Sunny Valley - Here I come

Most of the B-school student head to different forums during the fall break, depending on their respective field of interest... for example, Fin guys headed to NY, Healthcare to Boston, Public Adm to Washington etc etc... so where did the consulting people went... mostly no where... but then I headed to West Coast Forum along with High Tech Club to meet some of the technology firms.

Reached there on 24th night and stayed at one of my IIT friend(Gaurav Chopra)'s house along with my flatmate at AA (Amiya) and here is the summary there on -

• 25th - Met with representatives from Apple, Medicalert, Genentech, PRTM and Microsoft. In the evening, stayed for the alumani dinner and met with some very interesting people, including some of the alums from '79 and beyond... :) What was really interesting to see was their enthusiasm wrt the Umich teams and its program and how willing they were to help us....!!! anyways came back to Stanford at Gaurav's house and kept on talking with his brother Rishabh and few more friends (Rahul and Raghav)... While they were still wondering about the plans for the night I quickly slipped in to deep sleep.

• 26th - A lazy day, with most of the activities taking a back step when Amiya and I missed our bus to ebay and Intel trip. Came and worked on the ATK case. Went to a great Indian restaurant here (Shalimaar) and had loads of fun the whole evening.
• 27th - Roamed around Stanford and admired the beautiful campus most of the afternoon... the Palm Drive, the corners, church... its really very beautiful. Went to see San Francisco in the evening... with Wax Museum being my focus. Took the plane back to Ann Arbor in the evening.

Thus far, it was a great relief to away from the AA cold and B-School's shadows... :)

Diwali and Eid

It was just a day after exam and I started seeing all these messages on my Orkut full of Diwali Wishes... man at times you think why you get these and at times thanks everyone for remembering me... anyways through these crests and throughs I saw the Michigan game on Diwali... went to play some squash and Badminton in the evening and then headed for Lansing late night.

At Lansing, for the first time felt like coming home... performed the rituals and ate our dinner. More I thought of the Festival the more I missed the excitement... the joy... sweets... crackers... in fact of the only two festivals which remained enjoyable for me, holi being the other one, Diwali was really missed this time.

Hey Mom, stop all this, there will be better occassions trsut me :)

Egg-jams Over!!!

Finally the day came, with the marathon 6 hour startegy paper over, it was curtains to Fall A.

With the Halloween party just over with Manny and company, I was in my worst shape in the entire semester... guess what I was studying till the last hour for each exam and was never easy untill the Strategy paper got over. Here is the summary of the finals -

1. Statistics - Finally it all boiled down to the finals. With only 20% marks been decided till date (with 3 quizzes and class participation) a 80% weightage was enough to give anybody shivers. So I entered this exam hall with all hope pinned on my Excel File that I had prepapred for the exam. The exam was slightly lenghty and I sailed though most of it thanks to the excel sheet. (was able to revise it twice before fianlly resigning to fatigue... after the nightout). Overall a great paper I think.
2. Accounting - I had been on class average till now and was cursing myself for letting it slip when I could have done so much better with my accounting. Afterall, I had been seeing all these balance sheets all this while in my worklife. So it was another nightout for me (second in a row) and I went through each and every problem posted by our Proff. Even in the morning, I was calling up friends to check their answers and was distant enough with my confidance while going in to the exam-hall. Praying for a hard paper, so that I can differentiate a bit, I saw the questions and wow, besides the numbers here and there the statements were almost same as the pratice problems. So far so good.
3. Economics - Came back from Accounting exam and went to Mckinsey's presentation. Post that went to one of our classmate's house to study and it was almost 3 AM when I came back... if two nightouts were not enough I simply could not sleep the whole night and with exam in the afternoon it kept troubling me the whole time... slept at around 7 finally... and gave the exam at ease.
4. Strategy - This is how I prepared for the exam - went to Diamond's presentation in the evening, went to Nidhi's house again and kept on playing games there till 2 AM. Back at home and so sleep again... oooopppppsss.... it was scary man for I had this exam starting at 10 AM going on till 4 PM and I was sure I would fall asleep. Took the case at 10 and studied that till 12. Starting writing at 12 and for four continous hours kept on typing at same maverick speed. Over and OUT!!!

Thought of some fun post-exams and kept wandering till 9 in Ann Arbor and then slept like a log then on.

Winter is Here

It was a bright day on October the 5th and I was thinking of wearning my new t-shirt for the school and then suddenly... I get this weather warning on my desktop system about some snow showers and before I realise it was snowing next to my window... man it was kind of scary at first place seeing this sudden change... anyways since then the temperature has been hovering around single digit (+/- both) ... so is it the time for your big guns... ?

"NO" say a lot of experienced lot... it is just the begining; however, the winters are here to stay :)

So these days when I walk back from the school, I see these leaves all over the road, the wind makes the hush sound with black skyline creating a Ramsay movie scenario... :)

Halloween Arrives Early!

It was the weekend before my final exams and guess what... Manmeet Singh Vedi, my dear IIT days friends living in Detroit was looking for some fun. So he made plans to come over to Ann Arbor. With utmost politeness I told him to come on Saturday so that I can study on Friday, we can have some fun on Saturday evening and he can then leave on Sunday, giving me another day to study and this is what followed...

I got up with a phone call on Friday morning...

"Oye Pappe kitthe ho?" - Vedi
"Yaar main ghar pe hoon... kyon" - Me
"Abbey to darwaaza khol na yaar" - Vedi!!!

So the Halloween party started... along Vedi came my dear Srikanth and then we went to Moody, Aparna and Kundan's place along with Amiya. Had fun time going to their place with some real-time directions from my side and of course that poor Vedi not following them in real time. Went to have dinner at an Indian Restaurant and came back with full mood to get high. Had some blast!

Just when I got up on Saturday still recovering from the hang over, I was thinking today I must study... guess what goes a call to Lansing and we have Ashwin, his roommate Manju and a "few more guests from Lansing"!

Went for the lunch together, came back slept a while while trying my best to study in between... comes evening and their the party was flowing once again... had a lot of fun playing "Who's line is it anyways" I guess it was one of the most creative after-effect I had in years...

Sunday, got up at 11 and with everyone parting in batches... it was almost 3 till my house was again back to normal... No points for guess what I did next...

"Yes I slept"!!!

Wolverine Weekends

With the football team doing great all the saturdays (including the home game against MSU)here have been more of less wolverine weekends... here is the story so-far -


Sep. 2 Vanderbilt 27-7
Sep. 9 Central Michigan 41-17
Sep. 16 Notre Dame 47-21
Sep. 23 Wisconsin 27-13
Sep. 30 Minnesota 28-14
Oct. 7 Michigan State 31-13
Oct. 14 Penn State 17-10
Oct. 21 Iowa 20-6

Mentoring candidates

Another responsibilities that has come to me naturally (and a must if I need to suceed in my consulting career) is Mentoring. Starting with GMAT preparations to writing resumes and essays, I am doing it all. A ONE STOP SHOP!

And it is from almost everyone and anyone... people in EVS, old IIT friends, people I met on blogs, Orkut, people I met 10 years back... in the beginning it was going fine, untill now when I was managing this with my exams. Man, it was grilling... and I completely understand their problems and queries with deadlines on their heads, at the same time I am finding it more difficult with everyday to be on top of every essays and application :(

In the same light, it is interesting to know that Ross AdCom didn't think I was good enough to be an ambassador for them. Gosh!!! Why didnt they conduct a 360 feedback for this... anyways their loss is all I thought. BTW, having said that I think now I can help my own friends better way. All the best guys... and hope to see you here soon!!!

Resume Reviews

Another B-School concept unfolds for us... and this one is called "Resume Reviews"

Here is how it goes... one of the recruiter company on the campus will come over to "help" the students make their resumes more impressive. It is a 15min-typical exercise and here is how it goes - First five min about the firm and why they are doing the exercise (in case you missed on something already), next five minutes on how they would look at your resume... "okay if I had been a recruiter (as if they are not) I would go through your education first... ohh IIT, I have heard about that school... then to your additional side... blab blab..." and finally the last five minutes "do you have any question specific to your resume or about our company specifically" ... think about it, you are doing this whole exercise to get a good internship and if you put yourself (read your resume) above your interest in that company the whole exercise would be a waste. So you make a good question, say thanks and Voila! it all done!

Whats your story
Another interesting phrase that I came acorss this sem when a recruiter asked me "so what's your story?" ... "I am sorry, I didn't get you, I have no story here...!" ... "Oh what I meant was why do you want to do strategic consulting"... "Ah... so that's my story!!! hmmm...."

"Whats your story"

Class Buster!

It is happening finally!!!

After streching for sometime in the back-benchers' domain, off late I have been an active prticipant in most of my classes... (but for few 5 min power-naps that I keep taking during the class... :) )

However, off late some of the professors have started neglecting my raised hand in the classes when they ask anything… alas! They have to ask me finally for it is the only hand raised in the whole class of 70!!! Its like the good old school days, it is so fascinating when I see people around me congratulating my team members for being in MY TEAM!!! :)

Quizzed and Mid-Semmed

Well this is how it typically goes… the professors will give you material to read before the class (hardly anyone reads that but for some smart students like me!!!)

Then he will explain everything in the class as if he is teaching some dumb people in a mentally retarded ward… (it gets really boring at time and I have dozed off too a couple of times in the class)… and then he will give an assignment to complete on the same topic that he covered (which will be exact replica of the example he solved in the class just then… which you were supposed to do as a part of class preparations… )

Anyways things don’t end here, just before the quizzes they will post at least 2-3 papers from last years for you to go and practice and then they will give almost similar paper in the exam. No wonder people score high here… For example, I am taking a stats course here and I remember taking one back in IIT as well… I haven’t gone beyond my first class at IIT which the proff here had taken 6 classes to cover… however the difference is I don’t remember even the first class of that course I took in IIT besides the fact that I read something of that sort… and I am equally sure that I wont forget anything they are teaching me now…

Another striking difference that I can think of is the use of electronic media in studies… the course material is online, assignments are online, you bring your laptops to the class and solve things in excel in seconds which a normal scientific calculator also would take minutes to solve. It amazing to see the application side of things and the relevance of that to life than to just mug up the formula and solve the problem.

Case Solved

So here is how it goes… I took part in this case competition sponsored by Medtronics. As I had never done any case competition before I was really nervous, but then I think our team did a good job finally. We reached to the final five and after Cory (my bacthmate here) presented our recommendations in front of faculty and some of the top executives from Medtronics, I was really sure of a position. Finally it was - Third Prize to A-Squared!

Sports in Ann Arbor and Ross

MBA Games
On the first Friday of our program we had MBA1 games. I took part in three games, lost Soccer in the first round... the other team had a Russian forward Yuri who supposedly had played in some Russian club team... the bugger almost broke my knee... anyways also took part in Ultimate Freesbie and came third in that... then came Volleyball and I really spiked a little there... got first position in Volleyball... overall our section stood third. The events started at 0900 in the morning and went till 1600. I am so tired right now that every bone in my body is yelling why did you run that much... but it was awesome fun

Football
On Friday (Sept 1) we had a great seminar for the international student... guess on what... understanding Football!! So, now I now all about touchdowns, QBs, Wolverines, Notredamm etc etc. Was sheer fun. BTW if you want to talk to anyone from Ann Arbor, make sure you have kicked that oval shaped ball once in your life. More on football in my next posting...

Schedule

Although it varies on everyday, normally the schedule looks more or less like this...

0630: Get up
0630 - 0700: Morning routine...
0700 - 0710: Start packing my bag for the class, looked at notes, quick e-mail check
0710 - 0725: Prepare quick breakfast and lunch (mostly Maggi for lunch and eggs, juice and bread for breakfast)
0725 - Rush for my BUS
0729 - Take bus for B-school
0750 - Reach class
0800 - 1020: First class (on two days I don’t have morning class, which means doing some self study)
1020 - 1240: Second class
1240 - 1410: Lunch break
1410 - 1630: Third Class
1630 - 1900: Activities in School (clubs, discussions, assignments, library, recruitment events etc.)
1923 - Bus for home
2000 - Reach Home
2000 - 2100 - Break, bath and rest
2100 - 2200 - Dinner
2200 - 2400 - Studies

Class Finally

Voila! First day of the class... and started with Statistics. Was supposed to be boring but Proff. LoveJoy is a joy to watch. Amazing fun class. Revised my probability fundas and decided it will be an EX for sure in this course. Stats was followed by Business Economics (micro-economics to be precise)... again great atmosphere. The other two courses I am taking this semester are Accounting and Strategy. Strategy Proff. Kale (IIMA alum) is taking the case study approach and is really great to learn from.

One thing that is strikingly different in here vis-à-vis the Indian education system that I am used to is the informal environment in the class. So, the four letter words are common... the Proffs will treat you like equal (though we are not for sure...) and the best thing is you are always encouraged to ask questions (by giving marks for class participation, as high as 30%)
Another thing that differentiate is the emphasis on “make sure they know before you test” rather than “test them before they know”. I know how little Proff. Back home used to tell us about a particular quiz and how they will make sure they test us on things which we didn’t know rather than helping us learn. Over here it’s an overdose always. You will get practice problems, problems to be done before class, after class, in the class, a practice quiz before the actual quiz etc etc. (although making sure you do it all makes sure you are studying always)… On top of that the marking is much lenient so no wonder everyone scores high… well that reminds me… here are some of the marks I have got in my subjects till now... Stats (24/24), Accounting (27/30), and Eco (62/65).

BTW before I forget to mention, all the instructors here think its only their subject that we are supposed to excel in to so loads of work :(

Ross Leadership Program - Phase III - Some solace

At the Penultimate day of the RLP, we went through modules on "World in 2020" and Diversity at work... one thing that I really liked about these modules is that every presenter I have seen here is a great orator... something that I want to develop on soon and the way even the boring topic such as Diversity is being taught and presented. We have had slides with most updated figures, movies, live skits with the characters explaining why they said that and why not... etc etc.

The second half of the day was spent in the team-building games and I had some good familiarity with my section mates at least now. Completed most of the games well and I was also chosen the leader for my group by the observers (which felt so good after my initial bad-mouth experiences)... in the end it was "Hale to the victors!"

Our last day of RLP was followed by some very emotional and shaking experiences of some great people. Eleanor M. Josaitis, the founder of "Focus Hope", was the key speaker for the day and she really touched me with her experiences with community services. In addition to that, she also reminded me that I would need to do something for my community as I grow in my life... so here is what I have decided... going forward for all the years I will working, I will donate 10% of my earnings to the community development.... anyways now that RLP is gone by, its time for Accounts, Statistics and Finances...

Ross Leadership Program - Phase II - Lesson on Citizenship

With RLP in the middle stages, we had seminars on Ethics and Citizenship. In the seminar on Citizenship the proff showed a movie on outsourcing, showing a simbly-southy character with a peculiar accent doing work for an MNC and as a result a smart red-neck loosing his job that he was doing for 16 years at GE. The smarty guy now is working on a gadget that helps him remove dog-shit from lawns of other fellow red-necks and he gets paid $10/dog/month... the last line read something like this...

"Are you ready to pick dog-shit, when the good jobs are going to India"

I was so furious seeing this that I could not resist the temptation to raise my voice there... and there I went...

"When Americans were selling Soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi in India, and I am not using the word pesticides here and someone raises a voice you call them anti-globalization... when Indians do your dirty Y2K jobs they are stealing your jobs... when Dell and IBM sell there PCs in India, Microsoft with there Windows bring money home, its globalization, but when we use tools provided by Americans and make programs that work, we are forcing them to pick dog-shit.... and why Dear professor you think it is only taking money... I have worked in a Patent Company in India and helped many innovators to focus on what they are best at... innovation... I have worked with Telecom firms with their Global marketing plans... bringing more dollars back home... I think its time US realizes that they are loosing on good engineers, mathematicians because only 4% of your student want to go for complex things like those... I think its time US realize the potential of economies like China and India as an equal partners rather than just mere markets for its outdated products"

Needless to say, there was silence in the section for quite some time and as the proff began to give explanation that he is also pro-globalization and it's just something that he wanted to share with the class on the upcoming challenges US economy faces... I added again...

"... and respected sir, just to add your economy is still good enough to pay to people that carry dog-shit... in my country people don't have pet for they cant feed them... and they carry cow-dung so that they can use that as a fuel in their kitchens... please!"

Post-class I think I had undone my non-networking skills to a good deal, with people coming from all spectrums, including Americans, to tell me those were really valid points etc etc.
So far for my citizenship lesson!

Ross Leadership Program - Phase I - Alien Land

Started my Ross Leadership program here and was quiet intimidated looking at the classmates here... boy did they think they are from a different planet or something... everyone had this air/flair around him... to top it all, we were sitting on these lunch tables in a big auditorium and I was seated with 7 other Americans.

To tell you the truth, in the beginning I could not even understand what the hell they were talking about... I mean Hockey was simply Ice-Hockey, Football and then the politics in Minnesota and where not... finally I had a lady on the table to my rescue who didn't like too much of anything I mentioned either and the men then went on to Beer!! Came Germany and came Almighty... I think having seen it all first hand helped me to teach them a lesson on Bavarian Beers and Dunkel Beck's!

However, taking nothing away from the program, I think it was a great exercise, the focus of the school is to get more and more leaders out rather than consultants, Marketing managers and financial analysts, which to me was a great exercise.

Oh BTW, did I mention that the program begins at 0800 hrs in the morning and that I am getting up at 0645 these days to catch my 0729 hrs bus... :) Another good thing of RLP is that you get breakfast between 0800-0830, followed by good continental lunch... so far so good... the only problem is that everything is so cold here... bread is still fine; however even the boiled eggs are ice-cold!

Anyways, Coming back to RLP, we had full-day session with Jim Loehr on "How to make a corporate athlete" ... they guy had worked with people like Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, helped Monika Seles with her game and attitude post her injuries etc etc. Not just there was a session on focus and intensity in whatever we do, we went through a session on Physical fitness at work, re-energizing oneself and on nutrition! Wonderful and very full-filling day... but for the cold breakfast and colder people :(

Crossing the Atlantic for the first time

Started from Delhi airport with slightly heave heart and wet eyes (wonder since when I have got this soft heart in me, anyways!). Reached Frankfurt airport to find things are not the same post world cup days in Germany. I think people had too much of beer during the games and were looking relatively fatter! ... or may be Berlin is a better place to stay healthy... anyways it was a short but nice stay there. Almost missed my flight when they changed the gates ... and to my surprise and shock kept another US airways flight at the same gate. Anyways I had to rush in the last minute to get on to the right flight. On board, finally found a TV screen (my dad's fav Lufthansa is not the same any more ... had no personal entertainment what so ever)
Anyways just woke up as we were nearing Philadelphia and saw the beautiful eastern coast line of the states... it was a mix feeling again as if there is a vast sea on one side and land of opportunities on the other and I was always hoping this plane does not plunge in the blue ocean below... (kind of an analogy I think)

At US immigration, no problems what so ever... however I had to take my checked-in baggage back to take it through another round of inspection... as I had only 2 hours I tried to rush through every gate as fast as possible... but alas missed the flight by mere 5 minutes... the next flight was 5 hours later and I had all the time with me to go to downtown Philly and come back :) Took the 8:30 PM flight to Detroit and reached around 11. Took a taxi to my friend's (Hitesh Handa) place, dived in to the chicken that he had prepared for me and plunged in to deep sleep as soon as I could.