments in one's personal life.

3. At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge. (250 word maximum)
This was the tough nut to crack for me....finally got a vague story after brainstorming with my wife. The hard part is to bring out a truly creative story...not just any solution like " project was in crisis...everyone were praying for me to come and help...I came..I helped..I went !".
I realised finally that the solution need not be ground-breaking research but any solution that we came up with, no matter how small it maybe.

4. What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)
Standard question...how did you find out Haas is for you....what all did you do to confirm this.
Note that in the long essay they again ask why Haas...so this may be answered at a high-level and the long answer can provide more depth.

Required Essays:
1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)
Standard leadership essay.

2. What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career? (1000 word maximum)
Looks easy with 1000 words..but only when I started writing did I realise the breadth of this question......goals, your past,why mba, why now, why berkeley in 1000 words......lot of material to cover.

Optional Essays:
1. (Optional) Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)
Any weaknesses or areas of concern that you wish to talk about.

2. (Optional) If you wish to be considered for the Haas Achievement Award (for individuals who have achieved success in spite of significant economic, educational, health-related and/or other obstacles), please use this space to address the obstacles you have overcome. (750 word maximum)
If you have a genuine story of how you achieved success despite hardships...you can write it here.

Pedal Powered laptop by MIT

2007-11-17T08:30:00.000-05:00

Read an interesting article on how a groups of MIT students got together to come up with this invention - a pedal-powered laptop :

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2545051.cms

One small way to use an alternate energy source.

NUS MBA Application Submitted

2007-11-15T23:36:00.000-05:00

Done with by far the easiest app in the season - NUS MBA.
The questions were pretty interesting and had 300 word limits which I like compared to longer 500+ word essays.

NUS is a pretty good school that offers a broad learning experience at a fraction of the cost of a similar US MBA. It costs less than even ISB, matter of fact.

The MBA is 17 month long which can be done in 12 months if you study in the summer.

Placements are a bit weak on campus although some of the students there say that with a little initiative, things work out fine in the job search. One of my colleague at work graduated from NUS recently and is well-placed in HCL-India. HCL is one of the few Indian companies that visit NUS on-campus. Most of the Indian junta who study in NUS return back to India given the economic growth India Inc. is enjoying right now.

From my research, It appears that making big career-switch (IT to Finance, for instance) is quite difficult as S'pore companies prefer students with prior experience in that industry/sector.

But the overall class experience is supposedly very good. The profs. there are all Ph.D's from top-class US B-Schools.

Last year's class had about 30% Indians. The schools tries to restrict Indian pool to ~30% to ensure a diverse class. So applying early is important for Indian folks.

So, thats about NUS. Need to mail some supporting docs tomorrow and will ask my recommendors to finish up the reco part. With that, I will add one more school is in the "fingers-crossed" list.

Then all focus on the Haas application which is due on Dec 11th.

Go Bears !

PJ of the day

2007-11-14T23:24:00.000-05:00

The essay-writing process is getting to my nerves...I had to release some steam off..and what better way than a PJ.

Disclaimer :
My PJs are as poor as you can get.
========================================
Interviewer to IIM (Indian+IT+Male)
In what ways can you distinguish yourself from the 4 other IIMs who came before you ?

IIM: Very. My base-branch is in Ambattur. They are from TIDEL.
Also we use Java 1.5 while they are still on 1.4
========================================

I warned you...:-)

MBA Application Tools

2007-11-13T01:05:00.000-05:00

These are the tools and resources I depend on for my application process :

Essay Analysis :
I usually begin by looking up on :
accepted.com (http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/ and MBA Application Tips and Deadlines in the menu).
essayedge.com http://www.essayedge.com/business/essayadvice/
clearadmit.com http://blog.clearadmit.com/ (Click on Essay Topic Analysis in left menu)
These give me some idea on what the schools are looking for in the responses to the questions.
After this, I think of what examples I can use from my past to respond to the questions.
Of course, in between I ask my wife a thousand times whether my stories make sense...kinda like beta testing :-)

Essay Writing :
I use Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/) to write all my essays. Actually, for me this was out of necessity. My wife sometimes needed this personal laptop and for official work needed her office laptop. This resulted in me having to e-mail stuff from one to the other. Google Docs presented itself as a better alternative. So now I have a folder there for each school I am applying to. I have an easier time logging into my account and continuing from where I left off.
I also look up http://www.gmatclub.com/ and http://www.pagalguy.com/ as there are lots of discussions on virtually everything on B-School application process in those sites.

Other tools :
http://www.wordcalc.com/ - to count if I am within essay word limits.
Microsoft-Word - SHIFT+F7 to find synonyms so I dont use the same word again in the essay.

Interviews :
Check out the interview database in http://www.accepted.com/mba/InterviewFeedback.aspx
Has interview experiences from a lot of applicants to the top programs.
One more useful link : http://blog.accepted.com/ - Click on Menu link at the bottom right.
MBA Podcaster also has useful podcasts on how to ace interviews.
Richard Montauk's book has a full chapter devoted to interviews....a bit detailed for my taste though...talks about preferable color of suit etc. !!!

ISB Interview experience (10/31)

2007-11-12T22:55:00.000-05:00

ISB interview was definitely less formal than my earlier interview with Tepper.

I called at 7:10(EST) and I was surprised to see that adcom was waiting for my call.
There were 3 people (2 adcom and 1 alumni).

The interview began with the adcom asking me to talk about "Crisis" as it meant to me.
Hmm...I definitely didn't see that coming...was expecting more like.."Hey Siva..how are you and how is Edison...how is weather this time of the year" !!
I think I handled it ok.

Then one adcom asked me to explain one of the achievements I had mentioned in my resume.
They went in-depth into it . I guess basically to ascertain that I had actually done it.

Next question was on SOX as I had mentioned it in my essay. Answered it well.
They went a little more in depth on what I thought about SOX, capitalism, communists etc.
Answered it ok.

Then started the scrutiny into my goals. Explained my short-term and long-term goals.
They went after my long-term goal of becoming an entrepreneur and attacked my counter-arguments in a very polite way. I did my best to logically reason my aspirations.

Finally, they asked me if I had any questions which I responded by asking 2 questions.
That's it. The adcom thanked me and I responded similarly.

The interview lasted exactly 30 mins and I have mixed feelings about my performance ! Anyways by Dec 15th, I should have a better picture of where I stand.

Now need to focus on the rest of the apps...Berkeley, Kellogg, NUS, Ross, XLRI, IIMA and C.

View of IIMA Prof on admission to Overseas candidates

2007-11-12T07:15:00.000-05:00

I was distressed after I read this article in rediff on IIMA Overseas admissions.

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2007/may/28iim.htm

The admission count is in single digits for folks who try the GMAT route....thats not very encouraging to apply.

But what made me boil was the reasons the Prof. has stated.
- "Quality" will decrease - BS ! Most of the folks who apply have GMAT Score in excess of 750 (99th %) which is as good as the top scores in CAT .
Besides, the quality of class discussions is enhanced so much when you have folks with significant industry experience who can cite relevant experiences to prove for or against a certain view.
Folks with no experience may not appreciate/relate the discussion going on and therefore can not contribute to the class discussions.
"Face backlash from the country" - Yes. So what are you going to do about it ? Why dont the IIMs increase the class strength to accomodate more students from abroad ? Or Start a 1 year PG program with average exp of 3-5 years and not 10-15 years like the PGPX is doing.

I guess this is the plight of institutions under Govt. control.
Meanwhile more and more private schools (like ISB, XLRI,SPJ) will open 1 year PG programs and take the experience and bright students from abroad. Obviously industry would look up to such schools as the graduates will already have significant experience and can contribute from Day 1 on their job.

Is the world getting too structured ?

2007-11-10T18:29:00.001-05:00

The business school application process has made me reflect a lot inwardly and think on a broad range of things.

It is this rambling of thought that made me stumble upon this question.
This question is a logical extension to one of my earlier posts where I proved that I wasn't sure who I am because none of the major decisions I made in my life were without some influence of some person/event/thought.

Why do we have to work in an office 8 hours a day ?
Why do I have to study 16 years irrespective of whatever I want to do ?
Can we live in a world where we can live happily without having to work.
Can we explore the possibility of sharing one another's belongings without considering it an invasion of privacy. Can this possibly reduce the divide between the rich and the poor ?
Can governments which guarantee schemes for the poor similarly guarantee that till we all become equal, each rich person will spend a week as a guest in the poorest families in the world ?

..and so on I question and hope that the world will change a lot from how it is now.

2 more apps to Indian schools done

2007-11-10T00:33:00.000-05:00

I am done with 2 simple applications to IIM Ahmedabad and XLRI (1 year GMP).
The beauty of these 2 apps is that neither had essays or recos !
Frankly, I belong to the camp that supports abolition of essays and recos.
There are so many essay-writing services these days that it is no longer an accurate assessment of one's abilities. Probably, it assesses who can pay the most to get their essays written by the best essay-writing company.
Same goes with recos....if you have the misfortune of having a boss who can't write well, then you are at a disadvantage for something that is not in your hands.

So I was glad to send apps to these schools. I might be called for a personal interview sometime in Jan or Feb. I don't know how things will be then. Lots of ??? for me at this stage .

BTW I got an update from CMU that my app is complete and adcom has to make a decision....which will be announced a month-and-a-half later (Dec 21st). Fingers crossed now !

XLRI's program is really good from what I hear....small classroom consisting of guys with atleast 5 yrs exp...well-known school...good placements...cost is only 8lakhs.

IIMA....dont have to say anything...its one of the best schools in the world.

Right now working on NUS essays...will then have to work on Kellogg and Haas.

Me and my wife were watching a movie called "Crash" today. The movie had lot of crime scenes shot in the LA area. At the end of the movie, my wife asked me to strike off UCLA out of the list !

If she sees movie's with similar scenes in Berkeley and Chicago...I can stop writing essays!

Apps in progress

2007-11-04T23:11:00.000-05:00

Working on my NUS Essays....I think I can nail this one down in a week utmost. I already have a good idea on what I want to talk about for the 3 questions, just needs some polishing.
Will then have to start Kelloggs and UCLA. I am seriously considering if I should even try Haas. From everything I hear, the place is soooooooo selective ! Will do some research.

Talking about research, I found that there are so many 1 year MBA options in India/Asia :
- XLRI (GMP....around 60 students)...current batch has GMAT betwen 680-740.
Avg 5 years exp. Good mix of students I believe.
- SP Jain (Singapore and Dubai campus) good...but students more on the younger side <=3 yrs
- IIM A, B (PGPEX) (Very heavy exp...9+ years !) ruled out

But somehow my mindset is in studying with a diverse class setting. So will stick with the current plan.

CMU Interview done !

2007-10-31T17:40:00.000-04:00

Interviewed with CMU on campus in Pittsburgh.

CMU Interview was very casual and conversational. The campus was great. Especially the day I visited was the time when the colours were changing in Pittsburgh. Had a great time visiting the Carnegie Mellon campus. The staff were very cordial and my interviewer was genuinely casual all through the interview. The interview itself consisted of typical questions :
- Can you tell me about your Background ?
- Why do you need an MBA at this time ?
- What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses ?
- Give an instance when you faced a challenging situation as a leader and how did you overcome that challenge ?
- Why Tepper ?
- What would be the red flags and green flags in my application if I were to put myself in the adcom's position ?

That's it. It was over in less than 30 minutes.

The student tour was done by a 2nd year student who was really humorous !
He showes us around Poisner Hall, the hi-tech classrooms. He stressed on the quant nature of the program and said that he really liked the management game. The school has a lot of resources for entrepreneurship (Art Boni is the director of the entrepreneurship centre and this student had actually pitched in San Jose the previous week.)
He did say that there were very few who took the MIPD track as it was at this time mostly focused on industrial design products.

The guy with whom I had lunch was even better....he gave some good pointers on how best to utiilise the MBA period and especially gave some advice on how not to get distracted by areas which look tempting moneywise but need a lot of background and commitment to make it big.(Inv Banking,Finance) etc. That was useful because I was having a thought of considering this area but am now thinking twice.

Good part of CMU is that they give you the aid offer along with the admit letter....so no more waiting and sometimes makes decisions easier.

Fingers crossed till Dec 21st now.

Darden MBA Links

2007-10-21T00:19:00.001-04:00

Useful links for Darden MBA :
http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/09/darden-visit-and-interview-experience.html
http://www.virginia.edu/provost/envision/darden.html

Darden Bytes - Youtube video

Darden Rigor - Youtube video

Darden Faculty - Youtube video

Why Darden - Youtube video

Cracked TOEFL ...LRC

2007-10-19T15:42:00.000-04:00

Got a 115/120 in the TOEFL test. Got 30/30 in Writing.
27 in Speaking and 29 each in Reading and Listening.

Things to do

2007-10-14T17:03:00.000-04:00

Follow-up with my recommendors for CMU and Darden Recos asap.
Finish up CMU and Darden essays and start McCombs.
Submit CMU and Darden apps and send official transcripts to CMU.

Tepper Interview coming up

2007-10-11T21:08:00.000-04:00

My first interview in the MBA application season is coming up this 25th at the Tepper school of business. Since this is my dream university, I called up the admissions office and informed them of my eagerness to visit campus and have an interview with them.

I hope I get into Tepper...so I dont have to worry about my R2 apps as seriously.
Lets see how it goes.

Meanwhile working on Dardens 300 word essays 2 and 3. In some ways the limit is good...it restricts me from rambling on and on...but I am finding it difficult to brutally chop of sentences to finish it within the limit.

Update on my R1 apps

2007-10-09T23:40:00.000-04:00

Things going pretty busy with my R1 applications (Darden,CMU and McCombs).
Tepper essays 1 and 2 are in some shape.
Darden's "what do you value most" question is also getting in shape as I have a good response for it. But so far I haven't done anything about McCombs essays....lotta work to do in 3 weeks time. I am also in a dilemma about school visit to Darden on their Oct 29 fall open house.
I know it might give me some more ideas for my essays, but have some personal commitments during that time....lets see.
I am seriously considering a class visit and interview in Tepper before end of this month.

CMU Tepper Info

2007-10-07T01:47:00.000-04:00

Here are a few links that provide information on the Tepper MBA :

General info :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tepper_School_of_Business

2007 Admissions Chat with Gwen Stanczak :
http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/mba/online-community/online-chat/online-chat-transcripts/download.aspx?id=1794

2007 Admissions Chat with Lauren Capone :
http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/mba/online-community/online-chat/online-chat-transcripts/download.aspx?id=1675

2006 Admissions Chat :
http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2006/mba11092006_cmu.aspx

2006 Waitlist Chat
http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2006/mba03272007_cmu.aspx

2005 Admissions Chat :
http://www.accepted.com/chat/transcripts/2005/mba11072005_cmu.aspx

CNN Survey on Top B-Schools

2007-10-06T21:32:00.000-04:00

This is an excellent (bit old link) on top B-Schools.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/09/01/8356492/index.htm
For someone starting the B-School search, gives a picture on what the top B-Schools specialise in.

Tuition hike in Cal schools

2007-10-03T07:38:00.000-04:00

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/sep2007/bs20070925_024704.htm?link_position=link3

Looks like I will be paying more when I join Haas next year :-)

World MBA Tour event in NYC

2007-09-15T22:16:00.001-04:00

I attended the world MBA tour event in NYC today. I attended info sessions of Tepper, UCLA, Duke, Haas and Cornell.

Overall, it was ok. But not all sessions provided new information on the MBA program.

Almost all the top 20 schools here are pretty strong in all areas and it is sometimes difficult to select between schools. Anyways, right now the list is intact.
Need to start focussing on essays for my R1 schools (CMU, McCombs, Darden).

ISB Application is Complete !

2007-09-12T20:55:00.001-04:00

I am done with the application process for my most preferred school - ISB.
Fingers crossed now for this school till November when the interviews start.

Focus shifts on the remaining schools now. I am planning to separate the process into 3 schools each in R1 and R2, to enhance the quality of my applications. Planning to finish of CMU-McCombs-Darden apps in R1 and do Kelloggs-Haas-UCLA in R2. NUS and IIMB will also be in the post-R2 phase.

So a very busy ahead. Should be interesting though.
In fact, the process so far has made me look inwards a lot ..self-aware ???

Mom and Dad have been a great help for me and wife during this time. In fact, I am planning to get away somewhere this weekend as a return favour for all the boring talk they were forced to listen last weekend as I was doing last-minute touches to my ISB App.

Thinking of going to Central Park and have "Vangi-Bath" and "applam" and "curd-rice with pickle".

TOEFL

2007-08-27T19:32:00.000-04:00

This is the result of my enquiry with the Univs I am applying to with regards to TOEFL waiver :
- CMU Tepper (Waived)
- UCLA Anderson (Not waived)
- McCombs MBA (Waived...provided you get a letter from native English speaker.)
- Haas (Not waived..confirmed on phone)
- Kellogg (Waived on request with adequate proof of English knowledge)
- Darden (Waiting for response).

So looks like I have to take the TOEFL as Anderson is pretty strict about this requirement.

A lighter me !

2007-08-19T13:00:00.000-04:00

We got a bath scale today from BJs.
Was very anxious to know my body weight....have been going on long walks these days. But wanted to see if this has adequately compensated for my egregious eating habits !
After a tense 5 seconds, the reading came up....71.6kgs. I used to be in the 76kg zone for a while and this reading has brought atleast temporary relief. The target I am shooting for is 65kg. Lets see how it goes.

Change in School List

2007-08-13T23:06:00.000-04:00

I have decided to remove Kelley and UCLA substituting them with more tech oriented McCombs and Darden instead. I have still not made up my mind for sure about this as I am discussing with some students in these schools. But somehow Kelley program seems generally focussed on Corporate Finance while UCLA might land me in a hollywood shooting location !

Meanwhile working on ISB essays.....couldn't do much today as I was caught up in a project issue till 10pm. Hope I get some good ideas about the essay in my dream atleast....given the lack of time, I seriously need to use the sleep time for some thinking about the essays !

Updates on my apps

2007-08-12T12:52:00.000-04:00

I am working on the ISB essays...as the deadline is a month away.
My TCS manager and my old PL had kindly agreed to be my recommendors.
Kinda going slow as I am having a good time going around places with parents. For me, the 3rd essay is the tricky one (what ur outgoing manager says to a new manager) because it is almost like a 3rd reco....in a sense it is like "describe urself from ur managers viewpoint".
Trying hard not to praise myself too much !

After discussions with a student in Darden, I am considering applying to that school in place of UCLA. For me, UCLA sounds like a place ideal to join the entertainment industry due to its location in LA. But maybe its a pre-conceived notion. Need to discuss more.

From most of the discussions I had with gmatclubbers, MIT and Haas are kinda stretch schools ....I believe they are extremely selective...but hell! this is my one chance to apply...I have to have some stretch schools in the list.

Haas 2008 Essays out

2007-08-01T22:58:00.000-04:00

Short Answer:
If you could have dinner with one individual in the past, present, or future, who would it be and why? (250 word maximum)
Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)
At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge. (250 word maximum)
What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)

Required Essays:
Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)

What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career? (1000 word maximum)

Optional Essays:
(Optional) Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)
(Optional) If you wish to be considered for the Haas Achievement Award (for individuals who have achieved success in spite of significant economic, educational, health-related and/or other obstacles), please use this space to address the obstacles you have overcome. (750 word maximum)

Whats with these reality shows ?

2007-07-18T22:59:00.000-04:00

"Top Chef", "Top designer", "Iron Chef...plastic chef"....."Top ....whatever !".
What is with so many reality shows clogging the networks these days.
A bunch of unsuccessful idiots are grouped into a herd called venerable "judges" who with their heads high pronounce their decision to fire people.

Why can't the participants fire the judges !!! May be someone might see this blog and make a show out of this idea !

But frankly, too much of reality shows in TV these days. These ugly networks have found that there is such a easy way for them to make money showing the laughs and sorrow of the reality show participants.

Can the Govt. please stand up and impose a 1 reality show per week kinda rule ?

- From a frustrated TV viewer who can't see anything other than reality shows these days.

Waiting for next Thursday !

2007-07-12T21:36:00.000-04:00

Its finally going to happen.....Mom and Dad are going to visit me and wife here in NJ.
They took turns to explain why it was not a great idea for several months before our persuasion won over. Eagerly looking forward to see them in Newark airport next Thursday.
It is going to be the first flight journey for my Mom. Dad has done it before when he went to Zimbabwe on work. Hope they have a pleasant journey. They will be here till November 1st week before returning. Its perfect....they can be additional support for me during the hectic application process coming up. Hopefully in a few months after that I will get into a nice B-School and ....Haas or Duke or Harv...ah well..now I have started dreaming !
Otherwise a normal day at work....and in the evening I lost all the tennis matches I played...wow...what talent I have got !