The old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" has taken a brand new meaning for those in b-school especially the ones in India.
The fallout of the economic crisis, how it has affected the world and India is as interesting as macro-economics and finance theory can ever get. Figuring out how we got into the mess we are in and how can we get out of it and the efforts going on worldwide are lessons that teach better than any classroom lecture.
As I've written previously IIMA started a course on Business Ethics this year and what better way to put ethics in business into perspective than the Satyam fracas. Markets crashing, commodity prices jumping everywhere, people bungling...interesting times indeed.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Election fever
So Barack Obama has been elected and the LS elections are near...WIMWI is in the grip of its very own election fever. Elections for posts in the Students' Affairs Council are even nearer.
PGP-1s vote for their SAC this Monday. Campaigning was in full flow till 11:59:59 pm 14th Jan.
Now, no more 'pitching'...what was nice was that there never was any 'bitching'.
The cultural differences between the 3 institutions I have attended so far:
1) KJSCE: The Gen Secy and the rest of the SAC was selected by the faculty. You can imagine what might have followed, though I think our SAC did really well.
2) IISc: Will have its own elections soon. Regional biases, some campaigning bordering on intimidation and definitely tarring the other candidates.
3) IIMA: Clean, well-spelt out timings and guidelines for the campaigning. Ppl campaigning without bad-mouthing others, just the way 'ideal' elections ought to be carried out.
Recently, my sleep timings have receded into the early hours of the morning, though not as much as Tamba's (he sleeps at 6 am or later...making me wonder why he sleeps at all??).
Interesting effect WIMWI has.
Have a couple of ideas for blogs ...so stay tuned.
PGP-1s vote for their SAC this Monday. Campaigning was in full flow till 11:59:59 pm 14th Jan.
Now, no more 'pitching'...what was nice was that there never was any 'bitching'.
The cultural differences between the 3 institutions I have attended so far:
1) KJSCE: The Gen Secy and the rest of the SAC was selected by the faculty. You can imagine what might have followed, though I think our SAC did really well.
2) IISc: Will have its own elections soon. Regional biases, some campaigning bordering on intimidation and definitely tarring the other candidates.
3) IIMA: Clean, well-spelt out timings and guidelines for the campaigning. Ppl campaigning without bad-mouthing others, just the way 'ideal' elections ought to be carried out.
Recently, my sleep timings have receded into the early hours of the morning, though not as much as Tamba's (he sleeps at 6 am or later...making me wonder why he sleeps at all??).
Interesting effect WIMWI has.
Have a couple of ideas for blogs ...so stay tuned.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Fooled by Randomness
While there is a great deal of care taken in WIMWI regarding the grading procedure (understandable given the extent of importance acads and your CGPA carry) there still exists some amount of randomness in it.
Exams are graded in quite a random way sometimes, you write something thinking that is the answer only to be told something 'more' was expected. If you say that the question does not ask for that analysis, you are told that is the way the professor wants it.
Assignments are declared to be presentations and written reports are demanded with unbelievably tight deadlines. Component weightages are changed and flexed in a way that to the naked student eye seem arbitrary.
I take this in my stride saying this is another way of training us for the big, bad world out there which has no intention of being fair. WIMWI has found a way to fool us by randomness.
Exams are graded in quite a random way sometimes, you write something thinking that is the answer only to be told something 'more' was expected. If you say that the question does not ask for that analysis, you are told that is the way the professor wants it.
Assignments are declared to be presentations and written reports are demanded with unbelievably tight deadlines. Component weightages are changed and flexed in a way that to the naked student eye seem arbitrary.
I take this in my stride saying this is another way of training us for the big, bad world out there which has no intention of being fair. WIMWI has found a way to fool us by randomness.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The beginning of the end
Back from a hectic 7 day vacation, the grind begins from tomorrow.
9 subjects, WAC is back and its back with a vengeance.
Fin 2, Marketing 2, OM 2...they are all here and they are bigger and badder.
The last term for the seniors, Chaos, Sangharsh ( the IIMA-IIMB sports meet) ... lots happening around me.
Strangely, it feels nice to be around the campus and in my room.
As a senior said today, "This is the last lap." And I hope to make it count for all it can.
9 subjects, WAC is back and its back with a vengeance.
Fin 2, Marketing 2, OM 2...they are all here and they are bigger and badder.
The last term for the seniors, Chaos, Sangharsh ( the IIMA-IIMB sports meet) ... lots happening around me.
Strangely, it feels nice to be around the campus and in my room.
As a senior said today, "This is the last lap." And I hope to make it count for all it can.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Homeward bound...
Slot 4 ends tomorrow and I will see WIMWI only next year. Going home by the first available train. What a change there has been over this year, a year ago I was worried about where I would be in life and the Sensex was at 20K+.
I have had so many courses over the last 6 months I would be surprised if I can even name all of them. My head feels like a mass of confusion, a smorgasbord of millions of concepts, ideas, cases and formulae. We had so much in accounting yet I feel I haven't learned anything.
Looking forward to this break...it is a full 7 days long. Hopefully I will get some time to sit down and collect my thoughts, make sense of the mad happenings around me over the last 6 months or so.
4 slots, some 15-20 courses, the craziness of summer placements...need a breather.
Looking for a couple of days when I just sit and chill at home before life becomes a little more 'hectic'...maybe I will get bored in these 2 days. If IIMA has taught me anything it is to stretch every minute for what it CAN be worth.
Signing off from WIMWI for year 2008.
See you in 2009, Happy New Year!!
I have had so many courses over the last 6 months I would be surprised if I can even name all of them. My head feels like a mass of confusion, a smorgasbord of millions of concepts, ideas, cases and formulae. We had so much in accounting yet I feel I haven't learned anything.
Looking forward to this break...it is a full 7 days long. Hopefully I will get some time to sit down and collect my thoughts, make sense of the mad happenings around me over the last 6 months or so.
4 slots, some 15-20 courses, the craziness of summer placements...need a breather.
Looking for a couple of days when I just sit and chill at home before life becomes a little more 'hectic'...maybe I will get bored in these 2 days. If IIMA has taught me anything it is to stretch every minute for what it CAN be worth.
Signing off from WIMWI for year 2008.
See you in 2009, Happy New Year!!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Ethics for baby Wolverines
As in Snapshots from Hell (from where I've borrowed the title of this blog), IIM A has started a non-credit, pass-fail course on Ethics.
Now 'ethics' isn't something that can or SHOULD be taught, not in the least to B-school students.
The result has been very interesting...lectures on diverse topics by the same profs who teach other more b-school subjects, discussions on these topics with profs by those who find something interesting and an infinite scope for ACP (arbit CP in WIMWI lingo).
Shows how well-read and well-informed the profs are, how much thought they have given to not just their own subjects but the world at large. Puts into perspective the 'general awareness' efforts post CAT results. I am not sure I have the capacity to think about one subject so much and these people have informed views on almost anything under the sun.
I don't think having this course makes anyone more ethical, it just lets you know there is a whole world out there for you to think about.
I'll end with the quote from Snapshots from Hell:
"So, anyway, in this ethics unit I take a few philosophers and in- what is it?- eight classes, I go over three basic ways of making value judgments. That's it. After that you all go off to Wall Street. It's like giving an intellectual life to baby wolverines."
Now 'ethics' isn't something that can or SHOULD be taught, not in the least to B-school students.
The result has been very interesting...lectures on diverse topics by the same profs who teach other more b-school subjects, discussions on these topics with profs by those who find something interesting and an infinite scope for ACP (arbit CP in WIMWI lingo).
Shows how well-read and well-informed the profs are, how much thought they have given to not just their own subjects but the world at large. Puts into perspective the 'general awareness' efforts post CAT results. I am not sure I have the capacity to think about one subject so much and these people have informed views on almost anything under the sun.
I don't think having this course makes anyone more ethical, it just lets you know there is a whole world out there for you to think about.
I'll end with the quote from Snapshots from Hell:
"So, anyway, in this ethics unit I take a few philosophers and in- what is it?- eight classes, I go over three basic ways of making value judgments. That's it. After that you all go off to Wall Street. It's like giving an intellectual life to baby wolverines."
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Status Update
Lots has happened since the last time I posted.
Here are the 'happenings' in no particular order of importance:
1) I turned 25.
2) I got placed, after many rejections, at BRICS securities in Mumbai for their Quantitative Strategies group. I think I am going to love this internship.
3) Gave finishing touches to thesis and made a PPT. Then presented my work at IISc in my thesis defence. Will get the IISc degree. (Yippee!!)
4) Watched in horror and tremendous, blood boiling anger as Mumbai was attacked less than 24 hrs after I had left.(Deserves a longer post but I am in no mood to rant and rave about something for which words fail me).
5) Back at IIMA, this slot seems more relaxed than the previous one with the tension and work for placements gone.
6) Joined a gym to hopefully gain some weight
Here are the 'happenings' in no particular order of importance:
1) I turned 25.
2) I got placed, after many rejections, at BRICS securities in Mumbai for their Quantitative Strategies group. I think I am going to love this internship.
3) Gave finishing touches to thesis and made a PPT. Then presented my work at IISc in my thesis defence. Will get the IISc degree. (Yippee!!)
4) Watched in horror and tremendous, blood boiling anger as Mumbai was attacked less than 24 hrs after I had left.(Deserves a longer post but I am in no mood to rant and rave about something for which words fail me).
5) Back at IIMA, this slot seems more relaxed than the previous one with the tension and work for placements gone.
6) Joined a gym to hopefully gain some weight
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