Hi Everyone :: :: All I wanted to Say about CAT, arguably the most prestigious thread on Pagalguy , has inspired me to open this thread , AIWSAC was PART ONE of the story for many B-schoolers who have contributed on that thread and inspire…
Hi Everyone 
All I wanted to Say about CAT, arguably the most prestigious thread on Pagalguy , has inspired me to open this thread , AIWSAC was PART ONE of the story for many B-schoolers who have contributed on that thread and inspired many like us 
Now it's time to take this journey forward by one more step , What about the journey post CAT , in a B-School , or Life after MBA , we want to hear it all from our seniors who are now part of the corporate world or are about to join the corporate world soon , their views about MBA , B-School life , and Post B-School life , i am sure such experiences are going to help many aspirants , and juniors like us who are inspired to tread the same path , once they had
Let's make this thread, repository of experiences, stories about the journey of a lifetime 
Seniors please guide us ...........:)
Few Guidelines for the thread
1. It will be appreciated if only MBAs ( both alum and current students ) post on this thread. We wish to make this thread as repository like AIWTSAC and not QnA thread.
2. Please PM the concerned user whom you want to ask any question regarding his/her post about MBA.
3. Please use Thanks button ONLY to appreciate the post and not post seperatey on thread to appreciate someone.
4. Views presented here by MBAs are purely personal ones and have no linkage with their respective B-Schools.
5. No B-School specific question/profile building questions to be asked on this thread.
Should I blame the bad-times or my placement team or my stars for not picking up or rather not being to pick up the job from the campus?
And the correct answer is none of these :).If my senior can change the lines from economist to singer,why can't I go for journalism.As of now,I have taken a baby step towards the same by doing freelance work for few websites :)I would go for the profile that satisifies me financially and psychologically.
Gyaan from this-do what you are good at doing :)
Baaki ka gyaan baad me :)
PS-good initiative abhimukh:thumbsup::thumbsup:
This is a really nice thread. But I feel that the posts should be longer and detailed a la the AIWTSAC thread so that people can read and enjoy 'stories'. After two or three such #epic posts, more number of current/past b-schoolers may feel like they should also contribute. Thread starters should take the lead :).
[QUOTE=abhimukh19;2817720
Lets make this thread, repository of experiences, stories about the journey of a lifetime
Seniors please guide us ...........:)
A very good initiative. Though unlike success stories.. and AIWTSAC..here giving those details would be tough. and whatever good/bad experiences people have ..professionally it becomes difficult to divulge such corporate experience. And there are many non-anonymous user who will be posting here. So another flip is letting ur identity go for toss with "inside" info 😃 ..
Also, I am just bit skeptic whether this would become another thread for people to glorify their b-school placements or what they are doing. Any bad experience could also put a blemish on tall claims of that particular B-school or individual..
Hi Everyone
All I wanted to Say about CAT, arguably the most prestigious thread on Pagalguy , has inspired me to open this thread , AIWSAC was PART ONE of the story for many B-schoolers who have contributed on that thread and inspired many like us
Now its time to take this journey forward by one more step , What about the journey post CAT , in a B-School , or Life after MBA , we want to hear it all from our seniors who are now part of the corporate world or are about to join the corporate world soon , their views about MBA , B-School life , and Post B-School life , i am sure such experiences are going to help many aspirants , and juniors like us who are inspired to tread the same path , once they had
Lets make this thread, repository of experiences, stories about the journey of a lifetime
Seniors please guide us ...........:)
:clap::clap::clap::clap:
Brilliant concept . But dearth of posts.
It is shocking to see no posts here. People like me, waiting to enter a B-school, would love to see people already there crib and praise different phases and aspects of their schools. Isn't it the same like an engineering college? Or an arts one? Or maybe like the hallmark IITs ?
Sometimes the life in a story drives u towards it ..and gives u a path that you would like to follow.
I heard a story which could have been posted at a very similar thread. But such things were never present at the time when those people did their MBA .
You cannot really say that it will be about promoting or cribbing . Could be a see-saw ride...but will be all yours. Very personal and very true.
The two major years of your life, the motivation that lead you towards them , the friends , the foes and all the moments will never return to you in a better way than this thread.
Make the most of it.
I am an absolute
: to tell you how it works . But trust me , your story can be magical for someone. Like someone's was magical for me.Love and regards
Well I started this thread , so i think its appropriate that i should share my experience.. I think i would write a post which is realistic as possible .
My journey was a very ordinary one , a typical IT guy sitting in a cubicle .. working away on codes ,testing and onsite calls .. I always asked myself that after all the efforts of last 20 odd years is this what i have earned or should i do more with my life.. I thought about post graduation and so my journey began for CAT .. U can read that on my post of All i wanted to say about CAT..
June 2010
As it would be making it to a good b-school was a dream . I was really looking forward to change my life , happy to no longer be working as a system engineer .. though i was good at my work . But somehow ambitions are such that you are never happy where you are .. But i think biggest need was to separate myself from the crowd . I didn't want to remain one of many .. My aim was not about doing MBA just from IIMs but it was about doing it from a decent b-school , as i always thought the colleges are just enablers/facilitators and they were the means and not the ends.. I joined IMI in Mid of June 2010. We had a very good induction program where we were introduced to our faculties , about rules and regulations .. offcourse i still remember one line from Prof PC Mehra (the then Program director -PGDM)..
Get ready for the grinding
Grinding it was specially classes from Prof Singhvi ( Marketing Professor) , so many pages to read and cases to be read and analyzed . And most importantly they way his classes went . Sitting system in his class was alphabetical and cursed with my a letter name .. I was sitting in the death row
( yeah that's what we called the first row in his class) .. When he would ask questions to you , you better answer or else needless to say what can happen .. But then again we had 6 other subjects to prepare so it became harder and harder as days went by.. But other than classes we had a lot of fun , Counter Strike Matches , Eat Outs , long amount of time spend in bakars will always be memorable
August 2010
Well time for our mid terms , i had two mid terms on a single day , it was raining heavily those days .. I and My friend were about to leave for college when it started pouring in .. Within minutes roads were flooded , low visibility , winds made it impossible to reach college on foot .. But somehow we did make it drenched and the AC in examination hall made it worse and result was that i got C's in both mid terms and my friend got D and F in his ..
October 2010
Saw Companies coming in for summers , at IMI we have a rolling process so it goes on for a few months , By this time were in our second term .. I was a typical IT guy so didn't get shortlisted in many companies .. I thought it was just me or in my college but when i called up my friend from IIM indore , the trends were similar everywhere .. Finally i did manage to get a summer internship with Stan C .. But it was a long hard struggle but i was happy that i was changing my career path and was excited to work with a bank very different from an IT company
On the PG front:
Well suddenly i had become a important user ., I was taking care of admission threads online along with adcom.. Proud to wear the IMI badge and IMI signature was on a mission to make IMI better known to students , so that people do realize that we were what we did claim to be ..
Summers 2011
By this time my 3 terms /1st year had ended and i was very happy with the kind of learning i had gained in 1 year .. I became a huge fan of Prof Dhamija and Prof Kathuria who taught finance and economics .. I decided to take up finance in 2nd year and i am sure many of my batchmates did so just because of these two legends .. Though i dont claim that all the faculties were good but these are special .. I dont know if people will believe it or not but i joined a MBA college thinking i would finally be able to learn from people who were brilliant and specially when my engineering college was not so great , An environment where you were laughed at if you spoke in English.. I wanted to associate myself with an organization known for providing quality learning ..
My summer training started during the month of April-May .. I was given a research project and i was promised that all the data would be provided to me during these two months .. So i had a easier summer internships than many who were working FMCGs specially in rural areas and in the hot weather .. Somehow summer internships make a huge impact on someone's life ... Many discover that certain domain or field was not where they wanted to work in and many become more sure about their career path ...
Well it was also time for many to give CFA examinations . I also had started preparations for CFA L1 ,but somehow i could garner the courage to do so much monetary investment specially after taking a huge loan for MBA .. I knew my limitations .. so read through the books to gain knowledge as i thought that was more important than the actual examination..
Well it was not always studies for me , i used to participate in a lot of competitions from quizzing to article writing and continued to do so till my last few days of MBA life .. I was offered to write for a website coolavenues.com and i pounced upon the opportunity to write and share what i knew ..
During this time a puy offered me to work him on a start up called MBAWrites.com .. The website was about providing free knowledge giving articles to aspirants and it was totally voluntary basis . we requested b-schoolers to come and write for us .. and many did help us .. It was a successful journey we had about 200,000+ hits within 6 months .. But we could not sustain it so had to give it up finally by end 2011.. I hope i can do something similar in future ...
Second year
Well it was all about choosing the right electives , since i wanted finance so picked up a lot finance subjects but as advised by my mentor (senior) not every subject or every faculty was worth taking a subject .. So i did pick and choose a few in marketing , operations . And I am glad i did , marketing was always fun as you can actually think and come up with answers without actually going through text books . Finance subjects need a lot more hard-work and effort .. specially the projects and assignments...
By this time we had also become expert sleepers 
or people who would listen to the class and simultaneously do stuff on mobiles or laptops... But generally a trend is that you typically start off from the first or second row and then you keep progressing further and further towards the back of the class
There are moments when u cant hide , specially when your mobiles rings the class and every1 looks at you angrily for either waking them up or disturbing them in class ... One of my friend told me an incident when he had just downloaded a new game but he could not put off the sound and it rang and rang till he removed the battery from the handset one can only imagine what happened after that
Talking about sleeping well Conclaves are the best place for many to sleep all day , No matter how hard you concentrate , a vision of a bed and a soft pillow will over take you resolution and take you to dreamworld .. specially it happens during winters .. Besides the sleeping fest conclaves are also a good opportunity to interact with the CEOs and heads of Big companies , sharing their knowledge .. But Only a few speaker keep their talks interactive with students and hence the sleep fest
Well i am not talking about booze parties , as i am the boring types on campus who doesn't even drink tea/coffee which causes addiction :p
December 2011
Well the most crucial period , the make or break period , the period where you play the game theory .. Which company to sit for , you have various theories such as where is the placement cell guy sitting , how many work ex guys are applying , how many guys with better grades applying ,.. what do they pay .. what is their variable component .. What do they ask in interviews and how to cross that big hurdle of GD
I have seen many of my close friends having good grades and awesome profile not making it pass the Group Discussion phase .. 5th december was hell of a day 3 Big Companies lined up but i was only interested in one . The process started around 6pm in the evening with GDs taking place ... Not surprised to see but the entire placecomm cell was sitting for the process , we all knew that company and profile was good ,, Anyhow the big hurdle came "GD" 20 students in a group , i was exhausted by that time and i knew this would be scary .. But somehow i managed to squeeze myself through to the GD process and made it to final 10 for the interview .. I thought of it as some achievement since 70 were shortlisted for phase 1 and then 40 in phase 2 and finally 10 ... But it was still a loonng way to go i had to impress the panel of 4 :3 VPs and I HR head , They were firing questions at a nonstop rate ,, Why our company , why this role , why mba , what is leadership and many many situations questions ... I came out with a sigh of relief that it had all ended and finally i could just relax , well nothing liked that happened .. There were 9 other people hungry to hear about my interview , and sucked out every ounce of life i had .. After 2 long hours .. mind you very lonng me praying all the while "God please ajke baad ye suit na pehanna pade" .. Finally I guess god did hear me out and they selected 2 people and i was one of them .. I was delighted and sad that my friends could not make it .. It was hell of a day and finally it ended ... I felt a relief that i would be free from this placement process now , which tests the nerves of even the boldest and most courageous ....
Since December 2011
Life has been relaxed with final two terms going past as breeze.. Life changes once u get placed .. as an outsider you watch it like an interesting drama and celebrate when your friends get through and support them when they cry and yes people cry even the most strongest specially when dreams are shattered . But as they say everyone gets what they deserved and so I am glad that life gave them their share of happiness
Life @ IMI has been a pleasure filled of emotions, all night out assignments, CS nights, party nights, and various competitions that you proudly take part to compete against the best You get an opportunity to visit various b-schools and meet new people , My last trip was to IMT Ghaziabad for the Eny Quizzing Finals .. I thank IMT for being such great hosts and there are some lovely people very friendly in IMT... Though I had a different experience at IIFT: D but I thank them for calling us and making us part of their fest
Life in a b-school is much more than Avgs or CTCs rankings, and once you step in a college you realize that
Cheers and ATB everyone for their future
Brilliant post Abhishek! Brought back a lot of memories, some faded, some as bright as yesterday. For me these were the best two years of my life and each day is already lived back here in the Life @ IMI thread . Will definitely post in this thread too,when time and mind permits. Till that day eager to read more such stories and for me space reserved
ciao..
Caution: Don't read if you are not ready to hear the truth of MBA, no boasting of MBA and B-School arena to follow ! Reality of overhyped world is what is going to follow!!
Foreword : Journey for MBA started off with taking exams like CAT, XAT, FMS etc. with the dream in eyes to enter into either of the top Management Institutes so that i can also become the part of elite world as perceived these days by Indian community.
Got a decent score in CAT, gave a few interviews and fervently hoped that A, C or L would call me. They didn't and I arrived at NITIE, one of the highly underestimated institutes by non industry people.
Two years have passed since. The journey has been remarkable and entire 2 years are flashing before my eyes right now
Day 0 at NITIE
Even before i landed at NITIE and was on the flight to reach Mumbai from Mangalore, a meet was organized at NITIE pond by few of the friends to meet visionIIM-ACL, and it was a great honour to be recognized for some helping hand provided to friends out here at forum. This meet could never happen though as flight got delayed due to bad weather and i reached somewhere around 2:30 am at NITIE Campus.
Straightaway went to room of few friends and the bakar started, with high hopes of meeting greatest of minds tomorrow, all champs in my eyes after cracking CAT, majority being 99 plus percentilers and with good profiles.
First class at a B-School
Waiting in classroom for the first lecture on Communication Skills, a prof comes and addresses a class of 80 students, most of which were 98+ percentilers in verbal. Within first few minutes of the class, everyone was made to realize that you dont even know basic grammar leave apart presentation making skills or how to write in professional communications.
This was the beginning of a change and i was in dilemma of whether to be happy of learning or unhappy of unlearning what i thought to be correct for 24 years of my life. And then the saga of lectures continued, it being first of everyone was quite sincere and happy!
July - August 2010 -> Rat race before entering a B School continues even in B-School
The way everyone participates in rat race to get into one of the coveted B-Schools, this is the time when everyone will get into yet another rat race and this time it is going to be the one to enter into different committees and forums of respective colleges.
People will turn more professional with friends, try to use contacts with seniors and above all, will once again what all they said at the time of entering B-Schools i.e. nothing but the ' lie ' in induction processes of these student run bodies.
Hard work, dedication, commitment , innovative, presentation skills, public speaking etc. are the words you will hear for the 3rd last time at this moment in any B-School.
All this is generally followed by summer internship process where the above words are used for the 2nd last time by a B-Schooler while they say to HRs of companies and portray an image which is again too far from their real ones.
September 2010 - March 2011
Summer internships done, 100% summers is not a big deal across top B-Schools! Chilled out atmosphere for the first time after all the hectic schedule of first few months. One of the dullest period in a B-School where people get busy in themselves, few participate in competitions to earn huge prize moneys of B-School events , rest in sleep and playing LAN games.
At personal front, i opted to make some money by winning few competitions and ended up winning few thousands. My first ever B-School competition win was in IIM-K prior to which i was rejected in final round of 2-min elevator pitch , held at NITIE itself. After IIM-K, the journey of winning began and with around 40% strike rate , ended up winning a decent amount though you will always find that you throw parties or spend more on yourself in happiness than you actually won in prize
April 2011 - May 2011
Summer internship time. Those who like company and work culture, work hard to get PPOs and rest just do time pass with bit of work which enables them to speak on summers in their final placements.
Fortunately or unfortunately, i belonged to the latter group. The only good thing about my summers was that it made me stay in WIMWI's campus for 2 months
June 2011- November 2011 : Final Rat Race begins
And this is the time when final rat race begins. All those who invested time in drinking and roaming around during 1st year, wake up now. All , yes i mean 100% of people will be found working on one or the other competition and this time it is not to make money but to earn a CV point. No matter it is of a finalist or of a winner.But, everyone wants it.
Similarly, this is the time when everyone will contact alums for the first time and will turn no stone unturned to get weekend projects . Again not with the purpose of learning in most of the cases, but just to get a CV point.
During this phase, at personal front, i opted to work on a research paper with one of the profs of college and was successful in completing it and now the paper has been accepted by one of the international conferences and will be published in their journal as well In addition, i kept on participating in competitions as onc you win few competitions and get money after your salary stopped coming in your accounts, you start treating these competitions as your task and college conducting them as your employee
All the activities done by any student at this time is the precursor that Final Placements are coming up.
December 2011 - January 2012
Aaah... not much to say, it is the time of final placements.
Time when you say to your parents and girlfriend(s) ... kyun paisa paisa karte ho.. kyun paisa paisa karte ho
Not because that you dont money but because you realize by this time after all the interaction with alums that selecting a career as MBA is not all about CTCs and high packages. It has lot many things beyond this and you try to get into profiles of their choice.
Also this is the time when you come to know another fact :
CTCs and average packages of all B-Schools are just a myth. Company whose CTC was 16 is actually giving just 8 fixed and rest 8 as variable of which with even above average performance you can get just 2 😛 but the college will show 16 in media. Now is the time you get enlightened and you suggest to aspirants to not go by placement figures .. once again, B-School says
February 2012 - April 2012
Everyone placed, time to enjoy last few months in college. This is the time full of out-station trips, trekking , movies etc. Nothing much interesting in this part except that this is the only time during entire 2 year stint at MBA that people will behave as true friends and not professionally as they used to.
Major reason being that after placements, no one feels insecured because of any other person
Personally, i spent this time at PG and mentoring aspirants and missed out quite a few trekking plans in the duration.
Few major observations across 2 years in B-School - Hold your breathe and read it
Undoubtedly, 2 years at B-School will change your life.
You will see all boys around you becoming men and that too mostly older and fatter. One can see girls, the precious few of them around , turning a little sweeter to you.
And like they say at the time of PIs during admissions of B-Schools, all MBAs are too fond of giving it back to society. You will see all the small alcohol shops in vicnity of college turning into huge bars because of the donation given to them for their development by B-Schoolers. Apart from this, helping partnership of Freecharge and McDonald to grow is what MBAs like the most and helping McD to add x number of stories at their shops across cities that have B-Schools.
No matter what the hobby is said at the time of PI, finding a life partner is the best timepass of all MBAs during the stint at B-School. Not to blame them, as this is one of toughest task as you rarely find eligible for the same especially if you are in top 10 B-Schools. But that will never deter any B-Schooler from trying. No matter how many time they fail and their friends say " ho gaya tera : !!
Ultimately all MBAs after above failure will zero down at building the career and enhancing their CVs by winning B-School competitions , fin enthus by cracking CFAs, few in the gym , few on bed, few in the markets, a few in their expeditions , few in movies available at DC , few in knowing what others are doing which they should do but they aren't and rest in their pegs
Overall - What MBA is perceived to be and what it actually turns out to be
Masters in Business Administration Ticket to sit in AC rooms, make strategy sitting in AC cabins, be the I-Banker whose every word is accepted as such by client from day 1 of job, be the brand manager whose decisions make company invest crores of rupees from day 1 irrespective of the fact that this person has 0 understanding of market as he never went on field
Sorry to disappoint but MBA is not this and neither is it ticket for these
You need to work hard to reach at any of the above and that too atleast 4-5 years down the line generally unless you have an excellent profile pre and during MBA.
You cannot manage a brand without knowing how the actual sales happens, what drives sales ... in short despite being an MBA, a part of you should be knowing all the nuances that a common salesperson knows otherwise you cannot manage.
What B-Schoolers are perceived to be and what they actually are !
Perceived to be Bonds, Federers, Sachins etc. kind stalwarts of corporate world. A person who can turn things to profits no matter what the current state is and earn huge packages in return. A person who has huge number of green and red notes around him earning 7 digit salary per month.
While being an MBA makes you realize that all written above is myth. B-Schoolers are normal human beings who usually know very few things beyond giving presentations, applying few analytical tools, ability to give gyaan on any topic no matter how verse they are in it or not coupled with bit of brain and lot of positive attitude and never say no spirit.
However, there is nothing which an MBA can do and a non MBA can't except more frequent promotions and few more responsibilities which is more due to them having an MBA degree under their name and not due to their learnings during MBA.
MBA experience is a good learning as well - It was full of pros if there were few cons
Bestowed with the finest memories, i can always recollect plenty of moments these two years have offered: bad, good and awesome.
If today i write my autobiography, these 2 years shall feature as the best time of my life which were most enriching for me. Its been a pleasure to spend 2 years at a B-School and being an MBA.
Looking forward to leverage this experience in future endeavors
Foreword : Journey for MBA started off with taking exams like CAT, XAT, FMS etc. with the dream in eyes to enter into either of the top Management Institutes so that i can also become the part of elite world as perceived these days by Indian community.
Got a decent score in CAT, gave a few interviews and fervently hoped that A, C or L would call me. They didn't and I arrived at NITIE, one of the highly underestimated institutes by non industry people.
Two years have passed since. The journey has been remarkable and entire 2 years are flashing before my eyes right now
Day 0 at NITIE
Even before i landed at NITIE and was on the flight to reach Mumbai from Mangalore, a meet was organized at NITIE pond by few of the friends to meet visionIIM-ACL, and it was a great honour to be recognized for some helping hand provided to friends out here at forum. This meet could never happen though as flight got delayed due to bad weather and i reached somewhere around 2:30 am at NITIE Campus.
Straightaway went to room of few friends and the bakar started, with high hopes of meeting greatest of minds tomorrow, all champs in my eyes after cracking CAT, majority being 99 plus percentilers and with good profiles.
First class at a B-School
Waiting in classroom for the first lecture on Communication Skills, a prof comes and addresses a class of 80 students, most of which were 98+ percentilers in verbal. Within first few minutes of the class, everyone was made to realize that you dont even know basic grammar leave apart presentation making skills or how to write in professional communications.
This was the beginning of a change and i was in dilemma of whether to be happy of learning or unhappy of unlearning what i thought to be correct for 24 years of my life. And then the saga of lectures continued, it being first of everyone was quite sincere and happy!
July - August 2010 -> Rat race before entering a B School continues even in B-School
The way everyone participates in rat race to get into one of the coveted B-Schools, this is the time when everyone will get into yet another rat race and this time it is going to be the one to enter into different committees and forums of respective colleges.
People will turn more professional with friends, try to use contacts with seniors and above all, will once again what all they said at the time of entering B-Schools i.e. nothing but the ' lie ' in induction processes of these student run bodies.
Hard work, dedication, commitment , innovative, presentation skills, public speaking etc. are the words you will hear for the 3rd last time at this moment in any B-School.
All this is generally followed by summer internship process where the above words are used for the 2nd last time by a B-Schooler while they say
to HRs of companies and portray an image which is again too far from their real ones. September 2010 - March 2011
Summer internships done, 100% summers is not a big deal across top B-Schools! Chilled out atmosphere for the first time after all the hectic schedule of first few months. One of the dullest period in a B-School where people get busy in themselves, few participate in competitions to earn huge prize moneys of B-School events , rest in sleep and playing LAN games.
At personal front, i opted to make some money by winning few competitions and ended up winning few thousands. My first ever B-School competition win was in IIM-K
prior to which i was rejected in final round of 2-min elevator pitch , held at NITIE itself. After IIM-K, the journey of winning began and with around 40% strike rate , ended up winning a decent amount though you will always find that you throw parties or spend more on yourself in happiness than you actually won in prize April 2011 - May 2011
Summer internship time. Those who like company and work culture, work hard to get PPOs and rest just do time pass with bit of work which enables them to speak on summers in their final placements.
Fortunately or unfortunately, i belonged to the latter group.
The only good thing about my summers was that it made me stay in WIMWI's campus for 2 months June 2011- November 2011 : Final Rat Race begins
And this is the time when final rat race begins. All those who invested time in drinking and roaming around during 1st year, wake up now. All , yes i mean 100% of people will be found working on one or the other competition and this time it is not to make money but to earn a CV point. No matter it is of a finalist or of a winner.But, everyone wants it.
Similarly, this is the time when everyone will contact alums for the first time and will turn no stone unturned to get weekend projects . Again not with the purpose of learning in most of the cases, but just to get a CV point.
During this phase, at personal front, i opted to work on a research paper with one of the profs of college and was successful in completing it and now the paper has been accepted by one of the international conferences and will be published in their journal as well
In addition, i kept on participating in competitions as onc you win few competitions and get money after your salary stopped coming in your accounts, you start treating these competitions as your task and college conducting them as your employee All the activities done by any student at this time is the precursor that Final Placements are coming up.
December 2011 - January 2012
Aaah... not much to say, it is the time of final placements.
Time when you say to your parents and girlfriend(s) ... kyun paisa paisa karte ho.. kyun paisa paisa karte ho
Not because that you dont money but because you realize by this time after all the interaction with alums that selecting a career as MBA is not all about CTCs and high packages. It has lot many things beyond this and you try to get into profiles of their choice.
Also this is the time when you come to know another fact :
CTCs and average packages of all B-Schools are just a myth. Company whose CTC was 16 is actually giving just 8 fixed and rest 8 as variable of which with even above average performance you can get just 2 😛 but the college will show 16 in media. Now is the time you get enlightened and you suggest to aspirants to not go by placement figures .. once again, B-School says
February 2012 - April 2012
Everyone placed, time to enjoy last few months in college. This is the time full of out-station trips, trekking , movies etc. Nothing much interesting in this part except that this is the only time during entire 2 year stint at MBA that people will behave as true friends and not professionally as they used to.
Major reason being that after placements, no one feels insecured because of any other person
Personally, i spent this time at PG and mentoring aspirants and missed out quite a few trekking plans in the duration.
Few major observations across 2 years in B-School - Hold your breathe and read it
Undoubtedly, 2 years at B-School will change your life.
You will see all boys around you becoming men and that too mostly older and fatter. One can see girls, the precious few of them around , turning a little sweeter to you.
And like they say at the time of PIs during admissions of B-Schools, all MBAs are too fond of giving it back to society. You will see all the small alcohol shops in vicnity of college turning into huge bars because of the donation given to them for their development by B-Schoolers. Apart from this, helping partnership of Freecharge and McDonald to grow is what MBAs like the most and helping McD to add x number of stories at their shops across cities that have B-Schools.
No matter what the hobby is said at the time of PI, finding a life partner is the best timepass of all MBAs during the stint at B-School. Not to blame them, as this is one of toughest task as you rarely find eligible for the same especially if you are in top 10 B-Schools. But that will never deter any B-Schooler from trying. No matter how many time they fail and their friends say " ho gaya tera
: !!Ultimately all MBAs after above failure will zero down at building the career and enhancing their CVs by winning B-School competitions , fin enthus by cracking CFAs, few in the gym , few on bed, few in the markets, a few in their expeditions , few in movies available at DC , few in knowing what others are doing which they should do but they aren't and rest in their pegs
Overall - What MBA is perceived to be and what it actually turns out to be
Masters in Business Administration
Ticket to sit in AC rooms, make strategy sitting in AC cabins, be the I-Banker whose every word is accepted as such by client from day 1 of job, be the brand manager whose decisions make company invest crores of rupees from day 1 irrespective of the fact that this person has 0 understanding of market as he never went on field Sorry to disappoint but MBA is not this and neither is it ticket for these
You need to work hard to reach at any of the above and that too atleast 4-5 years down the line generally unless you have an excellent profile pre and during MBA.You cannot manage a brand without knowing how the actual sales happens, what drives sales ... in short despite being an MBA, a part of you should be knowing all the nuances that a common salesperson knows otherwise you cannot manage.
What B-Schoolers are perceived to be and what they actually are !
Perceived to be Bonds, Federers, Sachins etc. kind stalwarts of corporate world. A person who can turn things to profits no matter what the current state is and earn huge packages in return. A person who has huge number of green and red notes around him earning 7 digit salary per month.
While being an MBA makes you realize that all written above is myth. B-Schoolers are normal human beings who usually know very few things beyond giving presentations, applying few analytical tools, ability to give gyaan on any topic no matter how verse they are in it or not coupled with bit of brain and lot of positive attitude and never say no spirit.
However, there is nothing which an MBA can do and a non MBA can't except more frequent promotions and few more responsibilities which is more due to them having an MBA degree under their name and not due to their learnings during MBA.
MBA experience is a good learning as well - It was full of pros if there were few cons
Bestowed with the finest memories, i can always recollect plenty of moments these two years have offered: bad, good and awesome.
If today i write my autobiography, these 2 years shall feature as the best time of my life which were most enriching for me. Its been a pleasure to spend 2 years at a B-School and being an MBA.
Looking forward to leverage this experience in future endeavors
Caution: Don't read if you are not ready to hear the truth of MBA, no boasting of MBA and B-School arena to follow ! Reality of overhyped world is what is going to follow!
If today i write my autobiography, these 2 years shall feature as the best time of my life which were most enriching for me. Its been a pleasure to spend 2 years at a B-School and being an MBA.
Looking forward to leverage this experience in future endeavors
That was of great help for people like who'll be joining the B-School in few months time.. Its really good that you put down all realities of a B-School straight and mentioned everything as a fact and not a fancy story.. And it proved the fact MBA is not a magic wand to turn your lives around its just a launching pad which puts you couple of notches higher at the start of your career.. After 5-7 years its all about you and your work!!
Would be great if people from B-School too could post their experiences during their stay @ B-School
Totally Agree with Vision Saar .. He has brought out the truth in the open , want to congratulate him for that ..
My experience tells me that MBA is a great enabler and a facilitator of learning . It provides people a chance to change careers and domains .. IT guy can switch to finance /Marketing which i feel is the biggest advantage of MBA ..
The Big Bucks post MBA is mostly a fallacy , the amount of variable components increase as the salary CTC increases and not only that Many do add Insurance components as a part of CTC too .. Most of the placement reports show Maximum Earning Potential and not the In hand , but in reality hardly 1% people achieve that mark of 100% variable
I once saw a quote from an IIM guy on his blog , he said that the probability of you taking cat and for you to get placed at BCG is less than 1%.. :)
I remember the first day of my summer internship when my mentor who is a associate director at stan c , told me that he used dispense cash in ATMs when he first started working after MBA , He used to sit at the cashier office to understand the daily operations about what goes on in a bank . He told me that it was all an exercise to understand the entire value chain of the bank from level 0.. He still travels more than 200kms everyday to visit clients and expand business , He said in my 8 years i have never had the time to look at my own money , it has always been about managing others ...
I would strongly request people to hunt down live projects while there stint at 2 years in MBA as that along with summers may just be the only practical experience you may gain .. Classroom learning is not enough , My stint with Kpmg for around a month and a half taught me many things which i didn't learn in 1.5 years of MBA..
Hoping other b-schoolers come forward to contribute , I urge the class of 2012 to come forward and write . May be varun saar can invite them .....
this thread is really of the best thread about this topic MBA is one of the best degree for Management field..
A fantastic thread. Kudos to Abhishek for starting this thread & for posting his exp.
@Varun: Your post was an eye-opener for lots of people who want to pursue MBA only for hefty pay-packets. 
for the post.
I have a suggestion. It is upto people who want to implement it or to trash it.
Along with experiences, it would be great B-schoolers actually talk in detail about
1. their college fests experiences, what they really learnt from them, how can one win such competitions, what do you really need to win such events?
2. how to prepare for your lectures/case studies better. Sure, lot of students must be dozing off in classes :-P, but these 2 yrs of collg wld most probably be the last yrs of formal training. So, this would be the best time to learn from knowledgeable profs.
3. Most of us would have talked about 'learning analytical skills etc' in 'Why MBA' ans. How do you really develop such skills? Did you follow any blog (HBR blogs etc) to read case studies etc?
4.What has the MBA program actually taught you? What kind of skills have you developed during your MBA?
5. the last point that could be talked upon - anything that you regret doing or you wish you could have done something.
The reason why I wrote this post is that I am really keen to know how a student should really utilize these 2 most imp years of his/her life.
A fantastic thread. Kudos to Abhishek for starting this thread & for posting his exp.
Along with experiences, it would be great B-schoolers actually talk in detail about
Thank you for your appreciation , I like your questions and would like to answer to best of my knowledge ...
I hope others continue with this thread in the future :)
1. their college fests experiences, what they really learnt from them, how can one win such competitions, what do you really need to win such events?
Actually , i think B-school competitions are the toughest to win .. And those who win it we all respect them .. I have made it to so many finals and but could not win it at the last rounds .. I still rue the fact that i could not visit IIM Indore for their quizzing finals .. Its an honor to be visiting such great b-schools and compete with the best ... in IMI we have now implemented the i-score model , which rates student performance in b-school fests and competitions and it serves as a another page of CV for extracurricular .. But above all fests add a lot of fun in the 2 years of curriculum of MBA .. So please do participate don't be book worms
Please have fun too in life ..
Events like Klueless are legendary
, please visit FB and check out Klueless 7 and hall of fame 2. how to prepare for your lectures/case studies better. Sure, lot of students must be dozing off in classes :-P, but these 2 yrs of collg wld most probably be the last yrs of formal training. So, this would be the best time to learn from knowledgeable profs.
Honestly speaking the ideal method is to go through the readings or chapters and then go through the case study to understand the concepts better via that case , atleast curriculum's are designed in such a way that case studies complement the concepts to be taught in class the next day ..
I have had issues with loads of case studies being taught at Indian B-schools
1)Most of them Harvard Business School Case studies
2)Secondly many of them are from way back 1950s , 60s, and i think even the 90s case studies are obsolete as of now (I may be wrong) .. Th
3)Being a constant complaining student , i have asked many times why aren't there many Indian cases , i think i can hardly relate to a situation that happened in US in 60s but there are hardly any case writers in Indian B-schools , with such high Intakes and so many classes to take , who gives them the time to research and bring out case studies
Yes you said it correctly some faculties are amazing , their classes are a joy to attend but some teachers just don't find the connect with the students ..
But most of the times I actually read just the case and looked up online to see if there are any videos on youtube which connects to the case , company discussed and how they eventually managed it .. And also tried to scan through the reading so that when a concept is discussed in class , i would be aware of it and can participate in the discussion .. if you do participate in the class discussion you would never sleep ..
3. Most of us would have talked about 'learning analytical skills etc' in 'Why MBA' ans. How do you really develop such skills? Did you follow any blog (HBR blogs etc) to read case studies etc?
There is no method to develop analytical skills
My mantra is to " to question a idea till you run out of questions " in this process you change and modify and develop your analysis so much that it becomes a robust and a good solution
Whenever we give solution to a problem , we should also think what can be the obstacles to implement it , do we have the resources or skills to implement it , is it really what market wants ...
Reading blogs like HBR helps upto a point , that you get to know certain facts , certain research and understand author's point of view but yes ultimately you need to think yourself and make your own opinions and think about possible future outcomes :)
4.What has the MBA program actually taught you? What kind of skills have you developed during your MBA?
To Faff about everything on every topic whether you know something or not
On a serious note , it teaches you to think , to question the obvious , to find the important parts of the majorly redundant data .. it does teach you to work well in team .. respect others point of view .. though i have my reservations on things such as the way group projects or assignments are handled ..
5. the last point that could be talked upon - anything that you regret doing or you wish you could have done something.
I don't regret anything from two years m, i would have love to win at least 1 inter b-school competitions though i didn't manage to win a few intra college ones
MBA is much more than placements and i think before we say anything negative about education system in India , i think we first need to look at ourselves and how mature we are when we enter a b-school for just thinking about CTCs or rankings ...
MBA is about a career not a placement ....
1. their college fests experiences, what they really learnt from them, how can one win such competitions, what do you really need to win such events?
Contrary to what many believe, i think winning B-School competitions is one of the funniest and certainly not a tough task to do !
Few important points to keep in mind while solving any case for a B-School competition or a company case :
1. Think out of the box. Dont go for traditional solutions available on google or simple points mentioned in books.
2. Dont just put up the ideas while solving cases. Your every point in solution should be substantiated by HOW will it help and HOW MUCH is it going to help to solve the issue raised. Effectiveness and efficiency of every point mentioned by you should be elaborated in a crisp manner.
3. Think from different perspectives. For eg: Given a scenario of devising marketing strategy for a hair removal cream, dont just suggest marketing strategies. Also, support your solution with financial implications of implementing the strategies proposed, profit projections along with timelines, IMPACT of every strategy , how customers will perceive every strategy etc. All this will begin from identification of factors that make a person buy hair removing cream, segmenting the customers, what value your competition is offering and what value you can offer so that you get profits as well as customer base. ( PS: Stopping here else would go on discussing this
) 4. If possible, try to collect primary data through surveys online as well as offline and analyze it through excel tools and/or statistical tools to arrive at strategies and suggestions given in a case's solution. It holds very high value in the eyes of judges.
I know this because my first win in IIM-K's competition came on the basis of primary data that we collected through survey conducted among village / labours/BPL / lower segment of society for the usage of certain applications on mobile.
5. Last but not the least, presentation skills matter a LOT. This doesnt include just the way you present before judges but also the way you make presentations/word docs to submit for preliminary rounds.
Like graduation days, you wont have unlimited number of slides with you or unlimited number of words that can be used to make ppt or word doc for submission. Almost all major competitions will have restrictions of 5 slides ( in case of ppt ) or 2000-2500 words ( in case of word docs ) for presenting the solution. You should have the ability to efficiently use the space so that you can present and convey the comprehensive and detailed solution within this limit and that too in a way that is understandable to the judges.
Hope this helps few of you 😃
Feel free to ask any more doubt on B-School competitions
I love them
2. how to prepare for your lectures/case studies better. Sure, lot of students must be dozing off in classes :-P, but these 2 yrs of collg wld most probably be the last yrs of formal training. So, this would be the best time to learn from knowledgeable profs.
There are 2 ways for this:
1. Read the concept from book and then go through case study to solve it.
2. Go directly through case study, identify and think about the scenario(s)/actions/strategies/happenings mentioned , brainstorm to know what, why, how etc of points mentioned and correlate all with your real life experiences ( nothing is there in any case study that cannot be correlated with real life experience ) . Once done and you feel familiar with the things mentioned in case and understood the entire concept's practical implementation.... go to the book and read the concept
I prefer the latter one
Reason being more i read book and then solve a case, more i find my thought process restricted within the boundaries of examples/scenes presented in book to illustrate the concept.
Infact, we had a prof who taught entire B2B marketing through case studies, no books unless all cases were solved and trust me understanding of concepts through cases directly was much more effective than first reading and then going through the case
Cases given are generally of Indian market as well as US market and ones which we solved were all the latest ones.. mainly from last years except the standard old ones which are like part of regular curriculum in all top B-Schools. Apart from those traditional ones, we solved all latest cases and could easily correlate with the things we see around us in industry, policy implementations, strategies etc. 😃
I will suggest to all ' to be B-Schoolers' to go with open mind while solving a case . Do not restrict yourself in thinking by a pre read of examples mentioned in book. Once done with the case, read from book.. trust me you will find your base of ideas much more broadened , diverse and sharper than book lovers
And this will eventually help you in B-School competitions where everything is required to be thought of out from traditional set of ideas and innovation/out of box thinking holds the key in deciding the winners coupled with presentations skills.
3. Most of us would have talked about 'learning analytical skills etc' in 'Why MBA' ans. How do you really develop such skills? Did you follow any blog (HBR blogs etc) to read case studies etc?
I personally didnt follow any blog to enhance my analytical skills. I do not count reading HBR cases as something special to be mentioned as it is something very common in a top B-School and needs no seperate mention under the head of readings done to enhance analytical skills. :)
You will learn the methodologies in class and can practice them at your rooms, microsoft excel and functions provided in it will prove to be very helpful for analyzing the data driven things.
Also, being equipped with tools like SAS, SPSS etc helps a lot. 😃 Learn about them from net and you tube and you shall find a sure shot enhancement in your analytical skills no matter how comprehensive data is given to you.
4.What has the MBA program actually taught you? What kind of skills have you developed during your MBA?
Aaah.. that's tough
MBA has helped me in improving my soft skills , my thought process on going about different topics, way to analyze and come up with perspectives.
In addition, it has made me learn to speak on any topic at any given point of time infront of any number of persons.
On a more serious note, it has equipped me with all the skills required to not just see the short term effect of things but to visualize the long term effects coupled with the ability of identification of root cause of every happening around us or implementation of any idea/act done by any other party.
5. the last point that could be talked upon - anything that you regret doing or you wish you could have done something.
Yes, I regret not writing more than 1 research paper and participating in more conferences which were easiest to do when at a B-School Though you can do it post MBA as well, but difficult to find time for the same with job unless company endorses the same for you.
Another thing that i will regret is not being able to become the finalist in any event for IIM C. 😐 Will definitely try if they have any event in future open for corporates
Apart from this, i think i loved whatever i did in 2 years, appreciate all my successes and failures and have learnt from them. No other regrets
Before admission
I was working as a business trainee in a software MNC, and was waiting for my results of GDPIs.I was desperately waiting to convert IMI (i was w8listed :shock:).Finally the day came and i converted..within a week I reached delhi from Bangalore to start my MBA.
june-august 2010
I was a late comer and was just trying to get things in place and trying to learn what all was happening on first day of my college.It was a FAA class taught by dr.Ahindra that I first attended, he is a cool prof and was teaching about balance sheets, being an Engg I didn't get a word (although I claim myslef to be good at numbers and wanted to do majors in finance).I was scared as in I didn't get anything taught in class so thought that I really need to work hard to cop up.I didnt know that real scary class was on its way in next few days
Then came dr.singhvi's MM (marketing managementI) lecture...I was already informed that he is really strict and awards lass participation marks at the end..but it was altogether a unique experience as I never had such a lecturer before in my life who used to make witty comments and insult students in class, well this is his way of motivating students.But the tragedy is you can't even laugh in class on some joke or witty comment by him , if you dare you are the next one on fireHe used to give huge case studies and asked us to come prepare with case study+ chapter of book + reading , and we had 6 other subjects also to read...oops I forgot not only READ the CASE but also ANALYZE and ans the questions in the end and your book should have the chapter marked with pencil as he used to see whether you have actually read by going to your seat and if not you will be out of class.Guys going out of class was not the end.whoever missed the class for any reason had to bring the summary of the case discussed in the class(which u didnt attend) and submit and incase the summary submitted is crap you would be awarded -10 in class participation....and believe me this was too much
I would like to tell something which I can't forget in my life...it was MMI lec at 8:30am and due to my friend who had some personal work we were late for class...guys we were late by 10 secs and Prof seinghvi closed the door on our face saying we are late ....i was so angry at my friend as we could miss only four lectures of any subject...:banghead:
then came the project works and ppts ...as usual we couldnt understand perspective of prof singhvi and were scoled in class...he didnt let us speak in class but used to keep on pointing mistakes in every slide ...and we used to just stand and listened to him
I used to stare at clock every other second in his lecture which moved very slowly....
well other subjects were also not so easy except HR ones....Finance which I thought was going to be my cup of tea , turned out that its not actually....everyone good at analytical skills and good at maths can't be good at finance ...I learned this in very first sem
Economics was again sleepy for me sometimes as I was studying t first time and didnt find it much interesting ..
September-december 2010
I had my exams in september and scored badly , was ashamed of myself and decided to work more hard....after exams second sem began,It was again prof singvi who was going to teach us MM2...I was like 'noooo ..not another 20 lectures of torture.....i.e 20*90mins=1800mins :banghead:'
we worked hard for this sem , i remember in project report , next day we had PPT and the whole class was working on MM2 project report in the same common room for whole night but all was in vain ( not totally but yes it was because it was prof singhvi)...so this term passed on....
jan-march 2011
This was a bit relaxed because there was no prof singvi to make us struggle hard but we had someone else to take care of it.....it was prof RRC who taught GPE, she has this skill of pointing out to nyone who is even a bit sleepy and is a lil relaxed in his chair...he would then bear her wrath and was thrown out of class ...it was 8:30 am class and i remember i was sitting in last row...as usuall was sleepy although my eyes were open , suddenly she pointed and said 'mam if u r sleepy can walk out of class' :shock:I lost all my sleep that very moment ...and something else also happened ...for ppt of GPE ...our group was the first to present and she has this unique style of taking ppts that she decides the order in which students will present of a particular group.....we were lazy enough to prepare well and next day it all got screwed up...she was screeeming at us...and i was scared coz of her wrath( I even cried after class as it happened coz of me and felt bad that my group mates had to suffer coz of me) we were made to sit down in between ppt...:banghead:but in the end my group worked hard and we were able to impress the prof to some extent to make up for our mistake..I must say although lazy but my group was really supportive and noone blamed me screwed ppt :)
april-june 2011
this was the time for internship...I had in Grasim on trade and sales.It was another learning experience but much more relaxed because i was at home after almost 1 year.I learned many things on distribution channel during my training and it became a subject of my interest but at the same time the internship made me dead sure that marketing is not for me (sales specifically)
during this time we also got our 3rd term result and i was shocked to know that I scored A in GPE (cant be expressed what i felt....first A of MBA and that too in GPE in which i was scolded so badly)
july-september 2011
I was again back to college...this sem had most of elective subjects....and now we were in second year....it was really chilled out and much more different than wat it was before internship...professors were not so strict..this was the time when most of the students participated in bschools fest and add something worthy to their CVs...I also tried and in the end was successful in a few..this was also the time to prepare for upcoming fest in our college if you are part of some club or committee...
october -december 2011
Believe me it is much easier to take part in a contest but to organize it...it takes a lot of effort....u need to look of permissions from the authorities ,explain them about the events, get the budget which is most difficult , and then make it happen as planned...it requires a good dedicated team and if you lack it ..you are gone...which was case with my club, as the people were not motivated enough to work.but I somehow managed to organize few events during the fest and afterwards with my team members who were willing to work...I really felt good when I was done with a guest lecture that I organized ,learned many things on 'how to make things fall in place when you have the responsibility of everything' ....also after the fest we had our placements approaching....and all of us were again competing with each other...
i was filled with all kind of thoughts' what will happen if i dont get placed...how to clear GD ....how to prepare etc'.....I asked seniors who were working in the company which used to visit and prepare accordingly...and finally I was through in december on the day0 when 3 companies visited our campus ....that evening was memorable ....almost 30 people got jobs the same day and it was just awesome to be one of them and see everyone celebrating...
jan-march 2012
This went away just like that....it was fun...I used to be at home most of the time as we had just 3 subjects and ample of time to waste with placement done....
overall
I would say Cat is just the begining MBA is much more than CAT and demands much more hardwork than you put in for CAT....(if you make it to good bschool).They make you slog throughout first year....its like hell sometimes...with so much pressure...of so many things....
7 subjects for 3months(trisem)--->14 lectures each week (90 min -1 lecture)--->atleast 7 project works to do--->atleast 7 ppts to present in a group--->atleast 7 individual assignments to make---->many case studies to read and analyze each day..--->struggle hard to get good class participation and good grade....thats what it takes to be an MBA also ofcourse your willingness to follow the rules and regulations of the place and to learn something useful...(this is just a glimpse of MBA)
What I learned?
Honestly I learned how to write and speak on any topic....( do the required search until you get enough knowledge sort it out and then proceed)...most important to work in a team as i had never worked in a team (fresher)...
sometimes some member refuses to work and sometimes whole team refuses to work...how to handle such situations....what to do when u screw up all the work of your team...and much more...
to make a stand on your opinion and listen to others...and argue in a polite manner 😛 everything can't be put in words but it was a real education I have ever had in my life , never had such an experience in school or college...Thanks to my college and the faculty
I was working as a business trainee in a software MNC, and was waiting for my results of GDPIs.I was desperately waiting to convert IMI (i was w8listed :shock:).Finally the day came and i converted..within a week I reached delhi from Bangalore to start my MBA.
june-august 2010
I was a late comer and was just trying to get things in place and trying to learn what all was happening on first day of my college.It was a FAA class taught by dr.Ahindra that I first attended, he is a cool prof and was teaching about balance sheets, being an Engg I didn't get a word (although I claim myslef to be good at numbers and wanted to do majors in finance
).I was scared as in I didn't get anything taught in class so thought that I really need to work hard to cop up.I didnt know that real scary class was on its way in next few days 
Then came dr.singhvi's MM (marketing managementI) lecture...I was already informed that he is really strict and awards lass participation marks at the end..but it was altogether a unique experience as I never had such a lecturer before in my life who used to make witty comments and insult students in class, well this is his way of motivating students.But the tragedy is you can't even laugh in class on some joke or witty comment by him , if you dare you are the next one on fire
He used to give huge case studies and asked us to come prepare with case study+ chapter of book + reading , and we had 6 other subjects also to read...oops I forgot not only READ the CASE but also ANALYZE and ans the questions in the end and your book should have the chapter marked with pencil as he used to see whether you have actually read by going to your seat and if not you will be out of class.Guys going out of class was not the end.whoever missed the class for any reason had to bring the summary of the case discussed in the class(which u didnt attend) and submit and incase the summary submitted is crap you would be awarded -10 in class participation....and believe me this was too muchI would like to tell something which I can't forget in my life...it was MMI lec at 8:30am and due to my friend who had some personal work we were late for class...guys we were late by 10 secs and Prof seinghvi closed the door on our face saying we are late ....i was so angry at my friend as we could miss only four lectures of any subject...:banghead:
then came the project works and ppts ...as usual we couldnt understand perspective of prof singhvi and were scoled in class...he didnt let us speak in class but used to keep on pointing mistakes in every slide ...and we used to just stand and listened to him
I used to stare at clock every other second in his lecture which moved very slowly....
well other subjects were also not so easy except HR ones....Finance which I thought was going to be my cup of tea , turned out that its not actually....everyone good at analytical skills and good at maths can't be good at finance ...I learned this in very first sem
Economics was again sleepy for me sometimes as I was studying t first time and didnt find it much interesting ..
September-december 2010
I had my exams in september and scored badly , was ashamed of myself and decided to work more hard....after exams second sem began,
It was again prof singvi who was going to teach us MM2...I was like 'noooo ..not another 20 lectures of torture.....i.e 20*90mins=1800mins :banghead:'we worked hard for this sem , i remember in project report , next day we had PPT and the whole class was working on MM2 project report in the same common room for whole night
but all was in vain ( not totally but yes it was because it was prof singhvi)...so this term passed on....jan-march 2011
This was a bit relaxed because there was no prof singvi to make us struggle hard but we had someone else to take care of it.....it was prof RRC who taught GPE, she has this skill of pointing out to nyone who is even a bit sleepy and is a lil relaxed in his chair...he would then bear her wrath and was thrown out of class ...it was 8:30 am class and i remember i was sitting in last row...as usuall was sleepy although my eyes were open , suddenly she pointed and said 'mam if u r sleepy can walk out of class' :shock:I lost all my sleep that very moment ...and something else also happened ...for ppt of GPE ...our group was the first to present and she has this unique style of taking ppts that she decides the order in which students will present of a particular group.....we were lazy enough to prepare well and next day it all got screwed up...she was screeeming at us...and i was scared coz of her wrath( I even cried after class as it happened coz of me and felt bad that my group mates had to suffer coz of me) we were made to sit down in between ppt...:banghead:but in the end my group worked hard and we were able to impress the prof to some extent to make up for our mistake..I must say although lazy but my group was really supportive and noone blamed me screwed ppt :)
april-june 2011
this was the time for internship...I had in Grasim on trade and sales.It was another learning experience but much more relaxed because i was at home after almost 1 year.I learned many things on distribution channel during my training and it became a subject of my interest but at the same time the internship made me dead sure that marketing is not for me (sales specifically)
during this time we also got our 3rd term result and i was shocked to know that I scored A in GPE (cant be expressed what i felt....first A of MBA and that too in GPE in which i was scolded so badly)
july-september 2011
I was again back to college...this sem had most of elective subjects....and now we were in second year....it was really chilled out and much more different than wat it was before internship...professors were not so strict..this was the time when most of the students participated in bschools fest and add something worthy to their CVs...I also tried and in the end was successful in a few..this was also the time to prepare for upcoming fest in our college if you are part of some club or committee...
october -december 2011
Believe me it is much easier to take part in a contest but to organize it...it takes a lot of effort....u need to look of permissions from the authorities ,explain them about the events, get the budget which is most difficult , and then make it happen as planned...it requires a good dedicated team and if you lack it ..you are gone...which was case with my club, as the people were not motivated enough to work.but I somehow managed to organize few events during the fest and afterwards with my team members who were willing to work...I really felt good when I was done with a guest lecture that I organized ,learned many things on 'how to make things fall in place when you have the responsibility of everything' ....also after the fest we had our placements approaching....and all of us were again competing with each other...
i was filled with all kind of thoughts' what will happen if i dont get placed...how to clear GD ....how to prepare etc'.....I asked seniors who were working in the company which used to visit and prepare accordingly...and finally I was through in december on the day0 when 3 companies visited our campus ....that evening was memorable ....almost 30 people got jobs the same day and it was just awesome to be one of them and see everyone celebrating...
jan-march 2012
This went away just like that....it was fun...I used to be at home most of the time as we had just 3 subjects and ample of time to waste with placement done....
overall
I would say Cat is just the begining MBA is much more than CAT and demands much more hardwork than you put in for CAT....(if you make it to good bschool).They make you slog throughout first year....its like hell sometimes...with so much pressure...of so many things....
7 subjects for 3months(trisem)--->14 lectures each week (90 min -1 lecture)--->atleast 7 project works to do--->atleast 7 ppts to present in a group--->atleast 7 individual assignments to make---->many case studies to read and analyze each day..--->struggle hard to get good class participation and good grade....thats what it takes to be an MBA also ofcourse your willingness to follow the rules and regulations of the place and to learn something useful...(this is just a glimpse of MBA
)What I learned?
Honestly I learned how to write and speak on any topic....( do the required search until you get enough knowledge sort it out and then proceed)...most important to work in a team as i had never worked in a team (fresher)...
sometimes some member refuses to work and sometimes whole team refuses to work
...how to handle such situations....what to do when u screw up all the work of your team...and much more...to make a stand on your opinion and listen to others...and argue in a polite manner 😛 everything can't be put in words but it was a real education I have ever had in my life , never had such an experience in school or college...Thanks to my college and the faculty
This thread is a treasure to cherish for guys like us who are going to get into MBA this yr.Thanks to all the fellow pus to spare their precious times and write the long and useful posts which are exposing the real pictures of the insides of B Schools. Till now all posts hv been related to 2 yr regular MBAs.
As i am all set to enter 1 yr full time Executive MBA course so would request some puys already done with their EMBAs to post their experiences.:thumbsup:
One of the best threads & wonderful initiatives....wish i/we had known the better n apt 'truth' earlier(as now it comes from 'been there done that' league it's mch mre believable,theres always scepticism due to the hype/variations in opinions/acceptance of reality,knowledge of it/just mere social pressure...thnx!..
Interesting thread.. and I thought that I would have nothing to post once the admissions are done..
looking at the quality of previous replies, it would be unfair to post just for the sake of posting it.. that's where MBA's create problems. specially the marketing guys... they can write all gyan and all, and the finance guys suffer...
we only laugh our way through h the core finance subjects.. rest its all their game.... they are the ones who fill up answer sheets and take up the supplements!! 
I did take supplement in my last semester exam for the first time.. just to get the feel of it.. had to leave big margins to accomplish my goal..
Anyways, this post is already so long without much information in it.. you guys should thank your stars that I am not a marketing guy, else I would have written a longer post and then again the result would have been the same..
But I would surely come up with a 'Useful' post that would help the future aspirants..
With reference to the previous post by mayankleo_1, I'd like to say there are another breed of MBA graduates that speak more than Marketing guys and that is Strategy guys 😃 , and I happen to be one.
However I'll try and keep this post to the point as previous posts have been.
The beginning (1st term) - :shocked:
Any mba guy would instantly agree with me when I say that the first term was the most difficult of them all. Not just because of unfamiliar subjects like Accounting (for engineers) and Probability Distributions (For everyone 😃 , except the rare math guy/ girl).
In XLRI, we have the best professors in terms of teaching but also the toughest in terms of marking, and they all are concentrated in the first term. Within the first month, we were waking up till 5-6 am doing pre-reading of cases, 8 am deadline assignments and mammoth submissions (famous in XL as mother of all assignments, taking 5 days/5 nights to complete) . The main lesson learnt was, if there isn't enough time, you have to make your own time, which in this case came out of our sleep.
I had a lot of trouble coping with the new subjects after 4 years of work. But once the sleep pattern was taken care of, things started to fall in place.
Another important phase in the first term is the committee selections. Since important committees can add a good section in your CV, students stay up night after night, some in formals, for committee interviews.
Here is where you can choose between busy-with-committee-activities and a chilled-out mba life. I for one, chose to have a packed schedule by getting into the student affairs council.
Summer Placement Interviews - 
In XLRI, preparation for internship interviews start from the first term itself, with seniors breathing down your neck for first draft of CVs. Things move into another gear in the 2nd term, with crash courses in fin/mar/strategy, Mock GDs and interviews, all arranged by seniors. This is where the importance of seniors is most realized. Help is sought, and given, on literally all topics ranging from current affairs to tie selection to postures in interviews to even the occasional de-stressing talk over chai and sutta.
The interview experience is something one cannot be prepared for. I've seen people with good profiles wait till end of day 1 (IInd day) while their lesser illustrious friends are done on the morning of day 0 (Ist Day). You can only keep your chin up and get the basics right, as it is only the basics that are tested in the interviews. I'd like to give one advice to the work-ex guys, mainly IT work-ex guys (I was one too). Be prepared to wait it out, as most companies tend to go for freshers or with non-IT work-ex. (Don't worry, you will have the lateral placements catered just for you)
Summer Internships - 
The first tryst with the corporate world as an MBA :), this is where you understand the expectations from an MBA. For me, it was the most learning experience of my entire MBA. I was fortunate to have interacted with the CEO (L&T; General Insurance) and got to know the various facets of business a leader has to keep in mind. During the final presentation, he kept looking for financial aspects in marketing presentations, operational aspects in strategy presentations and so forth.
2nd Year of MBA 
If first year was about the grind of new subjects, 2nd year is the time for partying :). By this time, everyone is part of a group of friends who hang out together on campus. It is essential to have a good set of friends as a support system to cope up with the hectic life of a b-school. And as a fact, many relationships also begin during b-school life :).
Because of electives, the schedule changes quite drastically. I've had a week off more than once, followed by 3-4 days of 5 classes each day. In many ways, b-school replicates a corporate life with its uncertainties, projects and relationships with peers. My typical day would be, 2-3 classes spaced out in the day, with a couple of meetings with profs and admin regarding student concerns, couple of project group meets and late night committee meets.
B- School Competitions and Live projects 
During the first two terms in 2nd year, there is mad rush to spruce up CVs with B-School competitions and Live projects. While wins don't necessarily give you an advantage, it certainly gets you interview calls and a few talking points. But there have been cases where teammates with the same competition wins on their CVs have had entirely different placement experiences.
My suggestion would be to pick teams according to individual strengths. I was fortunate to be part of a good team in first year itself, where we won a prestigious event. In the 2nd year, it's all about picking the right event to participate in. One cannot devote 100% in all events (especially in XL where academics is very important, CV wise). So pick your events, give everything in those events, and results will definitely come. I picked a couple of operations based events (one from IIMB and another from XL) and came 1st in one and qualified for the finals for IIMB event.
Placements - Laterals and Finals 
Laterals are a god-given chance for IT Work-ex guys to redeem the troubles (if any) of summer interviews. Companies come specifically for people with experience, and certain companies actually prefer IT experience.
Consults are the main recruiters in laterals across campuses as they want candidates who have had client-facing roles in their previous organisations.
Marketing companies generally stay away from laterals but throng the Finals for young marketeers. Some finance companies prefer to come in Finals alone, but some do visit during laterals as well.
In XL Laterals begin during Dec, and Finals happen during Feb. During this time, the juniors take over the mantle of helping their seniors with the preparations. A very close bond is created between batches, more so in XLRI, because of the smaller batch size.
Pardon the lengthy post, as I've been out of writing habit for a long time. I hope I've been able to satiate the thirst of b-school enthusiasts who wanted a glimpse of the life led in campuses. In my opinion, each student will have a different experience to relate, but they'll all agree that it's one hell of a journey and worth every hour spent on the preparations :).
Cheers