My MBA Journey intertwined with my Life

The calm after the storm

2011-04-19T21:21:00.000-04:00

Today I can feel this calm. The storm just passed by. I did not even have time to wallow myself in self-pity after my 6 rejections because I was completing the last two courses for the M.Eng degree. Today, I just wrote my final test (hopefully) for the M.Eng program. However the battle begins in a way, because now I have to explain to business schools why I had to complete the M.Eng as they might find me as a candidate who is just after acronyms after the name.

On the other hand, I got some good news. In spite of a very poor application year, I have something to cheer about. I got selected as a nomine for the Clear Admit Best of Blogging Awards 2010-2011. Though my blog is not even close to Richard Battle Baxter's ELLIPSING MY WAY...TO BUSINESS SCHOOL in terms of blog output, I am extremely humbled by the fact that I was chosen for this award. I take solace that someone out there liked my posts and that gives me encouragement to blog more for the next application cycle. Maybe I will take Richard's place now that he will retire to his peaceful life at Cornell.

And now, I proudly show my Clear Admit BoB Nominee Badge.

6 Thumbs Down

2011-03-01T00:25:00.000-05:00

In other words - 6 rejections. Harvard (my dream school), MIT Sloan (my second dream) and Wharton (my third favorite) along with Columbia, Booth and Kellogg have rejected me officially for this application season. I knew I was gambling with this decision to go for the M7 schools only - but for an international student with no long term plan to stay in the USA, going for a second tier school was similar to selling a part of myself. And I refused to do that. If I get an MBA it will only be from a world renowned brand. If not this year, then next year. If not next year, then the year after. But I will not compromise my dreams.

Time to now pick up the pieces and restart the process. Though I promise that I will have a more diversified application next season - i.e. I will include Asian, US and European schools in my application.

Schools I will not apply to:
Kellogg - boring campus and very much outside the city. I cannot live there
Booth - great campus but the commuter school idea does not appeal to me
Columbia - non US-cosigner loan not available + essays do not have much in it to express themselves.

Schools that continue to be on my list: HBS, Wharton, MIT

Schools I want to add to my list: Indian School of Business, London Business School, INSEAD, IIM A/B/C

Right now my focus is to get an MBA with which I can make a killing in any part of the world. With China and India leading the economic recovery and predicted to lead the world economy, I believe having a degree which is respected in India/China will be not just be beneficial but crucial on the career ladder.

I also need to look at my application in retrospect and try to improve every single portion of my application in the time I have in front of me.

Till then...adieu and May India win the cricket World Cup.

its a small world (TM)

2011-01-12T20:44:00.000-05:00

First off Happy New Year to everyone!

Special mention to Lady B for not only helping out with my trip planning to Orlando and helping me review all my essays but also getting admitting to B-town Medical School!! Since this was your dream school, you deserve to celebrate and I have been a bad friend for not inviting you to lunch.

A lot has happened since my last post. I had the interview on the Kellogg campus on the 19th of November. This is one of the cases where I realized that I didn't want to go to the school after I landed there. Evanston is a very small nice town but spending 2 years of my life there was unimaginable. Also the Jacobs Center reminded me of all old UofT buildings. It will be wrong if I do not say I was a tad bit disappointed. However, the energy among the students was fantastic. But, but, but...they rejected me. Not trying to make a story of the "sour grapes" here but I would still have preferred to have the rejection decision in my hand and not in Kellogg's. Following that, I had a ding from MIT. That one hurt actually. Not my dream school but it is MIT. An engineer's dream land. And Boston is also my favorite city in the US.

In sum my 25th year did not start in the best way possible until I decided to address the very fundamentals of being young - so I decided to meet Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. I packed my bag and went off to Orlando for a family vacation. And I will be wrong if I did not say that the Magic Kingdom truly took me out of reality and transported me to the land of the Past, Future and Fantasy. It was truly magical. Rarely have I enjoyed a trip this much. Kudos to Walt Disney for creating not such a wonderful business concept but also for spreading the joy to one and all. I was really sad when the vacation ended and I had to get back from warm Florida to extremely cold Toronto. The only thing that I had to look forward to was finishing off my R2 apps.

And finally R2 apps are officially in. The wait has begun and I have officially blocked gmatclub and business week forums with passwords, which I dont know. That is right, I made someone else enter them. This is the time for me to get address to each of my New Year's resolutions.

And here they are:
1. Lose 30 lbs. That is right, I am going extra because I know in May I will gorge on Kookie Jar cakes. For those who do not know - Kookie Jar is the BESSSSST bakery in the whole wide world.
2. See all the TV shows that I have not seen in the last 4 years.
3. Play racquetball aggressively.
4. Start learning guitar (I inherited a hand-made wooden German guitar - I was told it is very expensive today).
5. Upgrade my desktop and get a 27" Mac. Enough with Windows. Seriously!!!
6. Learn to dance and save my life.
7. Go on photography expeditions with my new DLSR. (Alvin please plan something!)
8. Go to Puri when I visit India. I have not followed up on my promise to Lord Jagganath.
9. Cook more often. Try to go for cool dishes and create a better Confyt Byaldi than Henrique's.
10. Revisit Disney.

And leaving you all with some pictures from my Disney World tour. Till then..everyone keep well and think positive.

Movember or Govember

2010-11-16T10:54:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately I am not growing a mustache. I wish I could but considering that I am already a woman repealer, adding the mustache would have just made it worse. Since, Movember was not in my option list, I decided to go with Govember (GMAT in November).

I took the GMAT on Sunday the 14th and I can proudly say that I am a part of the 700 club and I have a score that I am comfortable with.

Lessons Learnt:
1. Dont have red-bull or 5-hour energy before the test. It makes your mind run fast and you cannot concentrate. If you require energy, have a energy bar. Do not go for a super caffeine rich drink.
2. Disconnect Facebook if you can. I gained atleast 1-2 hours a day by temporarily deactivating my account.
3. Manhattan CATs are the best resource after the GMAT Prep. Jeff Sackman's quant is the best one out there to learn up GMAT math - I personally felt that it was better than the Manhattan Quant guides.
4. Manhattan SC maybe the bible, but contains a LOT of information. You need to practise on real GMAT like questions and put the whole thing together. The book lacks that, so I really loved Knewton's SC lessons. Dave Ingber at Knewton made it simple. Then Tony Calderone my Manhattan GMAT tutor helped me breakdown SC even further.
5. Be positive especially when you hit the plateau
6. For people scarred of SC - get modifiers, comparisons and pronouns corrected. These three are the biggest ones that most people mess up with. Once I got these sorted, I got much better at SC.
7. It is only a 3.5 hr exam. THE GMAT HAS NO RIGHT TO MAKE OR BREAK YOUR FUTURE. I told myself this and I went for the re-take.
8. I was doing a part-time masters in engineering, studying for the gmat, writing the apps and working overtime because of some complex projects at work. DO NOT DO IT. I feel so relieved now that I have reduced my activities to 3 from 4.

Now on to greater activities - essays.

Octo-whatttt

2010-10-27T22:09:00.003-04:00

Don't worry. I am not blogging about Octo-moms. Coming to think about it, I believe October should be the name for the 8th month and not the 10th month. That makes sense. Next aim in life is to rebel against the Gregorian calendar.

October just flew by. I didn't even notice but its 27th of October today. I only got two things done - applied to 2 top-5 schools. I am a little superstitious and that is why I go a little secretive on these things. So if I hear anything positive, I will openly and loudly shout out the names of the two schools.

The only thing to look forward to is the extra hour of sleep this Sunday. Ahh I really need that sleep.

Now I am in for R2 schools. Busy Busy...Busy as a Bee.

P.S. Also installed Office for Mac 2011 today. Pretty cool so far.

Its been long

2010-09-16T00:13:00.000-04:00

Wow oh how. I almost forgot about blogging.

Busy times my friend - GMAT, essays for b school apps, Masters in Engineering, high work load and well...summer.
What I lost - sleep, body shape and social life.
Why I look forward to b-school: regain a normal life, have a social life (aka meet girls) and go to squash court and the gym.

If I get into a b school I will make up for my absence.

P.S. Antaheen is one of the most beautiful Indian movies I have seen. Why isn't Bollywood like this?? I felt a huge sense of void after seeing the film.

Also Shreya Ghoshal has the sweetest voice in the world. I wish I could marry her and listen to her day in and day out. Well she is Bengali and Brahmin so all I need to ask my parents is to approach her parents. Also I follow her on twitter and she is the only celebrity who sometimes replies to me. Pronto. Arranged marriage fixed. Meh, she will reject me anyway. She is a celebrity and I am looking to quit my job and become a student again.

Till another time when I remember to make a post. Adios.

This one is for my Bhaiya

2010-06-27T00:11:00.000-04:00

Today is exactly 1 month. One month ago I lost one my good friends, my confidante, my near foster mother, my grand mother. Dadi is the Indian word for Grand-mother. I was taught to call her Dadiya but my young tongue had a hard time pronouncing that word. I could barely speak out Bhaiya. That name remained for the last 24 years. I called her Bhaiya and she called me back by the same name.

I last spoke to her on the 24th of May. I would call her every weekend and speak to her for a good 30 min. Even if it was extremely late I would make sure that I call her - not for myself - but I knew that she would wait for 7 days thinking of this time when she will get to speak to me. It was like a drug that made her survive for the next 7 days. Ever since I moved to Canada she had nearly lost her willingness to live. Even though she might have been able to bear the fact that I moved to Canada, it was extremely difficult for her to digest the fact that my entire family would leave for Canada. So her consolation was the phone call that helped her to survive for the last 6 years.

My phone conversations with her dealt mainly with my future plans. She would enquire each week of my gmat preparations, mba preparations, and school selection and other things that are going on at my end. She would advise me and give me encouragement whenever I was down. I miss talking to her. Its been 2 weeks since I have returned to Canada and my hands automatically go towards dialing her phone number - the phone rings but there is no answer. Its only after 8-10 rings that I realize I have lost that person forever, I wont hear that voice again and she will never wish me "Best of luck and Durga Durga" at the end of each conversation. With a heavy heart I go back to my work. I tell myself she is there in my heart and she is following what I am doing. She will smile when I get into a top ranking B-school. I will truly dedicate that admit to her.

My Bhaiya! She was truly a neat freak - having put a layer over the sofa cover to avoid the dust!

This one is dedicated to Australia

2010-05-14T22:08:00.000-04:00

Have been very very busy over the last two weeks. Just completed a intense 2 week course in Financial Engineering - so any one needing an analysis on investment or a creation of a portfolio do not forget moi.

GMAT classes with Knewton are rocking. I am not sure what the end result will be but the verbal classes are a blessing in disguise. Dave Ingber@ Knewton rocks and I am very lucky that he was selected to teach this particular course that I am enrolled in.

Just saw a stupid movie last week called Housefull but there must be special mention of Deepika Padukone. She is rocking the world - she is all over the city of Toronto in her Tissot commercials and she graced the Cannes in a beautiful and sexy sari.

Over the last two weeks, I have not been able to sleep before 1-2 AM. Finally I have the chance today. Must say I am very very impressed by Australia's performance today against Pakistan in the WT20. I am mean they are the TEAM. I should take the ranking away from India and South Africa and hand it over to Australia. Definitely CHOKERS like India and South Africa do not deserve this at all.

Little bit on MBA - my school selections are still going on. So far I am sure that I will apply to MIT and HBS. I am having second thoughts on Stanford - its a greats school but is there going to be a return on my investment of effort to write those essays. Still aiming for 5 schools though in R1.

Leaving you all with few pics of Cambridge that I took during my trip a month back.

A view from the MIT Sloan Intersection

MIT Sloan Building

A view of Boston from Cambridge

The coolest building design on the MIT campus

HBS Campus from the bridge over the Charles river

Baker Library - Harvard Business School

Aldrich House - Home to RC (HBS)

Spangler Student Center (HBS)

MIT Sloan and HBS School Visit

2010-04-17T15:02:00.001-04:00

For months I have been planning this trip as many of you are aware, but finally it is here. Hated waking up at 6.45 in the morning - immediately decided that I will not sacrifice my sleep for a consulting job and a business class travelling experience. After cursing my fate (that I do not earn enough money to upgrade myself to the 8 o clock flight), I checked in at Toronto Pearson airport and everything thereafter was very smooth.

First Impression on Arrival: Typical US Airport - older than Toronto Pearson. However the airport has an intellectual wave running through it - everyone around that place seems highly educated. Maybe that is Boston's speciality or maybe that is how I think. Oh well, who cares lets look forward to MIT and HBS is what I say to myself and quickly grab a taxi. Another quick observation - generally people are nice, much nicer that NYC or Chicago and even Toronto.

Booked the Marriott Cambridge, which is situated right on the edge of the MIT campus. Very very close to MIT Sloan School of Management.

Arrived for the Ambassador Program on MIT Sloan campus at 10.45 after a massive breakfast at the hotel. Ate so much that I was in between lying down and puking. Though it was promised by the MIT folks that things will start up at 11, things got off to a start around 11.15. I was thinking I am going over and beyond by visiting schools - but then my thought was put to shame. In my group, I had travelled the least - people had come from Texas, SFO, London, Brazil and NZ. Can you believe it?

The session began with a nice demonstration of what MIT is looking for. Had about a 30 minutes discussion about the admission process. The adcom was very nice, very energetic and did her best to distinguish herself from the other schools. This was followed up with a lunch with the current students - this was probably the most helpful part of the entire tour - had two very helpful girls in my group (Jenn and Annie - both 1st year students) and they explained a lot about the good things and the bad things about the school. I am glad that they did not keep it only to the good things cause then it would just seem like a marketing gimmick. This was followed up with a class in Intro to Operations - they discussed a case of Marks and Spencers and Zara. Boy!! I know so much about Zara now that girls can take me shopping with them. Overall a very good experience - students were very nice, very collaborative, lot of fun in the classes, young professor. Lots of analytical thinking and solution searching - did not see much on the decision making aspect. But in general very impressive.

Had a nice walking tour of MIT. Very nice and sweet campus. They have a freaking nuclear reactor on campus - I guess lot of people in Ontario Power Generation have not seen an actual nuclear reactor but people at MIT have seen one. On personal recommendation of Marriott desk-staff I went off to have dinner at Legal Seafood - brilliant brilliant food. Just loved every bit of the tiger shrimps stuffed with crabmeat. One thing I didn't like too much - price. However recommend this restaurant to everyone who goes to Cambridge. It is really classy and more for a business/corporate setting but to hell with that - I walked in with a Ralph Lauren T-shirt and Levis jeans to the amazement of a lot of people.

Next morning: Was running late for my HBS class visit. Decided to grab a taxi and go to HBS. On the drive, saw the beautiful new MIT Sloan building - this is hugggggge - 270,000 sq. ft, 4-5 floors absolutely huge. Chuckled to myself and then concentrated on the upcoming university. C'mon HBS cannot get too much better than this - I am at MIT, its one of the top 5 universities in the world along with Harvard. How much can difference can there be among the top 5 universities?

Taxi pulls into HBS campus - not allowed to go in. Had to walk to Dillion House (Admission's office). Looked around as I walked - wow this looks quite nice. Road that leads to Dillion automatically turns left. And I am in a trance - it is BEAUTIFUL. It seems like some castle in Scotland. Seriously I could not take my eyes of the location - decided to stand around before getting into the Brick structure, which composed the Admissions office. Met the couple from Houston whom I had met the day before at MIT. I thought that the Admission Office was rather small for a business school this size but I guess they have other facilities to make people sit around.

My student host for running late for his class. Came 10 minutes before the 10.20 class - was very nice. He escorted us to Aldrich, which houses 1st year classes. The class was in the basement - I have a bad preconceived notion about basements and once again HBS surprises me there. What a basement, what classroom structuring - it really puts other schools to shame. Two students had their parents sitting in the lecture - the parents got a standing ovation from the class. I was introduced to the class as well to a round of applause and that made me seem important. Class was Strategy - Case Disney's timeline from early days to the days of Michael Eisner to the acquiring of ABC and of ESPN and to its present day corporate strategies. Absolutely top notch discussions with elements of fun, humor, debate among students and best of all "What would you do if you are the CEO of Disney?". It was absolutely a fantastic experience. I really do believe that for 95% of business courses case study is the way to go because you think outside your book and you think outside the box - it is extremely important for a leader to have that calibre.

Class ended at 11.40 sharp. Thrilling experience. Walked over to Spangler center (had heard about this place so often so I wanted to see this badly). And OMG OMG, what a building, what beautiful lounges, seems really surreal. You can totally make it out that HBS has real money. Plenty of alumni sitting there conducting interviews or discussions with students. Walked up to the Cafeteria. Huge huge line so I quickly grabbed a drink and walked through another set of doors and entered the dining room of Hogwarts (or so it seemed). I was completely overexcited and wanted to make use of the dining room but I had to go for student lunch. Met a first year student - Aman Malik - he was very helpful in discussing different aspects of applications and because I got him for 10 minutes with no interruption, he gave me lots of tips to cater my engineering focussed background into the story that will help me sell myself to HBS.

Had a two hour break in between the student lunch and the campus tour. Walked across the river into Harvard Square to take the MBTA and was off in a flash to Kendall/MIT stop. Completed everything in time and was back for the campus tour with 30 minutes to spare. Walked around the campus - saw Bakers Library, Shad Complex, Aldrich and Spangler again and again. It was funny how these names are completely obvious to me as I have been reading about these building names for the last 6 years in student diaries. The tour was followed by an Information session where common questions regarding the GMAT, the application, essays, financial aid were talked about. Had a good 10 minute discussion at the end of the info session with the adcom. Got a lot of clarification of the process and had few of my wild ideas validated by her.

I missed out having lunch at Spangler. I was not going to miss out on Dinner so I went off to Spangler. Filled myself upto the neck and was nearly not able to move. Aaah well I can tell my children I sat and warmed some of the seats in HBS at least. Quick taxi to the hotel, picked up the luggage and off to the Airport for flight back home.

Brilliant trip. Absolutely wonderful memories. Just when I thought MIT was awesome...WHAM came HBS and hit me and took me by surprise.

Quick Round up of Life

2010-03-26T22:12:00.000-04:00

Life is full of all positive vibes but there are many heartbreaks that occured along the way - starting with the Kolkata Knight Riders who are playing as badly as they possibly can and Saurav Ganguly (the bengal tiger) is no more wild - it seems like his wife has tamed him like how they tame tigers in the zoo. GMAT preparations on going at furious pace. Cannot afford to lose time or to fool around. Have nearly cut down my social life to the bare minimum. 2 weeks to go - God and Friends wish me luck and pray for me! Manchester United's performance is keeping me happy. Last Wednesday visited the Skule Nite (opening night) at Hart House - went there with 10 friends after having a beautiful persian dinner (courtesy Bahar) - this Skule Nite thing has almost become a reunion ritual now. Where ever I am will try to make it for this one night if possible and huddle together with friends. Mommy is finally coming back so that means yummy food, layers around the stomach and personal chef :).
Ooooh Oooh Update - I am going to go to the city that I call "Mecca of Education". Thats right - Boston is the Mecca of Education. Visiting MIT a day after my GMAT and then next day visiting Harvard. In both the cases I am going to meet first and second year students of the MBA program, sit in a class setting and get a generic info session. Unfortunately not too many people I know personally are in Boston so I am going to stay in a 'otel.

Next blog post - once I am done by GMAT and back from Harvard and MIT. Lots of pics to share. Damn excited about the second week of April.

Life is Back in Full Action

2010-02-15T19:55:00.000-05:00

Yes folks, life has been back in full action!! I had never even thought that I could be juggling so many things all at one go: Full time work, part time masters which includes a thesis project and a course plus studying for GMAT. It has been taking the toil on me sometimes, getting up before 7.30 has been near impossible for me.

The weekends are god's boon for all the good things I did in my past life!! Poor people in the Arab world where the weekend means only 1 day - feel sorry for you folks.

Completed the Quants Review book. Onto the Verbal Review book. Finishing the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction guide in parallel. The book is marvellous, just realized that 90% of the people especially people sitting up in the higher management have no sense of grammar in the official emails they write. Gosh!!! I wonder how bad their informal emails can be? Don't get me wrong, I probably have a lot of mistakes in my own language, but at least I accept it. I do not go about correcting other peoples English who have written better than me.

Signing off!!

P.S. I am planning to do a quick trip to HBS this April. Maybe I will do it in March, lets see what I can do about it.

Summary of vacation to India!!

2010-01-16T18:10:00.000-05:00

It is no surprising news that I visit India almost once a year, the worst being once in 2 years. People often ask me "You went to India again???". I can never answer that question, often smile and change the topic. India has a special place in my heart and especially Kolkata. Not because it is the city I was born in, but the city has a peculiar but amazing charm. You cannot help notice the city is a mess - unorganized, failing economically compared to other Indian cities, lazier people, lots of poor, dirty, polluted yet you cannot help smiling when you reach the city or you cannot help feeling sad when you are leaving the city. Why is this the usual case with every person - from stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan, SRK, Aamir Khan, Amartya Sen to meagre low lying creatures like me. Simple answer that is given by everyone is - It is the City's warmth that draws people to fall in love with the city. Does that mean is everyone nice in the city - maybe not! But the general mass behaves in a way that strikes a chord in our heart.

Going back every year to India has become a ritual for me. I have relatives, friends but most importantly I have food there. This was the first time I was flying an Indian carrier - I have always flown LH or BA, and was I surprised. Jet Airways rock!! The food was amazing, the air hostesses were pretty, young and spoke courteously. I mean after flying with Jet Airways, BA or LH or AC seems like a third grade carrier in all respects - lagging entertainment system, horrible and I repeat horrible food, and where the best thing the carrier does is land the flight properly. Overnight waiting in Mumbai was a pain and will continue to be that way until the new terminal is open. All around the airport there is digging, there are huge construction cranes all over the place. Another quick glimpse of Mumbai from my flight to Kolkata and I saw that the city has had an influx of towering skyscrapers and I cannot help but chuckle.

Fast Forward to Kolkata: Half of the old tin buses are gone, been replaced with newer buses with electronic display boards under the JnNurm scheme. Wow the state government has finally stepped in. I turn around and see the a Volvo A/C bus whiz past me at 80 kmph with the stupid rented Amby trudging along at 50 kmph. I mean even fucking Toronto does not have Volvo buses, and for people of Toronto reading this, the Volvo buses are atleast 1.5 times longer than the TTC buses and the has cameras to help the driver (the TTC driver still has to turn around for blindspot). Wish I had taken a picture of ones of these buses.

Food in this city still rocks. But prices rocked my wallet for the first time. A decent restaurant in the city like Mocambo costed me Rs 2200 for lunch ($50) and that was not the case before. So it was a surprise hit for me and my wallet cried out. But thankfully the food still tastes the same and is amazing. The list of restaurants I covered on my trip are: Mandarin (2 -Take out), Mainland China Buffet (2), Marco Polo, Mocambo, BBQ - Flavours of China, Zara Bar (3), Ginger Bar, Zarang/Jong, Rajdhani (Vegetarian), Gupta Brothers (Vegetarian), Food Station, Arsalan (Take out), Rahmania (Take out) and Tangerine (2). The others food places I visit were Flury's, Kookie Jar and Cakes (numerous times), Bancharam and Mamma Mia's. I always win the debate on the best Bengali sweet shop because I do believe no one makes better Gulabjamuns or Lanchas or Jibe Gojas than Bancharam. Kookie Jar and Cakes simply have the best pastries in the world, even Paris should learn from them. Anyone who disagrees, bring me a desert from the best place you think and I will get something from Kookie Jar. I am confident that you and your claim will be crushed (Evil Laugh).

This time around I also ventured out into the market as in business world. I was extremely curious to know what effect did the recession have on the city. Phoof!!! Recession is the term that the men use to tell their wives not to spend too much money, it is like telling a little child to eat otherwise the yeti is going to come. And exactly same as the yeti, recession did not exist in the country apart from export-import trade. There is a guy who drives a 7 series BMW (mind you India has a 180% import duty, so a 7 series costs around $165,000+ for the base model - unimaginable to even people of US/Canada to spend on a car) and lives on my street and he is not considered damn rich. But people are spending. The key to the whole idea is "market". India has a huge domestic market. This guy who owns the BMW has a biscuit making factory which supplies to the suburbs of Kolkata and other districts of West Bengal. That gives the guy enough money to own a 7 series without even tapping the markets of the other states or even a prominent city. Just Imagine!! You can only imagine doing so in USA/Europe/China because of the large domestic market. Canada just seems like an economically unstable country who is clinging on to its natural resources for survival. The key to an economically powerful nation is population and India is tapping into this potential in a big way. Ever since I have got back, I cannot stop thinking of setting up a potential business in India and the business does not have to depend on export market. The domestic competition is that of a hungry dragon that was lying in hibernation for 50 years. Now its awake and it wants to eat!! And boy it will eat, it does not depend on the Wall Street like US, on export like China, it has its own ways - its called Indianism.

And now i'm in Kolkata

2009-12-30T12:16:00.000-05:00

I have been looking an excuse to fill up why I have not been active on the blogging scene in the last one month. Alas, all those excuses are from school and have no place in the real world.

Right now I am in Kolkata. Internet connections are not the best, but the food and the sweets here are amazing. Got to meet a lot of old school friends - Mitradeep and his gf (soon to be to-be), Soumya and Ankur (who has now returned to Manchester).

And I am loving Kookie-Jar's pastries. The French should actually learn from there, and I am not kidding because its from my home-town, its actually better than any pastry I have had in France.

Will touch base soon again from Toronto

Steps for the GMAT taken so far

2009-11-13T13:23:00.001-05:00

Its been over a year since I decided that I will be heading to the MBA school. Being an early planner, I started browsing sites for GMAT discussions and study tips. I came across numerous tuition places like Versitas, Manhattan, Princeton review etc. But I also did a good deal of research for GMAT forums and I discovered - www.beatthegmat.com. This is a STELLAR website!!! There is sooooooo much information in the GMAT forum that I cannot describe. This site does lack heavily on the MBA application bit, but as a GMAT prep tool it is the best that is out there.

Last year around October, I started thinking maybe around summer this year I should give THE GMAT exam. However that was not to be. I was not in a good place at that time (emotionally). But last year when I had decided that I will be giving the GMAT this summer, I had immediately bought myself the GMAT Original Guide Version 11 (Orange). When it comes to books I am a very impulsive buyer. I lovvvveee the smell of new books, and Chapters or Indigo is a place where I can kill hours, the only place after Futureshop. Yeah Yeah for all those people who think this is quality of a nerd, think of whatever you want to think, but it is true.

This year when I started seriously thinking about the GMAT, I went in and grabbed the Version 12 of the Original GMAT Guide (yea now the Version 12 is released), the Quantitative Guide and the Verbal Guide Version 12. Get them from AMAZON. You can get some amazing deals there and also free shipping. Another book that received high reviews in the forum was Manhattan GMAT's Sentence correction. Majority of GMAT candidates called this the "bible of Sentence correction". I have not had a chance to go through this as I received this in the mail just the other day. I am actually setting my field, before I attack it :P. This book also gives one access to the 6 Manhattan GMAT tests online and I consider that to be an extremely useful resource. I think with these 6 online practice tests, the 2 that come free on GMAT registration, cracking the 720 threshold that I have set for myself should not be too hard. I have also been told that 60-90 days is the best time frame for studying the GMAT. Over 90 days prep just kills it and below 60 days one might be under-prepared. For myself I am looking at mid-February for the GMAT, starting my preparations in early December.

People always ask me how does the GMAT compare to the GRE, LSAT and the MCAT. I will probably say that the order I have named the tests above is probably the correct order in increasing orders of difficulty (with GMAT being the easiest) according to me. So all the people who are thinking of starting, its time to stop thinking and get going. I have wasted a year just thinking about it and have learnt from personal experience, it doesn't work mate.

Reaching the decision to do an MBA

2009-11-13T13:22:00.001-05:00

I am one of those people in life who try to plan out ones future early. When I was in high school, most of my friends were undecided on what career they wanted to pursue. Most wanted to shoot for both engineering and medicine. And as you know growing up in India, the majority wanted to do COMPUTER ENGINEERING. The smart ones wanted to do ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING (Yeah People of the western world will wonder - What the hell is that??!!)..Its an highly specialized form of Electrical Engineering, its like majoring on of your electronics courses or majoring on a electronics minor :P. Cracks me up every time I hear someone from India say I did electronics engineering. No offense to you guys, its just that the originators of this degree should take a look at what the world is doing. Getting back to my story, I loved Chemistry. And as misinformed high school students are, they believe if you are good at Chemistry you should do Chemical Engineering. WRONG!!! and so are their Chemistry teachers who believe the same. Chemical Engineering is Physics with a tinge of Chemical process to it. Chemistry and Chemical Engineering are as far apart as British Virgin Islands and Britain is, except they share the same name. I knew from Grade 10, that I want to do Chemical Engineering and I made sure I do it. And saying that, I have been lucky enough to do my engineering from one of the top engineering universities of the world (no debates on that please).

However, as I was going to start my 2nd year, I was wondering should I do a PhD. in engineering and get into academia or should I pursue an M.B.A. like a majority of business-minded engineers and get into the finance/consulting industry or should I do a J.D. degree or should I just stay an engineer and be a technical expert. As I said I am an early planner, so taking a decision was extremely important for my mental peace and sanity :). So what was the best to evaluate these choice --> practical evaluation. I went in an did a summer research stint with a professor and I swear that I will never ever go into engineering research (especially chemical engineering research has one focus now - bio and I hate that). My next summer I was in the Petro Canada Lubricants (now Suncor Lubricants) plant is Mississauga, tuning the process control system. In spite of liking the technical work, I realised at once I DO NOT want to be a technical expert. That left me with two choices - MBA and J.D. My dad has a law degree and plenty of lawyer friends. In spite of having an interest in what they do, I could see the business school drawing me closer and closer to the extent of making me select it as my first choice. I love leadership, I love $$ and I love dressing up to work. Those might be stupid reasons, but they are valid reasons. I tried my hand at leadership by being the President of the Student Government in Chemical Engineering and I loved it. I realised that is where I belong - management. And what was the shortcut to get into Management - Business School. At once I triply confirmed myself for an M.B.A. degree.

I will not say I was not demoralized by the recent global scenario and I took a wait and watch stance for the last year or so. But thinks seem to looking positive for the M.B.A. world and the market seems to be picking up. I think by the time I will be able to graduate from the business school, which is 2013, the market would be trying to expand like crazy and *cross my fingers* have enough jobs for all graduating students.

Currently I work in the nuclear consulting industry. I love working 35 hours in a week and getting paid more than most of my classmates who started out with me. I also see a very big future for the nuclear industry. After having said all the good things, I do not see a big nuclear future in Canada. I will be fair and honest about this. For confidential reasons I can not state those reasons, but working in the industry for more than a year let me easily paint a good picture of where this industry is heading. I see work there for 2-3 years, but beyond that things seem blurry. So I decided that maybe 2011 is a good time to start my M.B.A..

P.S. I am told that I am outspoken. However I do not want to hurt any body's feelings. If you can take any attack as humor please do so. If you think its offensive please stay away from this blog. I take pride in being able to reach decisions because of my opinionated nature and I will continue doing so.

Signing off for today. Have 2 other posts that I have planned out. I will be certainly posting them by next Sunday. Till then Good Night, Alvida, Shabba Khair, Shub Ratri. See you next week, same time, same blog. Bye.

Here Begins the journey

2009-11-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

For many days, I have been thinking of starting up this blog. Last time when I decided to try my hand at blogging, I failed horribly. I wrote a paragraph or so each time and then I forgot about it for months and months. Over a period of 3 years since its inception, I had written only about 7 blogs. So I decided to quit. This time I promise that I will be very very regular with this blog. Sometimes due to high work load at my work place or for my Masters there might be a slight delay, but I will try to be as regular as possible.

Now that I decided that I will be pursuing my MBA from Fall 2011, I will be starting my preparations to complete the GMAT test. In subsequent posts (I will be posting them over this week and the next week or so), I will be talking of what I have done so far in terms of GMAT preparations and how I plan to study for the GMAT. I am planning to sit for the test sometime in February. For now I have assumed a target score of 750.

Little bit on my profile before I sign off today: Male, will be 25 3/4th (to be accurate) by the time I start my MBA. I am a Canadian of Indian origin, having moved to Canada during my late teens from Kolkata, India. Completed my Undergraduate from University of Toronto in Chemical Engineering with a GPA of 3.7 and was on the Deans Honor List. I work for a Nuclear Consulting company (the one of its kind in Canada) called AMEC NSS. Pursuing my Masters of Engineering (part-time) on the request of my company. So work and masters is keeping me quite busy at the moment. With the GMAT preps, I hope I don't blow off like a rupture disk (chem joke!!).

With that, I will leave you all with a picture of my DREAM SCHOOL - the one and the only HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL.