I wanted to do a lot of things in this weekend such as finishing the assignments beforehand so that I am not pressed for time in the weekdays but as usual nothing happened ... Just slept and watched TV … Nothing else …

Campus has come to life again … with parties … with students running for assignments … with the preparations for yearbook … with Goa, Dandeli, Vizag tours … Just one month to go …

BTW, the admission results for Round II will be out Tomorrow … Heard that Round 2 was very competitive and the quality of applications was great …

And … I am planning to pass this blog on to a next batch student … If anyone is interested, just mail me …

The Economic Times Article 

I have included the article that came in ET. It is not well written but may be because they didn't get much information.

This week I am spending in dinners. Two days before, I went for dinner with my core group mates and today I am going with my project mates. Courses are also good and so life is very peaceful.

I have preponed the Deloitte joining date to 25th April. I have to start looking for some apartments.

Two days before, I went to Economic Times office with three other PLACOM members to have a chat with one reporter. We were instructed not to give any figures or any company names. The reporter was interested in knowing the companies visited and the type of salaries we are getting. It was very difficult to convince her without giving company names and figures. I think the official reports will be out only in April first week and till then no figures will be given to media.

While going to the office, we were discussing about the international placements. ISB is uniquely positioned due to its experienced students profile and we felt that this could be utilized in attracting companies with leadership programmes. For example, this time we had BP, Carrier etc. If we take BP, they need people with considerable experience and they recruit in Harvard, Wharton, LBS etc. They recruit only 10 students worldwide and they have recruited from ISB. This is the kind of roles that ISB should be gunning for, because ISB would be the only school in India that could provide these companies with the experienced students.

Exams are over. So I can relax for next three days. From Tomorrow there is a 'Macroeconomics and Policy Instruments’ session by Dr Rangarajan. This will be for three days and will be a half credit session. I haven't decided whether to attend it or not.

Yesterday I evaluated some more applications. Application evaluation by students was completed yesterday. I think interviews will take place till next Wednesday.

Six weeks to Go

As expected, ITES exam was fun. Except for the fact that the time was not sufficient, the questions were really enjoyable. At least in seventh term, I can afford to enjoy the questions despite the fact that I don’t know the answers J

And six weeks to go for graduation. Graduation is on April 2nd. We have Daniel Vasella, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Novartis AG as our chief guest. The preparations have started. The invitations are getting ready. We are expected to vacate our rooms by April 6th.

For alums who are asking for placement details: Please note that I cannot give any figures in public before ISB releases the figures to the media. I would be more than happy to share it with you in mail.

Exams on Monday

Exams start from Monday. I have only two exams and there is one day gap between the exams. In addition, one exam is on open book one and so I don’t think I will have difficulty preparing for the exams. I expect ITES exam to be fun as the model questions were interesting. It doesn’t mean that I am confident of good grades. I have somehow managed to become detached from grades.

Today, I thought of moving to Blogger comments from CommentThis.com as I could have the option of hiding unwanted comments. But later on decided not to do it. Please feel free to leave any comments, but please refrain from using offensive language.

I respect the apprehension that my blog could be considered an official one. I have added a disclaimer stating that this is not an official blog. I have also removed the logo.

I evaluated some more applications yesterday. I selected one for interview inspite of his low GMAT score as he was an avid quizzer and his essays were creative. Someone asked about the selection process and let me give a brief overview. We evaluate on three parameters – Analytics, Leadership and Personality.

Analytics comprises of academic performance in high school, college and GMAT. Low academics could be offset by good extra curricular activities in school/college or workplace. We also see the reputation of the undergrad college and how competitive is the company he got into after graduation. We will also look for analytical evidence from workplace.

Leadership doesn’t necessarily mean managerial experince or leadership in work. In fact, I gave good marks on leadership for one applicant just based on his experience as a head-boy in his school.

And Personality has weightage for experience, integrity, maturity and managerial ability.

A selected candidate should have a good mix of all these. Sometimes one might be a superstar in two of these three factors and might be poor in third but we could still call for interview and probe him on the third factor.

It hurts to see such comments in my blog. I don’t know whether anything is wrong in my part. Anyway, let’s move on. We should not allow these things to affect us.

Our exams start on Monday. I have only two exams this time. I have bid for five courses for the next term. I will drop one course after sampling. I will be majoring in Technology & Finance. Though finance specialization doesn’t seem to be relevant to my job, I have that just as an entry ticket to my prior company. iNautix requires specialization in Finance to get in as a Program Manager. Right now I am not thinking of going back to iNautix but in future I might.

Deloitte arranged for another party with senior leadership (That’s how they call them). The leadership was keen on knowing about what we think of Deloitte and on building good brand name for Deloitte at the ISB. One of them asked us whether we would redo this course if an opportunity was given. My answer was “No”.

Life has not become that hectic as it was before placements. Still I get time to read books. I guess that the next term will be turbo-hectic as all the subjects I have taken are intensive ones.

Two good books I read recently were Fountainhead and Alchemist. Both books are advocating the same concept – “Live for us, our dreams and not for others”. Professor Ravi Aron also raised the same topic in the last class and advised us that there are unlimited opportunities if we could deviate. I think he is not happy with the fact that many students are going behind brands and prestige rather than really figuring out what their dream job is. I am right now trying to find out what my dream is.

I think I should have been more careful in the usage of words ... My previous post sounds as if I am unhappy about the quality of current batch. All I meant was that the new batch should set new benchmarks which would surpass that of the current batch.

Infact, I am proud about the quality of the current batch. Especially, consulting placements have been a lot better this time and almost all the big consulting firms have hired more than what they initially expressed. I strongly believe that the placements in big firms are a matter of student quality rather than the school reputation. School just provides the opportunity and it is the students’ quality that converts this opportunity into offers.

Actually I don’t want to argue in favour of the ISB and I think doing so would be immature in my part. This blog is also not for that. All I can say that I have joined after tremendous research and am happy about my decision after my one year stay. I don’t expect anything more from any school.

Today I was going through MBA forums such as Cool avenues, Pagalguy, Testmagic etc. It reminded me of my position last year. I was almost living in these forums, checking frequently for updates and posting stupid messages (or atleast they look stupid to me looking them after one year). These forums always excite me. They have some kind of energy and vibration that makes U feel as if getting into MBA is like placing your foot on the moon. But I do feel that MBA is represented more of a Gimmick in these forums and I don't think many of them think of what to get from MBA. Even I was like that.

Most of them want to do MBA just to associate themselves with a premiere school brand. They think that MBA is going to change their life completely. MBA is not going to change anything. It is U who have to change while doing MBA.

I was reading one message and was disappointed to read about one ISB guy not having a good reputation among his team. Though this is not going to affect ISB in anyway, I can see that this guy has failed to change himself during the one year. MBA is something like an entrance ticket to a Gym. You have to work-out or it is you who is wasting the opportunity.

Well, Today I went to evaluate some admission applications. The applications are evaluated on three parameters - Analytics, Leadership and Personal. It was good to see quality applications and I feel that next batch will surpass the quality of current batch. In fact, IT SHOULD. Else, no way is ISB going to grow, especially with more competition like IIMA'S one year course.