Clash of IIM’s

Two of the IIM’s vying for me to such an extent that they have scheduled interviews on the same day, same location and all. Indore gets a headstart of 1 hour starting from 8:30 AM.

Couldn’t these institutes get together and come up with a solution that will prevent these things. With the IIM’s declaring that they will go online from next year, couldn’t they use some of the IT infrastructure that would be coming into place to manage a small thing as this. And I am not alone. Very many people have got clashing schedules this year. I might be the only one who won’t try for a change. I might just get lucky and manage to attend both at the cost of one this way. The administration process as a whole is ridiculous but they get away with it because there are about 300,000 people trying to get into those institutes, or at least filling the forms every year. Can’t they have a common interview panel and a defined set of criteria to choose students. But I guess they dont have to try because the numbers are in their favor. Also the way they pick students, they are already picking those that will succeed. I mean if they hold the admission and convocation together, it won’t make much difference to either the people going in or the companies recruiting they. They just intend to give them a free and cozy place to stay for a couple of years so that they can extract their pound of flesh later. Or maybe they do add some value and the day I realize that will be the day I start preparing for the interviews in earnest.

Just saw their schedules today. See for youself.

Indore Interview schedule

Calcutta Interview schedule

Annual Ritual

The annual ritual in question is CAT. I have been filling the form for the last four years. The sequence of events is mostly the same. Fill the form at the last moment. Somewhere between the exam and form filling, I find myself very serious but that last for only a bout a week and I fill no other forms. Then the exams come. After going through the exams I relax a bit. This is the best part of the ritual. I love these exams. The whole exam process, coaching coming out with different solutions and the stuff. One things to note is I am always relaxed during this part of the process. Now comes the scary parts. Yeah, you guessed it right. The results. I panic after the results. No not  because I have done bad, but because I have done rather well and have ended up with the dreaded calls. Now the same agonizing cycle. Reaching the interviews highly unprepared and flunking up all chances. Bunking interviews has also happened.

Now the thing wrong with this is that the circle should start earlier. I am not starving so I have  the luxury of thinking whether I want to do the MBA or not. If yes, from what all places. If having fun for 2 more years is the idea, why not in Europe or somewhere good. What good is doing MBA from India. Not that I might not have fun in Indian colleges but do I really want to do an MBA that badly. What I mean by the circle starting earlier  (if only a circle could start earlier), is that I should evaluate completely whether I want to do an MBA at all or it is just some seasonal hormones which push me to fill the forms and waste 1200 bucks at least and plenty of other things. Like this year, I missed the trip to Goa for which we were preparing so much.

Why MBA?

The MBA quest of mine has been in existence since 2006, the year I graduated and also appeared for CAT for the first time. I had one call them from IIM K because of a disastrous performance in Quant where I scored 82%ile while the overall score was 99.45%ile. From then on till date, I have got 13 IIM GD/PI calls including 5 for the current year. The distribution has been :

• 2006      99.45     K
• 2007      99.60     ACKLI
• 2008      99.20     KC
• 2009      99.96     BCLKI

And still here I am. I am slowly coming to realize that instead of trying to run the ‘rat race’ of getting into am MBA course, maybe I should realize that its not for me and drop the plan. Yes this has been  prompted by my recent most GD/PI experience and may be this is my way of running away from this thing. But how many times I am supposed to take this. A GD in which I cannot speak and then an interview in which I always start from the handicap of doing bad in GD or having a bad and coming down CPI during graduation and my lack of confidence and a host of other reasons. Its all in the mind by the way. What I also see is I don’t have the drive or desperation I have seen in some other people preparing for this interview and this also puts me on the backfoot. Filling forms the night before the interviews is not going to take me too far. Maybe the time has come to bring an end to this annual ritual.

Life as such is not bad for me as yet. I have a job I hope I am doing good in and can continue to do good in. I haven’t yet burned out from the technical work. I have a nice life out of office with some good flat mates and plenty of avenues to enjoy life as such. The one missing element well seems likely to remain missing for some more time to come.

IIM K : Form Answers

Describe briefly your current or most recent job responsibilities. State the knowledge and skills you have acquired from this experience.

I have worked as a web application developer for the last 2.5 years. Currently I am in the MnO team at Atos Origin. This position has enabled me to learn to respond fast, interact with clients and work on the whole product because we keep getting enhancements from all parts of the project and we are expected to deliver them quickly. I was able to get a complete understanding of the project very soon and that has enabled me to be productive as well has elevated me to a team lead role where in I guide other members of my team.

Why do you wish to go for a management career?

I was part of a startup and we failed to keep it going. That was where I started thinking about doing an MBA seriously. That experience showed me that you need a complete understanding of business side of things as well as a good grasp on technological aspects. So to build on to technical skills I have acquired during 2.5 years of my work in technical domain, I now want to do an MBA to get an understanding of the business aspects of the thing so that I can take up more responsible roles in any organization.

What alternative careers are you considering and why?

As I see MBA as a natural progression in my quest to get a better role in IT field, the alternative I have thought is continuing to work in my current role and in the meanwhile expanding my knowledge of technology as well as project management so that I could progress on to roles of more responsibility and importance. I would try to get in a development project as a team leader so that I could build my people skills as well.

Describe your strengths and weaknesses as identified by you.

I am able to delegate work efficiently and stay calm under pressure. This enables me to get more work done.

I am an introvert by nature and this has hindered me at times.

What is your most significant accomplishment so far?

I consider clearing IIT-JEE with a rank of 2354 and getting into IIT Kanpur my most significant achievement so far.
I have written this here in hopes that someone will provide comments to make them better or it will be useful for me for filling out the next set of forms.  I will also try to post answers to other questions and some follow up questions on this.