A week gone in slot 3 and I am already feeling exhausted. Mugging for classes, preparing CVs and attending PPTs leaves very little time to relax and consider all that is happening around me.
I-banking as an industry is no more...don't know where in the scheme of things I will fit in. What I will do for the next yr and a half and where I will go after that.
While studying for the Microeconomics exam, which was 2 days after Lehman filed for Chapter 11, I had an epi-funny (was funny to me...atleast at that time).
"There is a market for lemons, but no market for Lehmans".
The competitive nature of everyone here came to the fore when the interest survey for AT Kearney was filled in literally a couple of minutes. With most of the major banks out, consults are and have been for the last year or so the hottest items. I registered my vote at 10.05 pm I think and I was too late to get into an audience of about 80 PGP-1s. Lesson learnt...these days my interest is registered within 5 seconds of the survey opening whether the survey is FCFS or not.
Placecom doing a great job...keep it up guys!
A senior gave really good advice,"It doesn't matter where and what you do in summers...what matters in the end is how well liked you are by people." Hopefully that is true.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Random thoughts...
6 weeks to go, then 6 days... Summer placements beckon!
slot 3 promises to be the roughest time in my stay at WIMWI...though I'd rather not hypothesize about the future. 8 subjects (no WAC either to bring the actual number down), PPTs, summer preps, CV preparation...life is hectic.
Thesis accepted pending typo corrections...should get my MSc degree after a thesis defence.
A lot of the things that are happening around me remind me of different things described in "Snapshots From Hell" and "Running of the Bulls".
Had an OM class by Prof. Saral Mukherjee (Saralda) and it was the turn of my study group to present a case. While I was not speaking, must say we had our 'case' taken...not unlike the description of the Marketing class Peter Robinson describes.
The I-Banking situation, on the other hand, reminds me of the title of the second chapter in "Running of the Bulls"..."Goldman or Bust".
slot 3 promises to be the roughest time in my stay at WIMWI...though I'd rather not hypothesize about the future. 8 subjects (no WAC either to bring the actual number down), PPTs, summer preps, CV preparation...life is hectic.
Thesis accepted pending typo corrections...should get my MSc degree after a thesis defence.
A lot of the things that are happening around me remind me of different things described in "Snapshots From Hell" and "Running of the Bulls".
Had an OM class by Prof. Saral Mukherjee (Saralda) and it was the turn of my study group to present a case. While I was not speaking, must say we had our 'case' taken...not unlike the description of the Marketing class Peter Robinson describes.
The I-Banking situation, on the other hand, reminds me of the title of the second chapter in "Running of the Bulls"..."Goldman or Bust".
Monday, September 22, 2008
A little break...
Slot 2 exams done. Were not the best set of exams I've ever written.
A 3-day break from WIMWI...a hurriedly arranged, tremendously anticipated visit to Bangalore.
Wanting to fill as much in every day as we could...to meet as many people as I could.
Thesis accepted pending small corrections for the award of the MSc degree.
Had really good coffee after almost 40 days, walked at Sankey, roamed Malleshwaram.
Then something unexpected, unwanted, horrific.
Somethings change your life, your outlook towards life.
Make what is REALLY IMPORTANT very clear. This was one of them.
A 3-day break from WIMWI...a hurriedly arranged, tremendously anticipated visit to Bangalore.
Wanting to fill as much in every day as we could...to meet as many people as I could.
Thesis accepted pending small corrections for the award of the MSc degree.
Had really good coffee after almost 40 days, walked at Sankey, roamed Malleshwaram.
Then something unexpected, unwanted, horrific.
Somethings change your life, your outlook towards life.
Make what is REALLY IMPORTANT very clear. This was one of them.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
slot 2
Slot 2 is about to end...2 more days of classes...6 more lectures.
then the end slot exams. never realized how this slot flew past me.
hope to do well in the exams and be more regular in writing this blog.
lots of things on my mind recently...career goals,
life goals, other things like how can you differentiate between so many talented ppl
and what happens to those who are unlucky enough to not make the cutoff ever,
even if they are as good as the ones who got selected.
and what happens to those who got selected and have to manage all kinds of extra currics with the
TREMENDOUS load that IIMA puts in terms of acads.
and why the case method???...maybe I will get my answers some day...'blowing in WIMWI's wind'
P.S: I went from Mumbai, where it rains cats, dogs and the rest of the zoo, to Bangalore where it rains ...let's say less (to prevent beating from some1 who always gets caught in the rains) to ahmedabad where it has rained exactly 7 min in the last 3 weeks if I remember correctly.
Where to next...Kalahari I guess.
then the end slot exams. never realized how this slot flew past me.
hope to do well in the exams and be more regular in writing this blog.
lots of things on my mind recently...career goals,
life goals, other things like how can you differentiate between so many talented ppl
and what happens to those who are unlucky enough to not make the cutoff ever,
even if they are as good as the ones who got selected.
and what happens to those who got selected and have to manage all kinds of extra currics with the
TREMENDOUS load that IIMA puts in terms of acads.
and why the case method???...maybe I will get my answers some day...'blowing in WIMWI's wind'
P.S: I went from Mumbai, where it rains cats, dogs and the rest of the zoo, to Bangalore where it rains ...let's say less (to prevent beating from some1 who always gets caught in the rains) to ahmedabad where it has rained exactly 7 min in the last 3 weeks if I remember correctly.
Where to next...Kalahari I guess.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
We're halfway through slot 2 and the dreaded 'short' quizzes are in 'short' supply.
Guess there is going to be a lot of them in the business end of the slot.
Olympics are over and India won a gold medal!!
FRA is becoming more interesting and less mechanical...trying to figure out ppl doing FRA-ud is better than trying to figure out where the sheet is unbalanced.
Marketing is something I don't particularly understand but the need for non-linear thinking and Prof. Koshy's exhortation to "zameen pe aa jao" are interesting.
The insights from the class are great...you literally have to get into the customer's head and think like him...something I'm not at all good at.
A gem from his class:
" Whenever you are trying to take an important decision, look in the right place."
Going home this weekend and participating in Nihilanth.
Guess there is going to be a lot of them in the business end of the slot.
Olympics are over and India won a gold medal!!
FRA is becoming more interesting and less mechanical...trying to figure out ppl doing FRA-ud is better than trying to figure out where the sheet is unbalanced.
Marketing is something I don't particularly understand but the need for non-linear thinking and Prof. Koshy's exhortation to "zameen pe aa jao" are interesting.
The insights from the class are great...you literally have to get into the customer's head and think like him...something I'm not at all good at.
A gem from his class:
" Whenever you are trying to take an important decision, look in the right place."
Going home this weekend and participating in Nihilanth.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Branded for Life
A t-shirt commonly seen on campus reads:
" BRANDED FOR LIFE: IIM AHMEDABAD".
Having felt the lack of a strong brand behind me for a long time, I am now getting what is probably India's biggest brands behind my name.
The alum network is wonderful, the profs and facilities are great if not world class.
The placements are out of the world, the companies sell themselves to us.
The branding goes to the extent that we get an insti email ID for life...our own connection to this place forever.
We even get our own visiting cards that will have my name, contact details and say
' Student, PGP 2008-2010'.
As always with 'branding' its the initial act of branding that hurts, that burns the skin...it's called PGP-I at IIMA.
" BRANDED FOR LIFE: IIM AHMEDABAD".
Having felt the lack of a strong brand behind me for a long time, I am now getting what is probably India's biggest brands behind my name.
The alum network is wonderful, the profs and facilities are great if not world class.
The placements are out of the world, the companies sell themselves to us.
The branding goes to the extent that we get an insti email ID for life...our own connection to this place forever.
We even get our own visiting cards that will have my name, contact details and say
' Student, PGP 2008-2010'.
As always with 'branding' its the initial act of branding that hurts, that burns the skin...it's called PGP-I at IIMA.
Friday, August 1, 2008
EOS1 ( End of slot 1)
This blog was meant to be a 'diary' of sorts for my days in WIMWI...and the rate at which I write it will tell you what kind of work they expect out of us.
Today we had the last classes of the first slot. Midsems from Monday. This slot has screamed past me and I am living on the hope that I have caught something while it has gone.
Its been a complete change from the 'relaxed' lifestyle at IISc...infact the only time I have had good coffee is when I went home a couple of times ( yeah...I managed that!!).
The tuchchas (thats what the seniors are called) say this was the easy part and the pressure will really mount from the next slot. Everytime they talk I can hear them go Muggo Fachchon Muggo silently.
I am down to an average of 5 hrs of sleep a day. So much has changed since I left IISc abt 6 weeks ago...my lingo has gone from spikes and splines, DWT and CWT to WAC and ME, FRA and ID to DC++ and DBab.
By the end of this year I guess I will agree with Peter Robinson when he says "If someone told me I would have to repeat first year at B-school, I'd do just one thing. Get on my knees and beg for mercy!"
I knew what I was getting myself into and I intend to make full use of the opportunities WIMWI presents. I will never complain about the workload no matter how inhuman it gets...and I will try to update this blog as frequently as I can.
Signing off!!
Today we had the last classes of the first slot. Midsems from Monday. This slot has screamed past me and I am living on the hope that I have caught something while it has gone.
Its been a complete change from the 'relaxed' lifestyle at IISc...infact the only time I have had good coffee is when I went home a couple of times ( yeah...I managed that!!).
The tuchchas (thats what the seniors are called) say this was the easy part and the pressure will really mount from the next slot. Everytime they talk I can hear them go Muggo Fachchon Muggo silently.
I am down to an average of 5 hrs of sleep a day. So much has changed since I left IISc abt 6 weeks ago...my lingo has gone from spikes and splines, DWT and CWT to WAC and ME, FRA and ID to DC++ and DBab.
By the end of this year I guess I will agree with Peter Robinson when he says "If someone told me I would have to repeat first year at B-school, I'd do just one thing. Get on my knees and beg for mercy!"
I knew what I was getting myself into and I intend to make full use of the opportunities WIMWI presents. I will never complain about the workload no matter how inhuman it gets...and I will try to update this blog as frequently as I can.
Signing off!!
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