A very engrossing ad :)
Check this out. Has anyone seen this kind of thing before? It would be interesting to know how much these people spent on it.
Does work experience help if you are doing an MBA?
Ever since I wrote this post, I had made up my mind to update it/write a new post after spending some time at B-school. So here’s the gyan:
The short answer is: No clear answer. There are pluses and minuses.
Work-ex means increased emotional maturity, which is a big plus whatever you do here. It also means more professionalism, which is a pre-requisite for survival in this place. College dudes and dudettes used to ever-postponing deadlines and paying lipservice to ethicality/gender-sensitivity (there is simply no compromise on ethics here at IIMA and notice that I said ‘dudettes’ too!) could have a harder time adapting to the new environment than their more experienced colleagues.
Work-ex can also be more directly beneficial. Work-ex at a consulting organization like McKinsey, or an investment bank like Lehman Brothers or even a market research organization like AC Nielsen will help you land sure shortlists (trust me, that’s a big deal) during summer placements and will also help in a lot of courses. Work-ex relating to operations management or marketing/corporate finance would definitely help in related courses. Work-ex in software does not really help. Of course, all people with work-ex have written many more reports and made many more presentations than any fresher and so they have a small advantage in those areas.
On the other hand, the biggest disadvantage of having work-ex, especially if it’s more than two years is that at that age, people have lost contact with academics. Math that was easy in school appears like Greek and Latin to them. Silly rules of professors (not that many, but they do exist) are that much tougher to digest. They also tend to be less competitive. Exceptions abound, but when it comes to mustering up the enthusiasm to walk 800m in the hot sun to examine his or her end-term paper just in case there’s been a mistake in correction, work-ex people are generally found sleeping behind. I’m sure there would also be the little odd kick to the ego when some guy, who’s as young as the chump one was used to ordering about in the office, refuses point blank to help with those ‘difficult’ quant problems. Another problem is that if like most people, one wants to apply to an investment bank, work-ex on the resume is a disdvantage.
Then again there is the problem of perception. It is a fact that most people here with work-ex have been writing CAT ever since their final year of college. Therefore, they could be perceived as not good enough.
To sum up, I don’t think there is much to be gained or lost by having work-ex. In IIMA at least, the best thing is to do is to get here as soon as one can and adapt as quickly as possible to the system here. If the profs select you, they see you good enough to study here - workex or no workex, it does not matter.
In pursuit of happiness
How to be happy? Jeevan Vidya says that happiness is only transitory and that one should strive for Anand (there is no exact corresponding word in English, but bliss is close) which arises out of being in harmony with yourself, your family, your society and the natural environment. Steve Jobs, in his famous “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” speech said that each day he asked himself if he was happy and if the answer was in the negative several times in a row, he changed something.
Like most recipes for happiness, these are easy to articulate and appear elegant but are almost impossible to implement. The simplest algorithm to be happy, that I know of, is simply to convince yourself into thinking that you are happy. Smile and you’ll automatically feel better. Laugh and the world suddenly stops feeling like such a grim place.
And what’s the duration of happiness? Am I happy NOW? at this very instant? Yes. I’ve just finished talking to a close friend and that usually makes me happy. Have I been happy over the past few months? Yes and no. I’ve been happy at times but I’ve also felt angry, sad, lonely, confused, helpless or frustrated. Have I been happier on average (Is there an objective measure of happiness?) than in the past three months? Hell, yeah!
This is not just a theoritical exercise. In a few months time, I’ll be choosing which company I join for summer training and in less than two years, I’ll need to choose a company for a fulltime job. Should I choose to be a consultant, an ibanker, a technologist or a salesman? What aptitude do I have for each of these roles? Does that really matter considering that a WIMWIian is suppossed to be able to perform well in whatever role you put him/her? Should I care about whether my role helps me make a real difference in the world? Why? Would all jobs turn out to be just as exciting in their best moments and just as terrible in their worst?
Isn’t it weird that there are easy answers to ‘how to be sad?’ but not for ‘How to be happy?’
The Hare and the Tortoise
(I haven’t been able to trace who originally wrote this. I read this first on the electronic noticeboard of IIMA).
Once upon a time (as all good fables begin), a tortoise and a hare decided to
resolve an argument by engaging in a short road race. They agreed upon a
specific route and commenced their competition. The hare shot ahead and ran
briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead, decided to enjoy his
surroundings, rest under a shaded tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise
plodded on, overtook the hare, and crossed the finish line, emerging as the
undisputed victor. The hare woke up to realize that he had lost the
competition.
The moral of this famous fable is that slow and steady wins the race. This is
the version of the story that we have all likely grown up with. There is
however, a more fascinating extension to this short story . . .
It would seem that the hare, devastated at losing what had appeared to be an
effortless race, did some serious soul-searching. Upon reflection, he realized
that he had been defeated largely because of his own overconfident and
negligent attitude toward his competitor. He reasoned that if he had not been
so quick to assume an easy victory, there is no way that the tortoise could
have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise
agreed.
This time the hare went all out, ran without stopping, complete from start to
finish. Needless to say, he trounced his competitor.
The moral of our continued story is that fast and consistent will always beat
the slow and steady. If you have two partners in your firm, one slow,
methodical and dependable and the other fast and still reliable at whatever he
or she does, the fast and reliable partner will consistently outperform their
methodical peer. It’s good to be slow and steady; but it is even better to be
fast and reliable.
Our strategic fable doesn’t end yet.
The tortoise now took his turn at some serious reflection. He soon realized
that there was simply no way that he could ever beat the hare in a road race
the way it was currently designed. He thought for a while and came up with a
plan. He challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different and
surprisingly (at least to the hare) longer course.
The hare quickly agreed and a new race was started. In order to be consistently
fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad and deep
river. The finish line was a couple of miles on the other side of this river.
The hare, unable to swim, had no choice but to continue his long run around the
outside bank of this river.
In the meantime, the tortoise trundled along, finally reaching the river, swam
to the opposite bank, continued walking, and managed to finish well ahead of
the hare.
The moral of this portion of our story . . . first, recognize your core
competency and then find a way to change the rules of the game to suit your
unique skills. Always work to your strengths.
But our story still isn’t concluded.
By this time the hare and the tortoise were becoming fast friends. They had
developed a degree of respect for each other’s distinctive capabilities. Upon
reflection they realized that their last race could have been run far better,
if they were both willing to run it together, as a team effort.
So as a true team effort, this time when they started off, the hare carried the
tortoise all the way to the riverbank. There the tortoise took over and swam
across with the hare sitting on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again
carried the tortoise and they reached the finish line together, but on this
occasion in record time.
The moral of the story now . . . It is good to be individually brilliant and to
have strong core competencies; but unless you are able to work in a team and
harness each other’s strengths, you will always perform below par because there
will always be a situation at which you will do poorly while someone else will
do well.
There are yet a few more lessons to be gleaned from our expanded fable.
You will note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after experiencing
a failure. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his
setback. The tortoise concluded that he needed to completely change his
strategy. Our tortoise was already working as hard as he could, and thus
working smarter was now what was needed for him to win.
Finally, the hare and tortoise both learned a further valuable lesson. When we
stop competing against a rival and choose instead to compete against the
situation, we can often perform far better.
Thus, this fable of the hare and the tortoise teaches us: that fast and
consistent will always beat slow and steady; we must always work to our
strengths; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual
performers; never give up when faced with failure; and finally compete against
the situation, not against the rival . . . and you will live happily ever
after!
Awesome song!!
Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai… from the movie Woh Lamhe, by KK. I love it so much that I’ve been playing it in a loop almost the entire time the PC has been on, which in turn is almost the entire time I’ve been in my room.
The battle continues…
He tried to convince them but couldn’t. He wanted to make the system simple, elegant, mathematically perfect. However, this involved the coding of a module that according to most, was impossible. He tried very hard. Some say that he succeeded. That once upon a time the system worked perfectly with the module in place but then gradually the system became unstable. Others say that no ideal system ever existed, that it was only a hypothetical construct like a hypercube. Of course, everyone agrees that no ideal system exists today. After his attempt, another hotshot coder was assigned the system. He decided to introduce special code to handle all the exceptions. The system became unstable and unpredictable. However, it didn’t crash and continued to run. It has run non-stop since then. The first coder, people called him Codd, hated the inelegance of the solution. He decided to introduce a virus that he hoped would change the system, would complete the Guided Organo-Other Duality module that he had been unsuccessful in creating. That day is still celebrated as a national holiday by a south asian peninsular country. Some say he succeeded. Some say he failed. Others say that though the system apparently follows the properties of the Entirely Variable Idealism Loop most of the time, some of the old code is still there… and that the battle between GOOD and EVIL is not lost and will continue for millenia.
- inspired from ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ which is the best movie to watch to mark the end of a very hectic three months. Just two more terms to go before freedom and a one year vacation :)
A sign of hope?
At least it makes interesting reading.
Belling the CAT
A very long overdue post. Hope this helps someone.
The CAT consists of three sections – Quantitative Ability (Quant), Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability (English) and Data Interpretation (DI). Each section has equal weightage and so far, all papers have been of 120 minutes duration. Each section has a minimum cutoff.
Among all the sections, I’ve observed that English is the most difficult for people to master in a short period of time. It’s simply impossible to build vocabulary, increase reading speed and learn all the rules of grammar in a few months after you’ve spent years speaking, writing and listening to bad English. Hence, I suggest everybody who intends to take CAT to start reading voraciously as soon as possible. In our institute, our English faculty, Dr. Marathe asked us to read a minimum of 50 pages of good English everyday (Sidney Sheldon does not count) to develop a decent level of English. Since, CAT candidates are supposed to have an above average command over the language; I suggest that you set a target of at least 75 pages everyday. Also try to force yourself to communicate only in English.
The Quant and DI sections should be easy for an engineering student but they do require a minimum amount of work to master. Joining a good coaching institute should take care of that but it’s not at all necessary. A good test series is necessary though.
There are basically three big coaching institutes in the country – Career Launcher (CL), TIME and IMS. I fully recommend CL, especially the Hyderabad centre. Of course, I’m biased towards them because it’s my institute but I also think that only CL provides a great level of personal attention to each candidate which makes a huge difference in the long run.
I joined CL in January ’05. I missed several classes but I learnt a lot from the ones that I did attend. VK sir taught us speed reading techniques and Prashant taught us some tricks for doing complicated multiplications and divisions very quickly. I tried to practice these tricks in my daily life. For example, I practiced speed-reading tricks on my daily newspaper and those number tricks on vehicle license-plate numbers.
It was only in mid-July, after my summer internship ended that I started preparing seriously for CAT. CL’s material was perfect! There was a lot of it and it was very nicely organized according to the level of preparation of the candidate. For example, in each section, we had a set of ‘Funda Books’ that beautifully explained all key concepts, ‘Sprints’ that were short (up to 15 minute) tests that helped to build speed and finally lots of ‘Take-offs’ which were standard 40 minute tests. Then there were full-length tests which were ‘Mocks’ that were to be attempted at home and about twenty ‘Mocks’ which we attempted at the centre.
I was able to start on the Take-offs by mid-September and in a little while the mocks started. The CL website gave a wealth of data about each student’s performance in the mock and that really helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. During this period, I aimed to spend about three hours per day on CAT preparation – typically, I would do two takeoffs and analyze them. Each mock was like a morsel of the Bombay Bhelpuri – one never knew what to expect. I’m really grateful to the CL paper setters for they gave me the confidence to perform optimally no matter what the paper pattern.
At several times, some of us would be tempted to slack off. Thankfully, we always had Prashant sir to get us back on track. He would visit the campus almost daily for some weeks. We could go to him with all our problems, even those unrelated to Quant, DI or English and more often than not, he would have a solution.
By the last month of preparation, I was doing at least one full length paper everyday – sometimes more. Fortunately, I had a big group of friends in IIIT who were preparing for CAT and we would often take the test together at 11 AM (actual CAT time) in the reading room, simulating exam conditions. I also ensured that I spent a lot of time analyzing my paper. I finished with the CL FLTs very quickly so I attempted quite a few TIME and IMS papers too. I also attempted almost all previous year’s CAT papers. I felt that CL papers were closest to the actual CAT.
On 20th November ’05, I took the exam. It was not a CAT paper; it was more like a TIGER paper :) I didn’t think I had done very well.
In January, I found that I had a percentile of 99.99 and interview calls from all 6 IIMs. The GD/PI stage had started. It was then that I was really impressed by CL. There were a series of computerized lectures and self-assessment tests. Almost every evening we would get together for mock group discussions (GDs). We would cover a lot of topics and Vimal Sir, Sudeep Sir and Dilip Sir would give us group as well as individual feedback. A few comments would sting a little, but they definitely made me work harder.
The group discussion basically tests your assertiveness, general knowledge / business savvy (depending on if it’s a current topic or a case study), leadership skills and selling ability. The duration varies from IIM to IIM – the average is about 15 minutes with about 5 minutes for preparation.
The personal interview (PI) tests your ability to think logically, handle pressure and degree of commitment. It is here that the CGPA and engineering projects matters. Another way of looking at it is that your interviewers expect you to be able to connect all the dots in your life – everything you do should hopefully be leading towards a particular goal. Your reasons for doing an MBA at that particular institute should form a very important component of your strategy for achieving your goal. Of course, you should have a Plan B (and preferable a Plan C too) for achieving the same goal. Also, it is very easy to lead the interview. Most questions derive from your previous answers. The duration could vary greatly, even in the same institute. The average is about twenty minutes.
I prepared for the GDs, by participating in as many mock GDs as possible and spending a lot of time on wikipedia and the two thick books, CL gave us to go through to build up our GK. There is no need to mug up stuff on the budget, obscure political/global issues or sports-related stuff. The topic is chosen so that no candidate has an unfair advantage over the others because of his background. I prepared for the PIs by the mock interview and spending a lot of time thinking about all my answers – a lot of people who get calls are actually not very sure of why they wrote CAT in the first place and no interview panel likes a candidate who wants admission just because he read about some high salary figures in the newspaper.
CL also organized a three-day boot-camp for us at Nagarjuna Sagar. The rooms and other arrangements were so fundoo that I remember thinking as if I was already an IIMA grad and was being taken to an executive retreat by my new company :D The trip was a perfect break and we also managed to do a lot of prep. It was on this trip that I met Shivku sir and Chari sir. After I talked with Chari sir, I was perfectly clear in my head at least about what I was going to say in front of the panel, if not what I wanted to do in life.
Some people say that you should have a very deep level of contextual knowledge. For example, they say that if you studied in a particular school, you should even know the life-history of the school’s founder! I don’t really believe them. I was never asked a deep question at any of my interviews. Some say that the interview could be a stress interview and that sometimes the interview panel asks the wackiest questions. They are right :) I had a stress interview in Indore where my every answer was met with a ‘Don’t guess. Tell us only if you really know the answer’ and when I insisted that I was not guessing, they would tell me that my answer was wrong and that I was unfit to be there :) In the Bangalore interview, I was asked – ‘If you were invisible and you could do only two things what would those things be?’
On 12th April, I found that I was selected for admission in all 6 IIMs. I chose to join IIM Ahmedabad. My dream had just come true.
My final piece of advice to future candidates is to enjoy the whole process. That way, even if you don’t make it (and unfortunately a lot of people don’t) at least you’ll still have had fun.
On Writing Styles and other things
When I started this blog, I was most impressed by blogs of mythalez and smr and I guess that’s why unconsciously, I aped their styles. Then gradually as I read more blogs and started getting impressed by them too… the style changed to something more ‘casual’ (no word really fits - I sort of wrote more from the point of view of creating an archive than for producing reading material for other people).
Slowly, came the realization that people did read my blog and some of the stuff I wrote did affect people - won’t mention instances here, a lot of them are still sensitive issues to the people concerned and most of the relevant posts have anyway been deleted / modified. I decided to adopt the thumb-rule that I wouldn’t write anything that I would be too embarassed to shout out to a friend on the opposite side of a room full of strangers. (I think I read this in some site, forgotten where) I’ve also never had the journalistic instinct of ’saying like it is’ and ‘reporting nothing but the truth and the entire truth’ that some bloggers have, so I’ve never minded not posting stuff that I normally would have posted.
Over some more time, probably because of solving all those CAT papers - my writing become more curt and memo-like… which was good for archiving purposes, but probably not too good for reading… Now, I feel that my ideal in terms of writing style would be something like Doug Coupland. I read his book - Microserfs and just loved his style. If I ever write a book, it would be something like that. Logical, precise and yet completely arbit at times.
My dorm has become a very scary place these days. Not because of the hazaar lizards, handful of kittens (actually they remind me of someone so I like them eventhough most people here hate them) and the assortment of insects - but simply because of the mugguness in the atmosphere. There’s a guy in my dorm whom I shall call G who I’m really worried about. He almost never laughs and only rarely can one make him smile. His voice has become so soft that it takes a lot of effort to make out what he’s saying. In contrast, my time with my study group is totally chilled. I really enjoy the time I spend with them, but off late even they’ve become a little edgy with all those project submissions we had recently.
Actually, because the seniors are not here (they’ve gone for their term break), the entire campus has a very ‘muggu’ atmosphere. There’s noone blaring rock music at 2 in the morning and there’s noone posting arbit stuff on the dorm nb (we have a software called dbabble that has electronic nbs. Each dorm has its own nb. Btw, nb = noticeboard). They’re coming back tommorrow. Hope the atmosphere goes back to normal soon.
The good people of Mumbai, I’m going to be there from 15th to 20th September. Lets try to meet up.
