Author: SK

While I was talking to a couple of hours back, I started reflecting on the various interviews I had on “day 0”. Just for the heck of it, I’ve been trying to figure out why only one of the four companies I applied to offered me a job. Think I’ve figured it out.

Problem with me is that I’m too honest. Too truthful. Like to call a spade a spade and allow the counterparty to decide how good the spade is. Make no efforts to mask the negative aspects of the spade. Believe there’s no point bluffing my way into a job; I might end up being unsuitable for it.

Playing back the videotapes of the interviews in my mind, I seem to have projected this image of this chilled out stud. Looking back at the “cases”, I don’t think any of them would have had any problems with my problem solving skills. I handled most cases rather adeptly, and there was also stuff on my resume to show that I have good problem solving skills.

Where I “went wrong” was that I allowed them to see that I am this chilled out guy who likes to have his share of fun. I didn’t show them that I’m a “fighter”. I showed myself as a guy who’s capable of doing really well, but hasn’t actually lived up to it (unspectacular CGs). I showed myself as a guy who likes to chill (“some friends think I’m this really chilled out guy”, “If I were to change the way I lived at IIT, I would’ve probably tried to have more fun”). As I see it, they wanted to see a guy who says he’ll get married to his work and put in as many hours as required.

Anyways, I’m happy I told them the truth. I’m happy I managed to show them the person I am, rather than subjecting them to a rude shock a couple of months down the line. I’m happy I didn’t have to bluff my way into a job. I’m happy one of the four firms liked me the way I am, and wanted me to join them.

That is the magic number I take out of IIMB. Not very different from the 8.91 (out of 10) I got at IITM. Yet another unspectacular performance. Something that is above average, but not something people would exactly look up to.

This number could have been higher if I had put more fight into the more uninteresting courses. This number could have been higher had I chosen my courses more carefully – with one eye on this number. This number could have been higher had I chosen to lick profs a little more than I did. It could have been higher had I cut out all those sessions of wing cricket, of the Age of Empires, long conversations, bitching sessions.

When I walked into IIMB, I was the topper of the entrance exam. And I thought with some effort I could top here too. Mugged earnestly in 1st term. And then, from topper I started aiming for just being in the “director’s merit list”. And then my ambition changed to a “straight A” – A in all courses. And then I started aiming at a 3.4 .

A 2.7 in “managing organizations” changed all that. Summer internship in my then “chosen sector” and a 1.88 in Marketing didn’t help my cause either. Completely gave up on acads after that. A brief return to effort in 4th term was also quickly vanquished and here I am – with a very unspectacular CGPA.

Looking back, I had no regrets. Going out of IIMB, I’ve got a job in my now chosen “sector” (don’t know if consulting can be classified as a sector). I had a lot of fun in my 2 years here. Built many relationships, personal and professional. Enjoyed quite a few courses. Managed to get A in most courses I liked. A 4 on 4 in a total of five courses. Being seen as a “quant stud” (side effect of which being not too many people saw me as a consultant).

Some people saw me as a fighter. A few thought I was a freerider. Some considered me to be a stud. Others thought I’m this general guy who just cracks entrance exams. Some still think I can’t see beyond my books. Others think I’m a chilled out guy. Probably this is why I had so much trouble in answering the question “what do your friends say about you?” in the interviews four days back.

I’m so happy I came to IIMB. And now, it’s a mixed feeling of excitement and worry and nostalgia as I move out into the corporate world. My student life seems to have gotten over far quicker than I had anticipated it to.

Amen.

Have been suffering from lack of sleep for a long time now. It’s about a month since I woke up all fresh and raring to go. Last 3-4 days (after my placements), I’ve been managing 8-9 hours a day, but still I wake up with my arms and legs feeling really weak, with a slight temperature, head throbbing and wanting to get back to sleep.

For about a month now, I’ve been inexplicably being woken up really early in the morning. On some lucky days I wake up at 8, while on some others I’m up and about by 7. Considering that I sleep not before 2 AM, it’s resulting in a huge deficit.

Wondering why this is happening to me. Could it be because I put a little too much pressure on myself before placements? Could it be general fatigue? Or is it some weird health problem I’m facing? Or some psychological problem?

Whatever it is, I better sort it out before I start work on May 2nd. Can only get worse then.

Suddenly “inspired” by an arbit conversation with a friend, I happened to rummage my almost defunct yahoo mailbox and look through some old mails. a series of exchanges with her, circa early 2004.

Given the current context, it made really insightful reading. Rather short exchanges (though at times i would write really long mails). Mostly to the point, though I used to (even before i started on my MBA) put a little globe here and there. Discussed a multitude of issues. Occasional fights and misunderstandings. some things we’d told each other then we’ve told each other in the recent past.

Some things I told her then I’d never think of telling her now. Wondering what she used to think of me those days! Some things remain though. Me writing long mails. The occasional apology. Some things I told her then I still believe in.

Looking at the “collection” it looks like some mails I’ve deleted sometime. Kicking myself for that. And I remember telling her then something to the effect of “our conversations are so insightful that if one of us were to become famous, the other can publish these letters and also become famous!” Still believe so.

We had our “day zero” on Friday. As I had told you before, I had interviews scheduled with four big consulting firms. Had a total of fourteen interviews on the day, including 11 “case interviews”.

Must say that I did pretty well in at least 9 of my 11 cases. However, I slightly goofed up when it came to “personal questions”. All of them asked me exactly the same questions and I turned in almost exactly the same (practised) answers. Stuff like my weaknesses, people i look up to, what significant stuff I’ve done, what makes me happy, what makes me sad and similar kind of stuff.

One question, however, with which three consultants stumped me was “Given you JEE rank it seems like your CGPA is very low.” Had a tough time defending that. Once again, I have the same answer everywhere but didn’t seem to have much impact. Guess I’ll have to live with this fact for the rest of my life. I haven’t quite lived up to expectations.

Coming to other things, the papers are awash with news today that 65 people from IIMB have got “day zero” offers. They talk about daddu who set the record for the highest salary for an IIM grad. They also mention the names of all the day zero recruiters and AT Kearney finds a little bit of space there. On account of this news item, there have been quite a few incoming calls today, both to home and on my cellphone.

My mind goes back six years, to the day when we had our “graduation ceremony” at National Public School. Our principal had then said, “now that you people are leaving school, you’ll cease to be a name. you’re just going to be a number. a statistic”. Can’t disagree with that one! I don’t matter. I’m just one of the 65 who got placed on a particular day in IIMB.

Mulk Raj Anand, in his short story “Old Bapu” had written something to the effect of “when death is near, all significant events of your life start flashing in your head” (don’t remember the exact line, this is approximately correct though).

Must say today has been a day of heavy day-dreaming. Shut all my books at noon, and am “trying to chill”. going home, going on a long drive through the busy traffic in the middle of the city, playing wing cricket, eating lots of curd rice for dinner… yeah i know i’m bullshitting here but who cares!

Coming back to the point i was trying to make, I’ve been remembering lots of stuff that have happened to me over the last few years. some great, some good, some that makes me stab myself with an imaginary knife, some that make me want to jump out of the corridor here…

Anyways, I’m telling you perhaps for the third time that placements start tomorrow. Hope to sleep well tonight.

And as they said in a recent movie, “Some people die screaming… some die silent… but then there are these people of a third kind… “

As I had told you guys earlier, our campus placements begin on Friday. Till yesterday I was quite peaceful, and wasn’t letting that bother me too much. No “exam fever”, no stress, no tension; just plain chilling out, playing wing cricket and stick cricket, and the occasional mock case interview.

Last night I was chatting with a friend from IIMC. He has been placed with Phi. He started telling me about the interview process at IIMC, and how Phi, Ksi and Omicron have all made a good number of offers there. Just hope that they keep up the numbers here also, and hopefully increase it.

Somehow, it’s now sunk into me that ‘the process’ has begun. I feel the twang of tension. Have started stuttering like a parrot ever since. Hopefully I should be able to maintain my cool on the D-day.

Our placements begin this friday. I’m hoping to get into a management consultancy firm. Applied to four of them, and all of them have shortlisted me. Hoping to do well on the D-day.

Anyways the point of the post is about the hardsell that these companies are doing prior to the placement process. They seem to be going out of their way in order to make sure all our doubts are cleared, so that we make an “informed choice”, and all that jazz.

Company Phi has allotted “buddies” to each fo the shortlisted candidates. These buddies help out in the preparation and are responsible for answering the candidate’s queries. The buddy typically happens to be a not very senior alumnus who is not a part of the recruitment team. So we can “feel free” to ask him/her anything. My buddy happened to be somene I’ve been in touch with over the last few months regarding my career, so it was all the more easy for me.

Company Chi sent a mail regarding their process and also a “podcast” with some more info on their India operations (haven’t heard it yet). They also had informal “information sessions” on campus where some consultants clarified doubts. They’ve also said that we can expect a call from one of their more junior members soon so that we can clarify our doubts.

Now, the problem here is that there are so many people who offer to help you, after a point of time you feel you don’t need any help. Still you have occasions like this afternoon when I was woken up by an abrupt call from a consultant from Company Ksi. It was an ISD call btw. It’s not a nice thing, you know, to tell someone that you don’t have any questions. So I ask him the same questions I’d asked some 10 people before this, and got the same answers!

Company Omicron, in order to “differentiate themselves”, “treated” us at the Taj West End today. We were ferried back and forth in Lancers. Booze was also served, but I didn’t want to put arbit CP so abstained. Gorged myself on orange juice. Starters were also decent. And the horrible dinner was compensated for by decent desserts.

Now, the thing is there are 35 of us “shortlists” and 5 consultants. An average of 7 of us crowd around a consultant and ask him/her “pertinent” questions. The same 20 questions which we would have asked every consultant we’ve met in the last few weeks (and we’ve met quite a few of them). And they give us “pertinent” answers. 20 practiced answers for our 20 practiced questions. Halfway through the event, we had all become consultants. Now, we can all give perfectly valid answers to each of those 20 questions, both on consulting in general and Omicron in particular.

These consultants love to talk!! And they don’t mind saying the same thing over and over again also, as long as they’re saying something.

And yeah, I still want to be a consultant! And all you consultants who are reading this, hope this won’t adversely affect my chances at this friday’s interviews!

Supposed to be inspired by the Chakravyuha in the Mahabharata. A test of strength, stamina and endurance. Seven men taking on seven men, or you can say one man taking on seven men. One of the main reasons for my joining the RSS. The main reason India features (rather, used to feature; bastards scrapped it) on the medals tally in Asian games. Yeah, the title says it all.

I’m writing about it because of the unusual teamwork I’ve seen in this game. When a guy from the opposite side enters your half, holding his breath, six of the seven people form a chain, and the seventh guy stays away from the chain. Now, it is the seventh guy’s responsibility to somehow lure the opponent deep into the court, so that the other six can can quickly converge on him and trap him. There are these occasions where the opponent quickly runs from one end of the court to the other. Now the “defender” at the other end breaks loose adn the original loose guy joins the chain.

What I’m trying to hint at here is that there are occasions where ALL members of a team should not stick together but there should be one guy who stands separately and works independently, while striving towards a common goal. I know this idea sounds pretty lame without a practical example, but I’m not able to come up with one right now. Tell me if you find any.