[sruj]

herd mentality thats what it is?
actually thats why i did my mba coaching cuz everyone around me was doing it
needless to say i failed miserably(though that didnt take much effort )

but i learned a lot from this one year i met lot of nice ppl who r my close friends rite now and if u r from a small town it helps to find like minded ppl

i also know of ppl (my buddy) who got thru TIFR and a good B-school but finally joined the army cuz thats wat he wanted to do since he was a kid. surprised me too.

[shrikanthk]

Understandable.
Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the same.
A couple of years back, when I first thought of writing CAT, the only thing that allured me was the brand.... I knew next to nothing about the MBA course....it was the IIM tag of exclusivity that motivated me....
Getting an IIM admit, was for me a means of convincing myself of my intellectual competence. My self-esteem in early 2004 was at an all-time low. Didn't take me long to realise that I'm never going to make it BIG as a technologist......I used to hate gadgets, seldom 'placed' in inter-college programming contests, could never write efficient programs, and to cap it all, my grades suffered a beating ( relatively) in my third year.

Heard from many quarters that an MBA would suit me as I was by temperament, more of a Generalist than a specialist....
was always more comfortable learning 'Less abt more' than 'More abt Less'. An MBA, i thought, would be ideal for a generalist, as it's the only course in the world where one could learn disciplines ranging from economics to behavioral science....

So the reasons for an mba when i wrote cat 2k4 -
-Brand
-the rich and diverse learnings that an mba has to offer.

Luckily for me, I screwed up the exam, as it gave me one more year to understand this whole mba thing.
Got into a company that was geek-dominated, where i'm
the only one who is not a 'natural' at coding. I just could not relate to my colleagues...their likes/dislikes/passions/prejudices were different from mine. The desire to crack CAT grew stronger.

In early-mid 2005, I interacted with a few Bschoolers , started reading more abt the funda behind business education....and slowly realised that I had been deceiving myself all the while. The IIM brand was not as 'exclusive' as I had supposed it to be. Getting into an IIM wasn't that big a deal after all. Not every IIM'ite is a credit to his institute...IIM tag simply doesn't count from an international perspective....The two years of MBA education is more of a placement-driven exercise where one learns more about how to write resumes and ace interviews, than about interest rates and P/E ratios.
Moreover, the academic schedule is so cramped that learnings are bound to be half-baked and it would be foolish to complain abt the state of affairs.
I was told that an MBA is less of an 'academic exercise' and more of a 'useful value-addition' to one's resume....

The allure was simply not there anymore....but as fate would have it, I ended up with a couple of calls...the desire to convert them has ebbed and the attitude towards the result is one of indifference.

[im_sid]

@98tille.great initiative man...

I remember my self as a child...very adventurous and i played almost every sport...
I really wanted to do something for my country....
Wanted to be in air force..gave NDA was selected...byt being the only son never was allowed to got there....
Like everybody i was interested in engineering..did it...got placed like everybody...
Felt my self like someone lost in a crowd wanted to stand out..do something big...gave CAT...

But i killed an adventurous ,music lover guitarist im_sid....
I am doing what everyone aspires to do....get great education,be famous ,get rich
aren't we all following herd instinct....
Another aspect is that we are never satisfied (though its imp for growth.. i know that)
there is always an urge for having something more...but by doing this are we ever going to be happy..because happiness comes by being contented...
We always feel being in someone else's shoes would make us happy....then someone else.....like first an IIT,then an IIM A,then highest salary,then promotions,then my own venture.....is there any end to it...

Then suddenly a time comes when we realise why are we doing this ...what would make us happy...like 98tille realised and even i have...
there is no end it...
MBA makes you a money making machine...
(but even then i am aspiring to be in a B school

According to Gita..there is nothing in this world which can make you oerwhelmed or disappointed
so leave it man....be cool an enjoy...

[98tillidie]

Originally Posted by BUGS BUNNY

Hey 98tillidie
It is a weird coincidence but even i started thinking along the same lines bout a month back as to y the hell do i wanna do an MBA
Y did i slog my ass off and surpsrisingly the only ans i cud think up was for money, pride tht i am an MBA from so and so insti. I know that's pathetic but its the truth and i am sure there are many other's like me. But the point where i differ from u is that I am not too sure if i wud join even if i convert a call this year and yes i have a few. Of course my parents think i have gone bonkers but jus for once i feel like doing something i wanna do solely based on my decision and without givng a damn bout the world.

-
Bugs

great dude.....we need more people like u ......... u really seem to have that conviction which most of us lack......... yeah...if i convert any of my calls i will be joining that insti....but just for the heck of it.......i have sworn i will never be a laptop wielding robot......i am an engineer only on paper.....will be a manager only on paper....... i got to do something different.......and slowly but surely i m moving in that direction........

one of my favorite quotes is -
It's no good running a pig farm for 30 years while saying 'I was meant to be a dancer.' By that time, pigs are your style!!!

[capricious]

And what is wrong if someone is doing MBA for money and pride??Who wants to attain sainthood here?In every facet of life, our prime objective is to gain success( by doing least possible labour, for some). MBA came to me as a contingency plan but it is not totally uncorrelated to my innate abilities. Btw, this thread should not be named "to hell with MBA", because the purpose of thread is to analyse the reasoning behind MBA and not to come to a judgement abruptly.

[im_sid]

Originally Posted by capricious

And what is wrong if someone is doing MBA for money and pride??Who wants to attain sainthood here?In every facet of life, our prime objective is to gain success( by doing least possible labour, for some). MBA came to me as a contingency plan but it is not totally uncorrelated to my innate abilities. Btw, this thread should not be named "to hell with MBA", because the purpose of thread is to analyse the reasoning behind MBA and not to come to a judgement abruptly.

Ya i agree...the thread is misnomer..
it should be like..Do you really want to do MBA? or something like that

[BUGS BUNNY]

@98tillidie
Yeah completely agree with u bout the quote
Thankfully i got a job thru campus placement
decent enuf company gud enuf job profile wanna do some work and figure out whether i wanna do an MBA or not
ATB to u hope u join some really gud insti and hire me with a big fat pay package so dat i dont have to do an MBA

[s.y.n.a.p.s.e]

i feel people HOPE to get out of the monotony of their current jobs and HOPE to have a bright {responsible} job in future, which they'll all enjoy to their hearts content...and they HOPE that MBA will give them all these...
people includes me here...
it all starts off from day 1 when junta says "oh!! ur preparin for cat...".. some strange sense of god-knows-wat is instilled right from then... after that somehow things take on and we get focussed on CAT, not MBA!!! else there wud have been no reason why junta frantically search for answers to why mba, a week befor the interviews:satisfie:

and yeah why do so many people take up cat in the first place!!! 1. the app form is relatively cheap. 2. there's not much effort to it.. no need to write SOPs and essays, like we wud do in case of schools in US. 3. its jus 2 hrs on a lazy sunday morning...

most people wud start off dreamin abt iims.. then as we prepare we start hating our work more and more and at one point decide, "coding is not for me!!!"... forgetting that they placed development at a high pedestal jus a few months ago... then we all reach a cross-over point wer we decide, "I cant work here... i must join a b-school".. and that's when applications to other schools start off!!!

honestly, barring a few junta, most 22-25 year old guys wil have no clue wat an mba is all about... maybe its hyped like crazy but maybe ther's some truth to it... i dont think companies are all dumbshits to pay for hype alone!!! but at the end of the day, its jus hype hype and hype!!!

[DesiGuru]

Firstly the M in MBA stands for Mediocre
whether you do it from Harvard, IIMA, IIMK, Oxford or Somaiyya

A few non mediocre might consider doing it for the interesting possibilities when you are surrounded by atleast a few smart people and the opportunity to network with smart profs and students with different perspectives in life.

Also A the as in Assured job is cool enough after the 2 years of decadence

Kinda a bonus if you get a tag stamped up your a**... That generally helps in making the face in the mirror develop a lot of fake and temporary self esteem which still is more or less enough for a world full of those lacking it temporarily or permanently

In short the MBA rocks

Hail the Mediocre

K

PS: pardon me this site is acting insane these days or maybe its my computer

[The Raven]

I don't see any point bitching about MBA. At engineering time, we were pressurized by our parents and our peers. Now we are old enough and unless we are really weak no one can presurrize us to continue in the software job or for MBA aginst our wishes. If we choose to work in a IT company or study, MA we do it at our will. Lets not curse it. If we don't like, we have option of leaving it and doing what we like.

There is this chap Samit Basu. He went through all this grill and joined MBA at IIM-A. After his first year, he realized that MBA was not what he wanted to do. He dropped out and became an author. He has already published 2 books - 'Simonqion propehesies' and ' Manticore's Secret'. I think he is India's first fantasy author. He is still just 26 or so.

So if someone feels strongly that way , now is the time for strong decisions. Otherwise you will repent all your life. If you decide MBA is what you want to do, stop cribbing, accept that you have chosen that and go ahead. That is waht I feel.

Atleaset as far as I am concerned, I know what I want to do and where MBA fits. I have no cribs.