A good day in the life on an MBA

Wow!!! You get really nice feeling while writing such stuff... pity you dont get many such days...

You get up at 9:38 AM in the morning... you think about how would you make it to the Organizational Behaviour class at 10:20 ... you see a spilled beer bottle in the side... you wonder when did you come here in the room at night, the flash backs runs for a minute... okay so the party went a little too long yesterday... you smile :)

You take a nice bath, come out... stand near the window, mesmerized by the sunny day outside... who cares for the MO class anymore... you see one of your batchmate going for his car, you shout out loud and run for your bag... pack your comp, papers and down in a flash... 10:15

10:21 you are in the class... you grab a bottle of orange juice on your way... there is no case for today and your classmates share with others the artifacts they relate to Ross School of business and what values they stand for... all sorts of things from scraves to umbrellas to footballs to name tags to Finance assignments ... its all there... it really funny!

You come out refreshed and go for this chinese restaurant nearby... Cashew Chicken, Egg Drop Soup and fried rice... awesome combo!

You enter the Finance class at 2:10 in perfect siesta mood... there is no class topic today and you will discuss the assignment problems only that you did the day before... you know it all... the proff starts explaining and you have a doubt... you ask...

"So Gautam how come the resume rrr... shhee... on mann... oh I meant resume... Sheize... no... opppsss... revenue in two years is remaining costant!!!"

Guess what... Gautam comes over to your seat and gives you a high five... :) (BTW Prof Gautam Kual is probably one of the best in the Fin dept and he prefers to be called Gautam so I am just following his guidelines here)

You cant stop laughing over the self created joke again and again... no wonder when you are spending too much time thinking about the consulting resume all the time.

Classes get over at 4:30 and its time for presentations... you go to this firms presentation and see that they have a nice booklet with all the information on the consultants present there... including emails... Nice... for this only means you dont have to smooze them hard to get their visiting cards... you quickly see if anyone had worked in Telecom (just one... nicer)... you go over to him, introduce yourself, show your interest, ask a few dumb questions and head back to B-School... a quick change and you are ready to get back home... its 7:50, exactly 3 minutes for the bus and you reach stop 2 minutes late... the bus was late too and you see it coming right there...! You are home at 8:15... there are noodles in the cupboard and you test your new microwave... there are only 3 mails in the inbox... all are spams...

You think you should do some reading now but its thursday so you have the whole weekend for that... you check fridge again... you have 3 ice bottles left from yesterday's party... you sip them with the dinner and hit the bed at 9:30... you sleep in less than microseconds.... AMEN!!!

A bad day in the life of an MBA

So this is how a really bad day would begin... you would have slept at 4:00 in the morning after working through two of the question of your Organisational Behaviour mid-term submission while working on the third question... you would get up at 6:00 in the morning after dreaming about this submission all along... trust me you do not have a Eureka moment in your dreams.

You would start working on the third question and wonder wonder... you would fall asleep on the table at 6:30... not for long though as your alram clock will wake you up finally at 7:05 after 5 snoozes (@ 5 min/snooze)

You would wonder why you have to go for this Marketing class so early, but then do you want to miss the 30% marks for class participation... naah... you would get ready and dash for the 7:29 bus... and just when you would be dashing you would realize you forgot your wallet... you missed the bus...

Good thing in life come at a distance... no wonder your B-school is so far off from your house... you walk through the empty cold streets running, jogging, sweating in -3 degrees... in class at 8:01AM!!!

The first break would happen after an hour and a half... half an hour later than usual (the presentations were very interesting and the class was really buzzing today... remember its a bad day) you make a dash for the coffee and ask for Mocha... and come back to the class.

Unfortunately the human body has some limits... you are no different... so you would start getting these power naps on and off... now it is perfectly normal to sleep in the class... but not when you are sitting on the middle seat of third row of this audi... the perfect place for the proff to make eye ball contact with you... and not when you snores like begal tiger!!!

So the proff catches you sleeping and calls your name... "So Manish, tell me what fo you think about this?"

"About what!!!" you murmer... "Well I think it is a great tool to help companies decide on their marketing strategy but I am still not able to get how will this help in retention or acquiring new customers" you say (Its a marketing class what else can you say ... ) However by this time half of the class is raising their hands and you know you are done...

"Reid??" Proff calls your next seat neighbour... who of course was not sleeping (damn I dont know why he didn't prepare for the MO assignment... what about team work?)... anyways now you think you should have missed the Marketing class... so far for the Class Participation....

10:20 class over and the world economy class is beginning in 1 min... you dash for the coffee again... this time its a normal expresso... no sugar!

Economy class begins and you are back to the normal roaring/snoring business... just when the proff again calls you... this time you see the clide properly and answer why India should not manufacture automobiles and how will this impact global economy... BINGO!!! No hands this time... good show.

12:40 Economy class is over and you have to submit the MO assignment in next 20 minute... you grab a chair past in the corridor... make last minute changes, make the font bigger, double line spacing and check if it is fitting in 5 pages now... well it does and you click the dreaded submit button finally... 12:59 ... there is still a minute before your Finance group meets to discuss the assignment (to be submitted tonight)

You go slowly over the coffee counter, order black coffee... no sugar :)

Finance group meeting goes on fine, you make good assumptions for solving the case, you go ahead with entering all numbers in the excel sheet, you color code all the calculations, numbers... you make sound assumptions, your group questions those, there is a healthy discussion taking place there... untill 3:00 PM when your group realize that its only one hour before they have to part... no one questions assumptions anymore, they all want answers now... you write down the answer, there is no thought on coloring, there is no time for all that now... you copy paste formulaes, do the tough maths through brute force in Excel and at 4:08 you are done!!

You come out, check your emails, see the schedule for today's presentations thankfully there is not much for tonight but for a single company presentation that you want to attend, you go to the locker room, you wear your wrinkled Blue Jacket on your striped brown shirt and black trousers... you decide not to wear tie on the striped shirt... in mens room you check again... the jacket is really wrinkled... decide not to wear that... you look again without jacket, you haven;t shaven in days now... you look at the watch again its 4:30 you missed the bus... you decide no more presentation, you call up your friends to check if they want to go for Badminton game...

Three hours of squashing helps you a bit... you take out your frustration by hitting the ball as hard as you can... oh yes you didnt play badminton because the court was not available (sorry I missed that earlier)

Come back home at 9:00 all tired and you are hungry... there is nothing in fridge... anyways Kroger is just 10 minutes walk (remember Only good thing in life come at a distance...) you buy groceries, come back, cook food and sleep on the floor near Kitchen just after eating... at 11:00 PM you get up again... go back to your room, think about checking you email and sleep ... you open the computer, you are hooked on to the comp for the next three hours... at 2:00 AM you wonder why the hell this day not ending, you get this email about learnings from todays Marketing class and start reading all over again...

Finally you sleep at 4:30!!! Good night :)

To Bob and Shanon...

Let me dedicate this post to two of my section mates Bob (Robert Flynn) and Shannon Baker… Bob is originally from Boston and Shannon had spent a lot of time in Spain, including a short visit to India, before coming over to Stanford for her bachelors. So why these two Americans to start with… Well because I think to find better examples of level-headedness was difficult for me.

I met Bob first time in my Game-theory exercise. When you are playing such games in a B-School it is very hard to keep the Universal output above zero. Bob decided to stay bubye to any prisoner’s dilemma and went ahead with the agreed proposition. My team decided otherwise and I still owe one to Bob… As I started knowing him more and more, I noticed one thing more and more… when it comes to established beliefs, Bob always liked to question them, he always had a different not necessary difficult approach to solve problems and he came as a very friendly person in most of his conversations. Finally, I also saw his openness with respect to cultures, countries and communities, which was a great relief for me. As a fellow section mate, I think it is great to have him in the class. Oh before I forget, Bob was the second fastest runner in our class during the MBA1 Games. I am sure there is a long distance to travel for him!

Shannon…!!! Her intellectual, spectacle-laden face almost covers/hides that bubbly smile of hers. With-in this Stanford grad lives a little kid that still wonders in the Spanish world she grew in, and blushes on the Economics’ grades most of the time. Shannon naturally comes as a person with a lot of academic knowledge and her comments in the class generally attract a lot of praises for the impact they have. However, that’s not why I am talking about her. When it comes to respect for cultures, countries and communities, I think she matches Bob all the same.

As a fellow section mate I think it is my privilege to have these two people in my class. Thanks a lot to both of you!!!

ISBA Diwali-Id party

Last week was Diwali-Id celebrations at ISBA (Indian Students of Business Association). Yes it was a bit late but better late than never as they say. Went over there with full party mood and had a cocktail of music, masti, and hangaama. The fun part was when the music stopped playing due to some fault with the system and we, MBA1s, started singing songs. Joined by MBA2s it went in to some small Antakshri Competition and I was rocking :)

Danced till I dropped, my feet are paining now… and went to one of my batch-mates place for post-party celebrations. Had a couple of nice incidences the whole night, including how my flat-mate Amiya kept on sleeping at 4:30 AM leaving me stranded in sub-zero temperatures.
Seeing the photographs next day, it was difficult to imagine that I was sober the night before. Of course no one believes that I danced so much with out loosing myself!

It was also a nice occasion to meet and mix with some MBA2s, while creating a mix response among them. Some thought we are some energetic first-yearites while others maintaining that we are a bunch of hooligans… well its all perception as the end of the day… Happy Diwali!

Perfection is my goal...

...… excellence will be tolerated

When I last read this on my hostel wall in IIT, I think I had no clue as to what it meant. But as with a lot of meanings in life it also got cleared lately, with a bad taste too.

Last semester, in our Strategy class, it was announced that top 2 students from each section will be chosen to compete for “Strategy Scholar of the Year”. So that means among the 6 sections professors will choose 12 students that have excelled in the strategy course. These students will then compete among themselves in front of some of the major consultants of McKinsey & Company to be the “McKinsey Strategy Scholar of the Year”. As McKinsey is one of the key companies I am eyeing here, I thought it will be a great opportunity to present my skills in front of them and I had put a lot of efforts in my Strategy classes. People in my class really thought I made a great impact in terms of my class participation and I think I really cracked the final exam too. It was as good as it gets and I was almost sure I would make it to top 12.

However, as the results were announced a few days back, I found I didn’t. To make things worse, a lot of people, upon finding out that the results are out, came up to me and congratulated me on making it… going back in surprise upon learning that I didn’t.

This was really a BIG thing for me so I am feeling a bit sad about this. With 4 excellent grades in as many subject I was feeling very bad today for my last semester. Anyways, I think I have managed it well now and I am focusing on the things ahead. There are many ways to make it to the top firms and if not this one I can certainly try for others :)

Cases, Cases and more of that...

So this is how it is going for me... I thought for my consulting intern, I need a resume that says winner of A,B,C case competition.

Impact - I ended up taking part in A,B,C....,y,z (pls note the change is case... to account for more cases )

Short Term Result - So far I have been lucky to sail through most of them but for a real bad example of BCG case (it was a one day assignment, so that means you cant do anything else, and I had a lot to do and cant manage to submit even.... shear waste of 4-5 hours efforts)... anyways lets look at some of the good stuff...
Finalist in the ATK global case competition (further results awaited)
Third prize in Medtronics case competition...

On Target - Abbott Case Competition, and Loreal Challenge

So is that all... well actually NO... now consider I have MO class on two days a week. That means studying through these long boring Management Organization cases before the class along with additional stuff... Marketing class on 2 days (same cases and cases...) and World Economy (Cases AGAIN!!!)

You would say its fine... afterall thats academics... read this... I have 2 case groups to prepare more for my case interviews and we meet twice a week and discuss CASES!

Long Term Result - I am already thinking everything in cases terms. I try to analyze everything from a problem perspective, I am looking for hard data, I am making pie charts in my brain... I make recommendations when not even asked for... I have become a CASE CRUNCHER :(

Summary of Fall A

Things that I did wrong

Networking - I think I really did a bad job here. In India, you meet these people that are no where connected to you and you strike a conversation, you talk about Ganguly and BINGO!!! they have an opinion... you talk about government and how less it cares... you get statements, you argue, you question... you talk about malls in Gurgaon, about crime in Bihar, about curruption in Haryana, you even talk about Tsunami!!! the crux is you are able to talk....
... and here I have met these people day in and day out with whom I cant connect, there is no link, I dont know the QB of Ohio state (okay QB = Quarter Back in (American) Football), I dont know who is running for the governer of Michigan, I dont even know the difference between a mall and a store, there is no tlk of corruption here (they have given networking a different meaning now), and worst of all I dont know what cyclones have hit the florida last summers... I dont have a common ground to talk over... and now... there is no effort. I think this needs to be changed sooner or ...
Follow-up - Though I was okay to build a channel with most of the recruiters here, I think I need to make that channel flow more often. Shall be my priority for Fall B.
Steps -

1. A lot more football games this semester.
2. A lot more newspaper reading.
3. Efforts to make connections with more Americans and to learn their issues.

Things that I did right

Focus on Academic - Well I wanted to focus on my acads in MBA and I think I did pretty well here. I think most of my section-mates liked/hated me for interrupting the classes with my doubts but then I think I wanted to get the most academically also. Icing on the cake - of the three courses for which the grades are given I have "Excellent" in all :)

Summer Search - I think I was able to manage my expectation well and focused well on consulting. It was really helpful in saving my time by eleminating other options. However, I think I will have to work on my back-up option the next semester.

Small but close group of friends - Yes I did fail in Networking on a broad scale but then I think I was able to carve out some small space for myself in a close group of friends and I think that is what I am... So far so good.

Learning Culture - One of the good things that I managed was to learn the American way of life... not that I am on top of it now; however I certainly made a lot of improvement on my speech, words and phrases, and also in terms of learning things about the culture here.