Back from my exams
The way the forum started I never in my wildest dream thought we'd have so many active users and most importantly that such a community building exercise would become such a reality. The most important aspect of this community are the members. People who come back and contribute. People who type loooong posts, after taking out from their work and other schedules so that others might benefit. People who truly care about others. Hell, I've made quite a lot of friends too and I hope so have all of you.
The "Alumni" section for me holds high importance for 2 major reasons.
1) Networking - A-la making more friends and remaining that way.
2) Knowledge.
I'll tackle both this aspects below -
1) Networking - Allrighty, this is a professional word and I absolutely hate it. I would like to remain friends with most of the people out here and would like to see how it turns out for everyone.
Looking at the B V/s C thread, I get a feeling that the perspective is wrong, mainly because there are no decent posters from either B or C to help us out in making the decision. I am sure this won't happen next year. We'd already have folks in almost all the BSchools and at that time it won't be too tough to come to a rational decision ( mainly because we would be aware of the posting style/knowledge of the alumni ).
5 years down the line, I would like to know where the guys are working. Possible ? I am sure you guys would love to know too. Wouldn't we all live to share in each others lives/careers etc ?
In 2 years , I believe the forums will become a monolith of information and frankly it would be the first case of people knowing each other from the IIMs and other institutes. Would it be possible for guys in A to catch hold of guys in L who are their pals to get further information ? I think we can do that here.
Foreign placements ? National Placements ? Those questions can be answered in a jiffy. That is because of the immense amount of trust that is held amongst each other. Would people need to rely on Business mags or coolavenues for inflated figures, or would we guys be able to get the information straight from the guys in the institutes ?
5 years hence.. would we hold the feeling to be able to pick up the phone and call up any of the members we know to hold an impromptu meeting ? I think that is possible and I'd personally love to see that. I don't think its impossible.
2) Knowledge - When was the last time we saw a post from an IIM grad on the forums or any other forum ? Possibly we are heading to become the first place to have such information. I'd like to know what is available in IIMC's canteen.. err.. possible ? Would it be possible for us to discuss about professors in the IIMs ? Can I check up with members as to who is the guru prof. of finance in IIM C or the ace prof. for marketing in IIM B ? Can I drop those names in an IIM interview ? Can I tell the IIM guys during the interview.. that I want to do marketing here.. due to this prof.. that prof... his dissertations on this subject etc etc..
A bit farfetched ? May be. But I think that is possible. Given 2/3 years and enough patronage, we can literally change the way the IIM's conduct their interviews. Once they get guys who can actually tell them the name of the profs. and the price of chai in their canteen.. trust me.. they'll have to reevaluate their plans 
Boy.. I can type on and on.. But you guys won't read and comment ! !
Implementation of the Alumni forum -
Guys trust me.. I am as hazy as everyone on this issue. I was thinking about the privacy issue pointed out and also felt that if each institute wasn't given their space, it wouldn't be right.
So we have 2 options -
1) A single Alumni Forum -
The easiest way out. All common discussion about institutes etc from guys who have been here and are now "there"
2) Multiple Sub-Forum -
This one was so complex that even I choked on the idea for a while
What if we end up setting up individual forums for IIM A , B, C, L , I , K & ICFAI and other institutes where we have a representation. I have a couple of ideas related to this :
Each sub forum for an insitute will have its own moderator who will an alumni of the institute. A-la Philip can be the moderator for the IIM A discussion forum on the board. This allows us a couple of advantages. Any junk posting will be handled by the guy from IIM A himself. Plus it would be very easy to identity students who might pose as "IIM A" grads.
Also such forums can be given a 'group' control. i.e Individual users on the forum will need to be authorized by philip to the join the IIM A forum. This allows the moderator to have complete access on the people who frequent the specific forum. It would be the moderator's prerogative to decide who to let in and who not to.
This way we can elimate 'junk posters'. Also the forums are completely moderated by the Mod Squad and on top of that by the moderator of the sub forum too.
Phew.. I WANT to hear from you guys
Signing off to rehydrate muhself !
woweeeeee....dat is sum deep thinking mate....
when i had to evaluate B-Schools, when my friends had to do that...all we had were the Biz Mags and the odd name-dropping by coaching centre ppl...we had no one to speak to...no one who'd been there and done all that....
if all of us here maintained propah links with PG, if we got back weekly or even monthly, if that could really happen, (and as u said, it aint impossible)....this site would start getting talked abt in the very Biz Mags i bought for all the gyan...
abt the sub~moderators...absolutely..jus the way a club is sposed to be...with membership rules, pre-reqs n evrything so that the gatecrashers dont get in...all i can think of is....yahoogroups wont have that many new MBA clubs formed nxt year 😃 and apart from competition for Gen.Sec and other posts on campus, i'm sure 5yrs down the line, if the concept really kicks off..ppl will be queueing up to be sub-mods at PG! 😁
ok...i'm just back from a horrendous exam and i've got another on the morrow...so cant think much abt all this...jus posting my initial thots...
but PG man, if you were planning all this, howd u write your exams???
Good idea Allwin...
I guess this would be the only place where you would have some decent interschool communication... And going by our curiosity just before the CAT resuslts and IIM results, I guess the same would be the case of summers/placements etc. More than the ppl inside the IIMs , it mite be the ppl outside who are more interested, due to the lack of info outside.
I am not completely clear about the multiple forum funda. Coz if we end up having multiple forums for each institute with entry restricted, what is the point in discussing here. Or is it just that only very few will have "write" permissions there, but all will have "read" permissions.
I think a single forum would be the best idea. We can have multiple threads like out cat section. One for summer placements, one for placements, one for ur mid terms etc. And now the question of ppl posing as IIM/or other B-School grads. I think that is the one to be tackled.
We need some way to identify the ppl to which institute they belong. May be even catters can post in the Alumni section for gettting any info, but alumni and aspirants shud be easily recognizable. One way is using the avtars like myself and Morpheus is using now. But now anyone can use a IIMA or FMS logo as avtaar. If that can be controlled and access of such avtaars can be left to 2-3 students of that institute, that will do the trick. Otherwise if we can have some field like the rank, which will be displayed and can be controlled by the moderator, that also will do the trick.
Just my thoughts... Guys pour in with ur ideas... Just waiting for the new section ...
Xman :
but PG man, if you were planning all this, howd u write your exams???
Who said I wrote anything ? I'm all set to flunk in 2 papers
Philip :
None of has a very good idea of how a Bschool works and probably this may be the first time we can actually have a fair idea of how it works inside those hallowed portals.
I am not completely clear about the multiple forum funda. Coz if we end up having multiple forums for each institute with entry restricted, what is the point in discussing here. Or is it just that only very few will have "write" permissions there, but all will have "read" permissions.
I guess I complicated the issue a bit too much over there. If we have multiple forums, we can restrict or simply let it be public. That is simply the choice we have. The restriction was based on the thought that we may have too many 'posers' and 'junkers', I don't think that will happen.. but if it ever did the forum is geared to handled that :)
I think a single forum would be the best idea. We can have multiple threads like out cat section. One for summer placements, one for placements, one for ur mid terms etc. And now the question of ppl posing as IIM/or other B-School grads. I think that is the one to be tackled.
This is a distinct possibility and since we have so few IIM grads on board I guess a single forum way should be the way to go. As for posing.. unless the guys are junking .. we can't really doubt them .. can we ? But since we already have guys in all the IIMs... identification won't be too much of an issue ( I hope ).
If that can be controlled and access of such avtaars can be left to 2-3 students of that institute, that will do the trick. Otherwise if we can have some field like the rank, which will be displayed and can be controlled by the moderator, that also will do the trick.
I think the only way we can solve this issue is when it actually crops up. As of now we know who has got in where.. but once the guys are in.. there is a possibility that other folks from the IIMs will join in.. and pretty much the only way to confirm would be through the actual PG'ites in those IIMs.
I am not completely clear about the multiple forum funda. Coz if we end up having multiple forums for each institute with entry restricted,
I think what PG meant was that although entry is not restricted, the context of the posting is however under moderation.
What one needs to see is that postings do not veer off the course
I ll get back with some views I have collated after sometime
Amit
Hi,
Don't have the time to compete with you guys on the length of my post . Just how do you do it 
.
I have to agree with Pagalguy on the points he has raised and see n reason to doubt his vision. With the start we have had at this forum, as long as we have efficient moderation (read policing), the community spirit should linger. We have a great bunch out here and as Urmad rightly pointed out a really diverse one.
To business then... lets just start with a general alumni forum for now and have a couple of the alumni moderate it. To identify whether a poster is a fake or not, he can always get in touch with one of our regular members- we have atleast a couple in all the major schools. Philips ideas for the avatars or ranks to identify alumni would help too. Sub-Forums could be added as and when the general forum starts to get unmanagable or the Junta feel that it is required . I say let the forum grow naturally rather than confine it to subforums straightaway.
More to say... but got to go now
--Jassim
hello all,
i think its a great idea to have an "alumni" section. I must say that
i have gained a lot from this forum and im more
than willing to contribute and help folks who'll applying to
B-schools next year. and of course staying in touch with ppl
who have made it thru this year sounds great too.... PG,those
long term plans are perfectly workable i think.
I know that the B vs C debate was lil weird coz none of the ppl who
posted had spent even a single day in either B or C..
but, i think it was still useful.. coz diff. ppl posted what they knew and of course
things will be a lot diff. next time as we'll hv ppl studying in IIMs posting.
PG forums will therefore be a lot more reliable than any of those Biz Mags etc.
and about identifying ppl who are posing as a particular B-school grad..well.. one thing that a b-school grad will hv and a poser wont is an email address ..for ex. .i'll hv sth like [email protected].. i think this cud be used to identify the guy..or is there any other way? and he cud be given a rank of sth like "PG Alumni-IIMB" .. then it'll be easy for ppl reading the post to figure out if the guy is actually a b-school grad or not..
i agree with subbu .. single forum right now sounds like a better idea..we can go to the next level at a later stage
we can literally change the way the IIM's conduct their interviews.
Can we? ..im sure we will..
PG forums entering a new phase..
i'll hv sth like [email protected].. i think this cud be used to identify the guy..or is there any other way? and he cud be given a rank of sth like "PG Alumni-IIMB"
Swell Idea deepak. Thanks also for staying around :). I like the email idea. Pretty much no way to fake that email address in the profile of the forum. Also people with those email address/confirmed guys et gals can get custom ranks based on the institute they are in.
Since we hardly have too many alumnis, custom ranks won't be too much of a problem and I think we can handle that 😃
wah Pagalbabu......badhiya hain!!!!
am a lil too zonked rightnow to contribute any ideas...but if u need an IIMC rep..u got me!!!..
will get back tomorrow with my suggestions....
Now that we have decided on PG Alumni/ College Rep body and only its implementation (PG is gonna do it soooooooooon )is pending , I think we can discuss, what kind of information Alumni/Rep needs to come up with as we go from here to BSchool
I believe one shud start with what a CAT/BSchool aspirant wants to know (for which he has to rely on grapevine and Biz Mags)
1) Profile of Students enrolled in a BSchool (often pie charts are given but i dont think they are of any help), their GD/interview experiences.
Here we are talking abt collating all the experiences under one thread so some definite pattern might appear
2) Inside news on Faculty (here I am assuming we ll be different than others by bringing the true picture)
3) Information abt the events which normally do not make it to the BSchool Website.
4) Faqs abt School /Hostel / City life/ Local Gyan which normally wont be available anywhere else
5) Summers/Placement Process (note that i have used word "Process" and not "Scene" )
Amit
Ps There wud be hajaar things i might have missed, so please come forward and add to this list.
how to go abt it.....??? guess a single forum will suffice for now......a shortage of numbers too as of now i feel , for separate sub-forums....and we might also have a problem in which ppl coonfine themselves to only their institute sub-forum........
I guess its the best way to go like some here hv already opined.
to add a few things
Other trivial things like the fun-scene (!) @ college - the games , the grass , the gir.. so on
Also we cud know abt inter-collegiate fests and exchange relevant info abt 'em too
Also, stuf like which prof's subject will be prove to be ur nemesis, survival tricks, free-riders' tips et al
Yeah and also u cud provide references to the work u r doing at college like the papers u hv presented , the competions u hv won , the records u broke on the LAN-scene in short the brag it al section
And we can also hv a 'vent it out' thread (if possible with the posters id remaining anonymous! or better to nail him later it can be be made known !)to let loose the bottled emotions and negative vibes at B-school- this might reduce such things happening in other threads ....
Hi All,
The Alumni Section is a very good initiative. Well, the other day, what started out as a discussion about the issues raised on a couple of other threads, turned out into a very good discussion/argument between PG and myself. Even those kinds of arguments could be present on the alumni section. Bascially, we were discussing (arguing ) about the entry criteria adopted by the B-Schools here and the ones in US. These kind of discussions give u an insight into the minds of other similar aspirants. Well, they certainly need not be confined to this thread alone, but once a guy/girl is actually in School, the perspective (PG's fave word ) may change and it will be nice to hear from them on these kinda issues, after they are IN there. So other upcoming MBA aspirants can get an idea as to which B-School will be the best fit for them.
And yeah, apart from serious issues, this thread/sub-forum can be used to discuss some of the lighter things as well (as most of you have mentioned). That would be fun.
One thing's for sure. I would certainly like to be associated with this forum for a long time to come. It has given me a lot and I would certainly like to give back and on a regular basis
Regards,
Bharath
I'll smack you bharath if you dont stay around for a few dozen years !
I'm waiting to hear from others too. One thing folks.. this is not only about the IIMs. Any school , any country and everyone is welcome to contribute their views. I'm also waiting to check out posts from folks who are getting into ANY Bschool. Please don't let this thread be only about the IIMs.
The Alumni Section is up !
http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/viewforum.php?f=9
You can open your thread and have fun. But for any discussion about the future, suggestions etc.. this thread can be used.
Regards,
guys....this one just occurred to me.....now, the new alumni forum is supposed to be for ppl from any b-school ......presently we have folks who are lined up to join a few schools....but i'm sure once all the folks get in, more from their respective schools are bound to join.....then, doesn't the name Alumni talk sound , well, a bit off-place....it sure makes sound sense to all of us that have been here for quite some time.so mebbe is it a better idea to call it a general b-school forum with something specific for the 50 odd guys that wil be joining somewhere this year....??? just my thoughts..... whatsay ppl??
Cheers
Me too feel the same way. Mebbe it is better to modify the name before the current one gets stuck..
guys its a gr8 idea ,though i dont know how to join the alumni grp ......well i have been out of touch for some time.
so some help is required!
aditya
though i dont know how to join the alumni grp
hi aditya....it ain't any closed grp pal.....its another forum on pg.com ,,,,the difference being it is mainly meant for the folks at pg who've now been thro' the whole exercise and are getting into one or the other b-school......but quite as open to anyone.... 😃 ...u cud find the forum here....
http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/viewforum.php?f=9
go thro' this thread from the start to get an idea of what ppl have been discussing abt this in the past few days before the forum was born.....
Cheers
Allrighty folks.. I kind of had a small feeling this would come up and that's the reason I didn't use the word PG Alumni in the creation of the forum.
Its Alumni Talk -> General Discussions
What do you folks propose we change it to ?