Journey at IIMB and beyond

Obama gets Osama

2011-05-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

That's the news of the town in every news channel and news paper. Obama says justice has been done. I am sure all americans will feel that and world is with him. It took 10 long years and what a way to achieve it.

Will Al-Qaida hit back?

Long time.. no see..

2011-04-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well, Well... Perhaps no one care for it anymore, but I am sorry for my disappearing act. I just got extremely busy with new job. But now, I want to start this blog again and would try to be regular.
Some updates from my side. I am about to finish close to one year in my new job and it has been exciting. Lots and lots of learning. I knew finance is interesting, but it turned out to be amazing. It's not just the knowledge of finance, but in finance role you get visibility of business model of the whole company, you get visibility of strategy, marketing etc. Really had an exciting time so far.

I have taken another leap and now preparing for CFA level 1 exam and would be taking it in first week of June. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, while I was away, I got several queries from people through email and blog comments, and I am thinking of posting my responses on this blog. It may not be helpful to one who originally asked the question, but I hope it might help others who might have similar questions now. I will try to regular and post my responses to them. If you have any query or need some information, feel free to email me. Will try to respond to them as soon as I can.

Started new job

2010-05-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

I have started my new job and back to the corporate world. Though it is not one of my dream jobs, but I think it is satisfying several of my criteria. I joined last week and went through induction program with visit to various office, meeting with senior executives and MD and going through several presentations. It was quite informative and would definitely help me understand the business model etc.

I would be working in finance area and that has more or less made my MBA education fruitful. This will be my first job in core finance and I am really excited about it. I hope I would be able to take the pressure and perform to best of my abilities.

Looking back, One year at EPGP just flew by and I had really amazing time there. Though it had its own constraints about being first batch in IIMB, it was still a fruitful association. I was able to maintain my work-life or rather study-life balance after the hell of the first term. The course work was informative and eye-opener. Most of the Faculty was really top class. Culture at IIMB is sporty and enthusiastic. I had fun with several events and made very good friends for life.

One area of improvement I would think is towards branding and creating awareness. Still many companies are not aware of the program. The institute as such lack enthusiasm on that part. Students hold the forte in the institute, but being the one year program, the work load is immense and it is hard to focus on those activities dedicatedly.

I got a chance to interact with several students of the next batch and found them wonderful. I am sure they will be able to carry it forward with more enthusiasm. My prediction is in few years time (perhaps next 5-6 yrs), this is going to be the key program in IIMB or for that matter, the one year MBA would be the way to go.

Anyways, my plans are to do well in the new job. It is totally new industry and function for me. So yes, one year program did give me chance to change both my industry and function. Now it is up to me to take it forward and build my career on this platform. Next few months will definitely be very challenging and I hope to survive with determination. Wish me luck :-)

Graduated

2010-04-17T01:41:00.000-07:00

I have finally graduated from IIMB with the degree in hand. We had our 35th Annual convocation on 29th March. I had great time while visiting bangalore again. We had some felicitation ceremony for office staff on 28th. In the evening around 6pm there was a culture program in the auditorium which was followed by dinner for all the graduating students and their family. The food was fabulous and I fed myself to the brim.

Next day started with rehearsal of the convocation, graduation walk etc. I met with most of my batchmates and everyone was happy and in joyous mode. After the rehearsal, I went out for lunch with couple of friends and went home to change and dress up for evening function. We gathered near library to collect our gowns, had a group photograph, some snacks and got in place for forming queue for the final graduation walk. It was my first walk in India. I was not able to go for my undergrad convocation.

After we went to auditorium, the chief guest, Mr. Radhakrishnan (Chairman ISRO) and Chairman, Mr. Mukesh Ambani walked in along with director. After waiting for an hour watching various students walking upto stage and getting their degree, our time came. I went up and walked up, shook hands with Mr. Ambani and collected by degree with pride.
It was great experience, and I can see the fruits of one year hard labor :)
Few of the next batch students also joined in the convocation to cheer us up. Thanks guys.

Taking a break for few more days before going back to Corporate world. I am very excited as well as little nervous on going back. I am excited on hope to apply the concepts I have learned during my education, but nervous about expectations my employer and supervisor will have from me, given that I am coming from one of the top B-Schools in India. I hope it will work out well.

As I promised last time, I will be more regular with my blogs from now on. Catch up soon.

Done with Term 8

2010-03-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

yaaay!! Finally, finished my Term 8 exams last week and that brings to end of studies for me. I still have to finish my comprehensive project and a presentation. That would be done by early next week.

What a journey so far!! Amazing experience, amazing learning. I am completely satisfied with the academics, administrations, facilities and infrastructure at IIMB. So far, never went to this kind of rigor in my academic career.

I am still looking for a job of my choice, though I already have offer from the campus. But I am trying to see if I can get something better and in the field I want to be. Let's see if that works out. I am going to give it a shot for another month.
Overall, placements were good, most of us got a job, there are few remaining but most of them are in some pipeline and we are hoping they will close it by next week.

That should bring successful end of one year, fun and enjoyable journey in IIMB EPGP. We have our convocation on 29th March and hopefully, I will be walking and taking degree for final time in my life.

Lot of things happen in last few months when I totally disappeared. We had interaction with incoming batch and they are bunch of bright and fun people. I got chance to interact with many of them in various meetings and I think they have the same stars in their eye as we had. Now, with most of the things have been set by us, and we have shared our learnings with them, I am sure they will have a fun-ride here. With economy showing signs of improvement, I am confident their placements will be much better than us. Good luck to them.

Term 7 Started

2009-12-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

Alright, I am back from a week long vacation. Most of us went out of Bangalore during the 2 weeks vacation and were back by Sunday. It was definitely an excellent break for me since I did not go out of Bangalore ever since I came to IIMB (except China trip of course). But this time, I really chilled out, caught on with my sleep and met many family members and relatives.

Right after coming back, we had a great party thrown by the scholarship recipients on Monday. It was great fun and first party of the whole batch after the term 1-end party.

With all fun during vacation and a party to start with, the term has started rather slowly for me. I am still checking out few classes, and would be deciding by tomorrow what classes I am going to take this term. And probably this is the first term after I joined IIMB that I have not done any pre-reading for any course, and neither have opened book. I have been catching up on movies and watching all the cricket matches. Looks like this is going to be chilled out term.

As I have been mentioning in my last few posts, the focus is going to shift to Placements now. And as one of my batchmates rightly put Placement committee is working hard on it. Next two months are going to be crucial months for all of us, when each one of us would be looking to join in one of the desired roles and industry. Wish us good luck :)

75% MBA

2009-12-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

Well, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I am 75% done with my MBA. Pheew!! 8 months have gone since I joined EPGP and what a journey I had so far. First few terms were really rigorous and slowly but surely it eased out. By the time elective term started, I was totally relaxed and sailing through my courses. I even dared take 6 courses in my 5th term and more or less managed it quite well.

Now, I have only 7 courses remaining, plus a comprehensive project. Today my teammate and I made a break-through in the project, which was long due to get started. We found something interesting to work on and would be starting soon. As I mentioned in my previous post, with the new term, the focus is surely going to shift to placements and job search. I am still looking for an ideal fit and still trying to figure out my calling. I have certain idea on where I want to go, but not sure how and whether it is feasible or not. Time will tell!

Getting several calls on CAT fiasco that happened over the last few days. I really feel for the people who suffered. I hope something really works out and everything end well.

On a different note, I am relieved to hear from various media sources and analysts that dubai crisis might not have much impact on India and its economy. Hope financial sector remains unscathed.

With 2 weeks of vacation, I am planning to go out of town, attend a wedding and meet some of my family members. It will be the first time I am going out of Bangalore (except the china trip). I intent to forget about the studies, job, and all other related things and want to relax and enjoy. Hopefully, it will give me energy to start fresh and finish my next two terms on a high note.

Congrats to 2nd batch

2009-11-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Couple of days back, the results of EPGP were out. 70 people have been admitted and several others placed on waitlist. Congratulations to all selected ones and best of luck to people on waitlist. It's a nostalgic moment. Last year, I was in same boat, wrapping my application, full of anticipation and eager to get into B-school of my choice. Feels good to be on other side.

There are many people from our batch answering queries on pagal guy and official yahoo group of the selected candidates. But if anyone has any specific question, please feel free to email me.

On other note, Term 6 is almost over and we would be starting end-term exam next week. And I will finish 75% of IIMB journey. After the exam we have 10-12 days of good vacation. I am sure from Term 7 the focus will shift from academics to placements. Let's see how our placement pipeline develop and evolve. I am pretty positive we will have lots to cheer in December and January. Oh btw, IIMB EPGP Office has awarded scholarship to top-5 performers in core courses. Congrats to them. A party is on the cards already :)

Resume Building

2009-11-02T11:23:00.001-08:00

We are in Term 6, still 2 more term to go after this term and almost 3-4 months remaining to culminate the journey which commenced in April. Last week we had couple of PPT's and some more scheduled this week, and the next. So, even though I have lighter course work load this term, with several other career events, the time is just flying by.

With so many PPT's, we are in process of creating our resume. Few months back we had a resume review session and got some good insights from the resume consultant hired by Career Advancement Services of IIMB. I did not follow up much after that, but now when I am almost in midst of thick of some buzz, I spent last 2 days (well, not completely) on creating my resume, building up template to tailor it according to the jobs and formatting in IIMB suggested format.

Some companies have already visited us and asked for resume. I have not applied in those yet, but many have applied and we should be expecting some action soon. Hopefully our batch will have first campus job soon. Amen!

Term 6 started

2009-10-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

After a great Diwali vacation for couple of days, we started our term 6 yesterday. This is the second elective term. I have taken 6 courses last term. Two of them would be continuing in this term. However, I am yet not officially finished with Term 5. I have two projects due by this weekend. Right from term 1, we have developed a habit of getting our project postponed after the exams of that term. The repercussion of that is we have to slog one more week for the projects and it officially merges with the classes of next term. Good or not, but that is how it has been working for us.

I am still attending several classes to decide on the courses I am going to take this term. But I am more or less set on 2 continued courses from last term and Financial Derivatives for this term. Will be deciding on other two courses by 23rd Oct, our official deadline for add/drop courses.

Meanwhile, the placement season is picking up, with few more companies lined up for PPT. I am not interested in any of those. So probably I still have a long way to go and have to bide my time.

On the sporty side, we are in final leg of Foundation Cup games. Foundation Cup is basically an inter branch competition with teams from PGP1, PGP2, EPGP, FPM, PGSEM etc competing in various sports such as Badminton, hockey, cricket, carrom, chess, football. We are in Semifinals of many games and hope to get gold in few of them. The culmination of these games would be on 28th Oct, the IIMB foundation day.

Tomorrow, our Marketing club is organizing a Marketing Conclave. Various industry practitioners and marketing guru's will give us some gyaan. More about it after tomorrows session. Need to rush to class now.

Happy Deepawali

2009-10-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

For an oil lamp to burn, the wick has to be in the oil, yet out of the oil. If the wick is drowned in oil, it cannot bring light.

One of the profound words of wisdom I heard about significance of Diwali. I am reproducing it below

Life is like the wick of the lamp; you have to be in the world yet remaining untouched by it. If you are drowned in the materialism of the world, you cannot bring joy and knowledge in your life. By being in the world, yet not drowning in the worldly aspect of it, we can be the light of joy and knowledge. Lamps are lit on this day not just to decorate homes, but also to communicate this profound truth.

Another profound symbolism is in the firecrackers. In life, you often become like a firecracker, waiting to explode with your pent-up emotions, frustration and anger. When you suppress your emotions, cravings, aversions, hatred, you reach a bursting point. Bursting crackers is a psychological exercise to release bottled-up emotions. When you see an explosion outside, you feel similar sensations within you as well. Along with the explosion, there is so much light. Let go of these emotions, so serenity dawns. You can experience newness when you discard these pent-up emotions. Deepawali means to be in the present, so drop the regrets of the past and the worries of the future and live in the moment.

Sweets and gifts symbolise the dispelling of the bitterness and renewal of friendship. Deepawali is a time to throw light on the wisdom you have gained and welcome a new beginning. When true wisdom dawns, it gives rise to celebration. But don't let celebration make you lose your focus and awareness. To maintain awareness in the midst of celebrations, the ancients created rituals: puja brings sacredness. For the same reason, Deepawali is also the time for pujas that add depth to the festivities by infusing the spiritual aspect.

Light the lamp of love in your heart; the lamp of abundance in your home; the lamp of compassion to serve others; the lamp of knowledge to dispel the darkness of ignorance and the lamp of gratitude for the abundance that the Divine has bestowed on us. Light dispels darkness and when the darkness of ignorance within you is dispelled through the light of wisdom, goodness prevails.

Amen!

End of term 5 and start of placement season

2009-10-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

So here I am. Could not keep my promise of posting regularly. Well, this time I can blame the higher powers. My laptop crashed and it took quite a while to get it fixed. Well, all's well that ends well.

In the meantime, I have finished my term 5. Which means I am done 62.5% of my MBA. Time is flying. I remember, last year I was struggling hard with my essays and spending sleepless nights on why mba, short term goals, and long term goals and trying to convince adcom gods about my plans. Well, one year down the line, I am in a Bschool and ironically, again confronting with same question. I am quite confused about the career options. Not that I have too many choices available, but I am still not able to make up my mind.

On the other hand, we have officially started our placement season. Today we had our first company for Pre-placement talk(PPT). Did not get much positive vibrations from the company, but its a good sign that companies are interested. The placement process for EPGP at IIMB will be little different than PGP. PGP process usually last only for 4-5 days with companies making beeline for day 0, day 1. Here we have diverse profile and would be looking for diverse job opportunities. So the companies will be invited one at a time and interested students will be applying accordingly.

Tomorrow we are starting our next term. Yeah! no break! But after 6th term we have 2 weeks off. So looking forward to it. I have heard that many aspirants have got interview invite from IIMB-EPGP. Some of the applicants have contacted me and inquired about interview preparation. I have shared my brief interview experience earlier. But here it is again: Generally interviews are fairly straightforward and most of the questions are from SOP. You will be asked about your professional experiences, hobbies, goals and why mba. Some generic questions on latest development in india might be asked as well. No hardball questions as per I know. In short, fairly straightforward and chilled out. So just relax and be yourself.

Feel free to contact me if you need any more info. Good luck.

50% done but still alive

2009-09-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything. As you can guess, I was busy like hell slogging, partying and enjoying life :)
To give the update, I am done 50% of my MBA. I have finished 4 out of 8 terms here in IIM Bangalore. Finished my core courses and o boy, what a learning experience it was!

Now I am well averse with jargons like stagflation, GDP growth to cost of capital, opportunity cost, to customer delight and value proposition :) I can make sense of reading business news paper and get a hang about pricing strategy adopted by a company. I am more and more appreciating the advertisements in the television and tend to watch more of advertisement than the actual program!

What a change this last 5-6 months have done. Talk about MBA experience!!!!

Meanwhile, we also went to China for International Study tour. We went to Tsinghua University in Beijing, the topmost university of China. Practically every big shot in China has gone to this school. Beijing was an amazing experience and I would write a separate post on my china adventure.

Now, we have started taking electives and I have taken a well mix of Finance, Marketing and Strategy courses. My intention to break into financial/banking companies. Let's see how it goes.

Well, now I hope I will have sometime to post regularly. So watch out this space. Good luck to aspirants this year. Most of the school's first round deadline is approaching fast. I wish them the best of the luck in this journey.

End of Term 1

2009-05-14T12:02:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I posted. As you can understand, I was extremely busy with the Term 1. Getting used to so much reading and studying, giving quizzes every week, and submitting final projects and taking up final exams. Too many things to handle and got too hot to handle. But I survived, and did well in the courses. Though the grades are not out yet, but I am satisfied with my learning and overall knowledge.

The term started lightly, with two holidays in first week, but compensated by two quizzes in the same week. Slowly it picked up, and we were running out of time for every thing, and everyone wished we had more time. By the time, final week came, we had 5 final project submission, a few presentations, and 5 final exams to take. Somehow, I managed all this madness.

We had term ending party, organized by EPGP office on May 11th and it was great.

In midst of exams, quizzes, case discussions, we had variety of activities. The highlight of the program is it's unique seminar series. Every week or so, we invite an eminent speaker to talk about managerial, non-managerial, change management issues. This week we had honor of having Mr Sudhir Kumar - the man behind the transformation of Indian Railways. I had an amazing time listening to him and having a post-talk discussion. You can find more details in our official blog

Overall, its been a amazing experience so far. I did not get time to crib about adjusting to new life in India. There are few things that you have to adjust, but those things look so minuscule in front of work-load we had that I never got time to think about them. It's been rightly said by my guru - sri sri ravishankar - if you have to worry, worry big. All small worries just disappear!!

On a different note, I was quite disconnected with blogging world. I realized best of blogging results were out. Congrats to all those selected by clear admit best of blogging. All of them really deserved it and have maintained an amazing blog.

I hope the application season is over for most of the blogging fraternity of this year. Some of them might be still awaiting result for their waitlist, but I am sure most of them have decided where they are going and busy preparing for their new journey. One advice to them (I started early.. so can give some advice now) - Enjoy as much as possible and relax as much as possible. Spend time with your family and friends. I realize this after coming here- you do not get time to talk to anyone after you start the program - not atleast for few months.

My second term has already started. So far, it is not turning out to be as bad as the first one. Partly because, I am used to it, and party because there are fewer exams/quizzes this term.

That's all from me for now.

Few weeks at IIMB and best of blogging

2009-04-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I have written since my first day at IIMB. Well, we are in week 2 now. Its been quite a busy time. Back to back classes whole day, had 2 tests in the first week, have one again tomorrow and have 3 next week. Life has been anything but busy.
But overall, it's been fun, the professors are amazing and I am learning a world of things. Its been barely two weeks and I am sure I can confidently talk about supply-demand, market equilibrium, profit and loss statement, cashflow, balance sheet, organization structure, motivation factors, etc etc. We had frequent interaction with the EPGP chair and he always make sure to ask us about how we are doing, how we are coping up with the program. Moreover, he mentioned how he has handpicked best of the faculty for our course, and I can definitely see that.

The class is extremely interactive, and I have learned a lot from them. People have spent 15-16 yrs in the industry, heading various divisions, made presentations or regularly interacted with CXO's. All high achievers but down to earth.

On the other note, I am honored that my blog has been nominated for best of blogging by clearadmit. Thanks Clearadmit. It's been some journey for me for my application process, and I have gained immense experience along the way, which I tried to capture through this blog. If someone has any questions about GMAT, or application process in general and IIMB in particular, please feel free to email me. I would be happy to answer them. It's with these blogs that I developed better understanding of application through fellow applicants, and better understanding of the schools through the bloggers of the school. I would like to do the same for the future applicants. So keep the question coming and good luck.

Finally at IIMB

2009-04-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

I moved to Bangalore yesterday. Got apartment, lot of things to be done in that, but got me few basic things to make me up and running. Most importantly, I got internet connection. Things are little different in india, but I am trying to adjust. I did not know quite a few things but now I am much more aware.

Yesterday evening, we attended 34th convocation at IIMB and heard good speeches from Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of the board of directors, IIMB and chief guest for the function, Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah. Both of them stressed on tough times ahead and importance of keeping head high and work with perseverance. It was a good time.

Today was the first day for our two days orientation. We started with inauguration of the EPGP by lighting the lamp by chief guest Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-shaw, CMD of Biocon. She gave an interesting speech on how to deal with the tough times ahead and gave an overview of how she started Biocon and challenges she faced.

In the afternoon we had other team building events and conducted by one of the visiting faculty at IIMB.

So far, I am really excited about the program and I like my batchmates. Although majority of them are engineers and come from IT, but we still have quite a bit diversity and people have come from places such as medicine, army, arts, non-profit, commerce and general management.

Btw, on a side note, I recently got admitted at McCombs and that came the last day I was leaving US. After deliberating for quite some time and even few days after reaching India, I finally decided to deny the offer. I will know after an year whether I made the right decision.

But so far, I am enjoying at IIMB, although living in Bangalore is bit challenging. The traffic condition is horrible, and there are frequent power cuts. I hope I will adjust to the situation fast enough as the classes are starting on 6th Apr.

Keep watching this space for more updates :)

Good Bye America

2009-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

So finally, its time to leave the US and go back to my home, India. I have spent good time here while studying and working. Its a great country with excellent facilities, but I have been wanting to go back for a while. I know it will be difficult to adjust initially, but I hope it will be fine. Anyways, for next 1 yr, I might not get time to think or crib about various limitations in India.

I will be going to IIMB in Apr 1st week. We will have inauguration and orientation on 3rd and 4th Apr and classes will be starting from Apr 6th. Not much time left. I did not do much pre MBA preparation and hoping to pick it up there directly.

As the feeling is sinking in, I am getting both excited and apprehended. I do not know how it going to be and what economy will look like after an year. But at the same time, I am really excited with this next step in my life, which I hope will give a big boost to my career.

Keep watching this space for my experiences at IIMB with its one year MBA. Can't Wait!

Preparatory Material

2009-03-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the Preparatory Material on Quantitative Methods and Statistics from IIMB was sitting in my Inbox. Last week I started reading it. The initial material was pretty easy based on general fundamentals of sets, statistics, probability, permutations and combination, etc and I could skim through it quickly. However, what followed was such a dense material, I hardly could not understand much. Normal distribution, poisson's distribution, binomial distribution, chi distribution, t, F distribution, Null hypothesis - all sounded very interesting but just went over my head. I mean, I could understand what is going on, but when I looked at the material again, could not remember a thing.

How much is really useful? Will we have to really understand this stuff and use it in some course?

I could understand the application of the material though. It gave me an idea on how the surveys are done, and how they come to conclusion based on such a small sample data. Lots of math going behind it. Interesting!

MBA in a Day!

2009-03-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

I read this book by Steven Stralser. It's a good read for those who want to get a crux of what is taught in B-School and especially useful for those who want to start a business or very busy in life and do not have time to go for B-School. Obviously, you cannot learn what the school teaches over a period of 1,2 or 3 years, but it has quite relevant and practical information. Moreover, it is very easy to understand and give lot of actionable insights to help approach business practically.

Also, as a BSchool aspirant, I found it quite interesting and gave me fair idea about various terminologies in negotiations, marketing, finance, accounting. It contains 14 chapters each addressing different part of core business areas such as organization behavior, marketing, accounting, finance, micro and macro economics. In addition to that, it addresses some of the core soft skills such as Ethics, team building, leadership.

On the hindsight, I am wondering if I had read this book earlier, I could have probably written my essays and talked about career goals in a better language or say in better business language. Just wondering :)

Decided

2009-03-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

After giving lot of thoughts and pondering over for several weeks and taking in stock the current economic situation, I have decided that I am going to join IIMB for EPGP.

I have spoken to many students, and browsed through profiles of several alumni, and I think ASU does not excite me. Although, I would have definitely gone if I did not have any other offer. Anyways, most of the internationals at ASU have only 3-4 years of experience and just want to go anywhere the school takes it. And in the end, Supply Chain does not excite me, and there is not point of doing anything else at ASU, especially as an international student.

I am quite inclined towards finance, but with this economic scenario, I might be leaning towards marketing. And with the news of BoA rescinding offers from international students, I am guessing other banks and financial institutions will follow suit. I am not very positive of job opportunities for international students after 2 yrs of MBA, especially, if you are not doing it from one of the top 5 Schools or perhaps from top 10.

Although, the job scene at Indian schools is not that rosy either. I am hearing news that IIMA grads are struggling for jobs and especially those seeking to go in finance and banking, are taking jobs in PSU - nationalized banks etc. Woow, that will be some experience. Working in nationalized banks and adjusting to slow and lethargic lifestyle. Perhaps, IIM grads will change the culture and bring much needed sense of responsibility and dynamic culture in Indian banks.

But, still India offers a much more sense of security and better prospects. IIM Bangalore is not a bad place to be. The professors are committed and the batch is pretty dynamic. Though the facilities they are providing are not up to the mark, but given that it is the first year, they are doing it appreciatively well.

So, IIMB it is for me and I am getting ready to pack my bags. Lot of work. I hope I will manage in next 2-3 weeks.

Wharton Interview Experience

2009-03-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

So, I was invited to Wharton a day before its final mid-decision deadline. To my horror, there were no on-campus interview slots available. I called the office, and found out that they can create a slot for me, but that will be mid-term time and so you cannot sit in class etc. So I decided to go with Hub interview in SF. After some hiccups in that too, I finally got a slot.
I reached 20 min before time, but they were running late. Till 5 min after my interview was suppose to start, the previous person was interviewing. Finally, we started around 20 min late.
Interview started with the introduction, and her apology for being late. She seemed to be very friendly person and I was at ease immediately. She explained me the process and that the interview is blind etc etc. And then we started with usual question. No curve ball.
1. Walk me through your resume
2. What after MBA - I mentioned my long term and short term goals
3. Why MBA - done
4. Why Now - Faltered a bit
5. Why Wharton - Spoke a lot
6. How will you contribute to Wharton - this gave me enough opportunity share my so many community service work. She was happy to hear that - or at least pretended to be happy
7. Teamwork example
8. Leadership style and example
9. In your past review, what area of improvements were suggested
10. Anything else you want ad com to know? - I covered most of the things, but still talked about interesting community service activity we are doing.
11. Any questions - I asked couple of questions

Overall, very satisfactory, and similar to Kellogg, I was able to talk about everything I did. Though, I think I could have answered Why Now a little better, as I had prepared for that questions but still faltered there. Anyways, lets see what happens. I really loved the experience and as many say, would love to go to this school :)

Terror attacks in Pakistan

2009-03-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

Every time there is any terror attack in Pakistan, all the cricketers and politicians gave assurance that everyone loves cricket and cricketers and they will never be affected or attacked.

And this time, they have gone out to prove them wrong and opened fire on Sri Lankan Cricket team. In this sad event, 8 of the Sri Lankan players are injured. Fortunately none of them is serious. This is going to impact future of Pakistan cricket. Already most of the cricket playing nations refused to tour Pakistan. Only team from sub-continent were open to tour. After Mumbai terror attacks, India canceled its tour, and now this attack is final nail in the coffin. Immediate affect is SL canceling this tour and I do not think they are going to come again at least for few years. It might also result in formal boycott of Pakistan visit by ICC. Pakistan cricket is already in shambles, this will just make it die.

This also reflects poorly on Pakistan government handling of terrorism. They have received billions of dollars from US to combat terrorism, but have not done anything yet. This time it has come to bite them at their own house.

Snapshots from hell - and admitted student weekend

2009-02-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished reading Snapshots from Hell. A very well written book to give an idea about what to expect in Business School. Although Peter exaggerated a few things, since it or may be it is true for non-quantitative background people to face hard time. But overall, gives a good picture and sets the expectation right. I have now started reading World is Flat. Have read around 10 pages and looks really interesting. I have also got Liar's Poker - a book on wall street life. Looks interesting as well.

On MBA front, ASU has invited me for Admitted student weekend. And good thing is, they will pay for air fare, food and lodging. Woow!! That's some treatment!!
I am still not sure whether I will go. I have yet not decided, but I spoke to few people and I am leaning towards IIM Bangalore. In the long term, I think IIMB will be a better option. Moreover, ASU's strength is Supply Chain, which I am not sure of going into. I haven't got a chance to speak to alumni yet, but would be doing it this weekend. Need to find out kind of job they do and what kind of recruitment happens. I looked at few alumni profile, who graduated recently and they are working as Business Analyst, which is not exciting me at all. Business Analyst after MBA!!! Is it the right title? Any ideas?

Admitted to Carey MBA at ASU

2009-02-15T20:48:00.000-08:00

As the title says, I am admitted to Carey MBA at ASU with $$. The offer is pretty good and ultimately I will have to pay $8K per year in tuition. The details of my visit and interview are here. Now, I am confused. ASU probably do not have that big a brand name in India. However, it is fast rising in the ranking and this year it was 22nd in US news rank, above Emory etc.

But anyways, I will think more on that later. Right now, its a good news, so would be enjoying it for sometime.

Books

2009-02-10T15:31:00.000-08:00

I have started reading again after a long time. I read John Grisham's - A Time to Kill. Not too exciting and was kinda slow, but got me in mode of reading. I got two more books now - Snapshots from Hell and World is Flat. Looking forward to read them soon.

IIMB has sent the reading material for quantitative analysis. Will get to it after this week. So far, the group is active and we are working on various branding strategies, placement strategies, seminars, electives etc. Moreover, the guys have struck a good deal with SBI to secure loan at 10.75% without collatoral. A commendable job indeed.

I have fixed my departure date, tentatively at 20th March. Will probably get accomodation only around 30th or 31st. The orientation starts 2nd April. Woow!! Finally its all happening. I am really looking forward to it.

Not much to do

2009-02-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

With application season over, there is a different feeling of emptiness. A month or so back, I was so busy as hell. And now, it feels like there is nothing to do. Although, I have lot on my plate as to move back to india etc, but still there is no mental pressure and no stressful situation which I got used to.

I am really having a enjoyable time. It feels good to be free. I am thinking of speaking to few people to find out about some pre-reading that I should do before heading off to Bangalore. One year course is going to be very busy and it will be good to have some prior understanding of the courses I am going to take. Any suggestion? I do not have any theoretical knowledge of accounting, marketing, finance etc. Please suggest me some books - curricular or other which will help me prepare for my upcoming journey

ASU visit and interview experience

2009-02-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

I visited and interviewed with ASU this week.Reached Phoenix on super bowl day and barely caught with few minutes in last quarter. And oh boy, what a game it was. Cardinals played really well but missed out on a wonderful win through a last minute dive and touchdown by Steelers. Well, ASU provided hotel accommodation for one night, a nice room with all facilities.

I had all scheduled for next morning- a class at 10am, lunch at 12pm, tour at 1pm and interview at 2pm.

I attended Operations and Supply Chain class by professor Choi, one of the most popular classes. And it was fun. The professor was very funny and had a good nick of teaching things in humorous way. After the class, I went with a lunch (paid by ASU) with a current student along with another prospective student. We had lunch in good old MU (old memories – spent lot of time at MU during my MS days). We discussed a lot of things about culture, classes, recruiting with the second year student ambassador. After lunch I went on a tour, which we limited to the business school building because rest of the attraction of the tour such as MU, SRC etc I have already seen and visited myself. Then I took opportunity to discuss further with the student ambassador about her experiences, specializations, goals, ASU culture etc. I went in for interview at 2pm. It was conducted by two people – one admission staff and other a current student in marketing major. The interview was very probing and went into details of all the examples I gave. Here are the questions that I remember:

1. Tell me about yourself and what you do currently.

2. Significant leadership experience at work

3. When things did not go as planned – talked about my failure experience at extra curricular

4. Had difficult time working with someone, what I did. – rephrased my teamwork experience

5. Manager feedback on strength and weakness.

6. Example of when I worked hard on something but did not achieve the expected result – had to go back to my days after 12^th grade

7. Experience from my work where I had to do something I did not want to do – did not remember any work experience – so talked about my extra curricular experience. – follow up question to go more specific – I did not do well on this question

8. Choose an example of best team or worst team and why you think it was best or worst. I chose best team – one of my first company experience – I came up with story on the spot, so not sure how it went.

9. Short term, long term goals

10. Why MBA now. They did not ask why ASU and I did not get a chance to talk about why ASU, but I squeezed in few points.

11. What other schools applying and how would you choose if admitted in all

12. CASE: some TV company, going into overhead projection tv market, qa tested it well. 1. Customer demand increased 2. company could not meet demand

a- what does the company do?

b. Why did demand increase?

c. Why couldn’t the company meet the demand?

d. What can be done?

Then it was my time to ask questions and I asked lot of them. Finally we exchanged good byes and I left campus back to hotel and from their back to airport.

Overall, good experience, but mostly it is focused on Supply Chain and student did not look that bright. Moreover, most of the international students, especially Indian students, do Supply Chain Management specialization just because its ASU’s strength and they do not really know what they want to do after their MBA. But overall, ASU has good culture, small class size means personalized attention, and faculty looks promising. Moreover, they are rising in ranks and have good feedback from employers and recruiters. It will not be a bad school to go to and especially, living if you like to stay in west coast area.

Rejected by Haas

2009-01-28T11:05:00.001-08:00

Finally, Haas did not show me any love and rejected my application. With this end my unsuccessful Round 1 applications journey. I failed miserably getting ding on all five schools. 5/5- That's a dubious record. All my first choice schools have rejected me. Oh well, that's life.

Haas app was one of my best application, but I guess I lost hope after UCLA ding me. But honestly, this was the school I loved most. The students are really amazing and very helpful. I spoke to students of so many schools, haas students are the most friendly, cooperative and approachable. I dreamed of being part of such a community. Anyways, I hope something is good for me in this.

Congrats and good luck to all those who got into Haas.

Stanford....

2009-01-22T09:45:00.000-08:00

I am NOT IN!! As I was expecting, Stanford has sent me the ding letter. And with this my dream of going to Stanford has ended. ouuch, it hurts!
I did feel little bad as any rejection gives bad feeling. But it was expected, so no shock, as I got when I was denied by UCLA.

Things are moving slowly. I have sent my deposit to IIM Bangalore. I am trying to plan things out to make a move to India and wrap things up in 2 months. At this point it looks pretty challenging. Good thing is I do not have too many liabilities here. So just have to sell off the minimal stuff I have collected. Have to start looking for job opportunities for my wife as well.

On the other hand, I am very happy with IIM Bangalore group. Very active and making things happen. The professors are cooperative and the administrative staff is cordial and helpful. I am already getting good vibes. The challenge will be definitely that it is the first year of this program. But I hope they have learnt from other IIM's in running one year program.

All the best to people who got into Harvard and Stanford.

Hurray!! Accepted at IIMB

2009-01-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

As the title says, I am accepted to IIMB - EPGP. I am very very happy. Although this is the first year of IIMB's one year program, I am very positive it is going to be great.

I was not sure about how it happened. I applied to IIMB by writing a sop in 3 hours. They invited almost everyone to interview. Interview happened at 1am PST and went on for only 10 min with questions on my job, my SOP, my short term and long term goal and why not 2 yrs MBA from US school or 2 yr MBA from IIM through CAT.

This is the quickest turn around I have seen. I am very happy.
After UCLA ding, I almost lost hope. And completely surrendered my desires.

Well, now it is clear, I will be out of my job for sure and would be doing an MBA. Time will tell where.

Thanks to all those who encouraged me in this journey.

Stunned!!! Yet another Ding

2009-01-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

My bad phase continues! I got dinged from UCLA.
I was very very hopeful of Anderson. I loved that school, made multiple visits, both current students and alumni loved my essays, had a pretty strong application. One of the best essays I could do.

I do not know what else I need to do. I think I do not deserve to go to Business School.

I am extremely depressed with this rough ride.

Excitement all around

2008-12-18T18:51:00.000-08:00

This was pretty exciting week in the blogosphere. So many people got admit notice from their choice schools. Many Duke, Tuck, Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago admit floating around. Congratulations to all of them. And I really feel for sufferers of Kellogg mishap. It was really unfortunate. I keep checking Clear Admit blog and so often get to read about exciting news from someone.

I wish I could be part of this excitement. But my first choice schools are not going to come up with their result until January. So wait continues for me. On the hindsight, I should have applied to some of these schools which declare results earlier and faster. Much of the burden is taken off your shoulder. Anyways, I hope my app journey finishes soon and I do not have to go through this again. I really do not have any stamina to redo this next year. In fact, I am having hard time even starting my R2 apps. Wharton is not far away and I have not even started. McCombs is also going slow, but at least I have started.

Anyways, congrats again to all who got-in and good luck for future.

Rate my life

2008-12-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.4
Mind:	6.6
Body:	5.9
Spirit:	7.6
Friends/Family:	4.2
Love:	7.3
Finance:	7.3
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

http://www.monkeyquiz.com/life/rate_my_life3.html

Anderson Visit and Interview Experience

2008-12-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

I visited campus on 11/24. Drove from bay area on 11/23.
I met with few current students at 11, met with Price Center staff. This was amazing. She gave me a great insights on entrepreneurship at Anderson, what they do, how to go about doing things.
Then at 1pm I did my class visit. It was not very interesting class, but professor was good. I do not mind getting taught by him. The class got over at 2:30pm and again I met with another student. Learned few more things. By this time my nerves were settled and I had a feeling that I belong there.
Interview started at 3:30pm and it was with Second year student. She was really friendly and we spoke for a while before we entered the interview room. The interview went really well. No tough question, no curve balls. Few questions:
1. Walk me through your resume
2. What were the challenges in Company X
3. Challenges in company Y.
4. How were the responsibilities in X and Y different
5. Why MBA, short term, long term goals
6. Why Anderson
7. What company after Graduation
8. Tell me about leadership role
9. Tell me how you work as team
10. Your strengths and weakness
11. Any question for me - asked couple of questions

Sorry, running out of time, so will have to stop here. It was nice talking to you. Then walked out of the room with her. And thats it!

Texas MBA

2008-12-11T21:22:00.001-08:00

I have been doing lot of research on Texas MBA, spoke to quite a few current students, met few alumni and attended one information session and I am really impressed with the program. Lot of great opportunities and the associate dean is pretty cool and seems like a great leader. He is pretty innovative and has introduced a new curriculum. I quite liked his ideas and he was very articulate in presenting his ideas.

So, while I wait for other calls, I am definitely applying to UT-Austin, McCombs School. I have been to Austin before and I loved that place. And all the alums, students rave about it as well. Moreover it's one of the few growing cities and one of the top entrepreneurial hub.
The faculty though did not get a good rating in Business Week, looks awesome. Lot of activities, extra-curricular and development opportunities. Students are very friendly and helpful.
Looks like my why McCombs essay is ready :)

Meanwhile, Haas and Stanford have not reciprocated my love yet. C'mon now, its high time. Show me you care! Let me change the world. I promise, I will not let you down and will definitely enrich the community.

Haas

2008-12-08T14:42:00.000-08:00

Haas is going to send interview invites starting today!
Finger crossed!!! Now the real wait begin.

Still no invite from Stanford.. huuh!!

All the best to fellow applicants

Terror Attacks in Mumbai

2008-11-26T21:36:00.000-08:00

This was one of the most ridiculous attacks that happened in India. There have been so many attacks before but this was outrageous. It was such a heinous act, cold blooded shoot out, killing hundred people, injuring a thousand and terrorizing a billion.
What is going on? Terror everywhere, economy doomed, no trust, no faith among people. Where is this world going?
Why is our country not able to handle these people? How can these terrorist just go about doing things as they want? Doing bomb blast as if lighting fire crackers. Going anywhere and open fire, putting hand grenade, taking hostages. What has happened to security, what is our government doing?

I am deeply hurt. I am utterly shocked. I am feeling so helpless. I really feel for people who suffered.

Ding from ISB

2008-11-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

Looks like my dream of returning to India is not going to happen soon. ISB declared its R1 result today and I am NOT in!!!!
I do not know what else I can do. My interview went well, except one estimate question. I am really really sad today. I think I should change my blog url from happylibran to sadlibran.

This has created a doubt in my capabilities and do not know whether I have it in me to do an MBA.
I do not know what is missing. Whoever looked at my essays and profile, gave me thumbs up. I even spoke to few current students and alums and they were pretty happy with my application. Only ad com does not seem to like me. First IIMA and now ISB.
I used to be a good interviewee. I have cleared all except one(that too missed at the last stage) of my job interviews so far. But this application season, I failed 100%.

I know its not the end of the world, but I really feel sad and am cursing my luck. Another gloomy day.

I seriously need to look for R2 application which I thought I will skip if I get into ISB. Now even ISB did not admit me, donno what will happen to US schools.

When will my day come? God, are you listening!!!

UCLA Anderson interview invite

2008-11-06T16:49:00.001-08:00

First good news on my US school apps!
Anderson has invited me for interview!!!!!

I am going to choose on-campus interview. Still deciding whether to fly or drive.

Haas Submitted

2008-11-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Continuing with my trend of submitting application on the deadline day, I submitted Haas on Nov 4th. I am happy with my application overall, except the first question - what would I change. I think it is little weak as my other reviewers also pointed out. But my other essays are very strong, so I hope it will compensate.

I think this is the most essays I have written for one application. 4 short questions, 2 long, 2 optional. Phew - 8 essays! Haas really want you to work hard on the application to show your interest. Anyways, I am glad I am done and able to pull off both Stanford and Haas.

What next !!!

I am thinking of looking at UT-Austin and ASU -- hmm why suddenly ASU - well, I want to have some safe schools in my list, and they are offering me quick turn around, app fee waiver, I liked ASU (I went there for my grad school) and it is still in top 25 schools.

I am thinking of taking off USC from my list - they are really insistent on TOEFL. No other school wants me to take TOEFL, if I have Graduate degree from US. I do not understand their policy. And I am in no mood to take another exam at this point of time!

IIMA ding

2008-11-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

IIMA pgpx dinged me! I am very sad!

ISB wants to talk to me

2008-11-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, after a long wait, got an email from ISB and they want to interview me :)
However, unlike others, they gave me a very very short notice of 3 days.
Aah, another mini battle within this MBA battle. I wish it was after 4th nov. But anyways, I have to live with it.
Some will say, what will you have to prepare for ISB. Well, I think it's just the mind-set. Writing Haas essay, I am totally in Haas mode, but if I need to take ISB interview, I should show my passion for ISB as well :)

My Haas essays are coming along well. I am fine with the content of all my essays and they are not in bad state anymore. All are around 80-90% complete. Need to polish them to make it 100%. I finished writing about my supplemental questions as well. I think I will complete the online application today. I missed out on one critical and dear to heart community service stuff. Did not find appropriate space. I am right now in dilemma about using optional essay. I love UCLA and Stanford essays. They gave me lot of space to write about my passions, and my community service (my strength). Did not get that opportunity to discuss in Haas essays.

Anyways, all I have to do for next three days will be to polish the essay and prepare for ISB interview.

I think I am learning much needed time-management skills even before going to B-School.

Stanford Submitted

2008-10-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

Continuing my trend to work till last day and almost last moment, I finally submitted my Stanford application at 3:30pm (hour and half before the deadline). What a roller coaster ride it was. I remember a month back I took it off my list and here I am smiling after submitting my second app.
In the end, I am pretty happy with my essays and was able to make it exactly 1800 words.

Now, I have uphill task of finishing Haas app in next 5 days. It's not going to be easy, given that I still have no clue for the first short question - What will I do something differently.
Not sure what to write. I think I have content for other 5 essays.

Stanford

2008-10-27T00:12:00.001-07:00

Aah!!! I have my first 3 essay ready little over word limit. 1st has turned out really well - over limit by 15 words
2nd one is not too bad- very specific goals, and how stanford will help - over limit by 15-20 words.
3rd one is effective leader essay and looks really good - but overlimit by 40 words
4th one the challenge faced, and I am writing about challenge in job. Like my job, this essay sucks currently.. after tremendous effort, I could develop a structure. Now need to polish the content - currently 80 words over limit.
Not yet finished online app. Will work on it now!! Hmm.. 2 days to go. Good thing, two of my recommendations are in. The third will submit soon.

Haas essays have suffered because of that. I hope I make it first round deadline.

Need a break!!!

2008-10-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

Aah. I worked very hard this week. I finished Stanford first draft - Almost finalized on my leadership essay. Still need to work a lot on challenges essay, career essay. What matter most seem like never ending one.

Meanwhile, I created first draft for Haas long career essay. Other leadership essay is pretty much ready from UCLA one, and I need to tailor it a little bit.

Short question - Put together one draft for how I learned about haas, have some ideas about achievement and innovation essays. I am still not able to come up with anything for what I would do differently. Any ideas?

But really getting exhausted with this process. I really need a break. My body, mind, heart are all crying for the break, but irony is I really cannot take it. Waiting for Nov 4th. I am definitely going to take a week long break. Or may be not - I might have ISB interview lined up soon. I haven't got a call yet, but I am hoping to get it soon. And probably, UCLA interview invite will start going out as well.

Still looks like no end in sight and a long way to go. How good the state of people will be who already have admit from the school of their choice. Ahh.. Fortunate ones!

My day will come!

Stanford back in R1 and Haas essays

2008-10-16T01:06:00.000-07:00

I love Stanford too much to leave out for Round 2. After taking a break for a day on monday, I gave a closer look at Haas essays yesterday and Stanford essays today. I have been thinking about first essay for a while and when I looked at other essays, I realized I can use most of the content of UCLA and IIMA essays. That is thrilling to know. I will have to tailor to the Stanford questions, and have to cut down lot of things to adhere to strict word limit, but looks like it is doable.
The challenge will be to cut down the content, since I think, my UCLA essays were pretty concise and crisp and really do not know what can I cut down.
I got so excited, that I have my first draft of Stanford essays ready. :) Should I take some consultants help to expedite my editing and polishing? Not sure, whether they give a quick turnaround time.

Also, Haas essays - some can be reused, but it will be much more challenging. I have leadership essay ready, career goal essay almost ready, with haas specific info to be fit in.
The short questions are much more challenging - I do not know what I would like to change that I have done and would do it differently.
Innovation essay - have some idea, but not sure how it will develop
Achievement essay - can use IIMA one - though need to cut down to 250 words
Haas research essay - done quite a bit research, visited campus, attended class, spoke to current students, alumni's, read blogs. But have to put together my learning and insights from them. Which is difficult, since most of the students and alumni pretty much say the same thing. And I am little less articulate in defining culture of a school. Most of the places I am applying satisfies my criteria of great education, entrepreneurial support, brand name, network, small class size and california location, silicon valley connections. Now what to say in that essay.

Some more IIMA PGPX experience

2008-10-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

I attended the high tea interaction later in the evening yesterday. It was a good discussion. Came to know a lot about PGPX. For some reason, all of the Professors were trashing PGP and its student, calling them immature and grade fanatics. One of the professor even went on to say that he did not teach PGP class for last 2 yrs and he is very happy about it and he called it a waste of time. The students waste his time to get one point increment which will not make any difference to grade.

PGPX students are matured and kind of know what they want and do not go crazy over grades (Well, what do you think - after 10 yrs in industry- who cares about grades). They have little ambigous grades non-disclosure policy. The adminstration does not reveal grades to recruiters but a student can volunteerily disclose the grade. Funny, doesn't it mean that high grade pointers will flaunt their grades whereas low grade pointers will not disclose. It might create an awkward situation.

The professors were very knowledgeable and down to earth. Amazing simplicity. This will be a key decision making point for me, if I get in, that is.

One thing though, the interviews were pretty ambiguous. I spoke to many people after interview and after the high-tea. No one had clue and it looked like these profs had not even completely read the application/essays. And it did not look like they are going to read. Not sure what will be their selection criteria finally. I hope they have some logic.

Still no news from ISB. They keep changing the date for announcing the shortlist for various places. They have their own weird reasons of releasing the shortlist based on interview location. Sound very funny, but anyway, thats Indian school. Sometimes they do things in certain way and you have to just go with it.

I am thinking of taking a break today and will start my haas app from tommorrow. I hope I will finish it by first round deadline.

IIMA PGPX interview done!

2008-10-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

I had my interview today. Overall, I will say, it went ok. I will not say it went great, since I did not start off well.
They did not ask me to present, but gave me a case - some retail guy did not do well in the clothing and now is blamed for things. what will he do.
After that they spoke about my extra curricular, my job, my industry, my goal, indian economy.
Other than the initial case question - which I did not do great, and got stuck with one of the extra-curricular question, I did ok. But not sure, how they have perceived it. I will know it by Oct 31st.

The interview committee was very friendly looking, no stress interview or trying to stress me out. I smiled a lot and laughed at certain places as well.

I just came back to my hotel room to relax, but will go back there for evening high tea. On second thoughts, I am thinking I should have left tonight itself, as not many people are staying back for tea. I would have got some rest and start working on other apps. Will take a break on Monday and start from Tuesday.

UCLA Submitted

2008-10-09T12:56:00.001-07:00

Wheew!! what a relief. Finally, I submitted my ucla application today. My first US school application. Finally, I am happy with my essay, showed them to a current student and an alum, and both appreciated them. I am quite confident of an interview call (80%) chance.
I think as told by both my reviewer and my own belief, my first essay turned out to be stellar. The audio part looked more conceptual, but I do not know whether anyone was able to put in example in 1 min audio. I am quite happy with the quality. Hope ad com likes it too :)

Among all this chaos, one place where I am struggling is IIMA interview preparation. I have it this weekend and I am not fully prepared yet. Too many things to know in current affair and I have yet not prepared my answers to regular question and not yet finalized my presentation. There will be few more long days/nights for me.

I am still debating on R1 application on stanford and haas. My heart still want to write Stanford essay, but my head is logically saying that I should only focus on one and I think one where I have good chances will be Haas. Anyway, cannot start any of them before Oct 13th, so have to wait.

Meanwhile, fellow applicants have started getting admits from Columbia - congrats to all of them. It really need that kind of drive to get an admit so early in the season. I really need to get some inspiration from them. I still have long way to go, as it always happens with me :) So far, submitted 3 apps, all on the last day of submission :) But kind of perfectionist I am, I think this trend will continue.

Bail out rejected

2008-09-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

Dow tanked more than 777 points. My portfolio is down by 40%. Is the recession official now? The prediction for dow is that it will hit 8400. Not sure what I should do. Should I take the losses now and wait for it to plunge further to do my buy back?

I wonder how the jobs at the BSchools are going to be affected with this crisis. Banks all over the world are failing. Future is looking gloomy.

Anyways, lets see what future holds for us

top mba tour

2008-09-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

I visited QS MBA tour last saturday. A much shorter event than the MBA tour I attended couple of weeks back. The event started with long queue for registration, even when I had pre-registered. There was a session from 2-3pm with panel of ad com members for georgetown, cornell, babson, and unnamed school. They gave usual jibe on application process, recommendations, essays etc. The room was pretty small and half of the audience had to stand.
The fair started at 3pm and I visited quite a few schools. Most of them were friendly and good to talk to. I spoke at length with UCLA ad com member and an alumni.
USC ad com was little on rude side. Somehow, did not like their attitude. And they are hell bent on TOEFL score.
Also spoke to ISB ad com member - found her quite unprofessional. But again, this my perception. She usually avoided tough questions and was busy selling numbers - heard her say umpteenth time that 230 recruiters visit the campus and all fight for the day zero spot :) Many of her answers were inconsistent with what other member on pagal guy forum is saying.
Another alum who worked in TCS before and again joined TCS after ISB spoke positively and was very polite and authentic in his replies.

On application front: I am still not going anywhere. To make the matter worse, I am quite sick and suffering from severe cold and headache. Looks like I will have to drop Stanford from my R1 list and keep Haas. I am not sure I can do both. Some people will question my logic of postponing Stanford to R2 as people target top-tier and first preference school in the first round.
I have my own reason - Stanford is highly comptetive in any round, and I feel I have better chance in Haas than Stanford. So I prefer to try for the school where I have better chance in getting admit in round 1, instead of waiting till round 2- when it will get much more competitive.

Still not happy with UCLA essay- Showed my first draft to a friend and he trashed it. The second revision of 2nd and 3rd essays are looking better. Lot of work needs to be done on 1st one. Haven't even started the 4th one. With deadline only 10 days away - I have uphill task at my hand. Wish me luck

Shayri time

2008-09-25T23:24:00.001-07:00

Muskaan tere hothon se kahin jaye na,
Aansu teri palkon pe kabhi aaye na,
Poora ho tera har khwab aur jo poora na ho
Woh khawab kabhi aaye na

UCLA Essays

2008-09-25T00:35:00.001-07:00

Today I completed draft of 3 essays. Still do not know which one of the 4th essay choice I want to speak on. I am leaning towards either a, but b is equally tempting, but I think I have addressed b in my other essays.
Now I need to gather my thoughts on entrepreneurship. And find out a way to do a audio recording. Any ideas for efficient and productive way to do the recording and create wav file?

Still haven't started preparing for IIMA interview. The world is getting crazier. My 2nd recommendor is very busy and wants me to create outline for the reco. This sucks! Already have so much work and I am playing a catching up game and here is another task :)

I sometimes wonder, I should use some essay writer! (anyone listening?) I will provide the content and they write it and polish it for me :) After all, this is another managerial skill to get the work done. Anyway, before anyone start bashing me up and call it unethical, I was trying to lighten the atmosphere and playing it silly to de-stress from the burden of doing so many things.

Haas Class Visit

2008-09-22T15:40:00.001-07:00

I visited Econ class today. It was amazing. The professor was amazing and he explained about pricing strategy and how the demand-supply curve looks like.

The students were pleasant, however, looked little stress due to mid-term exam in the evening. There was not too much class participation. Perhaps, I should attend some case-based class to get a hang of how students interact in the class.

But overall, after attending the class, my desire for an MBA has increased. I have so much to learn.

I read an excellent blog by optimistic. Although he just has 5 entries, but they are very inspiring. I really feel the same what he has gone through: Career getting pigeon-holed and hunger to study and expand the skill set.

On my other apps, created draft for first 2 essays of UCLA. Really need to ramp-up my app process.

Haven't started preparing for IIMA interview. Heard from couple of interview experiences in Ahmedabad that ad-com are not asking to present. I wish, I also get that option :)

I have heard people started getting interview invites from columbia. Good luck folks.

Visited Haas

2008-09-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

I visited haas on friday. Had a wonderful time. I had lunch with students and attended an information session. Everything was organized by student ambassadors and even information session was given by student ambassador with ad com member dropping by in last 10 min.

Overall, no special information, just the usual stuff about their culture and curriculum.

I am going to visit again on monday and attending one class. Will write more about it after I attend.

In the meantime, I tried to look for schedule of Stanford class visit and to my dismay, they are all full till the first round deadline. This is totally ridiculous. How can the class visit be so full even before it actually started. I got to register for monday's class in Haas on thursday. And here in Stanford, the first available class is Nov 6th or may be later. Why such demand? or do they just have very few spots open? Even lunch with current student is full. Whats up with people. I am not sure what is behind it, but looks like I might not be able to attend class inspite of being local before submitting my application in first round.

Meanwhile, got another setback and talked with few people and they questioned by long term goals and classified my short-term goals of being a product manager as too easy, and said I do not need an MBA to become a product manager. However, I have so many friends who became product manager after MBA and find it logical choice to a path to start a company.

Confused!!!

Time running away?

2008-09-18T13:12:00.001-07:00

I think I have spent too much time writing ISB and IIMA essays that I am not able to start my other applications.
With time running so fast, I better get started. I pledge to start my UCLA app today.

I have written few points on UCLA first essay few days back, but not sure how much should I add and what should I cover in this.

In the meantime, met one UCLA student in bay area. A very nice person to talk to. An entrepreneur before joining Anderson, now wants to take it easy and do product management in big corporation with slow life. As per him, advantage is - the big corporations move so slowly that if you are even a tad fast, you are appreciated and since he has seen it all being in fast paced entrepreneurial environment, he is enjoying the accolades by working 70% his capacity.

Regarding MBA tour - I attended 7 schools presentation and though I like the first schools presentation, eventually I realized they talk same things. Marshall, Texas, Haas, Yale SOM, all talk about how collaborative culture they have due to small class size, accessible faculty and staff and the usual support for different kind of centers and clubs.
Interesting, Wharton also talk about same things and said, even though their class size is big - they are very collaborative contrary to popular belief that they have cut-throat culture.

I wonder,why school asks everyone to stand out, when they cannot stand out themselves. Every one had same pitch, same suggestions, same selling point. What is the unique selling point? Anyone?

I met Thunderbird school representative in MBA fair, and learned a interesting thing- they have a hospitality weekend on Nov 7th and all you have to do is show up, they take care of your lodging and food. I was quite amused and do not know any other school doing that. So if anyone interested in Thunderbird, go for it. It is number one in International Business and located in warm Arizona. I love Arizona :)

Anyway, have to get back to the apps - I plan to put together outlines for all the schools I am planning to apply in first round by this weekend - ucla, haas, stanford. Aaah.. what matters to me most and why!!!

ISB / IIMA submitted

2008-09-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Disappeared for long time. I was too busy working on the essays for these two schools, deadline fell on the same day. Barely submitted on time.

I wonder how so many people are managing their app process so well that they are submitted well ahead of time. But O'well, I am trying my best.

I showed my essays to current student in IIMA. He suggested some changes, but was very happy with the essays. In the end, ISB essays turned out well too. I do not think I could have done any better than that.

Writing for them turned out be pretty exhaustive. I have to start working on my US schools essays now.

Another thing I wanted to touch upon, Wharton was never on my list but somehow I am thinking hard on it. I am sure I cannot do its app by first round deadline, but probably will try 2nd round.

In the meantime, I attended mba tour in San Francisco and attended top5 info session as well. Good experience. Will write about them in some other post. Also, had chance to visit UCLA, although no class was in session and they do not plan to have anything before 1st round deadline, which seems to be crazy. Probably would submit my app without class visit. But the campus visit was very informative. Got some juice for my apps.

Now I am in look out for current and former students of various schools.

Let me know if you know anyone in haas, stanford or ucla.

IIMA application submitted

2008-08-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

I submitted my first application of this application season. The application interface is pretty bad and I wonder if this the best IIM A can do. Why don't they outsource is to some other agency such as Apply yourself.
Another thing I did not like was it only works on IE. grrrhh.. I am a big fan of firefox and with firefox 3.0, I do not even want to look at IE. But they left me no choice! So much to sacrifice for this application season. :)

Also, there were few confusing things and no proper instructions. What do we fill in asset under management or annual turnover. Well I had difficulty in identifying the turn over since my company was never publicly listed and later it was acquired by another company. Though our HR is from bigger company, our payroll still runs with the smaller company. Anyway, just put the estimated amount.

With one thing off my head, and this helped me creating my one page resume as well. So worth the effort. Now I am going to start working on the essays (yeah, I am optimistic for getting shortlisted). Also need to start working on ISB essays. I am not getting thoughts for the case essays. Any ideas?

career goal template

2008-08-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Found a great blog for template to write the career goal
check this

Accomplishments and Goals

2008-08-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

I spent this whole weekend contemplating and sitting in front of my laptop. Today, I prepared my first draft of my accomplishments and goal and why I need an MBA. And boy! It feels good. I was struggling with this for last couple of weeks. Though the draft is not a perfect version, I feel I put enough information to get me started and handle essays with specific questions.

Over the last week, I was reading a book by Swami Vivekananda on karma yoga. It really rejuvenated me. Inspite of regular practice of meditation, I was getting pretty tensed up with the app process, evaluating my chance at each and every moment. In this book, SV talks about the importance of doing work 100% and with sincerity without getting attached to the result. And how true is it, the moment I thought about it, all my tension and stress vanished. He was not saying anything new, but what a difference it makes by re-emphasizing and re-iterating the truth.

Anyway, coming back to my mba specific journey, the next target is to work on IIM-A essay. The essays are very generic and I hoping I can reuse quite a few material in my other essays. I have to start working on IIMA application and also on creating a one page resume. Oh boy! lot of work. I got my hands full for next week :)

I am getting tensed

2008-07-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

Most of my target schools have announced the application deadlines and released application essays. I have yet not started thinking about essays. Still trying to refine my goals and appropriate career path. Oh God! Give me some clarity :P

I am reading a lot of blogs of fellow mba applicants and other MBA students who are already in. Looks like everyone has done lot homework already, many of them have visited schools, spoke to current students, alumni, faculty and ad com member. And here I am, running late as usual.

Ideally, I should have got a good head start as I took GMAT last year in November, but with my procrastination here I am catching up with this MBA Game.
God give me strength to sail through this tiring and exhaustive process. So far I have done random searches, visited my target schools website. I am pretty happy with all my chosen schools by looking at their website and reading some of their students blogs. But yeah, still have to go through a major milestone of visiting schools and talking to students to really identify whether I fit and get some juice for my essays.

Another dilemma I find myself in is whether to hire a consultant or not. Ad com from various people say that they can identify the professional touch on the application and it is a clear put off for them. But looking at the amount of work needed and competition pool I am in (yeah!! I am MIT - Male Indian Techie), I am trying to find someone who can really help me sail through.

Will keep posted ( ha ha.. as if anyone is reading it)

Mba dreams

2008-07-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about doing MBA since the time I was in my undergrad college. But looks like my dreams are going to be materialized this year.
Finally, this fall I am going to apply for the BSchools and as you guessed it, the dreaded applications are already giving me nightmares.

I am doing lot of introspection and trying to collect my thoughts to finalize my goal essay. I know I want to start up a company, but still struggling to clearly define my goals. The hows, whys, details, short term, mid term goals are creating all sort of problems.

But in a way, I am enjoying it as well. I never really sat down and thought so much about myself, my career. So at least after the whole process, I would definitely have more clearer goal for myself, might be much more well-read and self aware.

I am hoping to continue this blog and update it regularly. We shall see whether it will work