Moving to Wordpress

Finally, I decided to stop using Blogspot, partially because of Govt regulations and partially because of the title of this blog (my MBA is over now), and most importantly because of some of the features I like in wordpress, not provided by blogspot, and finally because, I am too lazy to maintain 2 blogs :)

So, No more posts here.... Thank you guys who visited this forum and left coments, thoughts, suggestions etc. You are welcome to visit my blog on http://alok.wordpress.com

All the earlier posts from blogspot has also been moved to the new blog. Will appreciate if you update your links accordingly.

Shift of balance of power

How quickly does time change balance of power and your bargaining power.!! A real experience for me - courtesy placement process at ISB. I got chucked out from few companies, in which I was seriously interest. ISB days were coming to an end, and I had no offer. Attending a party, seeing others having a nice time; and me in jobless state is no good fun. I didn't find a respite even in couple of pegs. Infact the worst thing to do is -- booze when you are not happy, it aggravates the problem..!! Never do that. Booze only when you are happy... it adds to your happiness..!!!

I attended quite a few interviews after that, and it was always that the recruiters had the upper hand. I approached my alumni, friends and all resources that I could muster to forward my resume to their respective companies. It went on well in few of them, and before the final offer from them, I got a good offer – thanks to our placement cell.

The balance of power is now in my favor. Now, I am wondering how and when to say NO to other firms where I had already been at the final stages. It’s even more difficult to say no – when you approached a firm through your acquaintances. Will it in anyway impact their relationship with their bosses.

Should I wait till the firms give the final offer, and I reject them saying the offer is not good, or should I tell them, I have an offer of which I am happy about, and would not like to take up the discussion further…???? Probably common sense and Negotiation profs will advise, to go with the first option; negotiate harder with the other firms, as your BATNA is very high, you may get an even better deal. Somehow I am not convinced with the idea that you should bargain heavily on salary in one firm, if you are happy with the alternative you already have.

When in doubt, follow your instincts – I am choosing the later option.

Disclaimer: Readers please don’t interpret my not getting an offer for long time, as a problem with ISB’s placement. Probably I was not competent for the companies in which I applied, or the other way round - the role and offer was not exciting enough for me.

Placement Season.....

These days we are having placement season. (Between winter and summer seasons, there is a placement season among B-Schools) Post Day1, after the M's and the B's having selected the 'super brahmins', it is the turn for some lesser mortals.
So what's a typical interview day like -
Wake up by 7 am, wear a suit, and be seen in breakfast room by 8am, as the interview will start from 8:30. However, some students had the courage to take interivews at 6am in the morning also. Post breakfast, come to SV1 in hot sun, sweating and report for interview 1 15 minutes before time. The co-ordinator there says "wait, you are in queue", you wait for 1-2 hours and then receive a call from the co-ordinator of some other firm... "Where the heck are you? Your interview is scheduled right now".. You are wondering which firm to give priority to... in a confused state, you flip a coin and go for one of the interviews. After hoping from one room to other, you get a chance to be interview in one of the firms, and here's the typical interview like:


Interviewer: So, how many interviews so far?
Me: (Thinking: Lost the count, but is forced to say): This is my first interview.
Interviewer: Why don't you tell us something about yourself?
Me: (Thinking: Didn't you read the resume, everything's written there, what a silly questions), but I blabber a well rehearsed 1 minute monologue.
Interviewer: Why MBA?
Me: "Ever since I was born, I was intrigued by the vagaries of business; the kick that i get by solving complex business problem is uncomparable. So after working for 5 years in IT, I felt its a great time to understand business from a 'HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE' and I think MBA has been of great help to me"..!!!!
(If its a non IT company)
Interviweer: Why do you think you are fit for this role?
Me: (Thinking: You tell me what fit you found in my resume to shortlist me for interview) but i am constrained to say: I have this capability, that capability, I love the challenge that this role offers me, and blah blah...!
Interviewer: You have so much experience in IT, then why (this) company, or industry?
Me: (Thinking: Had I loved IT, why the heck would i have done MBA), but the answer is: "You know, I love (this) industry, is passionate about type of work, the work culture, the 'learned' people you work with.....
Interviewer: (Gives some gyan) You know what .. 'at your age', You should not think about changing industry, you are already exposed to one domain, build a strong career in that, however if you are still keen on industry, contact our sister concern , and they will eagerly take you.

(Incidentally, the interview with the 'sister concern' was also the same :)

(If its an IT company)
Interviewer: Why (this) company, why not go back to Cognizant?
Me: I am indifferent between Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Satyam, TCS, and the likes... it will be very similar role, and similar compensation. All are same for me.
Interviewer: Thank You .. It was nice talking to you.
(So quick, concise and precise).

Go through this entire process 7-8 times in a day. And on way back to room, contemplate.. what did I do wrong? I got chucked out for telling the truth, I got chucked out for 'tailoring' my responses.

Stare at the laptop, and wait for interview schedules for the next day. Mail comes... holy shit.. its again the same, so many companies, so many shortlists, so its going to be the same day tomorrow....!!!! The greatest hope is..." Once all the toppers, stud guys, are through, then I stand a very good chance".
Go to sleep with these optimistic thoughts for the day ahead.

A punch line for resume....

Interested in Equity Research..? How about having the following as a punch line in your Resume/EOI.....

"My qualifications for the post of an Equity Research Analyst is unique because I do not analyze the economy, have little interest in corporate developments and fundamentals and do not use traditional, technical, quantitative or other market indicators. "

Sounds rediculous...?? Think over it again, may be this punch line can get you a job at 'Birinyi Associates'.

According to their website...
"Our approach is to understand the psychology and history of the market, and most importantly the actions of investors. Much of our effort involves money flows, or what has traditionally been called ticker tape analysis."

Wondering, what the heck is this 'ticker tape analysis' ? As far as I know some researchers/enthusiasts use this method of analyzing money flows to predict the direction of stocks. It's one indirect benefit of integrating research analysis with sales and trading..!!! But never thought that there are people who actually trust this method to put their money on it..

And by the way don't miss Birnyi's blog postings on 'TickerSense'...!! You may find some real interesting posts.

Learnings from ISB

Thinking of starting a sequel of my learnings from ISB. May be it will help some years down the line. Hopefully, I will not restrict myself to learnings in the classroom, but also outside. Also the episode would not be structured in any fashion, chronologically, or by subject - but purely random.

I am thinking of categorising these as and when I write, but the problem with blogspot is that it does not have this feature. So the absence of this feature forces me to switch to 'wordpress' for this.

So over to my other blog.

Resurrection of an Idle Mind

What does an idle mind at ISB do? Watch movies, play AoE (Age of Empires), NFS, Mortal Combat, booze, date, sweat on treadmills or basketball courts, is busy on phone, watch all sorts of interesting things that internet has to offer, read other's blogs, or worst still just browse net. I belong to the last category :)

Infact, this is what i was doing the whole night today. Started with exploring some stocks to invest in, scanned few pages from wikipedia and somehow landed upon 'Right Brain- Left Brain' dichotomy...!!! Now don't ask me how does stock valuation sites led me to psychology. But having landed there once, started exploring the pluses and minues of left brain and right brain manager. Out of curiousity took an online test and to my surprise, found myself to be 74% right brain and 26% left brain...!! Shocked beyond imagination. I knew myself to be skewed, but to this extent...... weird.... Crosschecked it on two other sites, one says "Out of 18 questions you answered 13 as right brained and 5 as left brained", other one says "You are more right brained than 91% of human beings"....!!!! What it essentially means is i don't think sequentially, do not care about details, rather give more emphasis on broader picture, jump from one thing to other in purely random fashion, or worst still never keep my belongings organised. Quite true.. but all these are too bad for a manager in a standard brick and mortar firm :(

Some psychological theory claims...
"The left brain works more with logic and analysis, the right works more with emotions and imagination.

As we apply brain dominance theory to the three essential roles of organizations, we see that the manager's role primarily would be left brain and the leader's role right brain. The producer's role would depend upon the nature of the work. If it's verbal, logical, analytical work, that would be essentially left brain; if it's more intuitive, emotional, or creative work, it would be right brain. People who are excellent managers but poor leaders may be extremely well organized and run a tight ship with superior systems and procedures and detailed job descriptions. But unless they are internally motivated, little gets done because there is no feeling, no heart; everything is too mechanical, too formal, too tight, too protective."

So i am going to be a poor manager, but probably a good leader... :) Only time will (dis)prove the theory.

Benefits of internet ...!!!

What can be the greatest benefit of internet to an unemployed? If you are wondering i am going to write about sites like 'naukri.com' or 'monster.com', then you are wrong. I am going to write about the actual exam papers that you can get from internet. May sound funny to some, to others it will come as a surprise, to rest a feeling of disgust on the recruiting policies of some of the best firms.

Was browsing through wikipedia for infosys foundation, when i came across a discussion forum for infosys. (click here to access the forum), and in one of the discussion threads came across placement papers. Click here to access the previous years placement papers from some of the leading Indian Companies...!!

Reminds me of the engineering college days, when 3rd year students would be waiting outside exam halls of 4th yearites to know what was asked in the placement papers, or use contacts in other colleges where the company had already visited. But now the students do not have to run pillar to post for papers. The collection is available to them at the site.

Not sure to what extent these questions are correct, but this puts a question mark on the recruitment policies of these firms. Are they really recruiting the best of the breed from engineering campuses or are they recruiting the person with the best networking or web-surfing skills..??

Sometimes the internet makes life really tough for students without much access to web resources. You have to write a term paper, an article, essays for admissions to MS or MBA, and now exam papers for companies, you just need to know how to browse the net. Imagine the plight of a student without internet access, the efforts that (s)he has to put in to write a paper comparable to those written by professionals. I pray that the evaluator would be able to distinguish an essay written from some internet resource and someone's own creativity.

My best wishes to the students without internet access.

Perspective - The latest fad in campus

Suddenly everyone is talking about 'perspective'...!!! But what the hell is this perspective all about? It all started with Pramat Sinha, Principal McKinsey and the first Dean of ISB giving a talk about interviewing skills. His message was that all of us need to have some 'perspective' on day to day news, and be able to give an informed critique on recent happenings like - 'soaring oil prices', 'Rashtriya Nirman Yojna', 'Bull Market' etc.

So why this sudden hoopla about 'perspective building'? We are having 'perspective building sessions', 'group discussions in campus, atrium and dining table'. If you see more than 2 students at any place together, chances are pretty high that they would be talking about 'perspectives'. To me its great to have 'perspectives', but not just for name sake. Comes placement season and suddenly everyone is reading newspaper, discussing editorials, attending 'KSS' (knowledge sharing sessions) from peers. It will be interesting to know how many of us continue post placement season.