I read the news about Google’s Custom Search Engine, which restricts the search only to the sites specified by target user community. The target websites can be collaboratively maintained and managed.

So, I spent some 30 minutes in creating a custom search engine for ISB. Currently the search is targeted to 89 sites including ISB Website and ISB student blogs. Having spent the last 6 months in Enterprise Search domain, I couldn’t avoid appreciating the usefulness of this “targeted search”

ISB Search Engine

Check it out yourself to appreciate or to ridicule!

If you would like to add relevant sites to this website, please feel free to enroll by clicking the “Volunteer to contribute to this search engine” link on the search home page.

Alumni meet@hyderabad happens only when I decide to go to chennai! I missed out on the meet couple of times. This time, I managed to attend the Alumni meet, but in chennai

Kaushik Gopal (my batch-mate) was a key organizer along with Prashanth (Class of 2003). ‘Pasha’, a trendy night club @ Hotel Raj Park was booked for the event. Around 40+ turned up for the event. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 - all the batches had representation, though the distribution was uneven with a strong representation from 2006 batch! Dean Rao and Prof. Chandrashekar flew from hyderabad to join us on the occasion. It was nice to meet the alums. I was glad that quite a few recognized my name immediately…Thanks to my blog!

Ramkey, the Quizzing pro, conducted a fun-filled quiz program. He made his presence felt yet again! As of me, I met Karthik Sankar, Karthik Ramachandran, Prithvi, Rajanikanth, Sanjeev Sujan, Kaushik Gopal, Vikram Raman (I meet him day-in and day-out in my apartment!), Krishna Tata, Supreeth Hari, Ramkey. I also met Bala Prabhu (The blogger from 2003). Few of the alums have already ventured into their own business. I collected the business cards of few entrepreneurs. In terms of Organization, Cognizant stole the show with more than 15 people from the firm.

The bill was on-the-house! I am waiting for Kaushik to share the photos with us…

Today afternoon around 1 p.m., my superior approached me and asked, “Bharani, can you give a talk about our initiative to the India Leadership Team @ 4 p.m?”. I had to agree. I was excited about the fact of meeting 13 wise gentlemen who form the India Leadership Team (Managing Director and Directors of Business units, HR, admin etc.,) for the first time. I was also excited at the prospect of talking about the progress that we have made so far. It is an opportunity to gain visibility for my BU and self. I conjured up a PPT out of 4 different sources that existed at that point of time. I should call the final product a “Federated PPT” (new fancy term )

The big board room environment reminded me of the Apprentice Show! I did not know the names of some people in ILT. So I introduced myself and then asked each one of them to introduced themselves. I was expecting someone to introduce each person officially. But that did not happen. So took the initiative myself. (That was pretty bold when I reflect in the hindsight). I think the talk and the demo went on well. I made a note of few areas which needs cover up and few items which needs a touch of polish. The talk was more of a chance to get more buy-ins for the initiative. One thing is becoming more clear. That we have a very long way to go…

When there is an opportunity to enhance your visibility/position, give your best.

It was around 8:15 p.m. I don’t know what struck me, A bulb flashed in my right brain and I suddenly thought “Is there some smart soul who has already thought about a business of ‘Jargon Consulting’?..” You know, the business which will essentially create new jargons for these consultants (so that they can use them to impress their clients) or for analysts (who can use in their powerpoint presentations)…Never mind… So I open up the google search engine and carefully enter “Jargon consulting”. I click the first link that is displayed and an unpleasant looking page opens up with a topic “A tongue-in-cheek guide to business jargon and management buzzwords”. I shrinked my face initially. But, I totally enjoyed reading those descriptions for the next few minutes ..Awesome in my opinion

Totally tongue-in-cheek!

Watch out for the descriptions about buzzwords “High level”,”30,000 feet”, “wet-signature”, “wetware”…and the new catch word that I learnt was “re-purpose”!

On the lighter note, non-mba grads can actually try these jargons with their managers and see for themselves the weird reactions (Like “Oh man, I am buried…now there is no differentiation between us” )! Fun apart, this post is more of self-deprecating humour and I am in no way affecting the feelings of good and solid MBAs….So please hold your fingers back from typing counter-comments…and use that energy to play piano

The crux of this post is over. What follows is a post-script Stop reading at this point of time, if you have something important to accomplish…

It is infact true that I am also part of this ‘Jargon club’ and some of these jargons are coming naturally to me. I am sure it comes naturally for most management graduates. But some people overuse it and cross the boundary of acceptance thereby landing in the zone of annoyance. My quadie in ISB who was famous for jargons can share lot of gyaan on this

One of his creative phrases was “Unsustainable Uncompetitive disadvantage” [The opposite of Sustainable Competitive Advantage]. Try deciphering the meaning….”Jargon club” can actually be a nice-little enjoyable hobby…

1. Work-life balance.
2. Start up environment vs Corporate environment.

I want to maintain a work-life balance. This thought has become so ingrained in me that I am feeling a sense of guilt if I work hard (well, work long hours). I am busy and slowly extending my work hours without even realizing the passing of time. I am glad that way. But I am missing out on my hobbies and other activities. The books are slowly collecting dust. (As of now there is exactly 2.234 millimetres of dust…). I am not keen on watching movies on HBO/Star movies/laptop. Fitness centre has become a weekend affair. Room is not so clean anymore, as washing the clothes has become a weekend affair too. I am logging my daily activities to see where I can fit some activities/hobbies. As long as I have this sense of guilt, there is scope for work-life balance. The key for work-life balance is to maintain a high level of productivity during the 8 hours of work. Working towards that…

I was working in a start-up environment before ISB. There was very little bureaucracy. Things get done faster. But in Corporate environment, if you make a request, you have to expect that the other party will come back with a way to turn down the request. Then you have to employ your convincing skills to get past the first-level road-block. You can call yourself lucky if there are no further road-blocks. Things like getting PCs, purchasing softwares, hiring resources are also made inefficiently formal! For each decision you make, you need to pursuade so many other parties. Justify your actions. Sometimes, these things kill the initiatives. I am just adapting to the change. The problem is complicated because of the stagnation layer prevalent in big companies. The people in the stagnation layer might have been stars once, but they have stopped learning long back and are not stars anymore. They are getting paid for their past laurels, at the expense of new and raw workforce. Some of the organizational inefficienceis originates from the insecurity felt in this stagnation layer. When your team/BU is different from this ‘corporate’ environment, you have to face the threat of being labelled as “incompatible” or “rebels”. This threat is amplified when your “incompatible” approach looks promising to yield impressive results! Interesting…

I am also slowly building rapport. Investing time and energy on colleagues too.

The Business Unit is 40-50 strong. It is small compared to the size of other Business Units. The director of the group is pretty jovial, technically strong, broad-minded and informal. He has almost 20+ years of experience. I report directly to the director. The director reports to the Managing Director of the India centre. So,in a way I am only 2 levels from the top

I am given in-charge of an initiative. The initiative grew out of an organizational need. But gradually a vision to carve out a commercial product out of this initiative is emerging. Time will answer.

The initiative needs buy-in from higher levels. Fortunately, we do have buy-in at Vice-president level. That’s a big bonus for us. The initiative is not funded by the organization. So, the Business unit has to fund the initiative through its own budget. This currency constraint coupled with human-resource constraint is trying to drag the initiative down. So, we are undergoing the same emotions as entrepreneurs undergo while setting up a venture.

Activities performed by me: Research [Analysis of existing products in the market, Identifying the needs for the organization, Proposing the features to be implemented etc.,], Design and Architecture [Working with Technical leads to come up with Scalable, robust, component-oriented design], Requirements Analysis [Business Analysis for the first customer], Project management [Planning, Scheduling, allocation etc.,], Training and mentoring, Chairing tele-conferences to demo the product [High level people participate in the conference]…The Business Development part [Selling the concept to other business units/customers once the initiative takes shape] will come later, though it largely depends on the success of the initiative initially.

Though there are organizational red-tapes, I enjoy relatively more freedom and command [I am talking about the command of situation, resources I have, style I can follow etc.,] compared to many others in the organization. That part I am happy about.

I have joined at a level/grade which is normally given to people with 9-10 years of experience. That is a significant ladder-bypass for me.

Since I am working on the organizational initiative, I have some concerns in terms of not learning/mastering enough domain expertise relevant to my firm. I have made some plans to cover the weakness by utilizing the resources/facilities available within the organization. In few months time, things should take good shape.

One thing I would like to mention here is “Manage your expectations. Sometimes, what you expect might be vastly different from reality. Give some time before taking rash decisions. Patience is a virtue. If you leave the job, do so only after making sure that it is not for you.” Another point. “Just because your role is Strategy consultant/Business development, you are not necessarily insulated from project management or people management. The promised role will be given to you. But it will come as a part of package containing other mundane roles too.”

The problem about expectations can be published as a book in itself.

PS: A dialogue that I had about expectations some time ago…

Talk was about marriage…
Me: Dude, I don’t have high expectations.
Friend: So, why don’t you marry a girl from slum?
Me: I don’t have high expectations. But I do have expectations

I have a feeling that, for past few months, I am leading a very cushy cushy life, without facing any major struggles to fight with or any major obstacles to overcome. May be this is due to the positive attitude that is growing day-by-day or May be because life has been really been kind on me….

Deep down, I want to struggle…I want to face difficulties…In the past, when I faced difficulties and when I had major challenges to face with, and I overcame those, I felt COMPLETE. Each time I overcome the obstacles, I felt the growth within me…

I thought I got a small set of wings out…but not quite so…God, I want to struggle more….and get the wings out of my cocoon….and finally fly high…May be it’s time that I start working towards my long term goal…earlier than I planned to start…

My heartbeat…instead of “LUB DUB….LUB DUB” is “TAKE RISK… TAKE RISK”

Guest House: (May 8th)

3 Wipro guys in front of me..all freshers…introduce themselves to me…I introduce myself…and theres comes the word “ISB”…the looks on their faces change…a mark of respect emerges….from then on whatever I say, they listen with silence….with attention…They want to know more about ISB…a lot…they have already started GMAT Preparation…!!!

Guest House: (May 11th)

New set of people come to Guest house (Google guys). This time, I don’t do anything…The Wipro guys convey that I am from ISB…”He is from I..S..B..”!!

Convergys: (May 16th)

Some of my colleagues come to me (freshers)…talk with me…want to know more about ISB…”Bharani, We would like to sit with you and want to listen to your experiences about ISB someday..”. “How much score should I get in GMAT?”…and the list goes on..They see me with respect…talk to me with regard…I would definitely help them out in whatever way possible…of course nothing is official…

Convergys: (June 8th)

A new person joins our team. We kind of introduce ourselves. This time, I don’t say that I am from ISB…After quite some time, he comes to know that I am from ISB..”Oh…you are a product of ISB…? great!”. The look on his face changed to some kind of respect….

Convergys: (June 15th)

Induction program…I introduce myself…mention that I am from Indian School of Business….The looks on the faces of people changes….they pay more attention to what I say…I infered from couple of coffee chats with some of those people that they wanted to work with the team which has grads from ISB! Some people already are planning to prepare GMAT!! They say, “Who better than you to give gyaan about MBA courses…we would like to hear from you about that sometime..?”…

Man, this kind of respect triggers a kind of ‘nashaa’…It’s a good feeling..but should not fall for it…it is very tricky…the expectation on me is higher…They would like to see some magic from me…that kind of pressure is too much…I sometimes think, “Oh man, they think I am a superman…what if i screw up this?”…May be I am disillusioned…but there are more evidences to support that it is not disillusion, but a genuine expectation dilemma…

The last 2 years of impressive placement performance and the incredible media coverage executed by ISB this year has made sure that ISB is known as a big brand…reputed brand…ISB brand is growing…at a rapid pace…

Similar to “Burden of command”, this is called “Burden of ISB”!!! People judge the quality of ISB based on quality of you…if you are really good, then perception about ISB goes up…but if you are not that good, perception about ISB goes down…atleast among the people who observe you daily…

Now I know why some IIT guys and IIM guys move around with a shield around them….and don’t even talk to some people from tier 2 colleges…it’s because of this ‘Nashaa’…it’s because of this “Power of association with a great institution”….I am hoping that my humility will not let me down and help me to walk with a level-head. This ‘realization’ should keep me on my toes and help me to perform well…

The following ad caught my attention today morning…Nah, not for the job opportunties , but for the brief description of roles…ads for MBA roles in IT are very rare…and this ad neatly summarized 5 different possibilities for MBA grads from leading institutes…So journalizing…

http://www.polaris.co.in/new/about_us/hr_ad.html

Business Analyst
Close coordination with customers and project teams to understand, analyse and translate customer requirements in BFSI domain; test and validate requirements; actively participate in pre-sales activities.

Program Management
Planning, monitoring and control of multiple projects; continuous mangament reporting on financials, resources and risk; proactive identification of issues timely escalation and tracking.

Solution Architect
Articulating, architecting, planning & developing technical specification for end-to-end content delivery strategies, helping define strategies, roadmaps & implementation plans.

Business Development/PreSales
Strategising and winning new engaments within high technology clients; pre-sales activity across opportunities from various geographies in BFSI domain; active interation with prospects, building proposals and presentations, participate in contract negotiations and finalisations.

Subject Matter Expert
Understand and acticulate business needs, translate business requirements to implementable solutions; build competencies in BFSI domain; analyse industry trends and identify suitable offerings; demonstrate domain compentencies in customer interactions.

In general, the boundaries are not clearly defined..One can see, a person performing tasks covered under more than one topic…

Inspired by MBA League…! Why not have ISB League?

http://isbleague.blogsome.com

PS: Was so damn free in the weekend that I didn’t know what to do…so decided to put up this page, which was long due…

The Graduation Group picture….

Yesterday, I downloaded the video that my brother took on Camcorder during the graduation day. He patiently captured the entire procession starting from dean till the end (The procession from ISB building to the hangar). When I look at it now, it is a definite treasure. Thanks a ton bro

Best of Blogging 2005-2006 Results!

ClearAdmit, a leading educational consulting firm, announced the results of “Best of Blogging” awards for Best Student blogs, Best Applicant blogs etc., Vijay Mulbagal and myself were nominated from ISB. Vijay Mulbagal finished in the final top 10 list (placed 6th)…It’s absolutely wonderful feeling to see an ISB blogger placed alongside bloggers from some leading MBA schools…

Top 10 Student Blogs
1. Marquis (Stanford) - http://marquisweblog.blogspot.com
2. Poweryogi (Chicago) - http://poweryogi.blogspot.com
3. KV (LBS) - http://usatolbs.blogspot.com
4. FutureMBAGirl (Wharton) - http://futurembagirl.blogspot.com
4. The Divine Miss N (LBS) - http://thedivinemissn.blogspot.com
6. Vijay (ISB) - http://itheabsolute.blogspot.com
7. Wakechick (Chicago) - http://wakechick.blogspot.com
8. NoellieBellie (IESE) - http://spanishnoelle.blogspot.com
9. Jerry Blank (Yale) - http://flatpointmba.blogspot.com
10. Olivier (INSEAD) - http://oliviermineau.blogspot.com

Excellent work…Way to go Vijay…Keep blogging…:)

The last 4 days took me through Multitude of emotions…Happiness, excitement, fulfillment, anxiety, sentiments and I also went through some riveting moments, which are deeply bolted into my heart…

I spent last 15 days with just an average of 5 hours of sleep per day. Partying and having fun hard! Outings for movies, dinner, coffee, icecream or ordering food from outside or playing “need for speed”/volleyball or playing cards or simply lying down and thinking about the ‘rocking’ year.

We had the Graduation day rehearsal on April 7th. We had good time trying out the graduation robes and learning how to wear the hats, hoods. I also understood the importance of shifting the tassle from left side of the hat to the right side to signify the completion of graduation! Students were completely having fun…After the demonstration and the rehearsal we headed to the Atrium to capture the group picture. I would say they made us to stand for almost an hour before capturing some 50 odd pictures to ensure atleast one great picture. Well, I wouldn’t bother as long as it turns it to be good…This one would be a treasure.

Finally, after the photo-shoot, we throwed the hat into the air and shot loads of pictures with unbelievable madness…Pure thrill…

In the evening, I attended the “Award ceremony - 2006″.I received my “Torch bearer award”. The defining moment for me was the moments of silence that the announcer brought about before uttering my name. He almost gave up before pronouncing my long name “Bharanidharan Viswanathan”. I thought he will never call me I guess the “h” following the “B” is causing confusions to many . Anyway, after presenting the award, they asked everyone to speak something..So I conveyed just a short and sweet message..”I am extremely honoured to receive this award. I dedicate this to the SPIRIT of ISB..Thank you”! The moments on stage were exciting . The complete event is covered in ISB website…including my pic ..Can’t believe it!

We played volleyball till 3′0 clock in to the morning of April 8th. Volleyball junta rocks!

I completed all my packing except for few final things. The big event began sharp @ 2:45 p.m on April 8th. It was an amazing sight to see everyone neatly dressed up in graduation robes and the parents eagerly waiting on the other side to capture the ‘moments’ of their ‘kids’. The huge hangar was was full! The logistics was as usual perfect! The ISB logistics and administration team simply rocks. You never see any major action going on…but things happen smoothly, seamlessly, silently and perfectly! I bow! You will understand that once you are here…

Mr.Ratan Tata gave away his graduation day message. The entire message is published in the ISB website.

The seating arrangement was split into two parts. Dean’s lister and others. I fell in the “Others” category. The seating arrangment was based on the alphabetical order of last name. That means, I was in the last 5 of the entire batch of 345! I waited for my turn by patiently clapping for all 340 students who went before me…Ankur Warikoo was behind me…So had a good company for me…All three viswanathan’s of ISB were put together (Anand Viswanathan, Ravi Viswanathan, Bharanidharan Viswanathan)…We ended the graduation ceremony with a huge uproar! That was followed by hat-throwing event. Those last moments cannot be described in words….has to be experienced. I thought to myself, I will not get sentimental! Well, inspite of my best efforts, few drops of tears seeped through my eyes…Atleast, now I know there is water inside my eyes

After all the excitement, I headed for a dinner hosted by our Aikya family (Dr. Manohar & Family) in their hotel. It was a great dinner with everyone in my study group, including the near-and-dears, invited. We also had a chance to meet few entrepreneurs and few medal winners from the recently concluded Common wealth games. Pleasant evening. Mr.Manohar proved yet again that very few can compete against him as a great host.

I came back to ISB. Put my parents in their allotted rooms. Rushed back to my room. Finished my final packing…and wrote this blog entry without even having a second look. Crap generation at its best…

I have officially completed my education. Definite Milestone. As I write this blog entry, my eyes are moist…Great ride came to an end…I completely enjoyed my stay here. I learnt a lot. I established many good contacts and developed few strong friendships…

I cannot hide but only say…”I will miss ISB, my quad, friends, environment, year-long-vacation, and my dear amigos (you know it amigos)”…I remember saying to my friends in the final moments…”I am one of the most cold-hearted persons you will every come across…In 2 days time, I would ask you ‘who are you’?”…My attempt at saying that was a failure…I am indeed one of the most warm-hearted persons! Sometimes good…sometimes bad…For now, it’s bad for my mind, as I have to go through sentiments for next few days….

PS: Will try to upload some pictures later…I don’t have energy to find and upload the good pics…

Well…Thought that the internet connection cannot be established after formatting my laptop..But to my surprise the wireless connection is working…So will make one final post reporting the graduation day ceremony from ISB, before I finally leave on 9th morning 5:00 a.m….

I missed my blog for 4 full days….found it tough….

This will be my last post from ISB…I will end the journey here…

I will definitely try to blog further, though not as consistent and frequent as now…

Wishing the batch of 2007 good luck. Whatever you do, don’t freak out yourselves. At the end of one year, you will realize that many things that you took upon yourself very seriously isn’t worth the pain. As every outgoing batch said in the past, I repeat…”This will be one of the best years in your life. Enjoy and savour it….An experience which will be enriching in all ways - intellectually, emotionally, professionally….”

I will be based in Hyderabad after ISB. I will be joining on May 2nd. So, anytime, if you need an ear to listen to your achievements, need any advice to your problems, need any assistance professionally please feel free to ping me at bharani@gmail.com. I will do whatever I can within my limits.

I am not coming for Orientation week, as I prefer to spend the 20 odd days that I have with my parents and visiting places…

Good luck and godspeed Batch of 2007…

Dear Class of 2006,

You don’t know how you have affected my life positively in various ways….It has been an amazing ride all through the year…I am privileged and honoured to be among this awesome group…As we venture into new realms, I am sure we will cross each other at various stages of our lives in different ways…So I am not going to say “good bye”…

Let the fellowship last forever…

Three cheers to the class of 2006!!!

Cheers,
-Bharani.

Around 1400+ people are expected to attend the Graduation ceremony on April 8th. The Atrium in ISB, though big, cannot accommodate such a huge number of people. There were rumours couple of months ago that the graduation day ceremony will be held at Gachibowli Football stadium. But many students were against the very idea of that. After all, what better way than getting that coveted paper within the confines of ISB…So, the powers that be in ISB decided to erect a huge Hangar to accommodate the event and the people. The construction of the structure is underway and is almost complete. The entire structure will be air-conditioned! Word is that the total expense related to this structure alone is around Rs. 15 lakhs…Fee paid by a single student…So, I can say “I am sponsoring the structure”

There was a sizzling news item in Today’s Economic Times about ISB. Attached below is the press clip.

ISB grads rake in $200,000 packet

ISB spokesperson declined to confirm or deny the news saying: “We will be making a public announcement about the placements this year next week.”
—-

To my knowledge there is only partial truth to this news. May be I am ignorant! But the issue here is not about the news, it’s about the media’s intention about the news.

I wonder how “word-of-mouth” news about placements can be published just like that without proper verification. Media people are clearly after selling “hot” news without verifying if the news is authentic or not-authentic. The situation is same in all countries especially as far as B-schools are concerned. I can see this news in two ways…Either there are some people in ISB who are providing “insider” information or News reporters are trying to hype the situation and setting up the institute for failure! To be honest, I am fed up with these kind of “Highest salary 1 crore” (The figure which is apparently a result of B-schools converting the GBP/EUR figure into Dollars and then into Rupees, each at the highest possible exchange rate at any point of the year!!!)…Phew! There is much more about B-schools than just placements or salaries….

PS: Couple of weeks back, I mentioned that 25 odd people are jobless and searching for their fit. The situation has vastly improved with many of those people getting a job offer according to their requirements. One of my friend in that 25 group, now has 4 offers to choose from ! It’s just the question of time….Patience is the key!

Completed my final assignment in ISB. The classes are done. I have now officially met all the course requirements and have majored in Strategic Marketing and Information Technology. Now, I can proudly calll myself as “MBA” (or “equivalent to MBA” for the purists!). It would be tough to hold back my excitement when I get the certificate duly signed by the deans of Wharton, Kellogg, London Business school and ISB. Was this experience worth it? Have I transformed in a positive way? Have I acquired sufficient entrepreneurial and leadership qualities? Will I bring about positive impact to my professional life, personal life and society? Right now, my mind is numb…Sometimes, I have this empty feeling when I try to think what have I gained from this programme…The change has happened beneath the conscious layer of mind…So, the important changes might be latent for quite sometime, before it reaches the melting point and shows up….As always, Time will answer. But I can definitely say that I am a satisfied customer as of now. How much value I derive from the product depends on my usage preference. Unlike the electronic products which lose value exponentially, this one increases in value exponentially…It should and it would!

In 9 days time, I will get the complete ownership and title for my investment. The biggest investment that I have every made in my life…[16 lakhs + Opportunity cost]. I know it’s ’sunk costs’, ‘non-recoverable’ etc., I would see this as a strong foundation…just like the strength of foundation is determined by the depth to which the pillars are ’sunk’!

Now only the exit formalities remain. There are some ‘pending’ items in “TO-DO” list. Will try to get it done asap.

My attempt at ranking the blogs of my colleagues at ISB. A tribute to the fellowship

Consistency of Blogging, Content, Style, Informational value, Entertainment, number of visitors, bringing in new traffic etc., (not necessarily with same weightage)

My ranking: ISB Blogs [Batch of 2006]
========================

1. Vijay Mulbagal

2. R Ramkumar

3. Raghini Rarajam

4. Ankur Warikoo

5. Amit Sharma

6. Ford Perfect

7. Ramakrishnan A

Other blogs that I enjoy much, but couldn’t differentiate:
Chandrashekar Vattikutti
Anoop Vijayakumar
Vaibhav Fadnavis
Venkatesh Adavi
Vineeth Kumar
Alok Srivastava
Girish Krishnan
Karthik Ganesan
Karthik Ramachandran

There has been quite a few cribs that went around about the ‘information asymmetry’ or ‘informational advantage’ exploited by some of my colleagues in ISB.

First and foremost is the Academics. Thought I don’t want to name any particular person or any particular incident, I would like to make a point on the “Transition of notes” from previous batch students to current batch. The academic curriculum in ISB is more or less same every year (It’s the same case with every institute/university in the world). So, Possessing the notes/solutions from previous batch in fact provides the person with ‘unfair’ advantage. Though this definitely hampers the learning, this serve the purpose of getting good grades! (Yes, incentives for getting good grades is high for some career-aspirants). The onus is largely on the outgoing batch to maintain the decorum. When there is no supply, demand will be automatically curbed!…But given the fact that there are some close friends who enjoy the alum-student relationship, this cannot be completely curbed…In my opinion, incoming students who will be future business leaders, should keep out of this definitely….The pressure and stakes are so high that some students go to any extent for getting good grades. Though, we have a strict ‘Honour code committee’ in ISB [wherein the punishments/penalties are very severe], it has not completely eliminated the trend…Keep in mind though that such cases are very few…but have significant impact!

Second is about placements. The general opinion is that the ex-professional relationships help in placements. For example, if a person is coming from big FMCG company, and is aiming at big 5 consulting company, then chances are that there will be alums from FMCG company who hold key positions in consulting companies. This relationships or ‘bonding’ opens the back-door for few. I don’t quite agree that this is ‘unfair’. In this case, the personal relationship is helping the student to gain a foot-hold in to the destination company. Moreover the kind of ‘acquaintance’ or ‘past relationship’ helps only as far as getting to know the insider information. There is no way a person can pass through just by ‘knowing’. Now this ‘insider information’ is extremely important [Resume tips, interview tips, job-related-info, positive word-of-mouth etc.,]. This is where the ‘networking’ ability of students play a role! But from what I have seen, this kind of pro-active networking/contacts helps big time…

This kind of bonding is strong among IITians, some top FMCG Companies, etc., For many students, who don’t have either of the above background, that ‘bondage’ does not exist. ISB will provide them with such a ‘bondage’ which they can exploit later…!

Third is about ‘insider information’ within ISB. For example, there has been stories that some people enjoy preferential treatment from CAS [Career Services wing in ISB]. The information about the arrival of some key companies or job postings circulate among the select few much in advance, where as the majority of students will know the news only one-two weeks before the deadline! This ‘lead time’ helps in getting a head-start in preparation! Here, the personal rapport with relevant personal helps…again, it can be argued that it is the initiative of the students, which is paying off!…but I wouldn’t buy that argument, as the information asymmetry shouldn’t have existed in this case atleast…

The purpose is not to take a swipe against anyone. The purpose is to convey that such situations might occur and to be prepared to handle such ‘information asymmetries’. I hope people are smart enough to handle the situations….! As far as the outgoing batch is concerned, this is what we will be dealing day-in and day-out in real life! Life…please be kind on us

An attempt at my own 2 x 2 matrix creation …Don’t read too much…

The X-axis represents the amount of interest you have for any topic.
The Y-axis represents the amount of knowledge you have about any topic.

You might come across any topic/person/activities in your life. You might either know about the subject already or not. You might either have interest for the subject or not.

This framework suggests you 3 ways for knowing and generating interest about any subject. So you basically start at the “Don’t know Don’t care” quadrant. You have to reach “Do know Do care” quadrant. As you can see, there are 3 ways to reach the destination.

1. Generate interest about the subject and simultaneously learn about that! [Travel diagonally]
e.g., You are forced to do a project in your work with a particular technology. You don’t know the technology and you don’t have interest for that either. As you work your way through the project, you get to know about the technology, and as you know, your interest grows parallely!

2. Learn about the subject and then generate interest for that subject! [Traverse Y-axis first, then X-axis]
e.g., You are going to a restaurant..You see all alien menu items! You are hungry. So, you should order something and try it out. If you like it then you will generate an interest for it!

3. Generate interest for the subject and then learn about the subject! [Traverse X-axis first and then Y-axis]
e.g, First impressions, Love at first sight, Infatuation etc., If your further learning about the subject reveals more unpleasant ’secrets’, then you will ‘permanently’ go back to “Do know Don’t Care” quadrant!

So, everyday in your life, keep exploring subjects that you “don’t know and don’t care”…and then consciously make effort to deposit the subject under your “do know do care” quadrant! Only very few subjects make it to that quadrant…and stay in that quadrant…Whatever remains in that quadrant, nurture those!

Got hold of this pic couple of weeks before….when I was searching my past archives. Big pat for correctly guessing the person….!

Friday -> Boat cruise + Dinner + Dance + Beer
Saturday -> Movie + Dinner
Sunday -> Dinner + General Masti in my balcony

Can’t get better than this! and I can’t get more spoilt than this Well, I am enjoying my days…

Am just managing to keep up with assignments..just! It has become a question of motivation! Another 2 more days of class…and then, I am officially MBA! Realization of once-a-dream…It will sink in soon….

“…Hyderabad, March 24: EDS, the $20.5-billion global technology services company, appears to have discovered a rich vein of managerial talent pool graduating from the Indian School of Business here, with Plano, a Texas-based firm, making 14 job offers to the Class of 2006.

“They’ll work with senior executives across EDS in identifying and capitalising on new growth opportunities in areas including applications development and business process and transformatio-nal outsourcing,” he said. “The candidates will be gr-oomed for leadership roles in the company, possibly in Latin America, Eastern Europe or elsewhere…”

EDS discovers a rich pool of talent at ISB

80 people, all Students and family members…
One cruise boat, entirely ours for 2-and-half hours…
Food on board…
DJ on board…
Free booze on board…
Dance floor on board…

Excellent experience…! Everyone enjoyed the evening fully…

Admissions department arranged this party for the volunteers who helped in evaluating and interviewing applicants. Kudos to them.

I was counting the number of True friends in ISB, who I can say that I know very well and can turn for help anytime. The count stopped at 8! There are numerous other good friends, friends and acquaintances. I have good relationships with many people, but the desired depth has not been established, mainly due to lack of sufficient interactions and spreading the effort with vast number of student body…

I perceive the 8 to be true friends. In 20 days time, the 8 will be dispersed throughout India spanning Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad….There is a common link between all 9 of us…No one is from Dean’s list! Not that my association is bad

MBA - stuff!

The following websites captures the essence of MBA. They neatly provide the summary of all key concepts.

www.quickmba.com
www.netmba.com
www.valuebasedmanagement.com
12 Manage [Thanks Vijay for the last 2 links…]

Supporting materials:
Damodaran Online
“Finance made easy!” - That would aptly fit the title. Prof. Damodaran has even put up all his lecture videos for others to learn!

Kotler - Marketing Textbook Complete - Online The bible of Marketing. I Haven’t read the book end-to-end yet!

Online Statistics Reference

Consulting Preparation: [Amazing resource for Consulting interviews]
Kellogg Consulting Club

Coming to the blogging world:
http://www.weblogsinc.com/ [A network of more than 90 top-notch blogs on subjects ranging from economy, electronics to automobile and cinema!. A very good starting point for top-notch blogs…]

The Indian Economy Blog [This one I like very much. It’s all about perspectives ]. Do remember to browse through the wonderful links on the side bar of this blog. Good Starting point…

Happy browsing…I am posting this for my personal reference too…

- People are going out for dinners, purchases, pubs, outings etc.,
- Efforts for yearbooks are in full swing.
- Parties in ISB are on hold until everyone is placed or until CAS process is closed (March 25th). I am hoping that everyone is placed by then so that parties can be celebrated without a zilch of hesitation.
- People are backing up their stuff in their newly bought external hard-drives or in CDs, depending upon their requirements.
- The DVD section looks empty all the time, as everyone is watching movies like maniac.
- Recreation centre is always full.
- Orientation activities for next batch are being planned. Yes, while we are preparing to leave, we are also preparing to welcome the next batch and to make the transition seamless.
- Video gaming and network gaming activities are on all-time high!

We have very good professors taking the courses for us in Term 8. Unfortunately, the students are in fun mode, with very few days remaining in ISB. The professors understand that and excuse us for not reading the articles But, I should mention about Mr. Phanish Puranam, who took the first 5 sessions of “Managing Strategic relationships”. He was phenomenal. Clarity of thought, Amazing fluency, probing the students on insights provided…Too good!

A picture taken by Exchange student Angus Moon. Amazing view! This one is much better and recent than Google Map’s.

In the centre is the Academic centre [Library, classrooms, dining hall, cafe, auditorium, academic office]. Surrounding the academic centre from top right (clockwise): Student Village 3, Recreation centre [with swimming pool], Student village 2, Executive housing & faculty housing, Student Village 1 [recently constructed]…You can also see the Microsoft Campus towards the north-west of Academic centre..

Every now and then, some music will catch my attention. Some attention are short-lived. But few songs move into my permanent ‘favourite list’. One song which moved into that list recently is Enya’s “Only Time”. I listened to this song when I watched the movie “Sweet November”. Was mesmerized by the song and picturization. Immediately searched and downloaded the song. I have been humming the song all along since then.

There is a soothing feeling. This is a healer music. As you listen to the music, you will get a feeling that time will calm down every problem and a sense of serenity will prevail in your face and mind. Quite a few of my friends knew this song before…Ignorant me…At least knew about this now.

Download this song here

I bumped into one good friend in ISB yesterday after a long time. Don’t remember how long…Should be more than 45 days…

He wasn’t looking normal. I could see a dejection in his face. I didn’t remember him seeing during placement season too…So I asked him…”Long time no see…How are you sir?”. He replied, “Doing good..how abt you?”. “I haven’t seen you for long time…things are fine at your end?”. He replied, “Yeah sort of..”. I asked, “You are alright?”…He replied..”Hmm…Actually my dad passed away..”. I was stunned and speechless for a moment. I just replied, “I am sorry…”

Honestly, he seemed to have just recovered. I did not want to press on that matter again. So left after moments after exchanging few words.

On one hand, many people are enjoying and having fun during the last term. This young man is bearing an unbearable sadness and deprivation. I sincerely pray for his father. May his soul rest in peace. On the similar lines, there are 25-30 people (as against 10 quoted earlier which apparently seemed to be a rumour) still jobless and searching gallantly for their fit. I am sincerely wishing good luck to them. These people will do exceedingly well after weathering such a storm. I regularly talk with 5-6 of these people and they have confessed about how difficult it is to see celebrations all around and cannot be part of the fun whole-heartedly. Still they carry themselves beautifully…I am proud to be associated with these guys…They teach me invaluable lessons…I am observing and learning from you guys…

This question has been troubling me for quite some time. “Is not voluntarily revealing the truth or not practicing absolute transparency same as telling a lie?. Does it have the same impact on the recipient of the messages as a lie has”.

Let’s take an example of organization. Every organization has so many drawbacks and lot of internal politics and turmoil. The employees of the organization have the first-hand information about such things. The outside world does not have any idea about such things. The organization creates an official ‘PR’ group or ‘corporate communications’ group to communicate the messages about organization to the outside world. Needless to say, the messages are carefully and selectively let out. Of course, the near and dears of the employees will have a much deeper insight about the happenings within the organization. This sort of ’selective communication of good things’ creates the so called ‘Information asymmetry’.

The governments are subject to the utmost scrutiny by the Media and Analysts. The more the scrutiny, the less the information asymmetry. The same level of scrutiny applies to some of the most famous organizations and institutions across the world.

Let me turn my attention towards the Universities and Institutions. There is really no ‘absolute transparency’ in any Universities/Institutions/B-schools. Every institution has the so-called ‘interface’, which is responsible for official communications. Take for example, the recent placement scenario in the B-schools. The news floating around like “86 lakhs International salary”, “34 lakhs international salary” is portraying only the bright side of the situation. No news comes out about the infamous ‘bottom-of-the-pyramid’. This information asymmetry inflates the hopes on millions of aspirants to pursue Business education. After all, only a handful can command such salaries.

But then, if you look from the B-school’s perspective, they are playing the game according the rules. The maturity level of the audience also comes into the picture. The readers if they read some negative news should be mature enough to gauge the unpleasantness and appreciate the reality. There is (mis)expectations from both sides. The day when everyone is mature enough to accept the news and every institute is nice enough to be truly transparent…this ‘information asymmetry’ will die down. Until then…it’s the ‘due diligence’ of the individual which will reduce the information asymmetry for him/her.

I am hoping that the growing popularity of blogs and anonymity provided by the blogs will help in reducing the ‘information asymmetry’. In the absence of anonymity, the individual will face pressure from the institution or the organization in writing about all the things…Sometimes even from his own peers. Because the ‘brand’ of the institute is under the hanging knife.

If there happens to be an individual who is completely dissatisfied with the institution, then no one can stop him/her from writing about this ‘disappointment’ anonymously. But then, some people might dismiss that by saying ‘biased opinion’!

On all probabilities, there will be 50+ blogs for the class of 2007. This is good for increasing the transparency…After all, not all 50 students will have the same opinion! So, gauge the transparency level of an institution by the number of blogs from the institution

PS: The information asymmetry can be witnessed anywhere and everywhere. Be it the case of buyer-seller, recruiter-interviewee (remember the resumes and PPTs!), Classifieds (matrimonials, rentals, for sales), media (some television channels and news papers are biased too!)…

http://govar.blogspot.com/2005/02/when-spade-is-never-spade.html. This post is more relevant to the topic…

Since Holi falls on a working day, we decided to celebrate Holi in advance. It was absolute fun…Some pictures for you…

Spouses had great time too…

After some time, people became violent and started tearing T-shirts

Snacks for Free!

And me…

When I joined ISB, alums were saying…”Prepare for the roller coaster ride ahead..Prepare for the best year in your life”. I could not comprehend the true intensity of those words. I just thought the words formed an overstatement. But now I realize it…

The kinds of emotion that one goes through in ISB is complete. May be this can be said about every year of one’s life. But what makes this year special is the ‘total experience’. The isolated location of ISB atop hilly regions, kind of infrastructure, freedom from work, intellectually stimulated environment that also fostered some strong relationships, vagaries of emotions, living with some like-minded-people who have strong ambitions and convictions in life everything contributes to the wholesome experience…

Towards the end of the year, I just wish I learnt more about some people here. I thoroughly enjoyed my circle of companionship here…Truly awesome…If I just take away the mask of academic workload and look at ISB, the freedom that I enjoyed here stands out…Will miss that very much…

I have changed in some aspects definitely. I have a strong desire to enjoy life to the fullest extent…My first and foremost wish that is floating in front of my eyes is to lead a balanced life. No doubts I need to succeed at the professional front…But I also have to take care of personal front, pursue hobbies, explore the world, learn different cultures, languages, live true to myself and to help others…I have identified this as a goal…so, now definitely there should be a way to make it to happen…as mind cannot conceive what it cannot accomplish!

Well, I will stop my rantings there.

I have borrowed 10 books from the library and exhausted my limit for the first time. One of the things that I want to take forward from ISB is the habit to read, read and read wide variety of topics. This may be the right time to get it started…so started

I have to fill the CAS questionnaire based on my recruitment experience. I am also asked to prepare for a possible video recording session about my recruitment experience with the target firm. In fact, CAS is pursuing around 2-3 persons (from each firm) to do this activity. The resulting materials will stand as a repository for the subsequent batches.

The Yearbook preparations are in full swing. Since I do not have one from my undergraduation, I am looking forward for this Yearbook. Will treasure it. Please make it professional and fun-filled guys.

Holi celebrations are planned for next week. Looking forward to that. I have seen last year photographs, which depicts mirror pools of Student villages filled with coloured waters and everyone rolling over on the colourful pool! I hope something similar to that will be organized this time…

Away from all these things, I am surprised by the power of internet to link up totally different people. To be precise, I am talking about the power of blog. I have received emails like, “Bharani, I know one senior project manager in so and so firm…If you want I can arrange a meeting with him…”! Not to forget the loads of wish mails…and enquiry mails. I have replied to some…haven’t replied to some…Apologies to those who haven’t received replies from me…Will enforce myself to reply to all those pending emails. I have also made few friends over the net, who share similar values and philosophies in life.

I would like to link up many blogs. But my page design does not allow me to put up 100’s of links. I am looking for a good solution (long-term) which will solve the problem of endorsing and linking other blogs, without worrying about growing list or growing page size (preferably new idea other than putting up in side bar). I am planning to create a separate page just for links…But I am worried if that will dilute the gratitude that we show by putting up the links in first page? Any suggestions…?

PS: Dave has raised some concerns about Lack of ethnic diversity in Indian B-schools…I agree with him to some extent…It will take time to build international diversity. We do have ‘few’ foreign students coming here under exchange programmes..But apart from that international diveristy does not exist. Give us 5 years….may be there will be an improvement in this aspect

Almost everyone is placed in the batch (Less than 10 waiting for their matching placements). The Average salary, highest domestic salary, highest international salary, number of consulting jobs…all the records are broken and new benchmark has been set for the next batch! ISB will be publishing the placement details only on April 1st week. Please hold on till then…

Everyone seems to be relaxed in Term 8. Definitely I am! Have 3 classes each on Monday and Wednesday. Rest of the days are available for all other activities, including time to study. Have been watching movies for past few days. Went out for dinner. Sleeping a lot. I have decided to pamper myself as much as possible by eating/sleeping/playing lot. Need to regain the 8 kgs back. I was around 70 when I came to ISB…Now I am 62.5!! This is stark contrast with few people who have grown thicker by miles! Stress seems to have opposing effects on different people…

Planning to clean my room and pack things slowly. Need to purchase an external hard disk to store all photos, documents, mails etc., Looking for some good deals. Have to start the hunt for apartment/house in hyderabad…preferably near Hi-Tech city (Banjara hills/Jubilee Hills). Also, I am expecting a trip to office to meet the management team, sometime during next week….

My parents are already after me for marriage…I cannot keep them waiting for long. So in a way, my bachelorhood is also fast approaching an end…though I don’t know how soon!

Mr. US President was impressed by ISB’s infrastrucutre and Entrepreneurial focus exhibited by ISB.

The ISB website has comprehensively captured the entire visit.

The person sitting behind me commented, “Both Mullford (Ambassador) and Mr. US President had their mouth open when they entered the Atrium!”. Well, I didn’t notice it or I missed it apparently..

George Bush was his usual self when he walked in his quick style and with his hand wave to the audience. As soon as he sat down on his chair, he started speaking…Effective time management. He was convincing for most of the answers, though not all…Well, the entire feeling of Mr.President sitting and chatting with young entrepreneurs and students, and being within 50 metres of radius from President was surreal. The axis of world power was sitting at the axis of ISB (Atrium)…That’s what is called Centre of attraction!

I guess, Somebody should have mentioned to him about the 300 million middle class in India, because he was emphasizing on that fact and the potential associated with the fact on more than 2 occasions.

He has good sense of humour. One person started introducing himself by saying…”My name is X. I am doing so and so…I graduated from this college…I listened to your speech yesterday..I think it was spectacular…”…Mr. President snubbed smilingly…”Let’s leave it there…”

One lady introduced…”I graduated from Carnegie..”. Mr. President replied..”You should be smart…Because only smart people get admission there!!”..

Another person introduced himself…”My name is …I am into Textile and Media industry…”. There comes a reply from Mr. President, “Textile and Media…Interesting combination…You can dress well in movies!”

He answered questions on topics ranging from Outsourcing issues, Bilateral agreements for funding, Pace of globalization, Economic patriotism (Mittal case), Port clearance and issues, Textile & Media Industry, Telecom & Power, Renewable energy etc.,

His Suggestions for developing countries (like India) to become developed countries:
- Focus on Infrastructure development. Especially infrastructure that will expedite market movement and knowledge movement.
- Atleast 50% of population (especially under 25 years) should have basic skills (read, write, subtract!)
- Emphasis on Good Tax policy. Current tax policies encourage tax evasion. Moreover, the current tax policies are quite complicated. They need to be addressed.
- Focus on HIV / Trafficking issues(Prevention, tackling, distribution of drugs etc.,)
- More tools and opportunities should be made available for entrepreneurs.

Something for myself…I noticed that our side of audience seats were captured by Times of India..with a caption “ISB Students listen in rapt attention…”!

Myself, Gautam and Vineeth sitting next to each other

I read an article “Top 25 powerful women in Indian Business”. It was inspiring and encouraging to read the success stories of such women. From male chauvinistic society to women-empowerment-oriented society…India has come a long way…

The things that are happening at B-school are no exception. Corporates are spending efforts to enhance the women-men ratio. B-schools understand the phenomenon and are accordingly increasing the percentage of women in each graduating class.

The words of a HR personnel of a reputed firm sums up the situation…”Yes we do have quota for women. We are looking to recruit atleast one female from ISB…We have orders to maintain certain ratio of women-men in management”.

The benefits@work are also more skewed towards women. They have special IT exemptions, special flexi-timings, special holidays (well apart from maternity leaves!), special career path (fast track) etc., Sometimes, I think…”The benefits are more weighed towards women…unfair ”. From women asking for equal rights…soon the situation might turn towards men demanding for equal rights!

So, if you are a smart female, and are ambitious and career oriented, it makes all the more sense to join B-school and enter into the corporate world. They are waiting with their arms wide open…All you need to do is pick your line/career and work towards that…But the challenges on personal front such as parental pressure, marital challenges etc., still remain…Women who can balance both personal front and professional front do succeed exceedingly well.

The batch of 2006 in ISB has 19% females (which translates to around 70). The number and % are expected to go up in the class of 2007….There are scholarships exclusively for women (Like Anand group, Novartis etc.,). Even ISB has increased the merit-based scholarship amount and numbers (some reserved for women)…ISB is leading the way in empowering women…no doubts.

The visit of George bush is officially not yet confirmed, because it never gets officially confirmed! But as of now, he WILL BE visiting ISB on March 3rd.

The security is top-level. Sniffer dogs, Snipers, mine-sweepers, security gadgets, detailed plans, special passes and ID cards and the list goes on…

It will be great to see him and hear from him first-hand! ‘Once-in-a-lifetime experience’…that’s what DIG of Police has to say about this visit….But this visit is definitely good for ISB community.

One week of decision, indecision and associated mental stress…
Moments of courage to leave the offer and to say…”Let’s call it quits…”
Periods of determination to prepare for unexpected interview opportunity…
Days of awakening of mind…enrichment of my soul…
I have become more capable of treating events independant of each other…that’s biggest take away for me…and I feel like a much improved human being…

I have accepted the offer that I originally got. Things were clarified from other end and it was convincing…As expected, there was some communication gap…Anyway, I am happy with the offer that I have in hand. Comprises of decent role, good pay package, decent career growth and high visibility in the organization…

I had my last interview experience yesterday….with that, I officially hang up my suit! I am out of placement process now…Around 40 odd people remain, who are still searching for their matching jobs…I fear that they might not get their kind of jobs if they search through ISB. They need to go out on their own….I am sure they will….and I am sure they will find their jobs…It’s just a matter of time!

Got in touch with S, to get a broad understanding of Product design, development, marketing and challenges.

Got in touch with S, to get a broad understanding of what to expect in Advisory firms, what kind of Technology roles are available in Advisory firms, and on how to prepare for such roles.

Got in touch with R, to get a broad understanding on Solutions, Telecom billing etc.,

Got hold of R and S to get a broad understanding of one Advisory firm. One worked their before and one got job their now.

A suggested me quite a few matrices, articles on Information risk mitigation.

“Extend your arms, help comes”….I am already witnessing the powerful network of ISBians…Not exaggeration….absolute reality…This network IS THE TAKEAWAY in any B-school….It will follow you for the rest of your life….Professional advice, Business partnerships, Knowing about opportunities, Strong friendship, Influential contacts…are some of the many benefits of the network…

Moreover it feels very nice when you see that people around are wanting you to succeed and willing to help you in whatever way they can….I will definitely repay them as and when I get opportunity….

On Friday, one mid-sized software firm, having ODC’s in chennai and bangalore, offered very good salary for Business Consultants and Delivery manager positions.

As far as placements are concerned…There are some interesting trends that I am observing here:

1. Lot of people who have worked in a specific firm are not recruited by the same firm after MBA. This goes to show that firms don’t give any importance for your past relationships with them. Having said that, there are some exceptions too…But overall, it’s pure business and no loyalty/sentiments…”you contribute, we pay you”…

2. Companies with good brand (especially IT companies) are paying very less salary. Companies of lesser known brand are offering 40-50% higher salaries. Brand vs salary trade-off in action.

3. One who has strong vertical knowledge/horizontal knowledge has good chance to get an offer than a person who has spread his legs on multiple verticals/horizontals (in IT)

4. For mass-recruiters, Academics/Grade is a big elimination factor. For a selective recruiter, experience matters and only experience matters…

Today, one Media company, which has one very-well known and respected person known to ISBians on its board, made excellent offers. Salary was decent. But the roles were all tailor-made on the spot. Involves challenging responsibilities. You can see “Head - XXX” on many offers!

Few big names are in pipeline. They have requirements for excellent roles. I believe one of these offers will catch the attention of media soon…Let’s see…

The placement tempo has stabilized…Slowly people are taking things in their stride…

Will update my placement scenario after things are confirmed…

In 2 days, Term 8 begins…Looking forward to my last academic term (possibly in my life)…

Life is interesting and full of lessons….provided one has the eyes to survey the landscape and ears to keenly listen the surroundings.

I was genuinely interested in the firm that I got offer with. But looks like HR perceives me as someone who is in desparation…and trying to play games. The designation promised and CTC Promised (still it is better than other IT salaries) doesn’t match what is printed on the offer letter that I received…So, the element of trust is broken. Even if he comes back and upgrades the offer, in all probabilities I would not take it up…unless the circumstances has been the culprit…

I am not in desparation. I will go on without a job even for months…until I find the job where I will be happy with. Mostly it will be Technology firm, preferably product firm! I will wait…In no B-school does placement happen in a week or 10-days time…It takes time…Especially for a school like ISB, which boasts huge number of experienced candidates, it does take time to satisfy everyones needs…So, there is no need to take any pressure…It’s better to rather wait than to take a job that you don’t like out of pressure and compulsion…There might be short-term pleasure but definitely there will be long-term regret. I know good number of very nice people who are still waiting for their number to turn, patiently and pleasantly…

Since there were not a single firm that were lined-up interested me, I volunteered for placement session on Thursday. It was my turn to pay back all my colleagues who were patiently volunteering the whole day, bearing the heat and boredom. This also gave me an opportunity to sit with HR of one particular recruiting firm as coordinator. She was very friendly and shared a lot of information. She told why candidates are being rejected? Why candidates are being shortlisted? Which parts of Resume will be keenly looked at? What kind of evaluation will be done in interviews? Why having an attitude is bad? etc., Was quite valuable for me atleast. Next time I walk into the interview panel, I will keep her simple suggestions in mind…I realized that I naturally come across as a credible person, provided I am relaxed…so next time, will try to maintain cool…

One interesting situation….

There were 7 candidates sitting in the hall…including the candidate who just finished his interview. The HR came to the hall and announced looking at the particular candidate, “I am sorry…you are rejected…you may leave!”…The candidate silently left the room with his head down…I felt bit awkward about the situation….

Being a coordinator, I went upto her after sometime and said politely…”You might as well invite the candidate inside your room and announce the decision instead of openly announcing in the middle of the hall…It will hardly take 1-2 mins”…She replied…”I don’t want to go into details…but everyone has to face rejection…otherwise you guys will not grow up…you should have maturity to accept rejection…One should understand that the rejection doesn’t mean anything about his/her qualities. It is just that there is no mutual fit between company, needs and candidate.”…There was a little friendly argument that followed…Since in between the interviews she was free, she was chatting with me…I liked her statement about rejection…even though I knew it internally and disliked her tone!

After some time, she came to the hall for announcing the next decision…This time she called the candidate,”X, can you please come inside for a moment?”…Shortly after that the candidate left the room, for reasons of rejection…Hmm…I respected her view…she respected my view!

Among all the hullabaloo, there was one smart lady…She was meticulously getting an appointment with HRs of all the company and personally getting leads for a job opening matching her requirements, either during the lunch or during HR’s free time…She is even open to HR positions…She did it professionally without creating any turbulences! If the HR was not fine with the request, she would not bother further…Hmm…where there is a will, there is a way

Today the highest domestic salary record and highest international salary record was broken…So, the philosophy that…”One who exhibits patience succeeds!” is justified…still.

Negotiated with relevant person. I made some trade-offs (Like moving minor portion of salary towards the end of the year as a lumpsum payment. This is apart from the variable pay)…He made some trade-offs (like giving me 3 more days to accept the offer). May 2nd will be my joining date. Location would be hyderabad. Will disclose the company and role in few days. Definitely not big Consulting/Banking. Mid-sized Software/BPO firm.

Now, I have only few more roles that interests me…Will go for gold with those roles…with absolute confidence…

Two companies I wanted to join…but they didn’t find me fitting with them. Two other companies were interested in me, but I wasn’t interested….Today one company was interested in me and I was interested in them…but for Salary portion…We sort of agreed to a fair sum. Towards the evening, it seems(through indirect sources) they got a dilemma on the fair salary and have put me on hold until they make up their mind! I am talking with relevant guys…Will know the result soon….

In the afternoon, after a successful negotiation, I said to myself…”I need not appear for any interviews tomorrow…” But life is full of twists and turns…interesting…For now, I will be wearing my suit for 6th consecutive day! There are still a significant portion of people who haven’t got a job yet…partly because they are choosy…Even the ones who got the job, many of them are not happy with what they got…

Some major dilemmas going through my mind. One side is not allowing me to undersell…But the other side is pushing me to have an offer in hand…So far, the first side has won…but the battle between the two sides is growing intense…

But boy, far the past 2 days, having an upper hand in the interviews has given me some confidence…So, my heart says…”Keep looking…”!

Rejected for Program manager position after 3 rounds of interview. Reason quoted was lack of sufficient fit with the position! Superficial feedback, but still is of some importance to me…Significant number of hours of work was invested from my side to prepare for Microsoft. An effort which started month ago and which finally gathered momentum 3 days ago…

I was surprised that even some really sharp people were rejected for lack of fit…Hmm, throughout my 3 interviews, I was asked only puzzles, algorithms and design problems (Stress interview! can’t believe Microsoft employs stress tactics, as it is clearly not their philoshophy). Anyway, whatever happens is for good…

It took some time for me to accept the reality…Then, the first thing that I did after hearing the news was to reach room and catch some sleep…so that I am in decent shape for tomorrow’s interview…

The first ball has been disaster and taken my middle stump for wheeling!..Now, I am ready to face the next ball…Different bowler, different pitch…Mood: Charged up more than before…

PS: M/S finally offered just 2 program manager positions. The selected candidates have significant Product design and development background.

Life is kind on me….atleast it has shortlisted me for 4 of the 12 positions I applied for. My tryst with M$ is still on…Cognizant, Infy, Dell are other companies that I am shortlisted for. Waiting for Virtusa, KPMG, Amazon….TCS, Wipro, and other software companies have announced their job postings recently..so need to take a call on that soon…was dinged by BT and BP.

M$ is coming on 17th! That is, one day before the planned date…Now, all the M$ related books have found its way to my study table…around 5 in total!!!

Was disappointed that two of my M$ focus group members couldn’t penetrate the M$ wall. A and K. A had such a reputation that he will be selected by M$ by default…But as he says, his relatively low experience might have played against him and K. I only wish they both keep their hunt going on…and not let this deter them from their pursuit…

Among all the Business Development roles & Sales-and-marketing roles, I spotted a strange looking offer. It read as “Senior Java Architect”…Yeah, you got it right…Java architect recruitment in B-school? Hmm..ISB is also building up a parallel reputation of Technology school

Smile is infectious….Positive attitude and behaviour is infectious….That’s what people around love to see/feel/experience!

Slowly I am inculcating the positive attitude with in me True test of the positive attitude will come when I hear/experience disappointing news. Let me see, If I truly possess positive attitude…

Other attributes that I would like to inculcate/nurture…Some of them I feel I possess in minute amounts..so, need not develop from scratch…
- Ruthless determination, focus, will power and courage of Lance armstrong.
- Effervescence and positive attitude
- Serenity (Inner calm and outer calm)
- Humility and simplicity
- Charm (nothing one can do about this..but Inner beauty radiates outside through clean smile)
- Level-headedness and not getting carried away
- Unshakeable moral courage
- Clear thinking and clutter free mind

The list never ends…but these are some of the top of mind attributes that came out…

How to break into the supreme slotting process that has been almost finalized? Well, there’s an easy way…Offer international placements. Companies that are willing to offer international placements command premium in this part of the B-school…for obvious reasons…$$$

Yesterday, there was a job posting from a Tier-2 (or Tier -3) private software firm, for around 30 odd positions, with abroad promise and decent salary. With only 24 hours given for deciding whether you want to apply, many people applied. The shortlisting was done in flat 8 hours past the deadline. Interview is planned for today….Things happened like a whirlwind….

I too applied…but, have been thinking since then about why I applied? So far I have applied only to 12 positions. This is in stark contrast with few people who have completed their quota of 25 slots and couldn’t apply for firms like Accenture Consulting!

Fortunately or Unfortunately, I am not shortlisted for this company…and this didn’t bother me a bit….I am expecting calls from certain list of companies..I will be worried only if I don’t receive calls from those companies…Many shortlists will be announced in couple of days…

Now, IT people are seriously worried. With 100-150 applications for each position, chances are that only 20% (max) will be shortlisted. And all the shortlists are coming in a single go….So, there is a high chance of overlap and some may never figure in any of the shortlist (God forbid)!

Going back to international placements, there is a catch. With H1-B Visa applications invited and processed only in the later part of the year (around october), chances are that one has to work in Indian division till that time…What will be the salary paid till that time? What will be the work one will do till that time? Once you begin to think, lot of questions pop up…Clarifying these during the interview becomes imperative….

4 days to Day 1….

BTW, wish everyone a very happy valentine day….and special wishes to couples in campus…both married and about-to-be-married

‘Rang de Basanti’ was a good experience. Going to city, watching movie and subsequent shopping in the evening was relaxing…I was locked within ISB campus for around 2 months!

I am far from being sincere towards placement preparations. Even though I am doing some sort of preparations all day, I feel like I am not doing much! I can feel a huge ‘void’ in my preparation, though I am not sure what it is…I just hope I don’t fall inside that!

Yesterday, I accompanied one of my good friend for shopping. His parents also accompanied us. The reaction of all parents towards our [guys in our age group] shopping patterns is same My dad use to say “For this Rs.800, I can buy good quality clothes and stich 3-4 shirts”. Sometimes, even I wonder if I am paying too much for my laziness…if I am blindly paying for the brand…Actually, If I spend some quality time doing “Search comparison”, I can definitely find a good deal..But who has the time for all these? We end up paying more in the name of convenience…

Subsequent to that, we took an auto for reaching a restaurant…We negotiated Rs.20 for the ride. The auto-wala had to travel little extra to reach the destination…So my friend’s dad gave him Rs.5 more and was mentioning me, “We pay without even thinking 800, 1000 rupees for brand in good-looking shops, but we think twice for paying to poor auto-rickshaws…”. I agreed, atleast to this particular case.

We have a tendency to enforce our power only upon people who are less influential/powerful than us..or people whom you take for granted…

PS: I saw the quote somewhere today. I used to have this quote as my signature in office.

“For the world you are someone. But for someone you are the world”!

Very good….isn’t it…If I am able to make the life of atleast one individual in the world better, then I can say I achieved success…

okie…back to placement prep!

Hi Everyone,

- ISB Admin.

Initiative well-timed! and the ticket is on the house!!

Slept 7 hours in the past 72 hours. Woke up 3 consecutive nights…Kept away from the blog forecefully for 2 days…

All the assignments, projects and presentations are over today!….Starting tomorrow I can concentrate COMPLETELY on placement efforts. That would be 8 days of effort. Come Saturday (February 18th), the placement begins. The slotting of the companies are done. So, we now know which companies would come on which day…Most of the companies that I am applying to, are coming in Day 1, Day 3 and Day 5. Day 3 features 4 companies that I am applying for. If I am shortlisted for all 4, then it would be one hell of fun and drama

I didn’t apply to some companies after some thought. For companies like Diamond cluster and Trilogy which has 2-3 and 3-5 positions respectively, there would be 150+ applications filed!! That’s the level of competition Moreover there is a clear indication of what companies are looking for. Diamond Clusters is looking for its India operations and specifically looking for people with Telecom background. Trilogy on the other hand is giving importance to people from Automobile background….

British Telecom came up with a shortlist of 30 candidates (Market information) out of 200(?) odd applications…Already some people were interviewed through telephone for a pre-liminary evaluation.

Till last week, CAS was sending out the shortlist for each companies to everyone in the batch. But now, they are sending the shortlist details only to the relevant person. This is more to my liking…Why should everyone be updated about every other person’s shortlisting details?…and this confidentiality reduces the peer pressure BTW!

8 days to PLACEMENT MAYHEM…..

Ramki’s blog has some highly relevent stuff on Telecom Industry. He has done a great job in writing those summaries…

I wanted my personality to be reflected in my blog(Bharani’s blog)…and not my blog to reflect as my personality (like being called as Blog Bharani or people remembering about blog as soon as they see me!) I fear that the latter is becoming a reality….I am not sure if this is an area of concern…but definitely in the long run I would like the former to happen….This is a dilemma every blogger goes through…how do other bloggers feel about this? any opinions?

Abstraction of my learnings:

You belong to a community. You find many good things and a few bad things about the community. Overall, you are very much satisfied, so you have something ‘nice’ to say about the community to others. And you share the ‘bad’ things with your community so that they think about it and do something constructive about it. They take positive actions to eliminate the imperfections, and you are more satisfied and everything ends up in a positive cycle.

You belong to a community. You find good things and bad things. You bitch about the community to the outerworld. You praise about the community to community members. Basically, you do good neither to the outer world nor to the community. It is nothing less than back-biting! Definitely not good in a long-run…

First scenario is ‘constructive’, second scenario is ‘destructive’!

Open question… Is ‘not saying things’ same as ‘lying’?

3rd Feb, Friday

18:00 p.m: I check the Airdeccan ticket prices from Hyderabad to Chennai on April 9th. It shows Rs.500/=. Call my parents to confirm if they will join me for graduation day and if I can go ahead and book the tickets.

18:30 p.m.: My parents get back to me and ask me to hold for some more time for getting a confirmation from my brother. I refresh the page, the price this time shows Rs. 771! I urge them saying that prices have changed and that I am going ahead with the booking.

18:40 p.m.: I Get a confirmation. But, Network becomes very slow. After some moments, manage to get the reservation page. This time the price shows Rs. 980/=. Not willing to take more risk, I booked the tickets.

18:45 p.m.: I check back the prices for curiosity and the price this time shows as Rs.1829!!!!

We received an email from ISB saying that everyone should positively vacate the campus by April 9th, 2:00 p.m.. There are quite a few chennaites in campus. Probably they are driving the demand? Anyway, I was able to witness the ‘dynamic’ nature of ‘dynafare’ in action today!

Anyway, the title is bit far-fetched…;)

Prof. Krishna B Kumar won the “Best Professor the year - Core terms” for the second consecutive year. Great job! He deserves the honour for the way he won the hearts and minds of the students…

Recently, we had a student poll to identify the “Best Professor the year - Core terms 2006″. It was a tough call to single out one professor for most of us, considering the quality of professors we had during the core terms.

The following was my initial shortlist:

1. Mark Finn (Financial Accounting)

2. Richard Waterman and Robert Stine (Statistics)

3. Jagmohan Raju (Marketing Decision making)

4. Anjani Jain (Decision models and optimization)

5. Krishna Kumar (Global Economics)

6. Subramanyam A (Investment Analysis)

Narrowed down to two choices between Anjani Jain and Krishna Kumar. I finally voted to Krishna Kumar. Hearty congratulations to him…Another polling is due for “Elective terms” which will see the likes of Nirmal Gupta, Sreenivas Kamma, Dishan Kamdar compete for the crown…

Yesterday we received an email regarding Graduation day details, logistic details regarding accomodation for visitors, last day to evacuate(!) the campus et al….Hmm…Time is flying so fast….Hardly 60 days remaining…

We had a very fruitful placement practice session, except for last few moments. Something happened that was very funny! Very funny!…It is long time since I laughed so much…that my stomach ached and face blushed so much! When I listened to the recording, the laughing has magnified…:)

Microsoft is coming on Day 1(Feb 18th). That’s a change from the original plan of February 21st (Day 4). So need to make some changes in my plans.

What would be my ideal slotting? I wouldn’t like all my preferred companies to come on the same day. I would like to see that the competition to my dream company is minimum when it comes to campus (Dean’s listers don’t apply!). In order for that to happen, it’s beneficial for me if my dream company comes as late as possible so that all dean’s listers would have been placed. But there is a problem. If my dream company comes as lates as possible, and if I get shortlisted and selected for my lesser preferred companies before that date, then I am in trouble, as there is a cap on number of offers one can accept. Tricky situation…but not impossible to handle! Need some level of maturity to make trade-offs from our side and bit of ’smartness’

Anyone are eligible for applying to IT companies. Even the operations guys and finance guys are in heavy demand for functional consulting jobs. So everyone can theoretically compete for IT companies. That makes the competition for us little ‘larger’!

Constraints facing us:

1. Number of job positions one can apply for.
2. Number of offers one can ‘acknowledge’ at any point of time. (When a company ‘offers’ you a role and you ‘acknowledge’ it, then it is officially recorded by CAS. Company will give a time frame to ‘accept’ the offer. Could be a week or could be a month. Depends on the company. Needless to say, it is beneficial to us if there is more time to ‘accept’. Once you accept/confirm the offer you are out of the placement)
3. Number of offers one can ‘accept’ finally.
4. Number of companies that can visit the campus per day

So, as you can see, this is not the time to ‘experiment’. This is the time to be ‘focussed’. Making an educated choice is important. Making a safe set of choices is also important (Backup offers).

Everyone here understands that ISB-Brand will come with them for the lifetime and that job immediately after the MBA is not be-all and end-all. But everyone wants to get a ‘job’ which will meet their ‘expectations’, so that ‘peace of mind’ will prevail when he/she leave campus

The BCG Shortlist was announced today. Almost 75% of the McKinsey Shortlists figure in BCG Shortlist too. There are some additions and deletions. Overall, the list gives an indication that BCG is more academically inclined than McKinsey! A made it to the BCG list…Good…

Irrespective of how much the consulting firms downplay the importance of grades during the placement talks, the shortlisting is always predominantly done based on grades. History is the best evidence. The recent shortlists strengthen the claim.

There is an apparent disconnect among the people who deliver presentations, who design compensation structures, who evaluate applications, who interview the candidates and who finally work with you in the firm. This disconnect is the reason for mismatch between what’s being said and what’s being done. What’s surprising to me is how strongly few alums pushed us to apply even if one does not have attractive grades. Let me hear from someone who wants to defend that “Grades are not important for Consulting/I-Banking firms”. This is India. The examination-based mindset is still the most reliable method for top firms. I don’t see a change in the trend for long time to come!

Going to IT services firms, some firms are quoting low starting salary, expecting the students to bargain. I personally thing that’s unfair. Relatively new and medium-sized firms are giving more salaries than established and top firms. Top firms use the “onsite opportunity” as a negotiation weapon.

Slotting of the companies will be finalized in couple of days. The major concern seems to be same set of people getting shortlisted in each company. Whole lot of game theory is going on to reduce this shortlist overlap!

Next 10 days will be very busy. The end-term projects for all the subjects are due next week. Companies have already started inviting applications, so we have to spend quality time in writing good EOIs and Resumes. On top of this, we have to keep our placement preparations running….

The running continues….

One gentleman from HLL delivered the Pre-placement session. During the talk he said:

“…It makes sense to have Group Discussion as a selection mechanism in IIMs and other Indian B-schools, where majority of the students are freshers. But in ISB, to subject experienced candidates to Group discussion for 15-30 minutes is not logical. We will have only interviews. We would talk with all the shortlisted candidates and identify their needs and offer roles…”

He also said…”Suppose one has been in to sales and marketing in his past work experience and is willing to move into same function, we will definitely attach some “value” to his “experience” and offer appropriate roles and salary. But if he/she wants to shift to Finance, then we have no other option other than recruiting him as MBA Trainee…Let me be frank on that”

I nodded silently in agreement…!

But one problem we witness with all the pre-placement talks is the lack of clarity on compensation. Most of the companies which come to campus quote the figure which is applicable for freshers and mentions that the compensation will be upwards and the ‘upward’ potential will depend on the relevant experience one brings to the table…Some companies give examples like “For 5 years of ‘relevant’ experience we will give this position and pay this much salary…”. Few others mention “The range will be from X-Y lac rupees per annum”…

Companies mention that they will evaluate the “Value” that each one of us bring to the table and then compensate us accordingly. So, the “Value” / “Experience” is going to be big “negotiation” factor. Companies will try to discount it as much as possible. We will try to extract as much premium from our past “Experience”.

Hmm…Now, where did I keep my negotiation book? …Time to blow the dust and brush up some “Salary negotiation concepts” that Mr. Dishan Kamdar gave us.

Thanks to Venkatesh Adavi for sharing the gyaan on BD roles in IT.

Kind of activities under “Business Development”

1. Pre-sales: This is the starting position in a BD hierarchy. Bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in IT Business development, if you can call so The designations associated with this role can change from company to company (But predominantly it is “Business Analyst”). What do these guys do? They spend significant time in preparing RFI (Request for information), RFP (Request for Proposal) and RFQ (Request for Quotation). They also spend time in preparing “Presenations” of company’s offerings tailored to customers. To grow in to a sales position in IT, this is a pre-requisite. One has to undergo the “Pre-sales” experience. Later, when you become a “Sales” guy, you can understand the nitty-gritties of Pre-sales and can understand the deliverables that you receive from your pre-sales team. Travel to client location might sometimes be needed. Otherwise, work is based on offshore.

2. Business Development: Here, professionals would be identifying new business opportunities, modifying the service offerings according to the customer needs, etc., The border between this and pre-sales is very blurred. The kind of activities one would do under “Business Analyst” will change from company to company. Few companies clearly separate this role and Pre-sales.

3. Competitor Intelligence: Some companies offer such a role to gather ‘intelligence’ about competitors of the company. What offerings do they provide? What clients are they targetting at? What developments competitors are making? etc., These are ‘esoteric’ roles and are rarely offered.

4. Sales: Front-line selling: This is the pinnacle in Business Development. The most happening place. Some of the activities include Cold-calling customers, explaining your company’s offerings to clients, pursuading them to do business with your company, negotiating the deal and price etc., Most of the time, the local people will be recruited for these positions. Americans for US clients, Britons for UK, Europeans for Europe etc., These are the guys who will be influencing the clients to begin with. Once the client
has shown some interest, then the entire Sales team will be involved. The Sales team can be organized based on geography, vertical, business-offerings etc.,

Bottomline: Each company has its own definitions of roles. So it is absolutely imperative to clarify before you accept the offer.

What is the Career path?
Pre-sales –> Sales –> Group-sales/ Relationship manager (For large client accounts) –> Territory/Country/Regional manager –> Vice president/Senior Vice

president/Executive Vice president –> CXO!

Bottomline: The career path differs from company to company. It’s imperative that you clarify it.

What are the related functions?
This is important to understand because one has to know what are the functions one would interact with while at job.

Some known functions: Sales-support, Corporate marketing, Public Relations, Event management, Competitive intelligence, Consulting, Account management.

Bottomline: Understand how all these divisions work together.

What are the questions one should ask a recruiter?
- Career path
- Performance indicators and Evaluation process (On what basis one would be evaluated during appraisals for promotions and hikes)
- Salary structure (Fixed and variable components)
- Individual role/Team role
- Company’s strengths and competitors
- Type of deals preferred
- Future strategy

Since the sales in IT fall under “Business-to-Business”, the strategies are different from typical B2C sales & marketing.

The roles for MBAs in IT services companies is still evolving. Expect more refined roles in future…

Regarding the “Program manager” offered by Microsoft, the following link comprehensively explains the job function.

Steven Sinofsky’s insights

Chris Pratley’s insights

This is different from typical “Project manager” role in IT services company. No one will be reporting to you. But you have to ‘interact’ with Clients, Marketing team, Product managers, other Program managers, your development team, testing team, user interface team etc., Lots of communication involved in terms of convincing all the parties about your ideas. You have to draft the entire project plan. So only scheduling is involved and no resource allocation involved (no people management). Program manager is “Project manager” - “People management” + “Client interfacing”. You have to constantly identify ways of improving customer experience. In summary, you have to identify “needs”, convince involved “parties”, get approval, schedule the project and oversee it at broad level. After some experience, you can later move to Product management/Product planning/Sales & marketing team within Microsoft.

I was one of the recipients of “ISB Torchbearers award”, which was announced today. Around 32 people made it to the final list. Four among them stand out strongly, and were fittingly given “ISB young leaders award” in addition to “ISB Torchbearers award”.

That’s for the positive side.

Over the past 9 months at ISB, I have heard many sarcastic comments on blogging. People see “blogging” as a waste of time. The most hurting comment one can hear is “So you got it due to blogging..huh?”, “So all the bloggers got it huh?”…If someone invites me for party/dinner and If I turn it down, they will say..”So you will go and blog?”..Even though it was used in a fun context, the frequency of such comments make me sick of such comments…I am going to speak only for myself atleast here…

Blogging is not easy. First of all, it needs solid commitment and discipline to do it consistently and to make it informative. I do it mainly because I love blogging. So, I thought I will make it as a fruitful exercise for ISB too…Many a times, I blogged under hectic schedules…I think I have done a decent job along with few other fellow bloggers here…

People think they have been using their time most productively by not blogging. Just take a moment and think…”Didn’t you spend time in chatting unnecessarily about bollywood, cricket, masala items…?”, “Didn’t you waste time in drinking whole night and sleeping for the next whole day?”….Blogging is much better use of time than those!!! BTW, I don’t take more than 15-30 minutes per day in blogging…I do it religiously…..

For the first time in my life, I am not proud of receiving an award…

The “Award” committee should have made the process more transparent. They should have atleast announced on what grounds people were given awards…that would have closed mouths of many!

There has been quite a few cribs going on especially on the “ISB young leaders award”. Just imagine the plight of the guy (not me) who didn’t even nominate for himself, but who has done tremendous volunteering, and received “ISB young leaders award”, and eventually being questioned on the award!!!! If the grounds on which ISB gave these awards is announced, it will atleast avoid the cribs…People will really appreciate the grounds of recognition…I personally feel all 4 of them deserve thoroughly…

Couldn’t resist from posting this stuff…I tried hard…but…

ISB Through the lens
“A Pictorial reflection of Life at ISB…”

This is a photo blog from THE PHOTOGRAPHER of ISB Batch 2006. It’s tough to see him without his tiny and compact digital camera. He is also a veteran with SLRs. How many of us can claim to ‘click’ the moment before ‘returning’ some fast serves in volleyball game? He definitely can…He has captured all the moments…moments of people dancing, partying, studying, laughing, eating, drinking, sleeping, and even clicking snaps! Here it is…”ISB through the lens of Vickie the clickie!”

Bobo Writes…

This one is from Vibhu Walia. He was the moderator of ISB-Admits yahoo group for our batch and his was an established name before everyone met at ISB. He is currently pursuing his exchange program in Darden, Virginia along with Shrutkeerthi. He too has decided to capture his journey in the blogosphere…

Note from friend: (A Message from my friend who received MBA from a reputed UK B-school)

MBAs should know what 1$ can buy in New York or London or Madras. One of the funniest news coming out of Management Institutes in India is ‘IIM grads gets Rs 55 Lac salary’ This news definitely appeals to the man on the streets , it appeals to the parents of soon to be IIM grads and attracts more students to take CAT. But what is this Rs 55 lac??

Recently IIMs have been boasting salary of 150,000+ USD which appears to be GBP figures converted to USD. The USD figure is a great salary for any city in the US but when you get the equivalent GBP in London, you don’t get the same lifestyle. One should look at salary figures in the local currency…

Conversation that I overheard:

X: “Who do you think will make it to the final list of McKinsey from the announced shortlist today?”

Y: “Hmm…X1,X2….”

X: Cuts short…”X2??”, “Man what do you think about X2?..I heard he was some lead before coming here..”

Y: “No..he is good…his fundas are very strong!”

X: “Is it…what’s his GMAT?”

Y: “Wait let me take the excel sheet(!!)…Hmm…he has got 720…”

X: “What’s his undergrad?”

Y: “He has done his engineering from no name college…hmm..his undergrads marks are less than 70%”…

X: “less than 70%….???”

Y: “Yeah…even X3,X4 will make it to the final list…You know what X5 was making only 2.7 lacs before coming here and his GMAT is less than 670! but he is doing good here…”

X: “Ok..can you tell me who else has got 750+”…Supposedly X is proud of his GMAT score…

Y: Checks his excel sheet and tells him the stats…”Hmm..I was earning X lacs per annum, look at this fella, he has 9 years experience and was earning less than me…Hmmm!”

Man, this is the kind of talks happening in the campus…People who were previously not noticed are getting noticed, all because their names are in the shortlist..and everyone wants to suddenly know more about him/her and question their success in ISB…My question is simple…”How does all this matter to you?”…”Plan your game buddy…”!

BTW, today the first short-list from McKinsey was announced. 35 people made it to the final list…Many people are disappointed as they couldn’t make it to the final list…The list has predominantly dean’s list guys and some strong experienced guys…But this was just like what I expected…so no surprises for me!

A particular Indian Electronics equipment company has promised high-level roles with sky-rocketing salaries in their presentation! Man, can’t imagine getting such high salaries in India!!! Of course, they are in look out for very experienced people with relevant backgrounds…which ISB has supply of!

I was talking to one of the fellow bloggers (I wouldn’t want to name him, but soon the world will take a notice of him highly ) and I am pretty sure he will be one of the top-salary earners in ISB this year. He was already talking numbers equivalent to US salary!

I am only talking about Domestic salaries. My quadie G, got an offer with a up-coming Pharma research company through his personal network. The role is pretty high-level (2-3 levels from the top) and salary is very good! He is one hell of a focused and smart guy…He will go places…

Isn’t all these strong evidences that Indian market is HOT?

IT service companies and product companies are predominantly offering the following roles or flavours of the following role:

Business Analyst
Business Development
Program Manager
Product Manager
Project Manager

Other roles are:

Account Manager
Domain Consultant
Associate Consultant
Technology Consultant
ERP Consultant

Depending on the number of years of relevant experience one has, one can expect to attach the word “Senior” in front of all these roles.

The most popular roles among IT guys are Business Analyst or Business Development.

The Business Analyst is the most commonly offered role in all IT companies. One needs to have relevant sales experience for getting a Business Development role (The client-facing position or rather Client-acquiring position!). Largely, one will be recruited as Business Analysts for appropriate verticals in which one has past experience(Healthcare, Financial Services, Telecom, Retail, Energy & Utilities…etc.,)

I somehow have a feeling that the BA roles are highly diluted in IT services company. Companies have been recruiting from even second-tier and third-tier colleges for these positions! Most of the work will be RFP and PPT preparations. If one has patience and shrewdness to grab visibility for his work, then he can quickly obtain a client-facing role and can grow further. But to begin with everything is offshore.

Somehow, the Program manager roles offered by Microsoft appeals to me. But again, it’s personal preference. I just let my heart to speak without any hindrance from head…and I found a lot of ‘inherent’ interest with that role. But my head says “Maximize your MBA returns..go for more ‘appealing’ roles”. Now, that’s where the dilemma comes…for me atleast.

Don’t get me wrong…I am now-a-days giving lot of preference for work-life balance, location, ‘love’ and ‘passion’ for the work. That’s what is going to ultimately keep me happy…

It’s become a chore to regularly attend PPTs, some out of compulsion, some out of interest, some out of influence!! Yeah, everyone has something called mandatory attendance for a set of Pre-placement talks. If anyone misses the mandatory PPTs, the number of job postings that a person can apply comes down by one! The penalty increases exponentially for further absenteeism…Just a mechanism to ensure minimum attendance for all PPTs. I think it’s fair…The facility to trade PPT allotments increases the active trading within ISB community

In ISB, we get to decide even the slotting of companies. Students bid for the company slottings. For example, if majority of students would like company ‘X’ to come on campus on day 1, they would bid high for that company and slotting…Again, it’s to bring equality…But with majority of students from IT background, the scale can easily shift towards IT companies…One can witness the Consulting giants, I-Banking giants and IT service giants to compete on the same day for the top minds…The top brains will be sold out in 2-3 days…The experienced hearts will be available for grab after 3 days, but for a premium

The 10 days from February 18-27 is going to be a logistical nightmare…Since there are many rooms needed for interviews, word is that even some rooms in the executive housing block will be utilized. The onus of getting the student to the right room at the right time falls on CAS. So CAS faces a logistical nightmare. But given the good track record that they possess in logistics, I think this will be a minor deal!

If one is lucky, placement process can end in as quick as 1 day! or it could drag for months…Just the matter of time, luck, fit, performance…everything should fall together…

As of now, I have decided to apply for around 8 companies…out of which I am confident of getting in at 2-3 companies, need to prepare more for another 2-3 companies. The remaining companies are a long shot…

Just some observations…People are becoming increasingly defensive..some are becoming more agressive…All due to stress…With so many things happening around, disorientation happens very easily…

Anyway, I am trying hard to remain calm…but failing at times!

The whole day was screwed up. Slept at morning 9! Wanted to wake up in time for 2:30 class. In stead Woke up at 3 to my dismay..So had to attend 5-7 class, which means I had to call up my focus group and convey them that I wouldn’t make it to the meeting scheduled at that time…Wanted to review ITBS group assignment…But the write-up was sent around 11:00 in the morning for review, and I was sleeping at that time. Submission was due in the evening, so couldn’t devote time to review it…

Went and attended the presentation of one of the well-paying company. At the end of the session, the ‘expected’ impact was not made, so there were disappointments around. But the salary, location are still attractive. Whatever big the company might be, if the people who deliver, fail to impress, the interest on the company takes a jolt….’Projecting’ a positive image within the stipulated timeframe is key to success and failing to do is recipe to disaster.

Later, forgot that there is a IT-focus group meeting scheduled at 10:00. So gave committment for quad-focus group. Had to chuck one after realizing the clash in schedule…

Still have some more readings for tomorrow’s class….couldn’t read today’s newspaper…

What the heck, will see it tomorrow…Am hitting the bed…tomorrow is a fresh day!

On Monday, I had two options in front of me. Either to attend Infy Placement Talk or Hindustan Times - Media Placement Talk. I chose to attend the second since I thought I have enough information about Infy. Three top-level gentlemen from HT came over to deliver the pitch. I would say their sales pitch was very good. They greeted hands with few people present in the room. Then they went ahead and portrayed the Media landscape in India. Then they briefed about Hindustan Times and its strategies. I was curious to know what roles Media can offer for MBAs apart from traditional Marketing and Sales. The role that HT Media is offering is of strategy and implementation.

Also, they said they created a job for a MBA graduate, who wanted to exploit her writing skills while at the same time wanted to harness her MBA skills. Got some details on that. Compensation is competitive. I somehow have a feeling that Media is one of the places to exhibit and nurture your “creativity”. Anyway, I will keep this as “eccentric” options !

After I came from the talk, I heard that Apollo Hospitals also gave a good sales pitch. Hmm…attending these kind of non-IT company sales pitch is enriching in a way…

I signed up for Mock Interview-GD-Sales Pitch organized by CAS on January 23rd. Interested students are grouped in buckets of 10. Business attire is compulsory. The purpose is to create an experience as close as possible to the actual recruitment. Consulting Club is also organizing similar event.

One of my focus-groups [am Part of 2 focus groups] had ‘Sales pitch’ session today. We cleared the room of chairs and sofas to create a ’stage’ setting. Video recorded the session. Probed the candidates deeply. Provided critical feedback. Then, watched back the video. Group was satisfied with the ‘quality’ of this session.

It’s becoming tough to manage between Placement preparations, Company Presentations and classes. But, it’s all in the good interest….

Three of my important Comrades have done a great social service to some people in ISB. One of them listens to the lectures or interviews very patiently and retains them permanently. He is the most prominent one among all my subordinates. He has been of great help to many people…literally MANY. He has even travelled with the people to assist them in their journeys! Another one of them remembers the images picture-perfect and retains it permanently. Yet another of them listens and observes others carefully and portrays their weaknesses or strengths HONESTLY when asked for!

I am talking about my dear electronic gadgets. iRiver-multi utility jukebox, which also doubles up as Dictaphone [Amazing quality…no doubts]. The other one is Canon Digital Camera [Canon -A95]. The third one is Digital Camcorder [Sony-TRV25]

I will feel my day as incomplete, if I am not been of help to even single human being. So, I make it a habit to help voluntarily…It might be as valuable as evaluating applications, reviewing resumes, observing people and giving feedback…or as trivial as opening the door for someone to enter, or showing up a smiling face to a depressed mind. But these three Comrades have significantly reduced my burden by doing social service on behalf of me

Well, Just submitted my resume + EOI for McKinsey & Co. Huh! Also, spent significant time in shaping the resumes of two of my close friends…Polishing resumes is tough job!!! Damn tired…

Don’t have energy to write…Instead decided to point to a “Brief-Biography” (The date of the post is tampered with!), that I wrote quite a while ago…!

Recently ISB announced a award called “ISB Young leaders award” and “ISB Torch bearer award”, for students who have displayed strong extra-curricular activities, or helped in building the brand of the school, or displayed strong leadership skills…

Now, what I feel strange about the award is we have to nominate ourselves or somebody else can nominate for us(But given the pressure everyone is under, I strongly suspect if the second case will ever happen). Few people I know, who deserve this award are not nominating saying that its ISB who should recognize the students and honour the awards.

“Self Sales pitch”, seems to be the norm these days. Be it admission, recruitment, award, election…Ultimately you represent yourself…World is self-centred…anything for others is only beyond you!!

But when I put myself in the shoes of school, recruiter, position, the notion of “sales-pitch” becomes clear…I would pick up the student who conveys a strong image about himself…Because the time is limited and you have to believe what you see and what you hear..no time to research deep!

This brings to my mind another sensitive topic…Exaggeration in resumes. In the beginning phases of career, I was of the opinion that exaggeration is not good. But over a period of time, when I interacted with recruiters, I understood that exaggeration is not seen upon as negative attribute, but as some skill! Recruiters are clever to make out the difference between ‘extreme’ exaggerations and ‘polishing’ exaggerations. One of my belgian colleague who was my project manager was also of the opinion that exaggeration to some extent is acceptable…Exaggeration puts you across as ‘mature’ candidate who can see the business impacts of your activities!

If you have a look any MBA resume, chances are that you will find some portion as non-factual and some as factual. It’s the non-factual portion which is tough to substantiate…

All of a sudden, all the technical aspects of your job evaporate and only the business aspects emerge! Now, that’s an art…As long as you can defend your statements.

Various Companies are on campus for delivering their pre-placement pitch. Now, it’s the time for them to do the sales pitch…One month later, it will be our turn to do the sales pitch Anyway, Going by the demand and market boom, looks like this year it is going to be the ISBian’s market

Yesterday I had a dream. I saw the average salary of ISB as 15.7 lakhs..The image was so vivid that I remember it still! Time will answer if what is saw was a day-dream or a foresight!

Things at home front are improving slowly. I am also feeling much better with more sleep….

Had my round of “Sales Pitch”(Why EDS? Why You?) for EDS. Didn’t go well…Could have done lot better…

I wasn’t feeling well throughout the day. Was Feeling feverish. Am going to sleep well for next one week and take enough rest.

By the way, happened to see “Sales pitch” made by others…Some people were rocking! Ooph! Man, intensity is high..stakes are high…I think the best route is to just chill out…being your own-self is the route to success…and being chill is the best way to be your own-self!

It was a good experience…At least, I have broken the ice as far as placement call is concerned…

Am shortlisted for further rounds of EDS-job interview…Wasn’t expecting a call to be honest, given the kind of role and competition…Hmm..atleast this gives me a confidence that my resume is fine and I am able to gather attention of recruiters…

Running to press my shirt..Was very confident that I will not go through, that I didn’t press my shirt even…

Let me give a shot at it…After all, I have nothing to lose..isn’t it?

My Ex-employer, who is a self-made entrepreneur, has began his new Software Venture. The venture is in the initial stages…

www.appliedevelopment.com

Just sent my resume + EOI for a role in Corporate Strategy group of EDS. Huh! The role, responsibility, salary, location everything is attractive….I think entire campus would be applying Not disclosing anymore details…

Thus begins the recruitment season….From monday, many Preplacement Presentations by companies are lined up. God, may the force be with me for next 2 months!!!

Last one week has been the MOST hectic and taxing week in ISB for me so far…On top of this, mouth ulcers, fever + cold. Never in life have I craved for sleep like this…honestly!

Now, don’t ask me where the hell do you get the time for blogging…Because, blogging is something close to my heart…Will blog even if I have an interview with my dream company the next day morning! A way to relax…For some people it’s smoking, for some people it’s gossipping, for some people it’s watching television…for me it’s blogging….

PS: The first round admission results would be announced today as per ISB website. Can’t imagine that we are nearing the end of programme. Anyway, my best wishes to all the applicants…May the deserving applicants go through…

One of the most pleasant and service-minded people that I have seen in my life are Sarovar House-keeping guys. They rock!

You get to wake up with a call “Housekeeping….”. Then you get to hear “Good morning sir…”. Then they mechanically change your bedsheets, clean your room, fold your clothes if you have any unfolded clothes, fill the water bottle…and the list goes on…Before they begin their cleaning, they report to their superiors that they are cleaning so and so room…If they find any valuables on the table/shelf, they quietly note it down and report it to the administration. In the evening, the concerned quad residents will get a mail saying “Valuables were found in your room. Kindly lock it in a safe plac…”

There is a new person who has joined the sarovar housekeeping team. He is hyper-active. He will always have the last word…How? He will say “Good morning sirrrr…”, and I reply “Good morning…”, he will reply back instantly “Thank you sirrrrr”…Ok..how about this..”Cleaning ho gaya sirrrr…”, I reply “Thank you!”, he goes instantly “Welcome sirrrrr…”..Somehow he wants to have the last word

On the new year day, he wished “Happy new year sirrrr!”, I replied back “Happy new year to you too…”, then he smiled and went towards the kitchen…After about 15-30 seconds he came back and smilingly said…”Thank you sirrrrr…” Sweet guys…

We are being pampered as far as housekeeping is concerned…Life will be tough after ISB

These guys are amazingly well-trained. Daily morning, all sarovar guys assemble at Recreation centre and repeat some sort of prayer. Then they get to know their allotments [Which rooms to whom?]. Again in the evening another drill…Their pleasant behaviour and images will always linger in my heart….

I have attended 4-5 mock consulting case interviews so far. I am able to crack the case to an extent. But the last 2 cases are something special. In the last but one case, after understanding the problem statement, I asked my first question to start my information gathering process. The very first question made the 2 interviewers to laugh…I couldn’t understand what’s going on…then, we continued. At the end of the case interview, they told me that the question that I asked was exactly reproduced word-by-word in the solutions document! That isn’t my problem!!! They even suspected that I have read the case before…wherein I haven’t…

Today’s case interview went one step further. The ideal approach for today’s case suggested a set of questions that the student should ask to finally arrive at a conclusion. But, I arrived at the expected conclusion within 3 minutes of my interview, with just 2 questions!!! Interviewer just kept me engaged for another 10 minutes by leading me into different areas. Finally, the interviewer rejected me saying he couldn’t evaluate my thought process!! Hmm…I made whole lot of assumptions in mind and asked the question that led me to the right conclusion…I know that I am a high-context person. But didn’t realize that I am very-high-context!! Need to shift to low-context…Case interviews need low-context culture! After all, the thought process is what is being evaluated in interviews!

To give an analogy, what I did was analogous to writing the final answer without writing down the intermediate steps. Might work well in objective type examinations, but not in subjective type exams!!!

BTW, I am doing these exercises just for learning. I don’t have any hopes of getting a consulting job, as academics plays a major role. And I don’t have attractive grades! But this preparation might come handy down-the-line…

Had a very unique examination today. Nothing special about the subject. But the way it was conducted was different…The answers had to typed in the word document while racing against the time. Unlike the usual sound of pens torturing the paper, this time it was the sound of keyboards pressing against the rubber padding that was distracting people…appeared to me like a typing exam!

The formalities after the exam was even stranger. The IT assistant came to each laptop and downloaded the answer document on to this pen drive. Took years to finish the process. So, some 2-3 people including me, pitched in with our own pen drives and eased up the process a little.

The paper was quite easy, in hindsight! There was a question to find price elasticity of a product given the sales and the total variable cost. After thinking some complex regression approaches, realized that the solution can be obtained through the simple cost-plus markup formula! Few more questions were like that…Life is simple most-of-the-time, but our complex minds make its tough

On the recruitment front, I rented couple of interview CD’s [Microsoft, McKinsey, BirlaSoft]. Will watch it over next 2 days. My promises to review resumes of my focusgroup is unfulfilled. Need to fulfill it during this term-break.

Received our User Id and Password for CAS website. All the job postings, Pre-placement talk schedules, resume submission will be done through this website. The pre-placement talks will begin promptly from the beginning of Term 7…that is, 5 days from now….

Shrutkeerti, Vibhuwalia and Mojo, another 3 colourful and vibrant characters are leaving to US/Germany after the departure of Shilpa, Mohit and Henna last week.

I owe R so much…without his mere presence, I don’t know what state I would have been some days ago…Thanks R. I am slowly seeing improvements…I am just praying that, the cycle builds up and doesn’t wane…

Completed Pricing exam. Will be done with Marketing metrics exam today. With 3 more end-term projects still remaining, another 4 days of academic slogging is inevitable. Collected my coursepack for Term 7, surprisingly only one! [Branding].

TAs of ISB are very friendly. Just need to have a cup of coffee or a chit-chat to see the ‘friend’ in them

“Hope is a good thing. May be the best of things. And no good thing ever dies…” - The most powerful statement that I ever came across…mentioned this already, but doesn’t hurt to say again

And so begins my first blog entry of year 2006…

I will never forget this day, December 31st 2005, for my life time. Only one heart knows the reason apart from my mind.

Going to other things, I was browsing the blog of my friend Vasanth. He has composed a beautiful summary about his blog for the year 2005. Amazing to see 6 million hits on his website! Also, he received 150 USD though Google Adsense. Great work!

I managed to complete 2 years and 4 months of blogging [I had a blog from 2003-Aug till 2004-Nov, which I lost in the middle]. I have made 330+ posts in my present blog. This year, I managed to post 257 posts. My blog has witnessed 200,000 page loads and 49,000 unique visitors till date. I am linked by 32 different websites/blogs. I have earned 25 USD through Google adsense so far. Search for “Bharani” in google brings my blog first. Was constantly second for many months.

Looking forward for Year 2006…

On new year’s eve, here’s wishing everyone a very prosperous, happy and fun-filled NEW YEAR - 2006.

I wish all my colleagues a dream placement, a great career and a phenomenal personal life…

Slept early (11:30) and woke up early (5:00 a.m.). I have tried this 2-3 times in the past one week. Invariably, the whole day is refreshing whenever I woke up early. The productivity level is high in the morning. Moreover, I get to take my breakfast! There is a refreshing feeling too…

Yesterday, I attended the farewell party of 3 colleagues who are leaving for exchange programmes. I put myself in their shoes for a moment. The very thought of leaving ISB was stirring some emotions! Hmm, I have shifted places quite a few times in the past 6 years. Each time I leave a place, there will be some emotions. But things will be fine in a few days…I think the ‘feelings’ is more to do with the process of ‘unsettling’ your settled life and also due to the bonding developed. ISB is a fairy world…getting accustomed to this lifestyle for long is also not good…! I am consciously trying to avoid this dependance..

Have been receiving comments that webpage is taking years to load. So made some changes. Hope this helps loading faster…

100 days left for Graduation. It’s a strange feeling to see the days remaining coming down from three digits to two digits!

Term 6 is coming to an end. We have exams and assignments for the next one week.

Quite a few people are leaving for exchange programmes across the world (mainly US). Some of them will return for the placements and some of them won’t. I wish them loads of success with their endeavours. It’s tough to see few of them leaving.

Had a rather delicate situation yesterday in BPMT class. I wandered my thoughts away from the class. At that opportune time, Prof was asking a general probing question looking at me. I should have said, “Sorry, didn’t listen. Can you repeat the question?”. Instead said some nonsense! Didn’t feel good for sometime to follow…

Have chosen the subjects for Term 7. I have kept the workload low, to enable me prepare well for placements.

Branding
Information Technology and Business Strategies
Business Intelligence using Data mining

By Term 7, I would have completed 5 marketing and 5 IT. Will complete my major [Marketing and IT] in Term 8.

Upcoming week is busy with 3 write-ups and 2 examinations.

Everyone has access to Java APIs, Microsoft Visual Basic APIs, HTML syntax, SQL Syntax. Now, how well one uses all these frameworks and tools to achieve the end-result determines the quality of the program/software. There are millions of ways to achieve an end result. Ranging from Brute force methods to divinely elegant ways! For example, to write an output “Hello World” on the screen, you can use a simple println statement or loop over the string and print character by character. Or you can simply embed the style elements in HTML or capture the style elements in a CSS and simply plug that file in to the HTML and achieve the benefit of reusability and loosely-coupled architecture! You get the picture…

Years of experience provides an added competitive advantage. Just knowing the frameworks and tools doesn’t make one excellent programmer. His intuition, creativity, logic, dedication, analytical ability, experience, business knowledge, general awareness everything together determines the calibre of the programmer.

The same can be said about an MBA. MBA programme exposes you to all possible frameworks, tools and methodologies to successfuly manage a firm/venture. Ranging from Porters five forces, 4Ps, 5Cs, 6-sigma, 7s to all financial analysis tools. Ranging from Regression to Monte-Carlo simulation. Starting from techniques on change management, knowledge management, corporate risk management, Managing IT, Business performance management, Operations management, Organization management to frameworks on Innovation management, Global operations management, Advanced Portfolio management and IT-service & Project management! Infact - ‘X Management’.

Take for example CAPM. Everyone knows that he/she has to use Risk-free return rate, market risk premium, Beta-asset to calculate the Return on assets. But what value to use for each of these items is left to the judgement of the end-user! You need to have deep understanding of the concerned firm and the industry it belongs to, market trends, alternative investments available, so and so forth…This form of subjectivity is what lends ambiguity and uncertainity to the jobs! Each MBA will come up with his own “Return on investment”. He/she is correct in his own right!

I think after 8 months of ISB, we have been exposed to reasonable amount of tools and frameworks. All we need to do is to just apply the right tool for the right moment with the right attitude and right approach. That will take us home. Can’t use an axe to cut a nail and can’t employ nailcutter to chop a tree! But you can choose between chainsaw and axe to chop a tree depending on the affordability of the client

Today, A pointed to me a rather interesting news. That Akshay Rangnekar, son of Mr.Ajit Rangnekar (Deputy Dean, ISB) got married in New Delhi Today. Both the Bride and Bride groom are stanford graduates. I wish them a successful married life.

Nobody in ISB knew about this, atleast officially not circulated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/fashion/weddings/25sari.html

(more…)

I am hearing all sorts of comments in ISB…of wide variety..because, people in ISB are diverse.. their aspirations are diverse….

I am going to apply to all companies….
I am in sabbatical, I can pick and choose the company instead of competing amidst such madness in the first 2 days of placment….
I don’t know what I want to do in life…
I like Consulting jobs. I wish I had prepared from the beginning….
I think I have made a wrong choice by coming to ISB…
Will I get a job?
When will this trauma end…
I like I-Banking, I like Journalism, I like IT, I like everything….

The pressure to make a right choice, a right decision is high…15 lakhs + one year of lost experience + one year of lost salary + one year of trauma + aspirations of self + need to fetch approval in society + need to make folks proud +….and so many other things are at stake…On top of this, people criticize each other’s choice, question the job prospects, question the choice…so even when some people make a choice, there is high probability for getting influenced and change the decision later. The Preplacement talks hasn’t even started. Once that starts, some more change in choices will happen…

By far, this one year would be the most adventerous year for most ISBians in their life. Highly risky year…That’s why people are pushing themselves hard…to make the most out of the programme. The whole set-up ensures that people always push themselves hard…ISB provides this high-mental-pressure environment, brings in highly competitive student body, brings in highly reputed professors, ensures that infrastructure is highly self-sufficient and takes a back seat. Everything else becomes the responsibility of the student. Students run the show for the entire year by organizing events, bringing speakers, organizing club activities, sharing career informations etc.,

What’s my situation? Well, I am targetting at IT services companies, IT product companies and XPO (BPO and KPO companies) for various roles including Product management, Project management, Business Development, Practice development and Pure-play IT consulting. It’s not a focussed target. In fact, I have intentionally kept it that way. All in all, around 20-25 companies are in my radar, out of which around 8-10 companies are of high priority. As days goes by, the list will become more concise and precise.

There are various factors that comes in to play when choosing jobs. Roles & challenges, Brand name of the company, Location, Fringe benefits, Career growth in the company, Culture within the company, Abroad opportunities, Fit with future plans, Salary, Job satisfaction, size of the company etc.,

There is a substantial growth noticed in the number of GMAT takers outside US, which is coming from countries like India and for the schools like the Indian School of Business. “Through Oct. 31, total GMAT volume is up 3%, but only 0.2% in the U.S. v/s 9.3% outside US” - quoted by GMAC in BusinessWeek.

V K Menon, Director – Admissions, at the ISB said,” The concept of the One Year programme in management, experienced student profile and the international faculty pool has been very well accepted by MBA aspirants in India. This has resulted in the sheer size of applicant pool for the ISB increasing by 80% in cycle-1. We are getting repeated requests to extend the application deadline for cycle-2 which is January 7, 2006, because of the unavailability of the GMAT dates.”

“Many of our students have had to push their test dates for GMAT because of non availability of slots. It is very unfortunate that we do not have enough centers to cater to the growing needs of the GMAT,” said Nidhi Khaitan Modi, Managing Partner, The Princeton Review-India.

Looking into the scenario the ISB will accept the GMAT scores till January 15, 2006. The last date of application remains the same as before – January 7, 2006 but applicants may send in their GMAT scores alone by January 15, 2006. This is also an opportunity for exceptional candidates with CAT (2002 onwards) scores to apply to the ISB. If they meet the combined admissions criteria, a provisional offer maybe made, subject to their taking the GMAT before March 10, 2006 and obtaining a minimum score of 680.

N pointed to me a rather interesting ad in wednesday’s newspaper, in “Times Ascent” section. The ad goes like this…

If a student wants to become…
…a doctor he needs…a medical college…
…a teacher he needs…a college of education &
…a lawyer he needs…a law college.

We are developing VBSE audio-visual content for primary and high school students. Interested candidates may walk-in…blah blah….

Now, this theme is exactly same as our business plan in PAEV course. When we saw this ad, we had two feelings. First, optimistic…that the need that we identified is wide-spread and there are working proofs available…Second, pessimistic…that someone must have stolen our thought…

Came back and searched for VBSE. Got access to the following three documents after couple of searches. VBSE has been operating for quite some time. The following documents will paint a very good picture of their thoroughness. Happy to see people pursue such efforts…

http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~suresh1/handout.doc
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~suresh1/chartideas.doc
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~suresh1/probcrossword.doc

Serious Preparations for placements have begun in ISB.

Yesterday, Mr. Pramat Sinha, Principal, McKinsey & Company gave a gyaan session on how to convert interviews into job offers. The talk was a perfect reality check. Good wake-up call to people who haven’t started serious preparations for recruitment.

This is it. Wait and watch some of significant placement achievements that unfolds at ISB.

From the time I reached Hyderabad on sunday night, I have been completely busy. Had 8 hours of class today! Even though, our capacity to tackle demanding situations and to work long hours has enhanced, it’s tiring sometimes and becomes an overdose after certain point. Takes a toll on everyone’s health…though it is seemingly unnoticeable. Many people don’t even bother to eat well, sleep for minimum needed hours, or take some time off their schedules. I wouldn’t blame them, because the situation demands such hard work. The problem with the 23-35 age is that much of the burn-out remains latent. The side-effects shows up late, but it does show up vigorously!

Huh! It’s been 7 days since I blogged…I am breaking my own records here, definitely not for better!!

Last week was busy with assignments and other activities. When people were pouring in to ISB from all parts of the country for Poseidon on Thursday evening, I left to chennai. My train travel was hectic, with 5 hours of delay. Reached home on Friday evening 5 p.m. Most of the tracks are damaged, so trains had to share the ‘good’ tracks. In the train I could not sleep, as I had all senior citizens as companions in my compartment and they were all happily snoring at different pitches and frequencies. At one point, I was able to observe a musical composition made purely through snoring!!! When I reached chennai, it was not raining, But I could see the results of the last 45 days of heavy downpour! The travel to my place had never been hectic before.

I attended my friend’s marriage reception. Met some more friends, including Vasanth. The function went on well. Was a nice evening. The purpose of my trip was achieved. I am happy for Jeeva, for getting married to the girl he has been in touch with for past 2 years …I wish him a very successful married life.

Since my brother joined me for the weekend, we decided to take my dad to a jewellery shop for buying him a diamond ring for his 56th birthday. I owe my brother a lot, for it was mainly his initiative. Was good to see happiness in my father’s face. This is the costliest gift he has ever received in his birthdays…Moreover, it has been gifted by his youngest son, who after facing lot of hardships in life, is finally in a decent position now…

It was raining throughout saturday and sunday. With the weather forecast team announcing another cyclone, I was wondering If I took too much of a risk by coming down to chennai. One more cyclone and one more day of non-stop rainfall is enough to cut-off my place from the city and I would be stuck! Luckily, I managed to catch my flight on sunday evening. The death of 42 people in chennai city due to stampede was disheartening. How many more lives will be wasted needlessly due to the poor administration?

The domestic airline terminal is now-a-days very busy, with 4-5 different airlines in operation. The waiting lounge was full and I had to stand for good 20 minutes before I could grab a seat! I travelled without ever producing any identity proof. Spicejet counter was put up on a corner. The crew were very friendly. Spicejet possess only boeing 737-800s in its fleet. No small Airbus like Air-Deccan’s. Decent aircraft. Two good-looking air-hostess made the package complete!, though I should say they were very amateur. During the travel, we were given 15 rupees worth of roasted-peanuts pack and 5 rupees worth of a small water bottle. OK for a no-frills! The flight was operating at normal noise level. Overall, Spicejet is much better than Air-Deccan in the no-frills sector.

When the flight reached hyderabad, airhostess mentioned, “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Chennai…”. After momentary perplexion, Passengers started laughing . Realizing her mistake, airhostess corrected by saying “Sorry Hyderabad!”

3 days of trip to chennai and quality time with family, amidst hectic ISB schedule is beyond my wildest imaginations. But it happened. Never felt better before…Mood == Happy! Mantra == B+.

PS: Now, my brother and parents know about my blog too…Me drinking beer was a major leg-pulling topic! Convinced my mom by saying that it’s all for socializing..blah..blah! Now, I don’t know what to write and what not to write…my entries will be more monitored from now on…!

My team thoroughly enjoyed competing in LABYRINTH. Each and every clues were fun solving. Some clues we cracked in 20-30 minutes. Some clues we spent almost 2 hours! Some clues we couldn’t crack (Iridium Satellites!!).

We had our final rounds today. The very first clue flummoxed us. But we simply bulldozered the second clue, third clue and the important TREASURE TROVE. We cracked the TREASURE TROVE in flat 27 minutes. That means, we had a time bonus of 120 minutes - 27 minutes = 93 minutes [translates to 93 points]!. I don’t think any other team would have got the TREASURE TROVE that fast!. But we had tough time with 1st, 4th and 5th clues. At the end of the session we were sure that all our answers were right. We had our own logic and it fitted the clue…But alas, we got 3 of them wrong. I don’t think we will make it to the final 3. But it was PURE FUN…never saw the entire team productive and highly energetic for the entire 2 hours duration…

Drank Beer for the First time in ISB today. I had tried Beer and Wine previously. Didn’t like, so left it. But today, I wanted to loosen up so badly that I decided to go to the Party thrown for alumns who have come to ISB for Solstice. After seeing people in high energy and All my friends with Beer, decided to try the Beer again. Taste was as usual disgusting! After 2 Beers, got the interest to Dance too. Had good fun. I was shaking hands with whomever I met! was it the Beer effect? But I am COMPLETELY RELAXED now

Had my first one-on-one resume session. On contrary to what I expected, the CAS team mentioned that my resume is definitely in the top 5-10% (in terms of conveying the message) of what they have seen so far this year! Not bad for what I expected…Got some really good feedback and direction from them. I have received many useful feedback from friends in ISB and friends outside ISB. Will incorporate them soon.

One of my friend mentioned about the rumour he heard about me. I said to myself, “Who cares!”. Gossipmongers starving for fresh stuff need something to ruminate, so why worry about that

Ok..Long weekend ahead…will catch some sleep.

I think I will get Class Participation marks in PRICING . In the last 4 days, within 10-15 mins of each class, Prof has managed to look towards me and say “Bharani, Can you say……why….what….how…blah?”. Then I go “Blah…Blah…Blah…Blah…”! Today in the beginning of the class, he said “Who hasn’t been active in this class so far?”…For once I didn’t raise my hands, confidently! That’s because, professor has managed to engage me forcefully and keep in me active in conversation in each class!!!

He signals subtly to the TA, if someone doesn’t answer his question. For example, he was asking one person, “Can you tell us what’s the case is about?”…and he goes..”Sorry prof, I didn’t had time to read…”. Then he looks at TA, with his smile still fixated on his face, and nods and continue saying…”That doesn’t sound good…”. I look at TA and see him obediently marking something on the seating layout chart that he carries with him always.. That’s pricing class for you

But the subject is good. Quant oriented, Marketing gyaan, little bit of conjoint, and other tools…

On the other day, one of the ISB Alum, who is temporarily serving as TA, asked me, “Bharani, You remain silent in the class..why so…But you write so well in your blogs…contrasting”. I go…”I am not motivated to speak in class..”…that wasn’t my brain answering, it was heart! I will let a secret out…Whenever prof asks some questions, I try to write down the thoughts in a sheet of paper…most of the time, it would be same as what prof expects…still wouldn’t speak…let me count how many times I would have spoken in class…On an average, 4-5 comments per term..that’s it!

I am an Introvert by nature. I am comfortable at one-to-one interactions or small group setting..But not quite comfortable in a large group setting…Even in my past work experience, I am not visible among my colleagues in the beginning. But as time goes on, I gained great popularity within the team, mainly through actions and one-to-one rapport building.

Over the past few months in ISB, I have had overload of humbling experiences. Academics, extra-curriculars, leadership, interpersonal relationships, career focus…now I have reached a saturation level…

ISB provides an environment which brings the best out of some people and worst out of some people…I have a long list of people in ISB whom I admire a lot..Should dedicate some posts for them sometime..But there is a risk of forgetting to mention someone…

What about people in ISB that I don’t like…well, for a diplomatic person like me, there aren’t many enemies…:) Even if there are, I will try to forget the ‘unpleasant’ experiences soon…Whoosh…what did I actually intend to post??? again the problem of not filtering the thoughts through brain…

Was awake for last 48 hours with just 2-3 hours sleep in between. Managed to complete 2 assignments, 1 Case Analysis, 1 negotiation analysis, 1 Text reading, 1 Consulting interview preparation, 1-2 hours resume stuff, 1-2 hours of focus group activities, and some more freebies

Now, I will catch sleep for 10 hours. Have classes only in the afternoon.

I have 3 classes on Tuesday, 1 assignment to complete and readings to do for each class. Need to do focus group activities before my next focus group meeting. I should compensate for NUS-Cerebration stuff, as I missed the meeting today. So long afternoon & (night) ahead tomorrow…I owe CCMA some quality attention…when? will squeeze some time…

The following weekend will be Solstice. So have to foresee some ‘time loss’ there! And have to leave to chennai for 3 days the week after that…and have to plan for contingencies…And I have to find time for brushing up fundamentals, improving ‘negotiation’ skills, updating current knowledge etc.,

Hmm…only 3 more months of this crazy life…and then, I will never ever , NEVER EVER slog in life like this…burn-out is simply too much!!!