Placements Stereotypes - The Herd Mentality

As the summer internship process draws near and I see more and more tense faces near me, which surprisingly have become even more tense after getting a shortlist. I am not going to dwell into how people should cope with it a I have already covered that in my last post.

I was just talking to one of the Exchange Students the other day and he was amazed by the fact that there are only two focus areas for the students in IIM-Bangalore - Finance or Consulting. He told me that he understood the reason why it was because they paid well but was it the correct way to build your career. According to him, its just running after money. Maybe, that is the reason that one requires to have a decent amount of work-experience before coming for a degree in management. They have a pretty good idea about what they want to do in life. There is a logic behind the best B-Schools in the world taking in people with a decent amount of experience. For many like me, a summer internship is an opportunity to test the waters. So, it may not matter to me which field I go into.

The summers process, for many, essentially also becomes a process to build their reputation among their peers (though that may not hold for everyone) rather than following their dreams. Many of my peers I have talked to have an immense interest in Marketing (which is not supposed to be the best job on campus), but they go after consults or I-banks because of the Pseude-Factor. People don't have the courage to follow their dreams as they think too much about what the people would think.

People need to realize that money may not be the most important thing in life - at least thats true for me. After passing out from this prestigious institute, everyone is bound to get attractive salaries and according to me, there is a limit above which it would not matter to me. There is so much spending that you can do in your life.

I met a couple of my seniors who have decided that they want to do Marketing in their life and have no qualms about accepting that. I envy such people who have the vision for their lives so clear in their minds. I hope that I too am able to have such clarity about what I want to do. Everyone has an idea, but very few are so clear. Such people break the stereotypes about the best people going to the best I-Bank or the best Consult. They prove that the best are those who follow their dreams and not those who get the best salaries. I do not intend to say that people may not have genuine interest in finance or consulting, but what I mean is not everyone who goes into these fields have an interest. Its upto the individual to realize the path for their lives.

Now deviating from the topic, one paragraph about the process itself, the Placement Committee raised a couple of very important points yesterday that although each and every one needs to work hard towards achieving a good internship, one has to remember that it is "JUST A SUMMER INTERNSHIP", just 2 months in a company, nothing more, nothing less. We have to spend the next year and a half with our batch mates, so its a time to be united and achieve the best results in times that are not so good. Many seniors told me that the summer internship process leads to such strong friendships with people that you would never have even talked to. So, I would treat it as such an opportunity, making friends. I am sure I would be helping out people during the process and hope others realize the same and help each other out.

Again wising everyone all the best.

P.S. Those who are still nervous, read Thakur's Fundas, download from DC (for the IIMB Junta) and please comment on the post for encouragement if you like the post or even otherwise :)