Hello, 'prospective batch of 2019'!
Feels good to be addressed thus, doesn’t it? If you’ve attended a B-School interview that went well or if you’ve already converted the college of your dreams, get used to being addressed so.
Blow Trumpets, you have achieved a brilliant feat. You will soon be living the dream of over 90% of your peers. Sounds all rosy? Well, not so much.
This, like every other rosy dream, has its own set of thorns. If you thought that the battle is won and wrapped, let me burst the bubble by telling you that
the real battle begins here on when you would be competing with the best minds of the county. So, getting to the point -
What can one do in the two months before joining a B-School to get an edge over others?
Here are 5 quick things you can do to become B-school ready:
I) Excel and Power-Point
Excel and PPT are the bread and butter of B-School students. This would become a part of your life even before you realise. Even if you have an initial basic understanding of these, you need to align your skills to business presentations. You should be able to decide:
what font to use, which colour to put, how many slides to make, how to reduce text on slides, among others. Here are Some Quick Courses that you can do for free (or by paying minimal charges) to Master Excel and PPT in less than a week:
- GoSkills: GoSkills website has a free trial for the first 7 days. One can easily complete at least a couple of courses in seven days.
N.B: “Excel Advanced” is a must.
- Udemy: Unlike GoSkills, Udemy is a paid platform but it has been priced very reasonably.
II) Master CV
Your CV is your sole spokesperson in a B-School. Whether it be committee selections or summer internships, the
first touchpoint is always your CV. You just can’t mess with it. Making a good CV becomes a lot simpler if one has all points (yes all: big/small, relevant/irrelevant, new/old, all…. just all) written at one place. The 2 months you have at hand is the perfect time to recollect all that you’ve done & achieved in life and get the first draft of your CV ready. These points can be worked upon once you’ve joined a B-School, but only if you have a rough draft ready.
Don’t bother about the CV format. Most B-Schools have their own template. However, you can check
Latex-Templates for some good CV templates.
III) Financial Accounting
Engineers, we feel you! This is for you.
As soon as you set foot in the B-School land, the phantom of Financial Accounting will start haunting you. Every term has a mandatory Finance subject, therefore it is imperative for one to develop a basic understanding of financial statements and their analysis. You can do the following courses to do so:
IV) Basic Domain Knowledge
B-Schools are known for their batch diversity. Different students have different backgrounds and therefore contribute very differently during class discussions. To be able to appreciate the depth of such discussions it is essential to know the basics of these domains:
V) Networking & Soft Skills
Research says that successful managers spend over 80% of their time in building stout networks. If you’re an introvert, you are bound to miss out on a lot. Develop the ability to break the ice with strangers and to learn with whomever possible. The importance of soft skills can never be sufficiently explained. As a B-school student, you are required to make one or more presentations for every course and also during your internship, therefore being presentable always helps you earn brownie points.
Having said that, don't forget that this is the last time you'd get so much time to spend some quality time with your family/friends, go on a trip, to follow your passion, and to live your dream. Do all of it alongside your B-School preparation.
Good luck!
Let me know if you have any query, in the comments section.