Ooish, finally I have compensated for my lack of sleep!! Term breaks are here again and yesterday I managed a record 17 hours of sleep in the 24 hours :-).. What a far-cry from the sleep-deprived days of the terms.. Though to be honest, most days @ ISB I have managed 5-7 hours of sleep (including some time in class :))
So I have managed thru Terms 1 and 2 (term 2 is not yet official, but @ISB one can never fail, unless you are caught in the dreaded Honour Code) and must say time management is the key here.. The assignments are endless and so are the meetings.. Its most important to refrain from being the do-all HERO and split work in teams!! There is just no substitute for good ol' fashioned delegation :)
Term 1 was a little boring with subjects like Stats (I hate it), Financial Accounting (Maan that was so clerical) and MicroEconomics(the subject sucked but Bruce Allen was amazing).. Term 2 was more fun but the load was relentless, the time-consuming MarkStrat, the never-ending and painful DMOP and finally the sheer number of pre-reads!! At these times I admit I did wonder, why oh why did I leave my job, life in Boston, fiancee in US and head back to get my butt kicked :P
Term 3 is the supposedly deadliest of all the terms, but then it gets better!! And the best part is the club activities will really kick in soon!! After that all the extra-curr stuff starts..
So all in all - when anyone asks me to define ISB - the word is "AWESOME".. And no this is not typical MBA faf or jargon or BS, but really this setup is simply awesome!! And I can compare it very positively with Duke!!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Cultural differences
This blog references a topic opened by a fellw-MBA student from my alma-mater Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Her name is Gretchen and her blog can be found on http://fuqua-abroad2009-india.blogspot.com/. This post is my perspective on her posts related to Teamwork and random-ramblings.
First of all, thank Gretchen, this is a great topic you opened up. Also weaknesses are weaknesses and this post done try to condone any weaknesses in ISB or the Indian setup.
But honestly, I feel a little let down that an MBA from Duke cannot realize that different parts of the world have different traits and the idea is not to hide / criticize them but to master these differences. For E.g. as a generalization, Indias are not punctual and are last-sec heroes, Brits are snobbish and not open to change, Germans take life too seriously, Italians & French too easily while imagine the environmental disaster if the entire world were filled with the mighty Americans in their gaz-guzzling SUVs... Guess you get the point.. We all differ..
She mentions about team-members not pulling their weight, but that happened to me in Duke too. Its not Indian / American per se, but simply a function of time crunched schedules of MBA students. And more so at ISB where students pack in 33- 36 courses in 11.5 months. Thats a lot of studies and very little time. Off course there will be those who think they have done a great job by being at ISB / Fuqua / any top MBA school and will simply refuse to work too hard, but again this is a reflection of realities of the business world. Again as a budding manager, we must learn how to deal with it. Why do many MBAs simply expect things to happen? Isnt an MBA just a toolkit, it is not a magic password to every door in the world but simply something that enables us to work hard and open the door. So why does she expect a perfect world? Maybe because US B-schools for all their undoubted intellectual horsepower and brand values, give a very well-defined and definite simulation of the real world, and maybe the exceptional processes simply make their students less adept at handling change. Maybe I am wrong, but this appears perfectly logical to me..
She also talks about those irritating differences such as delaying assignments, not having set team assignment meetings or talking on the cellphone. Again not trying to gloss over the so-called Indian traits, but these are the norm for every culture. When I first went to Duke, I hated how students would arrive late in class, leave early, basically would not give a damn about sensitivities of other students.. Now I realize that these are simply American traits, their emphasis on freedom.. Gretchen face it, cultures vary, so one has to be more tolerant of differences.. And as a potential future CEO, you or me, need to learn ways of adapting ourselves to these differences.
First of all, thank Gretchen, this is a great topic you opened up. Also weaknesses are weaknesses and this post done try to condone any weaknesses in ISB or the Indian setup.
But honestly, I feel a little let down that an MBA from Duke cannot realize that different parts of the world have different traits and the idea is not to hide / criticize them but to master these differences. For E.g. as a generalization, Indias are not punctual and are last-sec heroes, Brits are snobbish and not open to change, Germans take life too seriously, Italians & French too easily while imagine the environmental disaster if the entire world were filled with the mighty Americans in their gaz-guzzling SUVs... Guess you get the point.. We all differ..
She mentions about team-members not pulling their weight, but that happened to me in Duke too. Its not Indian / American per se, but simply a function of time crunched schedules of MBA students. And more so at ISB where students pack in 33- 36 courses in 11.5 months. Thats a lot of studies and very little time. Off course there will be those who think they have done a great job by being at ISB / Fuqua / any top MBA school and will simply refuse to work too hard, but again this is a reflection of realities of the business world. Again as a budding manager, we must learn how to deal with it. Why do many MBAs simply expect things to happen? Isnt an MBA just a toolkit, it is not a magic password to every door in the world but simply something that enables us to work hard and open the door. So why does she expect a perfect world? Maybe because US B-schools for all their undoubted intellectual horsepower and brand values, give a very well-defined and definite simulation of the real world, and maybe the exceptional processes simply make their students less adept at handling change. Maybe I am wrong, but this appears perfectly logical to me..
She also talks about those irritating differences such as delaying assignments, not having set team assignment meetings or talking on the cellphone. Again not trying to gloss over the so-called Indian traits, but these are the norm for every culture. When I first went to Duke, I hated how students would arrive late in class, leave early, basically would not give a damn about sensitivities of other students.. Now I realize that these are simply American traits, their emphasis on freedom.. Gretchen face it, cultures vary, so one has to be more tolerant of differences.. And as a potential future CEO, you or me, need to learn ways of adapting ourselves to these differences.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Alternative MBA jobs
So as the ISB Clsss of 2009, the fincancial markets went bust around them!! This was followed by a crash in auto and then retail!! Things just got worse and worse!!
So as a member of Class of 2010, I got into thinking about the Alternative MBA careers out there. Now couple of hitches, I have 2 years 8 mnth experience (in tech and consulting), with a Bachelor in Computers (Unique for an Indian, hah ;-)) and a prior Masters from Duke University. As i searched the net I found many options available to me post-ISB. Of course the straight forward private sector large firms like Mck, BCG, other consulting firms (I wish :)) to the banks (ICICI, DB etc.) and of course FMCG and Real estate firms. But what beyond them?
Well there are a whole load of start-ups doing some incredibly good work in India, the problem is how to find them. Finding startups is hard enough in the US, but in India its worse given the lower internet culture!! Dont believe this? just Google "FMCG India".. But this year startups came to the IIMs and ISBs of India and actually recruited there. Admittedly the salaries were low, supposedly an IIM MBA was offered position of CEO of a 100-crore ($20 m) firm!! Well appareantly he got a low salary but still CEO!! Wow impressive!!
Another wave that seems to be sweeping B-schools this year is micro-finance firms. A lot of them recruited from IIMs and personally, I am really interested in these firms. I feel the concep is such an amazing resource and may be the key to reducing poverty in India just as it has in Bangladesh.
Then there are the genuinely different careers - such as careers in Hospital and Healthcare management, Energy management and finally my pet, Non-profit management. I am really interested in these 3 and feel there is a great scope for personal growth not only career-wise but as personality-improvements.
Healthcare Management :- Despite India's phenomenal growth, India lags behind countries like Congo in Human development indices, indices that measure the availablity of healthcare to a countries citizens and its quality. India has a very high infant and maternal mortality, plus a large number of children never reach adoloscence. Its really amazing that we have huge corporations in metros and a few miles away, mothers dont have hospitals to deliver in!! However things are changing, the private sector is getting more involved and there is a huge growth-opportunity in this field in India.
Energy Management :_ My dad's fav topic. He is energy-mad, switch bulbs of, do not accelerate too much, reduce throttle inputs, he simply loves to conserve energy. I am fascinated by this field but cannot see how I would be able to land a job given my tech background.
Non-profit management:- I would love to work in any non-proft. Period. Any non-profit employee / volunteer / donor that sees this blog, please please please, mail me with information about your organization.. I am interested in fund-raising / Logistics and strategy jobs, but lets see if my dreams are fulfilled on this front!
Of course all this is a real task for me to land as I have no experience with alternate stuff. But fingers crossed and bless my interview skills, I will get my foot into the door. Lets see.. In the meantime, if anyone has any thoughts drop a comment..
So as a member of Class of 2010, I got into thinking about the Alternative MBA careers out there. Now couple of hitches, I have 2 years 8 mnth experience (in tech and consulting), with a Bachelor in Computers (Unique for an Indian, hah ;-)) and a prior Masters from Duke University. As i searched the net I found many options available to me post-ISB. Of course the straight forward private sector large firms like Mck, BCG, other consulting firms (I wish :)) to the banks (ICICI, DB etc.) and of course FMCG and Real estate firms. But what beyond them?
Well there are a whole load of start-ups doing some incredibly good work in India, the problem is how to find them. Finding startups is hard enough in the US, but in India its worse given the lower internet culture!! Dont believe this? just Google "FMCG India".. But this year startups came to the IIMs and ISBs of India and actually recruited there. Admittedly the salaries were low, supposedly an IIM MBA was offered position of CEO of a 100-crore ($20 m) firm!! Well appareantly he got a low salary but still CEO!! Wow impressive!!
Another wave that seems to be sweeping B-schools this year is micro-finance firms. A lot of them recruited from IIMs and personally, I am really interested in these firms. I feel the concep is such an amazing resource and may be the key to reducing poverty in India just as it has in Bangladesh.
Then there are the genuinely different careers - such as careers in Hospital and Healthcare management, Energy management and finally my pet, Non-profit management. I am really interested in these 3 and feel there is a great scope for personal growth not only career-wise but as personality-improvements.
Healthcare Management :- Despite India's phenomenal growth, India lags behind countries like Congo in Human development indices, indices that measure the availablity of healthcare to a countries citizens and its quality. India has a very high infant and maternal mortality, plus a large number of children never reach adoloscence. Its really amazing that we have huge corporations in metros and a few miles away, mothers dont have hospitals to deliver in!! However things are changing, the private sector is getting more involved and there is a huge growth-opportunity in this field in India.
Energy Management :_ My dad's fav topic. He is energy-mad, switch bulbs of, do not accelerate too much, reduce throttle inputs, he simply loves to conserve energy. I am fascinated by this field but cannot see how I would be able to land a job given my tech background.
Non-profit management:- I would love to work in any non-proft. Period. Any non-profit employee / volunteer / donor that sees this blog, please please please, mail me with information about your organization.. I am interested in fund-raising / Logistics and strategy jobs, but lets see if my dreams are fulfilled on this front!
Of course all this is a real task for me to land as I have no experience with alternate stuff. But fingers crossed and bless my interview skills, I will get my foot into the door. Lets see.. In the meantime, if anyone has any thoughts drop a comment..
Sunday, March 15, 2009
ISB
Back from a long hiatus!!! Was really caught up on some stuff at work and my MBA application. I loved my job at Deloitte, met some incredible people, learnt some neat skills. However, with the lottery called the H1, a bad bad economy and a realization that I loved marketing much more than Technology drove me to get my MBA.. Having done that, I decided US was out. I was unhappy with the H1 situation that was the sole cause of many companies rejecting me. Europe is in the midst of a severe recession and is super-expensive (way beyond my means), so I decided it would be back to India for me. Indian School of Business stood out with its partnership with Wharton / Kellog, excellent faculty and a great peer group.
Having graduated a few months earlier with my MS, I gave a trial application to ISB, and got an interview call. This was a totally refreshing interview, where the interviewers seemed genuineky interested in discovering my story.. I felt, I gave a very good interview and got the admit!!
So now, the next chapter in my life is ISB.. I hope to make some smashing friends, colleagues and mentors.
Having graduated a few months earlier with my MS, I gave a trial application to ISB, and got an interview call. This was a totally refreshing interview, where the interviewers seemed genuineky interested in discovering my story.. I felt, I gave a very good interview and got the admit!!
So now, the next chapter in my life is ISB.. I hope to make some smashing friends, colleagues and mentors.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
AWA GMAT update
I got my Official GMAT score report today and have scored a 5.5 in AWA... It is lower than the 6 I had for GRE AWA, so m not thrilled... Having said that, it makes little difference to the adcom....
Varun
Varun
Friday, July 18, 2008
Blogging
I have really taken to this idea of blogging during my GMAT preps.. .will do more of this stuff... Look here for updates
GMAT-760
After years of dithering, I finally took the GMAT and scored a 760 (50,41).. It is a really really great feeling though admittedly I had not really expected it..
I graduated out of Duke and had nothing to do for 3 months till my job starts, and I tried to convince my thoroughly tired mind that taking the GMAT is a good option... After weeks of yes and no, I finally decided to take the plunge but did it so late that it left me with 3 weeks to prep...
Having said that, I had an advantage of having taken CAT (India's version of GMAT) which has far tougher Maths... Anyways, the day I started,I gave the Kaplan Diag. and did OK, with 640.. But that was a good ego-deflator and brought me back to ground (Ego was boosted with CAT studies and DUke degree javascript:emoticon('
') )..
One thing I feel is that people look at tests as a tool to prove their abilities.. I always took them as a chance to find out mistakes / weaknesses.. In fact for every 2.5 hours that I took the test, I spent over 5 hours analyzing things such as my accuracy across the sections, timing both for those that I got right and those that I got wrong (I feel that if you take a lot of time on a question, it means you are struggling on the qstn and its best to make an educated guess.. But in the real GMAT, I failed to do so and ended up spending a criminal 5 mins on a question), noting down and identifying the root cause of a mistake and finding more qstns similar to one I got wrong..
The next day, I started with Kaplan PS and immediatly hit close to 90% accuracy... The reason was my CAT preps... In a day, I had switched to DS and this is where I faced my first challenge.. I lost count of how many times I made the mistake of letting the first statement affect the second... it boils down to mental discipline and concentration, I guess... But anyways, I noted it down into my common mistakes list (more on that later)... I realised my weakness in DS was also basic numeric properties, so I studied that extensively using Kaplan and the good old web..
Now onto Verbal... RC was mastered fairly easily (except for Detail questions) and I was topping 90% throughout... Reason was the CAT has huge RCs double the size of those (LESSONS OF SC) in GMAT.. So I could handle the concentration and the paraphrasing needs well... I feel paraphrasing is a must in RCs and has to be done for good accuracy... I used shorthand, with symbols to reduce the time needed to paraphrase, and thats another thing thats essential for RCs...
CR came next... In the Diag I had 100% acc in the CRs, so i was really cocky about it and again came crashing down to earth with Kaplan with a 65% accrcy (Thank god for them)... The next 2-3 days,were spent on CR, where I purchased the LSAT LR bible and studied it thoroughly and also managed to get a old-second hand MGMAT CR... The key is to read the argument and note the premise and conclsn...This approach takes time, no doubt, but pls pls pls do it... The benefits are huge... Memorize the conclsn and premise indicators and make a habit of identifying the 2... I even tested this by just highlighting the Concl and premise for the first 50 OG CR questions... My accuracy was 85%... More practice.. 92%.. Yipee!!! I then solved the previous Kaplan questions and got accuracy of 90%... So pls pls pls do note down Prem and Concl...
SC was the area that gave me the most trouble, SC is very boring (IMHO) and needs a lot of memorization... Right till the end, SC bothered me the most... I made tonnes of flashcards to note down the rules (These flshcards are on paper and I will type out into yet-another SC notes guide)... The only way out for SC is practice, and so I did but no progress.. 16 days to go and 70% SC is not good enough... PANIC!!! Read a post BeattheGMAT forum saying prep from MGMAT SC.. I did and boy that book is great!!! STUPENDOUS effort from MGMAT.. Gives you about 80% of the various rules but far more than that, gives you a great sense of confidence... After every chapter makes you solve OG questions which helps in the process of identifying SC patterns.. It's all about patterns in SC and MGMAT teaches you them one by one, so I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book...
Done with SC, I did a quick revision of all the sections in 2 days... with 2 weeks, I gave my first Kaplan... I breezed through Quant and then hit a Verbal deluge.. Ended up with 620 (not bad) but had poor Verbal.. Slogged out with verbal the next day and then gave Kaplan 2 with 650.. Yippee!!! Analyzed it thoroughly and worked on my weaknesses (Read SC ) ... Next day Kaplan 3, again 650..
Moved onto Princeton.. 740.. And so it continued with almost one test a day until the second-last day... My scores are below..
Kaplan CD1 620
Kaplan CD2 650
Kaplan CD3 650
Kaplan CD4 660
Princton 1 740
GMAT Prep1 730
GMAT Prep1 Retake 760
GMAT Prep2 760
MGMAT CD1 680
CD2 640..
SO RECAPPING the POST
STUDY MATERIALS
i. OG (THis is bible....)
ii. OG VR (Good questions)
iii. Kaplan Premier 2007 (Book is OK, tests are great)
iv. MGMAT SC (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
v. LSAT LR BIBLE (Good book)
vi. MGMAT CR (Not needed can avoid)
Tests
i. Kaplan (Pls do these tests, they deflate your score down, but the difficulty improves your conc and stamina unlike any other test..)
ii. Princeton (Not too impressed.. seemed too simple specially Maths)
iii. MGMAT (Hated the tests.. Math is too combinatrics-intensive and Verbal is too too difficult..)
iv. GMAT Prep... (I got 760 in 3 of the 4 tests I took (including retakes),which was my score in Real GMAT)
All in all, Study hard, Take the tests as a chance to learn (not as a chance to boost ego), practice hard and smartly.. There will be times when u are desperate and depressed, wait them out, keep on working, there will be the light at the end of the tunnel... Also remeber not to sacrifice games, exercises, socializing (they help in keeping morale and concentration up)... One last point is, create a study pattern that suits you, do not use the pattern which I or anyone else followed, create your one study pattern...
Hope you stayed with me till the end and do let me know if this post benefits you... I will upload my flashcards on here and on BeattheGMATthis forum..
I graduated out of Duke and had nothing to do for 3 months till my job starts, and I tried to convince my thoroughly tired mind that taking the GMAT is a good option... After weeks of yes and no, I finally decided to take the plunge but did it so late that it left me with 3 weeks to prep...
Having said that, I had an advantage of having taken CAT (India's version of GMAT) which has far tougher Maths... Anyways, the day I started,I gave the Kaplan Diag. and did OK, with 640.. But that was a good ego-deflator and brought me back to ground (Ego was boosted with CAT studies and DUke degree javascript:emoticon('
') ).. One thing I feel is that people look at tests as a tool to prove their abilities.. I always took them as a chance to find out mistakes / weaknesses.. In fact for every 2.5 hours that I took the test, I spent over 5 hours analyzing things such as my accuracy across the sections, timing both for those that I got right and those that I got wrong (I feel that if you take a lot of time on a question, it means you are struggling on the qstn and its best to make an educated guess.. But in the real GMAT, I failed to do so and ended up spending a criminal 5 mins on a question), noting down and identifying the root cause of a mistake and finding more qstns similar to one I got wrong..
The next day, I started with Kaplan PS and immediatly hit close to 90% accuracy... The reason was my CAT preps... In a day, I had switched to DS and this is where I faced my first challenge.. I lost count of how many times I made the mistake of letting the first statement affect the second... it boils down to mental discipline and concentration, I guess... But anyways, I noted it down into my common mistakes list (more on that later)... I realised my weakness in DS was also basic numeric properties, so I studied that extensively using Kaplan and the good old web..
Now onto Verbal... RC was mastered fairly easily (except for Detail questions) and I was topping 90% throughout... Reason was the CAT has huge RCs double the size of those (LESSONS OF SC
) in GMAT.. So I could handle the concentration and the paraphrasing needs well... I feel paraphrasing is a must in RCs and has to be done for good accuracy... I used shorthand, with symbols to reduce the time needed to paraphrase, and thats another thing thats essential for RCs...CR came next... In the Diag I had 100% acc in the CRs, so i was really cocky about it and again came crashing down to earth with Kaplan with a 65% accrcy (Thank god for them)... The next 2-3 days,were spent on CR, where I purchased the LSAT LR bible and studied it thoroughly and also managed to get a old-second hand MGMAT CR... The key is to read the argument and note the premise and conclsn...This approach takes time, no doubt, but pls pls pls do it... The benefits are huge... Memorize the conclsn and premise indicators and make a habit of identifying the 2... I even tested this by just highlighting the Concl and premise for the first 50 OG CR questions... My accuracy was 85%... More practice.. 92%.. Yipee!!! I then solved the previous Kaplan questions and got accuracy of 90%... So pls pls pls do note down Prem and Concl...
SC was the area that gave me the most trouble, SC is very boring (IMHO) and needs a lot of memorization... Right till the end, SC bothered me the most... I made tonnes of flashcards to note down the rules (These flshcards are on paper and I will type out into yet-another SC notes guide)... The only way out for SC is practice, and so I did but no progress.. 16 days to go and 70% SC is not good enough... PANIC!!! Read a post BeattheGMAT forum saying prep from MGMAT SC.. I did and boy that book is great!!! STUPENDOUS effort from MGMAT.. Gives you about 80% of the various rules but far more than that, gives you a great sense of confidence... After every chapter makes you solve OG questions which helps in the process of identifying SC patterns.. It's all about patterns in SC and MGMAT teaches you them one by one, so I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book...
Done with SC, I did a quick revision of all the sections in 2 days... with 2 weeks, I gave my first Kaplan... I breezed through Quant and then hit a Verbal deluge.. Ended up with 620 (not bad) but had poor Verbal.. Slogged out with verbal the next day and then gave Kaplan 2 with 650.. Yippee!!! Analyzed it thoroughly and worked on my weaknesses (Read SC ) ... Next day Kaplan 3, again 650..
Moved onto Princeton.. 740.. And so it continued with almost one test a day until the second-last day... My scores are below..
Kaplan CD1 620
Kaplan CD2 650
Kaplan CD3 650
Kaplan CD4 660
Princton 1 740
GMAT Prep1 730
GMAT Prep1 Retake 760
GMAT Prep2 760
MGMAT CD1 680
CD2 640..
SO RECAPPING the POST
STUDY MATERIALS
i. OG (THis is bible....)
ii. OG VR (Good questions)
iii. Kaplan Premier 2007 (Book is OK, tests are great)
iv. MGMAT SC (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
v. LSAT LR BIBLE (Good book)
vi. MGMAT CR (Not needed can avoid)
Tests
i. Kaplan (Pls do these tests, they deflate your score down, but the difficulty improves your conc and stamina unlike any other test..)
ii. Princeton (Not too impressed.. seemed too simple specially Maths)
iii. MGMAT (Hated the tests.. Math is too combinatrics-intensive and Verbal is too too difficult..)
iv. GMAT Prep... (I got 760 in 3 of the 4 tests I took (including retakes),which was my score in Real GMAT)
All in all, Study hard, Take the tests as a chance to learn (not as a chance to boost ego), practice hard and smartly.. There will be times when u are desperate and depressed, wait them out, keep on working, there will be the light at the end of the tunnel... Also remeber not to sacrifice games, exercises, socializing (they help in keeping morale and concentration up)... One last point is, create a study pattern that suits you, do not use the pattern which I or anyone else followed, create your one study pattern...
Hope you stayed with me till the end and do let me know if this post benefits you... I will upload my flashcards on here and on BeattheGMATthis forum..
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