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 :)

Summer Intern - BIG DEAL ????

P.S. A Kinda serious post

Well, the Summer placement fever has gripped IIM-Bangalore. Its that time of the year for the first year guys when they get supposedly take a step towards their final career.

Most of the shortlisting process is based on what one has achieved over his/her past life. So, looking at the kind of people I am with I think everyone deserves what they are getting. Do I hope for a shortlist - Well I certainly do but I am not going to base my life's happiness over it. Its a phase of life and thats what I am taking it as. If I am lucky, I would get one, and then it would be upto me to clear the interviews. I have seen people getting into deep depression modes (not very explicit) over the difference between their huge expectations and the meager returns. Such situations do lead to periods of self-doubt, which is faced by even the greatest of people. Your strength is defined by how well you are able to pull yourself out of it. What I would like to advise people is that such situations come and go - learn to deal with it. The most important thing is life is to be happy.

Today, I had lunch with my IT-BHU seniors in IIM-Bangalore and I heard about many successful seniors of ours who were working in most sought after companies after getting non-day zero summer interns. Its all about keeping your cool and working hard (which I think need to start doing :P). So, I believe that one can always do that and even if one does not manage to get a decent final placement, whats the big deal. Its a huge world out there with NUMEROUS opportunities. We are supposed to be the best in the country - if we want, there's nothing we cant achieve.

But one thing I dread the most is what some people tell me, that people start judging each other by the shortlists and the summers they get. I really hope that does not happen to me or my friends. I believe that a summer internship is not the way to judge a person and if a person's attitude does change due to such a reason, then maybe I would be better off without his/her company.

The 4-5 months I have spent here in IIM-Bangalore have been very memorable and I hope that the next year and a half also remains similar. I have been blessed with being in a section that is supposed to be chilled out and friendly. When I look at the other sections, I am really happy to be in Section-D (No offense to the other sections, You guys just work hard). I have been blessed to be in the company of so many good people who have become such good friends over the past few days. I hope to make more such friends in the time remaining here.

So, wishing everyone all the best for their summers. CHILL OUT and BE HAPPY
Cheers!!!!!

Life in a MBA!!!!

After all the hoopla surrounding my last blog post (mainly due to the Papparazzi here :P), I am finally onto writing my next blog.

First, let me clarify one thing, this is not a crib post. I know that management is a path I have chosen, so I would have to accept the downside as I would love to enjoy the benefits.

Over the past few weeks, I have realized that how a hectic lifestyle feels like. After having some great professors in the last trimester, I have felt the wrath of "oh-not-so-good" professors with the first CorpFin prof being an exception. Whats worse is the fact they are more strict. so, along with the hectic life, we have to be prepared for every week submissions and any time quizzes (so no bunks too).

Then there are the company presentations where the companies blabber about themselves for 30 mins to an hour (and I have realized that every company is the best place to work in) followed by the same set of questions asked by the junta:
1. What are the locations you are recruiting for?
2. How well can you move across functions/divisions?
3. How is the financial crisis affecting your company?
4. What do you look for in a candidate?
5. What are your future plans for India?
I think due to visiting the campuses, the companies must now have a pretty much mugged-up answer for each of these questions.

So here's a typical day for me:
Morning - Wakeup and go to class
Afternoon - Fill up some SOP to be submitted by the evening
Evening - Attend the PPTs
Nights - Fill up the forms and apply for companies

The most important takeaways from the last month.
1. I have realized that, even if I am woken up from my sleep, I can get into formals within 5 minutes and be ready for a presentation.
2. Even if I am woken up from sleep, I can put in a question to the people presenting (doesn't matter if I have no idea what it is about - its all GLOBE)
3. I can answer the forms with all the globe questions in 5-10 minutes.

Now, I have started enjoying being so busy in my life. I think now what will I do with all the free time I'll get after the summers process is over. It would be like a giant hole in my calender.

Wearing those formals for the PPTs and the presentations gives you a feeling that you are going to do something important. The companies make us realize that we all have the potential to be the important people of tomorrow, shaping the organizations future. Why else would a top global firm spend so much of money to fly down people from around the globe just to speak to a handful of students not even 6 months into their MBA program. It is because they realize the potential of India's best.

P.S. To all my friends doing MBA, Chill out guys, enjoy your 2 years here as you would have a lot of time to remain busy your whole life. Cheers!!!!!!

My Birthday!!!!

Well, another year passes by and I am an year older. What does a birthday signify? According to me its like any other day, the only difference being that a lot of people call you up to wish you to remind you that there are a lot of people that care about you. Birthdays had been specially enjoyable for me in college (IT-BHU) as one could afford to miss classes there at will. During my job, I had forgotten all the fun I had during my birthday at college - the bumps, the crowd ready to congratulate you and the long night outs after the "beating a person up" ceremony was over.

The day I arrived in IIMB, I had a look at the way birthdays were celebrated here and liked it a lot. Looking at the fact that I was at the forefront of the hooshing (thats what they call GPL or bumps out here), I had earned quite a bit of fame and when I started featuring on orkut in the upcoming birthdays list, people left no stone unturned in reminding me that I would be killed on 13th night.

In other people's birthdays, people tried to pick me up for hooshing as well but I survived on most occasions. But on 12th night, when the same people tried to have some practice before the main session, I ran and stumbled on the concrete tsepak court scraping my knees and elbows quite badly. My friends were then nice enought to get me bandages but then when I was lying on my bed, they decided to play a practical joke. They took my laptop and stated messaging people that I was seriously injured and then a plethora of people rushed to my room with bandages and what not. I was bit embarrassed that so many people had turned up but was also happy that I had so many friends that cared for me(pata hai thoda senti maar raha hun, Adjust maadi).

Then the D-Day came. Well, just a few hours prior to that, the great IIMB tradition of making a B'Day mail was completed and I have nothing to comment on the B'Day mail. But I have to say, it one of the best b'day mails created ever and all the credit and blame go to my friends Yagnesh, Tauseef, Manish and Nishant (P.S. I will deal with you later :P). Then even though I was injured, I was hooshed a lot (till the time a couple of people had mercy on me and asked the crowd to stop), but I feel that had i been completely fit, the hooshing could have gone on for hours at a stretch.

After that all the people were ready with buckets filled with water to pour on me and they had put all sort of detergents and harpic in the water but due to my injuries most of it was thankfully not poured on me. I then had to lie and roll on the puddle of mud created as a result of all the water. The Cultural Committee here arranges for cakes on all birthdays, not to eat but for it to be smeared all across the face of the birthday boy/gal (and not slices, but the entire cake as shown in Hindi movies in cake fight scenes). So, I had that done too and final task for me was to do the traditional pole dance around the tree there. All this leads to the person requiring to take a bath at that ungodly hour (for which I had to go through hell as pouring water on injuries is not a nice feeling). I came back after the bath and treated some people who still had time in these hectic era and we chatted for a couple of hours.

The birthday as such was very uneventful with the entire day taken up by Classes in the morning, repondin to phone calls and chat messages in the afternoon, the Deutsche Post PPT in the evening and the Operations Case in the night. But I did manage to slide in a home-delivery dinner in the packed schedule of mine.

Even though life has changed, I really enjoyed celebrating my birthday in a campus once again, it is an awesome feeling as compared to when you are working. I know I have just one more to go in campus (assuming I am able to clear in 2 years), but you bet i will enjoy every moment that I have here.

P.S. Some confidential details have been withheld due to important reasons. Anyone in possession of such information, be kind enough not to post it.

The Olympic Dream

I have always been a sports freak and liked watching all sports, even those other than cricket. The problem has always been that the other sports don't have the media coverage one would like. Some years back, there was at least hockey, but even that has disappeared out of sight. So, it was kind of refreshing to watch the Olympics and I particularly liked the media coverage it got.
India - expectedly for me and unexpectedly for many of my friends improved its tally significantly over the previous editions. But is that enough, 3 medals for a country of a billion people. I don't think its enough, but its certainly an improvement and India should build on the success of these Olympics to become a nation with a decent haul of medals over the next couple of decades.
The best part about the current haul of three medals was that all the three medals came in different disciplines. So, now at least there can be three different disciplines in the government's radar for development. There have always been about 5-6 disciplines in which India had a realistic chance. Apart from Shooting,Wrestling and Boxing where we won medals, we came close in Badminton and Tennis too. Though the Archers failed to impress, they have the potential.
The role of the government is very important now. It should not forget the achievements of the medal winners. IT can use this opportunity to push for better popularity of non-cricket sports in the country. The country's sportspeople need to be treated well. India can do a lot better if the government provides better facilities and just support the talent India has.
I am in IIM-Bangalore and I had in my batch Kutraleeshwaran, who at the age of 13 swam across 6 channels and is a Guinness record holder. But he left swimming as there wasn't proper infrastructure in the country and the government didn't support him when he required it. He had offers from other counties to use their training facilities provided he represented them in the Olympics. If the other countries can see such talent why can't India? He refused and concentrated on his academics and India lost a potential sporting Icon.
I myself have seen small 4-5 year old children performing acrobatics at traffic signals in Delhi and Bangalore. Such children should be groomed from a young age as they can be future gymnasts. This is what China does best and look at their medals tally. If I could spot such children just in a couple of cities, I can't even begin to imagine the kind of talent that can be hidden across the Indian landscape. Its just a matter of spotting it and nurturing it.
A couple of private companies have come ahead to support non-traditional sports. I hope this trend continues. Its just that sports has to be made a viable profession in India. For that everyone's role is very important, from the government and private companies who need to build infrastructure and support the talent to the people who genuinely need to respect its sportspeople and not just start to memorize their names once every four years.
I have great hope in the current scenario and sincerely hope that this time we definitely don't miss out and see a bag of medals by 2020 or 2024 when I hope that India would be hosting an Olympics of its own.

Phoonk - The disaster

SPOILER WARNING!!! But I Think you would be better off reading this rahter than watching the movie

Today I went to meet my friends and we decided to watch Phoonk - Directed by the great RGV. The expectations were high as the promos seemed to be nice and the last horror movie he made was decent enough (Bhoot). We got into the hall 10 minutes late - thanks to a delay on my part.

As we entered the movie hall, we came to know that the main protagonist in the film (apart from the child actor) is a big-time contractor and has a couple who works with him. The wife's only job was to act in a spastic manner and give out a shrieking and loud laugh once every few seconds. It irritated me so much that I felt someone should go into the frame and shut her mouth up.

The hero's family had all kinds of people - the atheist hero, the god-fearing wife, the superstitious mother and a couple of kids. The whole problem began when the hero finds about the fraud that the couple are doing.So he humiliates them in a party and fires them. So, the couple decides to take revenge through black magic. They choose the daughter of the hero as the one to do the black magic on. The girl then gradually starts acting weird and the acting by the girl child is probably the only thing to watch for in the entire film.

The entire first half was filled with scenes where the camera focuses on small household items and then there are sudden sounds just to startle the audience. Someone tell RGV that horror movies are more than just startling people. I'll give the example of a couple of scenes -
1. The hero hears a sound when asleep, gets out of his room and is stratled looking at his own reflection in the mirror. Supposedly complementing the scene is a very loud background score. And the best part is that all of that turns out to be a dream.
2. (this is the most hillarious part) The house maid wakes up and sees the old lady of the house sitting in the hallway. She then blames the maid for all that was happening. She then picks up a lemon and takes it towards the maid. In this scene her hand starts to extend like the elastic man of fantastic four. Even the Ramsays used better ideas in their horror scenes. RGV, spare us please. And most predictably this too turns out to be a dream.

The second half sees the entry of the psychiatrist. Then a couple of scenes that follow remind you of scenes that may be called a mix of Bhoot and the Exorcist. Even when the girl starts levitating, the father refuses to believe the supernatural and the doctor is still giving rave jargons that start from Dissociated Personality Disorder, goes on to Psychological Dissociated Personality Disorder and ends as a case where the girl child has undergone some trauma and would take time to recover.

During this time the old lady of the house brings in a 'Tantric' who when being kicked out of the house shouts dialogues like 'Your daughter will die' and 'Dont be an Idiot' in the most uncomfortable English. This scene was particulary interesting to me. (that maybe because I was looking for reasons to laugh as this movie was certainly not scaring me)

By this time, the hero, having a change of heart starts believing in the supernatural and brings in a tantric of his own called 'Manja' (in Hindi that what we call the string used to fly kites). And 'Manja' ends the our agony by finishing off the black magic couple (he kills off the tantric witch by making a fan fall on her that cuts off her head). The hero then reaches back to his daughter and the credit for curing the child is taken by the psychiatrist. (maybe she was an MBA, giving the most weirdest of fundaes and gets away with it :P)

The only thing that benefited me was that now my bottom Five movie list has been updated. Now, Phoonk is a jewel in the crown of that list. And I think my friends need to thank me for making them miss the first 10 minutes as it saved them 10 extra minutes of pure torture.

What I would suggest is to see this movie on your system whenever it becomes available and watch it with the same fervour as you watched Gunda and the movies of that genre. You'll seriously enjoy it then.

Lingo - Part II

After my last post, many people reminded me of a lot I had left out. So here comes part II of the lingo

Globe - Anything and everything under the sun. It is never pertaining to anything specific and the same answer may be applicable to more than one question. Its the thing you never need to prepare for, i.e. it is just 'phattebaazi'

Geela - It is the term given to people who go ga-ga over any and every girl (really sorry if I offend anyone :P). These people go that extra mile to be in the good books of girls and never refuse any request that may come their way from that side.

Hoosh - It is the way IIMB people celebrate the success or share the happiness of others. It is a ceremony that is common across campuses all over the country and may be known as GPL or Bumps elsewhere.

L^2 - An IIMB specific term. Its the place where all the 'future managers and leaders'(its what we are told to everywhere) like to celebrate. It is the spot where everything from the famous L^2 parties to the hooshing sessions take place. In short - IT ROCKS

RG - Its the phenomenon that that plagues the entire student section. This is the thing that leads to the crab effect - i.e. if you cant go up, pull the others down. RG is Relative Grading. But honestly speaking, I havn't seen too much its effect yet and hope I dont see it anytime soon.

Macha - This is what people call each other around here. A typical south Indian way of calling people. Its like we call people 'yaar' in the north.

I guess I am not missing out on anything now. I think now that I've started writing again, you can hear from me more often. Cheers!!!!!!