The Missing Piece

Friday lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:21:00 +0000

One thing that I liked while working are the Friday lunches. Not only was it a relief from the bad food at the canteen (the food at the canteen has to be bad in a software company in India ) but it was also a great bonding experience and a chance to try out the different restaurants around the office. The best though was the first six months at work outside college when we had very less work. The weekend would start right on the Friday mornings. Not that I missed them but I just remembered those days when I went out with the team here today. It was my first Friday lunch with one of the teams I am interning with and it was a nice and different experience. We went to Bonifacio high street , which I would recommend for luxury shopping . Btw, I just go for food (esp donuts at Krispy Kreme) and not for any luxury shopping(I made a note of the ALDO accessory shop there though since I am searching for a good leather wrist band for long now) . The experience was different but expected. I know being an Indian among these Filipinos, most of the talk would be about comparing India and philippines. So, right from the time we left the office till we started running towards the office after the lunch because of a sudden rain , we compared as many things as we possibly could : the cable television, the cars, the export of milk, shopping habits of Filipinos (all Filipinos love shopping but lets just say women are worse), software jobs and salaries, telecom provider rates,Katrina Halili sex scandal and one Martial art the name of which I forgot. One of the conclusions of the discussion was that Philippines is an expensive country than India, something I found out the first day I entered this country. But it was an interesting discussion and a nice experience. The food was good too . We went to an Italian restaurant and I had a Seafood Cioppino.

20 ways to get and stay Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:55:00 +0000

In this time of economic crisis there are many articles that offer help and guidance to people to keep themselves up. I found this article titled the same as this post in TIME and in fact found it interesting. It is from 2007 but has resurfaced again. It has some usual advice but some of them are different and interesting.

Count your blessings
Hear the Music
Snog. Canoodle. Get it On (Now it is getting interesting :)))
Nurture your spirituality
Move your body
Laugh Big
Do something nice for someone else
Make more money than you peers (I told ya it is different)
Seek Positive Emotion as a Path to success
Identify with your heritage and culture
Use a happy memory as a guide
Play the part of an optimist
Try new things
Tell your story to someone
Balance work and home
Keep expectations realistic (Be like the Danes)
Make time (avoid saying that you are always busy)
Visualize Happiness
Smile
Marry Happy (not necessarily the rich)

You are an AIM MBA if….

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:42:00 +0000

1. You enter the school with the expectation that b-schools generally have big campuses when in fact you are already standing near the back gate
2. You experience the most authentic Indian MBA experience you can ever get
3. You have hardly been to Manila though you study at AIM, Manila.
4. You realize there are more secretaries than professors in the school
5. You have never seen two professors together
6. You have to get 80% to pass a subject
7. You realize ‘low pass’ means a Fail
8. You make up some imaginary illness and visit the in-house doctor and the nurse once a week
9. You think everyone except you in the class is always bull-shitting
10. You feel like punching the bank clerk when she says the words ‘debit’ and ‘credit’
11. Two weeks into the course you stop worrying about getting a job because you can get a job as an accountant anywhere
12. You can talk about restructuring ‘WalMart’ at 8 o’clock in the morning having got up only at 7:55am and without reading the case
13. You definitely know for sure that if your class is asked for “100 business ideas” , 98 will be about selling Indian food and that too inside the campus
14. You still believe Operations Management only applies to restaurants(esp japanese) and hospitals
15. You are surprised when Operations Management is mentioned as a quantitative subject in your score card
16. You realize that only Marketing is being taught under different subject names
17. but still you didn’t know what the 4Ps were when you got a marketing WAC
18. Your favourite subject is Strategy Management and Ethics and it is the same with everyone in class
19. You still wonder how ‘Class Participation’ is graded and think your ‘nationality’ matters.
20. You think ‘culture’ (or ‘kulchure’) of a company is the source of all problems in the corporate world
21. You can proudly say “I know many people from the Embassy”…whichever country you are from.
22. The coolest thing that is ever done on campus is throwing somebody in the pool, which by the way is banned
23. You feel you are really cool because you can sit by the pool side and booze till 8 o’clock in the morning
24. Your future wife/husband is shocked to see ‘Jessica’ and ‘Heidi’ in the 5 favourite names for naming your Indian daughter
25. ‘You still love the school’ but wonder Why

There is so much that we can add, so if you can think of something good put it in the comments and it will be added.

To finance or not to finance

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:20:00 +0000

Term 2 results are out and my results are what I would say “OK” and what my dorm mate says “decent” . I am consistently in the “OK” range and see myself in the same range for the next two terms too. Not that I am not trying to improve but here grades are so much tried to how much you speak in class and even after knowing about that and how much class participation matters, I just cant speak out on everything and anything in class. I speak enough to just to keep myself safe. It is not like I have a problem with speaking out but just I don’t see myself doing it so much like some o do here.
Just remembered that none of the famous bschool bloggers are toppers in their class( Wouldn’t they be studying instead of blogging). So, atleast I am in some catergory :)). Anyways , I am not struggling with MBA anymore and I am content with that. The internship is going good and the first experience of actually working in a company as a consultant is good. I think the thrill in being a consultant is starting from scratch. There is nothing at start and after so much of data collection, research , meeting people and analysis , you can see things coming together and you really enjoy it. I also realised something, I haven’t used any of the tools that I learnt in the strategy management course. It was a not a conscious decision not to use any, but I feel good in the sense that I didn’t use any tool for the sake of using them but still managing to do what is expected out for me.
I also chose the electives for Term3 two weeks back.I have always liked the course titles irrespective of what is being taught in those subjects :)). Here are the electives I have chosen.

New Management Concepts
Advertising and Sales Promotion Management
Corporate Finance and Financial Service
Sales Force and Distribution Effectiveness
Operations Strategy
Global Marketing Strategy and Policy
Technology Strategy

I am not doing any specialisation. Finance is something that I don’t want to do and Marketing is something that I can’t to . So I have taken a mix of GM, Finance and Marketing courses. The biggest dilemma was ofcourse whether to choose the one finance elective or not.There is something about finance in AIM. Everyone gets so agitated and worked up when the words “FM1” or “FM2” are mentioned. People are more scared about finance than swine flu here. I myself am not interested in finance but not for the reason that I can’t manage it but because I don’t like it. It is something I can do but don’t want to. I don’t like dealing with money so much. If you think I am saying ” I don’t like money”, you are so wrong. I said I don’t like dealing with and managing it. I used to hate my salary statements for the fact that they had too many line items. I always wanted a salary statement that said “Gross salary – Taxes = Net Income” . Now isn’t that simple? It is not that I don’t like chasing money but I don’t want to get into finance and chase money by actually chasing it. But the good thing about studying finance is that, everything I study in it is new and actually interesting. That’s the reason for the one finance elective.

9 to 5....hmm actually 5.45

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:28:00 +0000

So I am back to work and doing my internship now. It was serious work right from the first week(It has been three weeks since I came here). The people are nice and I have some how managed to get what I am supposed to do on track. I have never done an internship before . My under graduation didn’t require me to do an internship and so I didn’t bother. None from my undergraduate class also did one as far as I remember. So it is a new experience especially if you are working for a grade. I didn’t want to miss my last internship opportunity too considering the fact that I have to write a thesis which was the other option if I didnt want to do an internship. The current economic crisis didnt help it. Making a company to actually hire you as an internship and proving to them you did actually learn something(*wink*) in the MBA is actually tough in these times. Some how I managed it and it wouldn’t be fair if i say it was all luck : I worked for it. Also I didn't want to go back to India for my internship. I wanted to experience the work life here . Being the only Indian, infact the only foreigner among these Filipino IT guys is fun. They all think all Indians are some IT wizards and I have no objections to that :)).
I think AIM’s career management services needs a mention there. Though I didn’t get an internship through them, they have helped a lot more students than the previous years to get an internship through the school . Things are changing for good.

The Walkabout week

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:13:00 +0000

It's back to HBO(Human Behaviour in Organization) this week and it is probably the best yet. We are having the walkabout presentations and it has been enjoyable till now. Projects ranged from blind folding for a day,overcoming the fear of public speaking, getting to know different cultures,golf,basketball training,controlling libido,dating,evening with a prostitute and spending time with the filipino mass which was mine. If you carefully notice it is all about coming out of the comfort zone and doing something you have always hesitated to do and i should say my classmates have done a very good job.

And there were free hugs too.Here is the video which i thought was the best video among all.

11 to 16 - the rankings story

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:43:00 +0000

AIM doesnt feature in many rankings.I found very little about AIM's rankings when i was searching for it last year. topmba.com was kind of the only site where i could see AIM in a proper ranking.It was 11th in Asia in employer's preference . Though 11 may not be a position I like seeing AIM in, the only consolation was that AIM even with its poor placement history was above some IIMs in India which have exemplary placements . The rankings for 2008/9 are out and its even worse for AIM.AIM now stands at 16 having dropped 5 places from last year.

http://www.topmba.com/research/global_200_business_schools/
top_business_schools_2009/asia_pacific/

I like this school a lot unlike many others and it has been a very good experience till now. Having said that I have to agree with the ranking too.AIM isnt as good as it used to be and is thriving on its history mostly.We get taught everyday about accepting change and not living in the past and about how to brand anything to make it a success but i see how the very school that is teaching me these things fail in them. But luckily, AIM has realized it very recently and is working on it. I can see some hope though I am largely sceptical .It is not the usual cribbing that you get from students about their institute. Infact i knew most of these things before coming here and they have only got confirmed now.Still i made the choice and i would advise anybody who want to join the institute to look into all aspects carefully and decide.I am only painting a true picture of how things are.

And the most important question: If given a second chance , would I change my decision about joining AIM? NO : things havent gotten that bad yet:))

Wassup

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:56:00 +0000

It is not about time anymore.I did have the time to blog and did start writing posts but somehow couldnt finish them. I hated my writing 5 lines down the posts.It has been four months now and the blog is almost dead.My time management hasnt improved a bit and I am still kind of struggling to get anything done.By the way , the results did come and they were pretty average. I am happy considering that I know my potential well :)). This term is similar and different in a lot of in ways to term1. Different because, there are less numbers to crunch and there are more qualitative subjects meaning you are not lost in the class even if you havent prepared or know the topic well.Similar in the way that,though it is not as rigorous as the previous term, the amount of readings psyche you out. I am not even sure how many HBR articles i have read in this past month.There are many term papers to be written and a walk about to be done. oh , if you dont know what a walk about is, this is what Prof.Ricky Lim said about it

"In the MM and MBA we make students do a “walkabout.” This is based on the Australian aborigine custom of sending young men into the bush, to fend for themselves. In the AIM version we send students out on a mission of self-discovery. They stay away for a few weeks on projects of their choice—the professor should not interfere in this choice, nor are there pushed to do a corporate internship. Instead we ask students do something risky, very challenging, something they have not done before. The experience must be transformational. Students can build a well for a poor Filipino village, or start a reading library for a local community; one student decided to take dancing lessons, not having the experience in his entire life: he became quite a competent tango dancer! The lessons learned are not at all textbook, but in Mintzbergian fashion, the student learns from visceral experience, which makes learning sticky and permanent."

As expected I am still figuring out what to do :))

Why I went to my bank twice today ?

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Financial crisis psyches people out. Before when somebody said a big company has gone bankrupt you would rather question their credibility than believing the news. But these days, bankruptcy is like the “in- thing” among companies . So you better believe it. This is what happened when last month when my roomie woke me up during a nap and said “merrill lynch got sold and lehman brothers went bankrupt”. I woke up still sleepy and said “get lost, no way and this is why you woke me up for?” and went back to sleep(i used the F-word twice in the real conversation but this is more of an MBA blog now and some decency is expected :))) ). So after that I don’t even doubt any news about bankruptcy and that is why I ran to my bank twice. There was a news that the bank(Bank of Philippine Islands ) where I have deposited my precious dollars here has gone bankrupt. All my money was in the account and I would be broke in a week. By the time I heard the news some have already withdrawn all the money and emptied their accounts. A search on the net didn’t give me anything and that is when I started to believe it may be a rumour. Anyways I went to the bank as I had to withdraw for my expenses and expectedly some students were already there. I came back after hearing from them that it was a rumour and also realizing I didn’t take my id which was required if I have to withdraw dollars.
I read some economics after that (not for saving the world from the financial crisis but for the exams next week) and went back after an hour to withdraw some money and also hear from the bank itself what was going on. They were expectedly surprised as to why many AIM students were withdrawing all the money and realized what was happening only after I told them. They said they were stable as of now and wanted to know the source of the rumour. “I wish I knew that” was all I replied back.
No company gives a clue saying they are going bankrupt, it is let out only after it happens. Till then they keep saying ”they are stable”. So….

What else do i say, I am just pathetic

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:10:00 +0000

Shame on me, I couldn’t find time in a whole month to write a post. Yeah..yeah it is the initial months of a rigorous MBA but for one month (i.e) thirty days(or thirty one…whatever) I couldn’t manage like 20mins. How bad can I be at managing time? Simply Pathetic. And I haven’t done many other things either like…hmm….reading newspaper. I know the US presidential race is heating up, someone of Indian origin has won the booker prize and there is a big financial crisis….what was that big company that went bankrupt? I don’t remember……I am just kidding…..I am not that bad :))), I do know whats going around me but not enough.
I think it was the fourth week when we got our schedules and found out that we had an accounting test, QA exam and a WAC along with the most number of cases we have done till now for a week. We had to rethink our learning team(LT) discussions. When seniors told us in the first week that all the excitement will die down we didn’t believe that. We said “definitely not” when they laughed at us saying “don’t bother discussing all case, you wont even read some after some weeks”. Some were like “no way, we are not going to the class without discussing any case in the LT ”. Looking back we realize some practical thinking would have helped. Seniors definitely know something we don’t, otherwise they wouldn’t make that face everytime they see us :).
So then it was quizzes galore with one accounting quiz every Monday, plant visits, operations management games and never ending cases. Accounting(let me be specific, Financial Accounting) is finally over and though frankly I feel happy that it is over, I am not ecstatic like many here. Yes, it was hardwork but the learnings were many. I have a feeling accounting is and will be the most important course in my MBA. Let’s see whether my view changes in the future and more often that not, it does(you see, I am human :))) ).
I am not getting better at time management either. I still cannot figure out whether it is willingness or necessity but I spend most of my time studying like everyone else. But every MBA student around the world is doing that. No good MBA program is easy. Yet they find time and many student blogs I read are updated once in two days . Though they post that they don’t find time, they actually do , otherwise they wont be posting but the one reading(that’s me) doesn’t find time. Hope I don’t wait until the next term break to make the next post (oh…did I mention that I am in my term break and that’s how I found time to post). And I wear a t-shirt that says “ We blog, Therefore we are”. Shameless me!!

P.S : Last Friday, it was Diwali night and I enjoyed it. But dint really know why they had a gangster fashion show for Diwali :)))) . I cheered for my friend though.

BS

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:05:00 +0000

The one thing that students here talked most about last week is BS – Bull Shit. What is interesting about this is that it is not something that is totally unrelated to our studies. When I knew about the case methodology at AIM, I felt relieved . I had a doubt whether I will get the required grades through the exams and thought Class Participation(CP) would be my saviour here. Only after landing up here you realise that CP is the most difficult part. CP is just not speaking in class, it is about making sense too. In some cases it is even more than that. Apart from making sense you also have to add value. The marketing case opening in which I got busted would be a perfect example. From the professors point of view it is very important that they use the airtime well to involve as many as possible to get what they want out of the case discussion. But till now it has been taking time for each good point to come out. One reason may be because we are all very new to the subjects and still haven’t got to the right mode of analysing the cases. But the reason that concerns the professors the most is BS. They think many put their hands and speak bull shit just to earn their CP points. They want us to know that they are smart enough to see through BS. They have been teaching for so many years and handled hundreds of students like us. They also know that there will always be some air time that will go waste in useless discussion and humour. But when that crosses the line, they start acting. I think that is what has happened and that is also why we have a poll to vote for the “Bullshitter” of the class.
Personally, I feel this is unnecessary. My CP has been relatively low till now and I also feel this BS is wasting airtime in the classes. But I feel this poll a little harsh. The person who gets voted will obviously feel shattered and I don’t think he/she will get along with the classmates well after this. May be the results should not be made public and the professors should counsel the students who get voted privately. No one is so bad in the class to deserve a public verdict(we Asians are rash,aren’t we?). Atleast it should be postponed till the students are comfortable with the subjects and also to let them settle down from their initial enthusiasm of getting into a top MBA program and wanting to prove that in class.
But what about this? Why stop the bull shitters at all? I feel there are learnings from them too. If I cannot handle a few of these in class what am I going to do in the real world in a managerial post(whether I will get one is another issue…hehe ). There are going to be lots more of them out there. I need to learn to handle them or even outsmart them. There aren’t going to be any professors out there who are going to stop these people. I have to tackle them and even worse they may not be MBAs or educated even.(why the hell did i ever leave my job and come for an MBA).
Everything is a learning at a bschool, even bull shit. No wonder the fees are high :)))).

So much for networking

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:59:00 +0000

I deleted my account, I mean on orkut. I never thought I would do it after having joined it a month after its launch in 2004 and being on it for more than 4 years. Initially it was fun. But after that, apart from getting in touch with some of my old school friends I didn’t find anything else interesting at all. I don’t communicate with my friends through scraps and I don’t hit on girls on orkut. That is pretty much any guy who I know does in orkut. I don’t go to some (female)stranger’s profile and scrap “I want to be friends with you” .I want to bash the fellows who do this, seriously. So I am out of that site

Some say in this modern world networking is important (especially being an MBA student at AIM where placements are blah blah blah ) and you have to network as much as you can but frankly how they want me to do that in orkut is something that I don’t want to listen to even. And these groups in orkut are a big farce. I have done nothing in orkut groups except joining them. Yeah..yeah I know…it depends on how you use it but orkut is not a serious place and for that matter any social networking site. I don’t know how many use it seriously for their benefit though it is not meant for that. I have read about some MBA students who don’t really like to be on these sites but do it just because the whole class is on it and they would lose the network . Me not doing it.I have already got many invites for facebook, hi5, friendster etc etc…and almost all from the same people. The same faces that I see everyday will be also be there when I log on to orkut and facebook. And some intelligent creatures scrap their classmates “hi” and “how are you” whom they would have been with in the class just an hour ago.

If you get a feeling I am so unsocial, you are wrong. I have my friends and I have ways to keep in touch. But I don’t use every techno piece of crap that comes on the net.I feel some have got the concept of networking wrong. I am not an expert but I at least know what it is not.

The terrible case opening

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:33:00 +0000

In case method, opening a case for discussion in class is a must-have experience. Every student is expected to open a case atleast a few times in his/her MBA. Further more, if you get that chance through a cold call it is an even better ( or worse) experience depending on whether you pull it off or mess it up. It was not a cold call for me today when I opened the Marketing Management case today but I got bashed very badly. It would be more appropriate if I had used the f-word instead of bashed. All case openings in the past two weeks have just been paraphrasing the case facts after which the floor is opened for others. The case I opened was a very small case and there was no big solution or strategy to come up with. What happened was given and according to me it was just a discussion on “Competitive Forces”. First, Professor Cruz gave a chance and just when I was about to start he stopped me and asked “ before you start What do you think is the conceptual topic ? ”. First hit. I was searching for some jargon expecting it wont be as simple as competition or competitive forces and couldn’t manage one and was sitting with a blank face. The only consolation was that nobody answered it correctly until the professor almost spitted it out.

The focus then came back to me and he gave me a go ahead to open the case. I wanted to make it up for my hiccup and make the opening as comprehensive as possible and cover all the case facts. I did that pretty well, concluded with my thoughts and was pretty happy. But Professor Cruz was not done yet. He asked me who was my friend in class and I said “everybody” . Then he pointed one guy and asked me whether he was my friend. I said “yes” and he turned back to him and asked him “whether I added any value apart from paraphrasing the case facts”. I went blue. All the case openings in the past weeks have been the same as mine but he chose to do this with the unlucky me. He came back to me to ask whether I thought I added some value or not. I said yes and even fairly justified it. He was a bit convinced but I clearly understood the impression that he got of me through this case opening, that I am just empty talk. Incidents like this happen everyday and in every class and there are embarrassing moments for everybody. But there are learnings from each. This is the second week and we have just done around 10 cases but I am not sure whether we are taking them as cases. We deal with them more as problems or puzzles rather than cases. We don’t involve the business angle at all. We just use our imagination and fail to apply any business concepts or methodology to it. In this case I and my study group didn’t discuss anything that was beyond the case facts. We shun theory and that was the reason for my screw up. Professor Cruz is very good in this and the way he drives a case discussion to explain a concept is damn good. So any class participation which doesnt add value to the discussion is just gibberish.

Got to learn some things the hard way.

Survival

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:05:00 +0000

The first week of MBA is behind me. It was without doubt interesting. Learning through cases is really good. One has to come prepared, not only read the cases but also discuss it with your CAN group and have a solution in hand before entering the class. This makes the classes every bit interesting and gives you a feeling that you are really learning something. Here are some of my observations and realizations from week one.

I am very bad with names. I just cant remember the names. I have close to 130 batch mates and I still don’t know the names of more than half of them. I forget the names a second after they introduce themselves. The same happens with cases too. I can see how the professors remember the names of every character in each case and always mention them by names while I tend to mention them as “that store owner” and “the chief doctor”. Remembering names is very important in business and I suck at it.

Class Participation (CP)– When you have got your admission you always have the feeling that you outsmarted the interviewer with your verbal skills and you will have no problems with class participation. You even feel happy that 40% of the grades are from CP. When you land up here though, you are stuck. You don’t have anything to say in class half of the time and in the other half you have something but everyone else also has that and mostly the chance goes to someone else. The really good fellows can be easily spotted. Those are the ones who put their hands up for the difficult questions and really come up with a good answer. I am certainly not one of them, at least as of now. And never underestimate the professors. Some here are of the view that they really can't track class participation. They are so very wrong. I actually admire the way how the professors remember every point that each one of us has made and how they get back to the right person when some point comes up later , sometimes even after an hour. And till now no professor had pointed at the wrong person. I fell pathetic thinking I cant even remember the names:)))

The professors - When I first researched about the institute I found that there are very few non-filipinos in the faculty. Infact I even thought of asking the interviewers about the faculty diversity at AIM but was advised not to do so if I was serious about getting into AIM. Having spent three weeks here my apprehensions have vanished. Their educational background and experience are on par with the best. There are accountants who have worked with big organizations and headed associations, consultants who have worked on big construction projects here, economists who still have big responsibilities with the government and advisors who have worked with past presidents. Their nationality is of the least concern.I seemed to have forgotten that AIM is called the “Harvard of the east”

WAC – Written Analysis of Case is the thing that the students here fear most about. We had our first WAC on Friday and everyone was a bit scared about getting one on the very first week. It was a sit down WAC meaning a straight four hour session where we need to read a case and write the analysis at one go. The seniors mostly had overnight WACs where they were given a case on Friday evening that had to be submitted Saturday early morning which meant they had to do it overnight. I enjoyed the WAC though I bungled it big time by dealing too generally with the case and giving long term solutions rather than suggesting a precise to-the-point solution. This is exactly what the instructions told us not to do.

Learnings from the first week : I need to improve a lot .....in everything.

Recruiter’s Night 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:17:00 +0000

AIM’s Annual Recruiter’s night was held last Wednesday at the AIM Conference Centre. Well to start with, the first years were not invited officially or unofficially and 5 of us had to get a special permission , courtesy of Regnard who was kind enough to arrange it for us.The evening though was typical. A few stalls from the companies , a very good welcome speech from President Estrada followed by one from the Enrolment Management and Placement (EMP) director Prof. Eli Santos , smartly dressed seniors many of whom I saw hurriedly shaving at the last minute in the dorm :))) and good food. I don’t know much about what happens at the recruiter’s night at AIM but looked like everyone felt satisfied. With the Indians students forming the major chunk of the MBA class year after year the pressure on campus placements has increased. From what I hear , the response from companies have been good and is increasing by the year. The prominent companies that have come to campus or attended the night includes some big names like Ayala , Telus , Qtel , Convergys , IBM Daksh , First Gulf bank , Cognizant and HCL. Also the placements have just begun and there is so much more to go. Good luck to the seniors and let them all have a wonderful placement season. Another good news in the air is that the class of May 2008 has been fully placed.

But could the night have been better ? Yes. definitely yes. The event could have been much better and to rightly put it , could have been much more impressive. I know it is very easy to criticize something when somebody has done all the hardwork but I felt there were some more things that could have been done and some things that could have been done much better , like the student presentations. They were too short , contained very common information like class diversity and previous work profile which I don’t think impressed the recruiters. To add to that , one of the guys got tensed getting on stage and fumbled badly with the presentation. When it is your recruiter’s night , I think such mistakes are unpardonable and leaves a very bad impression. Also , not much was shown to differentiate an average AIM MBA from the other MBAs. The USP of AIM is the pedagogy and the rigour that moulds the students here but when that is not highlighted enough , there is something definitely missing. Also the total non-involvement of the first years and the apprehensions of some seniors on seeing us in the night were unfortunate. We only wanted to know how it happens so that we can improve upon that in the next year. Now having done that by actually sneaking in , I think the takings from this meet would help us to do a much better job the next time.Thanks to Regnard once again for helping us out.

Section B

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:16:00 +0000

The Pre MBA is over and the regular classes , what’s called the MBA proper is starting on Monday. I have got a bunch of cases and three heavy books which I haven’t opened yet since I am studying (ahem..ahem) for the second Accounting test on Monday. Also the sections have been divided and I am in Section B. Traditionally (the rumour goes like) all the top students are put into Section A and Section B is kind of an underdog team. Some take this very seriously and many already are planning to ask for a change from B to A. I think I am in the right group though (*wink*). Our study groups are yet to be decided and we took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment to assess our personality types and make the study groups as heterogeneous as possible. I liked the assessment session and found it to be one of the better things we did in the pre- MBA along with spread sheet modeling using excel which was the most useful session.

We also had an informal session with the seniors (which most of the class skipped) to help us with their experiences and most importantly on how to survive the MBA. That’s how it is here. The first aim here is to survive it but as one of the professors said “it wouldn’t be enough if you just survive it. The very fact that you are admitted here means you can do it. You got to do much more than just survive.”. Special mentions to our seniors Pia , Nina and Wendy who are all wonderful seniors and patiently answered our ridiculous and immature questions. But one message was very clear - Make friends. Only those who attended the session can tell how much that was stressed. That seems to be the mantra of surviving here. I can do it – making friends is always easy,isnt it?.

P.S : Section A has an early morning class on Monday which we don’t have and so can sleep peacefully. Section B is happy :)))))

Language of Business

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:41:00 +0000

Some things are really not for me ,like Accounting . The number of credits and debits just drives me crazy . Accounting or “Language of Business” as it is called, is something that us driven some of us in the class to really think again on whether MBA is the right thing for us . I am not very good at it and will never will be but like all things new it is getting pretty interesting by the day . With all this accounting and economics I am slowly beginning to understand what MBA is going to be all about . Though it is well known that businesses are more complex than what we think they are , going deeper and understanding the specifics is certainly interesting . Like the other day , we went to some finance sites and got the balance sheets and income statements of some corporations . What looked like numbers certainly made great sense when some financial ratios were calculated and interesting information drawn from those ratios about the companies , even including some forecasts . I have never even cared to maintain my personal finances leave alone analysing it , but doing it for some great companies was certainly exciting . Good if this excitement really turns into some marks and it infact did to a certain extent today . We had our first accounting test today and my marks were in the decent category . Interestingly it bust two big myths regarding an MBA at AIM here . First being an engineer certainly doesn’t put you in an advantage in an MBA as it is generally perceived . Commerce and business studies graduates are way ahead when it comes to subjects in an MBA . The number crunching which engineers are supposed to be good at doesn’t certainly account for anything . And to get into an MBA anybody has to prove their quantitative skills through the tests . That math knowledge is definitely enough and atleast I cannot see how engineers are at an advantage . Secondly , the MBA batches in AIM over the last few years have had more indians than any other nationality , even more than the Filipino themselves . That is the case with our batch too.The general myth is that Indians do much better than the others because they work hard and are very serious about their studies . And then came the test results today and all top scores were non-indians . Indians are good and they really work hard but others have various other skills and talents . Infact one thing I can visibly see in the classes is that they ask better questions than us and their answers too are very analytical . For me, this is important as learning from diversity is one of the most important takes from an International MBA . At AIM it is emphasized more than anywhere else . With the case based methodology and the studying actually happening in groups called CAN(Case Analysis Groups) , learning from others is very important and it is even better if everyone is as different as possible from the others . Having been surrounded by indian IT engineers most of my life , I am already liking the presence of Filipino psychologists , Chinese history majors , Americans PROs , Indonesian mechanical engineers and Bhutanese bankers . As of now I am loving it :))

First Day

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:23:00 +0000

First day is the very first day except when you are at AIM . Arriving here last Friday for the classes which started this monday, I thought I would just finish registration , collect the pre-mba material and chill out in the weekend .But it was not to be . The grill of the so called AIM MBA started even before entering a class room . Two chapters in accounting , 3 chapters in economics and some quantitative analysis were needed to be read before the first class. Down went my chill out plans for the weekend and I was studying the subjects that I would rate in my not so favourite subjects. Its not that I hate numbers but I don’t like them either especially when it appears as balance debits ,credits and accruals , too confusing and in my opinion things that have been unnecessary made complex . MBA is exciting before it starts and after it is done but certainly not while you are doing it :)))).

Anyways apart from sulking about my studies which I guess I will be doing a lot during the course , I have kind of settled . Manila looks great and you get a feeling of living in an advanced nation .The problem with this though is that the even the costs are likewise , exorbitant by asian standards . The interesting thing here is that the peso is a weaker currency than the rupee and so in absolute terms the amount you pay for each item is more than in rupees . You don’t like paying 50 pesos for a sandwich and feel it is very costly(it infact is) though you would happily spend 3 pounds for the same in UK even though it is actually 4 times more costlier .

And in other things , my roommates are a great bunch of guys and we celebrated the first birthday with the usual birthday bums(see picture below) and a nice chicken treat at the nearby mall . The Chinese fellow in my room is all excited about China’s performance in the Olympics and jumps and screams for every gold they win (these Chinese are very patriotic, aren’t they).

Filipino food is not as bad as we expected it to be. I tried it yesterday with my room mates who luckily are food lovers like me and also like trying out different food . The Filipino lady serving Indian food was staring at us though :)))).

I also got to meet the AIM blogger in a review class . A very nice chap and probably the only regular bschool blogger from AIM. Check his blog for the post on the QA review class that he took for us .

MBA now

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:57:00 +0000

I have been off this blog for quite sometime now but I had things to do this time and was running around a lot (cant justify not finding time even for a post however busy you are , isn’t it? *wink*) . Anyways i was getting things done for my MBA at Asian Institute of Management and actually moved to Manila yesterday keeping up with my track record of not being in a place for more than a year . Questions like Why MBA ?,Why now and Why AIM? are better left with the interviews and questions like what after the MBA ? and what will I do graduating in a recession ? are questions i don’t know the answers for and don’t intend to find an answer for some time atleast . All I know is it is going to be a different experience and a tough one too considering the rigour of the MBA programme here. It has already been quite an experience with the Singapore authorities almost not letting me travel to Philippines but realising afterwards and letting me through , staying in a nice dorm with six other fellows including a Chinese fellow with whom i was talking about china and india till 3am on the very first day , running around a lot within an hour of arrival to get things like mobile connection and bank account(don't know why the other guys wanted to get everything done on the very first day , enthu perhaps....hehe ) and also getting to eat Indian food prepared by Filipino women which i think is going to be the case for the rest of my stay here.

Too good

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:25:00 +0000

A fill up post before i get my a** up to write something .

Two cute videos i came across in youtube

He's gonna kick my ass

Charlie bit me

Look who’s dancing too

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:35:00 +0000

I had my salsa performance in front of a live audience last Saturday . Surely I was excited as it is my first dance performance ever , atleast that I know of . I have danced before but all before 5^th standard and I have no memory of it all . I even recently found a old snap of mine in UKG dancing at some school function . I looked cute with the famous and no-more chubby cheeks which everyone liked pinching till I left school . Apart from that I have danced a few times at discs . I don’t consider myself a dancer and more importantly was never interested in it . But here I am very proud of my dancing abilities after jiving and performing salsa . The dance was a hit and there was a huge applause and “once more” shouts . “Once more” – for a dance which had all amateurs including me who started learning only 2 weeks before . If you think 2 weeks is enough , you are bloody wrong . In all the two weeks we just achieved a quarter perfection of the instructor’s . oh…and how did I forget this . The very first day of the classes , when we were practising the first step the girl dancing with me said “You don’t look like you have started learning today . You are pretty good ” . I was on cloud nine .

And as always the best thing about being part of anything is the people you meet . It was a motley bunch and here is a sample of the people it had.

My partner , a phd in economics and a professor in the same at some engineering college .

Her sister , a ground staff in Air India who cribbed many times about the baggages lost and the pasting she got from the seniors .

Two school girls who have given their 10^th exams and want to chill off before they see their results .

Brother of one them who has passed 12^th with a bl**dy 96 percent but may consider a career in dancing from what I can see…hehe

Two heroes….yeah heroes acting in the remake of a hit telugu movie as college students .

The queen ,atleast she thought of herself like that , a second year medical student with whom I could have danced a little more if not for her mother who also joined the classes with her and kept an eye on her always.

A disgruntled IT employee who after working in the industry for 9 years took 2 months leave on loss of play and joined the class .

And the not so disgruntled five other IT employees which included Me .

And here they are...

Be there

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:38:00 +0000

Chennai blogger meet

08/06/2008 at 16:00

The same answer

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:53:00 +0000

13 going on 30 is a comedy movie, a Jennifer Garner starrer with nothing great to remember about , except one scene . It the scene where she realizes how selfish and vile she has become at 30 . She goes back to her parent’s house to find some solace . A beautiful song is played in the back ground and at the end of the song she asks her mother “If you were given one chance to change something in your life , what would you ?” . The mother jokingly answers “The wrinkles I guess” and then continues saying “seriously , NOTHING . I have certainly made many mistakes in my life but wouldn't change any of them . What I am today is because of what I learnt from the mistakes ?” . An amazing answer I thought . I asked myself “What would I do ?” . I am an ordinary human being . Even the thought of such a question is too tempting . Would I use such an opportunity ? Definitely Yes . But you got to be highly responsible with opportunities . With great powers comes great responsibilities . Same with the case of opportunities too . But then , what would I change ? . There are too many things that one chance is not enough . Infact about 50% percent of my life I guess . That’s too much . But If you stop reading and try answering the question for yourself , you would come near to that figure . I am no exception . Looking back at life , you can very easily think your life was a total failure , life was unfair to you , you deserved much better and that you were not the one responsible for all your failures . You take pride, infact boast saying the position you are in today is because of the extra-ordinary hard work that you put it in and determination you had and nobody else could have done it . That is the problem with us , hardly anybody thinks he had had an easy life . Then whose life would you choose to have . Every single one of them comes with its share of problems . You think you could have been born in a rich family , gone to the best school , aced all the important exams in your life , get into the best jobs , become a multi millionaire,own the biggest house in town ,have the cosliest of cars and get the beautiful girl you couldn’t . But do you believe the people who have got all these would be content and change nothing in their lives? . You would be surprised.As they say “For each his own” . And then there are mistakes you committed that you want to change , like the exams flunked because you never gave a sh*t about studying in college , the entrance tests you didn’t fair well in , the earning opportunities you missed and the stupid fight you had with the girl of your dreams because of which you can never have her back . Yes, life would have been much happier if all these had not happened but we are never mature for the age we are . You blame yesterday for today , last week for this week , may for June and 2007 for 2008 . At 25 you think you were stupid at 18 and should have handled something better . At 18 you would have felt the same about something you did at 12 . The irony is , at any point you always feel you are mature enough to handle things that are happening to you . But you never are . Mark this day and the things that are happening around you . Ten years from now you would feel you were immature today and could have done things better. You feel so because you don’t live the moment now . You just think of the action alone in isolation . The circumstances that lead to the act and how your feelings were shaped by it then are somethings you can never feel the fullest now . You can always think you could have done well in college , but at that time you would have felt college is for enjoyment and you can always get a job later . If that stupid senior of mine can get a job, I definitely can . It is even more difficult when it comes to girls.You hit yourself for fighting with your girl . You realize now that you should have gone easy , after all she was your's . But you miss the ego now that you had then which made you feel “why should I give in if that stupid girl doesn’t ?” . The loss in both the cases is what makes you understand the gravity of what you did then . So , however you try , unless you have an extraordinary ability to know the effects of things you are doing today , you cannot change anything about your life . I dont have that ability . I am an ordinary human . I may not have the best of lives forward but I also know I cant change anything about it .And that’s why my answer would have been the same as the Mother’s.

Ahs and Ums on a Friday evening

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:05:00 +0000

I have this new friend in office . A very nice chap with varied interests , though all esoteric and which I find difficult to follow . But Why should I care about his interests ??? hmm ..….because he drags me into all this and since I manage to find time for everything other than my work , I agree . The First was Toastmasters . He called me on a Thursday evening to check whether I can join him for a toastmasters meeting the next day . He used to mention about toastmasters often in passing saying it was some public speaking club, but only after he called me for the meeting I went to their website and had a look . Toastmasters is this international organization for public speaking and leadership . You can find a local chapter in any city and many in big cities . I don’t want lessons in public speaking not because I am good at it but because I don’t need them . I don’t like to sermon people nor do I need the skills to convince others , because convincing others is something I hate . But then , there I was in an auto rickshaw with him going to the meeting just to see how it all happens. He said we were just guests and I thought I can happily sit back and listen to the speeches . Only after I reached there I found out that anybody who is a non-member is called a guest and also have to participate in all the activities . The introductions started and it was quite an eclectic mix of people . Like any other club , it was reeking of formality and there were many designated members like toastmaster of the day , president , secretary , grammarian and timekeeper . The first activity was extempore. Everyone who came to speak started off with the same usual beginning “Good evening toastmaster of the day ,Good evening president , Good evening secretary …….. ” . Hearing so many Good evenings made me hate the evening . I never understand why people say good morning or good evenings when you can say it just once before addressing all who are present. My friend sitting aside kept prodding me to go pick a topic and speak and after some time I did . I started “I think everybody is distinguished here and so I am just going to say one Good evening to all the distinguished members ” .That was the first time everyone laughed and I was surprised they could do so since you easily get a feeling laughing was prohibited there . I continued in the same comic tone and during the feedback at the end of the meeting everyone said they liked my comic sense . It was good considering in reality I always have the look of a convict who is on the guillotine and going to have his head cut off in a minute . Then the most important feedback came by .I dint know one of the grammarians there had this interesting job – counting “ahs” and “ums” in the speeches . These are called fillers in speeches and it is considered bad to have too many of them. I got my count of Ahs and Ums and was quite surprised I used a few too in my speeches . Something I learnt and which I wasn’t aware . Something worth for the hundred bucks I paid. What ?I paid ? Yes I did .The so called toastmasters address people as guests but charge them . So much for the etiquettes they teach. !!!!Charge the guests !!!! . But it was nice evening having got to meet so many people some of whom were veteran speakers and also getting a feedback on my speaking style .

And then there was this girl.I saw her while entering and went and sat next to her .What to do ? As always those were the only places available…hehe. I did leave one chair between us according to the Indian decency code of seating for Indian girls and boys.Sitting next to a girl is still a crime,atleast in my city . We did share a few glances and even looked at her once during my speech to see whether she was laughing for a joke of mine . She was but the the wildest laugh came from someone sitting in front of her , the secretary of the club, an old lady whom I later found out to be the mother of the gal….ahem ahem - A little off target . Anyways I have grown up now . I am more restrained when it comes to girls these days.I am older,wiser , meaner and uglier than before. No more do glances or even other overtures from girls excite me. But then you can always have fun and play with them a bit and I don’t miss a chance ….never ever :))). So after the meeting I went up to the everyone in the room to bid good bye . Mother and Daughter were standing together and I went ,greeted both of them with a smile and started a conversation with the mother . She was a nice lady and we had a conversation about her laughter and she said that is one thing she cant control . I never did once speak to the daughter though she was seriously following our talk and laughing with us . I said goodbye only to the mother and just walked away . Her face dropped a bit but I dint care . Five minutes later I was still not gone since every goodbye involved a talk for a minute or so . I looked out for her and caught her glancing at me standing with another lady . I smiled at her and she returned it . Just then , I started walking towards her as if to talk to her but turned to the lady next to her when i went near , shook hands and said a goodbye to the lady and came back without minding her . Her face dropped and I could clearly see how pissed she was . I felt ecstatic….it feels really good to hurt gals(*drums rolling*). I know I know …I am a bloody indecent rude snob .:))) . Nothing big but you don’t miss a chance considering I may never meet her again and she may forget it after 5 mins . And what about my friend - He was damn serious and was discussing about the technicalities of public speaking all the time .

Dum , Rum and Bum

noreply@blogger.com (Y) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:47:00 +0000

Procrastination is a big problem with me . Sometimes I just cant get enough of delaying things . It's been almost two months since I have posted and the reason is not that I didn’t write anything but just that I didn't post them. I had four posts in hand but just couldn't post it . I was not in the right of moods the last month and everytime I took one of the posts to put it in the blog , I felt better not . And yesterday I deleted the word document that had all the posts . After the usual "why the hell did I delete all that?" feeling , I decided I should definitely post today . Also I am encouraged by the increased appreciation I have got for my blog . Feels good and everyone thinks I am very funny and hilarious . I guess they haven't read some of the blogs I have been reading , otherwise they wont even visit mine if they want something funny to read . Blogs from kickass indian females(the kind i like..hehe) from which you can learn more about life than from anywhere else . You also learn other things like their boob size and what happened the last time they went to the gynac. Not the dirty details you despo, just the experience but then , even if it is, what the f**k . Arent we adults . And don't you squirm reading this guys. I know you have been discussing women (of the naked kind) from school like me . And you gals , if you think the spectacled software engineer groom from US or Bangalore , whom your parents got you engaged to has only been studying in school and college , now go face the truth . Believe me, it is better being this way , otherwise you are more likely to file for a divorce for his abstinence .

Coming back to the topic ( did I start on that in the first place) I was searching for something to post. I got up this morning and the first thing that ran through my mind were the words "DUM , RUM and BUM" . No idea why this happened , may be left over from a dream ( oh man , I want to know what that dream was ). Anyways , the phrase ” Dum , Rum and Bum ” used to be my " What's up?" statement while chatting . Lets get something straight .What do boys chat about ? booze , fag and girls . They dont chat about global warming , inflation and Deepika Padukone hooking up with Ranbir Kapoor . They have their own worries which are mostly about the three things I mentioned . So why the “Howvu?” , “How is work ?” and all that crap . Get to the point . Like this ….

CASE 1 : When somebody pings me ( things in brackets are my thoughts )

Friend : Hi da…. (I have no idea why they put all those dots after each line , but then who cares )

Me : Hi

Friend : Howvu ?

Me : I am fine . Howvu ?

Friend : I am good da . Howz work ?

Me : Going on machi . What else can I do apart from writing buggy code ? The same stuff . What about you ?

Friend : Great da (So, there is something great about coding too ? ). I finished a Sun certification (*yawning*) . Planning for switch (When did you ever stop switching?) . You planning to switch ?

Me : What makes you think I can pass a technical interview ? Only I know how i got this job even . No such plans what so ever .

Friend : So, planning for some studies then . I have been thinking of executive MBA . We are too late for a full time MBA .

Me : Too late ????….WTF….dont talk like some 40yr old . So how are the babes in your office ….

See now that’s where the really chat starts .

CASE 2 : When I ping :

Me : Hi sir

Friend : Hi da…howvu?

Me : Fine .What's with Dum ,Rum and Bum ?

See now that’s how quick I do it . Cut the crap about certifications , job switch and Executive MBA. Get to things that matter most in life .

If you still haven’t got it, DUM means fag, RUM means booze and BUM means girls . Though my writing may sound a little lewd , I totally respect women and the word BUM is just for the rhyming . Come on gals , how can I degrade you , you are all sweet hearts . So lets keep the “BUM “ out off this post though out of the three I am more of an expert(ahem..ahem) in this . In fact I am not even a trainee in DUM and RUM .Yeah….Yeah I don’t booze or fag . If what’s running in your mind is “What???This a**hole doesn’t drink???? ” then you are not alone . You have the company of all those who I know in this beautiful beautiful world . But things may change . I may start and believe me I will become an expert in no time . That’s how compulsive and addiction prone I am . But then this life is a little boring . I have always believed in “variety is the spice of life “ thing. I try for variety in everything in life but I have never got into boozing . Why ? . Is it because I want to portray myself as a good boy .Bull sh*t . The last time when somebody said I was a good boy was when I started learning addition . Even if you give a crore rupees to my friends , they wouldn’t say I am a good boy . They will probably hit you.So be careful . Girls may say so , but then from when did guyz start showing their real self to girls (if you are the girl friend of one of my friends , consider you never read what you just did and he doesn’t booze or drink like he has promised you (*wink*)). So now that I really don’t have a reputation to keep , I think I can start . Anyways , it wouldn’t change things much when .Already everybody who knows me thinks I booze but lie that I dont . No more need I order Mocktails ,which buy the way is no cheaper than the cocktail my friend sitting next orders , no more need my friend have to order a pitcher(spelling right ???) and tell me to take a snap with it and no more need I just have chicken with coke when the guyz around who are on a high wonder where did all the chicken go ? .

And one thing to all these boozers , just because you drink , you are not cool and become the yo-yo dude in the crowd . It is just because you want others to think you are cool , that you booze . Only we (non-boozers) know how emotional you get once you are on a high . Don’t gimme the cool dude crap to me . Remember 9 out of 10 cool guys don’t drink .

Update in life : More people around me now call me Leo (my new nick) and I like it.