Obama gets Osama

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..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.