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.

Happy Deepawali

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.