Confession of a B-Schooler

  With every new batch, Both Seniors & Juniors are thrilled & filled with high expectations,

MBA Freshmen replete with energy that is overflowing, enthusiasm that is infectious and potential that is immense BUT untapped (yet).
but somewhere down the line, that energy starts to seep away,

First of all I would like to offer some insights from the experience gained by committing all the possible mistakes and hence compile a comprehensive list of “What NOT to do at a B School” 1. Organize your time, hanging out with peers and batchmates is essential but not at the cost of self development opportunities. (Remember, She won’t remember the CCD Coffee you took her to in 2014, but she will remember the Grand Hyatt Dinner you can take her to in 2016)

2. Competition, Competitions all around,
(Competitions are best way to:
A. Groom yourself,
B. Expand your thinking abilities,
C. Be Aware of real competition in top 30 B Schools that fight for same companies, same profiles as you,
D. Most Impressive C.V. Point
E. Teach Humility or Build Self Confidence (Whatever the case may be :P)

Whenever any BIG or Medium Sized Company is approached, ALL of them, ask for batchsheet, which lists all the tasks done by both the batches, during their stay at the B-School and that largely decides whether they will visit the campus or not. (You may have done a lot of things in your graduation or your work experience phase, but if you don't participate and do extra curricular things NOW when it matters the most, the whole batch is doomed to be devoid of the opportunity of having those big shot companies at the campus) The Slope of The Graph of achievements must be rising & not fading in the B-School tenure phase (which will also help you fetch a great Summer Internship or Final placement Off campus, especially through portals like LinkedIn where you can showcase all your accomplishments and B-School Competition Participations).   3. Guest Lectures are Blessings in Disguise (They sometimes may seem like a boring Monologue or Jargon full of preaching) but trust us, in that 2 hours of GL even the worst of speakers will have 30 Minutes of Sheer Gem piece of Advice earned from their decades of experience + Guess what, if you ask questions (not for the sake of asking) but out of genuine curiosity, the Guest Lecturer may be very impressed and ask for your name to offer a live project or a summer internship opportunity to the whole batch or YOU especially if your question is brilliant.   4. Reading? What is that?

Didn’t we read enough of those Metaphysics & Philosophy RCs in our AIMCATs? Most of us, flinch from Reading, finding it tough or relatively boring,
BUT BUT BUT, look closely all the top managers, CEOs and successful personalities have 1 string running common across themselves, i.e. They Read Hundreds of Books, Classics, Business Books, Quality Fiction
“Because it’s reading that makes us travel the whole world without moving an inch-Jhumpa Lahiri,West Bengal,India (Pulitzer Prize Winner),Head of American Literary Society”

& books are what enable us,
to actually Empathize to myriad perspectives,
learn thousands of words,
see things from an altogether new perspective,
and take decisions armed a mature and wide thought process, that can change the course of our respective companies.
Same goes for Classic Movies (Dead Poets Society, A Beautiful Mind, Se7en, Pursuit of happiness & likes), (But still a Book > 10 Movies anyday) So you know a Chetan Bhagat Novel (1/10 a Book) = 1 Classic Movie.

  5. Trivia! , ‘The Economic Times’, & ‘The Hindu’ are your lifelong friends? And furthermore if you truly want to be an International Manager. (Confession- I am terrible at being regular in it)  

6. Other B School Fests & Competitions – Teach more than a limited class interaction ever would.
(Need CV Point? Need Real Life Exposure? Need to Test the Waters? Need to Appraise & Assess yourself?)
"Manjil Mil Jayegi Bhatak kar hi sahi, Gumrah to wo hai, jo Ghar se Nikle hi nahi"

 

7. If things appear stagnant?
Take Charge, and drive out the pessimism!
If you think, there aren’t enough GLs, contact people on LinkedIn pitch them to drop by at the campus,
If you feel there aren’t enough recruiters, Bug your friends,
seniors and relatives and put in a good word to their HRs and share their contacts with CRT.
If you perceive, there aren’t enough competitions to take part in, Search D2C & Other colleges and force your batchmates to actively take part.

  8. Live Projects – Go & Grab ‘em all. (Sources-Dare2Compete.Com, Oyster Connect.com, LetsIntern.com, Internshala.com, and many more.)  

9. Do expand your knowledge base by reading important and industry centric articles and internship experiences & you will be amazed at the wide reservoir of learnings that was all around.
Disclaimer-Yes it may tend to discomfort the ‘Ignorance is Bliss’ state for some of us.

 

10. Last & Not the Least – An MBA is Pure Packaging, So if your content is a bit on the lower side, make sure you compensate for it by the Ruthless, Enchanting, Intimidating articulation skills, so that the recruiter, the client, the teammate, feels conscious before doubting what you are advocating.
PS - Don't forget to make an 'awesome' LinkedIn profile, that is the next facebook for Never ending Career Opportunities & Advancement.
PPS- Don't use the word Awesome there :P

  Role of Seniors in A B-School? 1. Sessions-Marketing/Finance/Operations/HR Basics & Advanced, Sessions

2. Any Thing, Any query they can answer in a far more experienced manner, they can be revolutionarily candid/Honest in their opinion to suggest you in the right direction.
Disclaimer- 'Right' is a highly subjective term, please check the opinion carefully before investing :p

3. Organize Dozens of GLs by Eminent Personalities of their respective management fields, that can & will be epiphanic in expanding the dimensions and horizons of our thinking abilities.

Why would they be willing to do all this?
What's the CATCH?
What do they get in return?
Well Honestly, a few Honest Blessings & A chance to have diverse opinions added to their knowledge base by your participations in the sessions.

I am sure many of you will be frowning, (and perhaps even wondering why waste our spare time?) go back to the point 1 (CCD-Grand Hyatt) of the afore scribbled essay If you groom yourself enough to land the best jobs.
(Since Our Time has come, MBA is usually the last educational degree for most of us, the Potential is at its pinnacle and it’s time to unleash it)

 

Workshops that can be organized among ourselves to channelize the time we have:
1.> MOCK PIs for Summers, for Live Project, For Final Placements.
2.> Presentation Skills, SoP, Write Up Workshops (Deloitte asks for a Write Up & many other companies too possible to adopt this trend)
3>. Current Topic GDs – Time to flaunt your updated knowledge, your unique opinions and your suave articulation

None of us are going to gain much, except some mutual learning and feeling of contributing something and revision of our knowledge and self grooming. Even if we follow, half of what all I learnt, We can have a B-School ride worth cherishing for the rest of our lives.   About the Author:

Nikhil Mukhija, is a final year student of Master of International Business, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.
His MBA decision was driven by his English teacher who congratulated and suggested his parents to must make him pursue an MBA in marketing after his toothpaste advertisement assignment back then in 5^th Standard.
His Areas of interest include: Marketing, Psychology, Reading and arbitrary thinking.
And he wishes to make a career in E-Commerce/Market Research or FMCG Domain (Any HRs around?) : LinkedIn