Dear batch of 2020, this is a welcome note for you.
I will be discussing a few things which will guide you in your first year, moreover, this will be a brief of all the activities which happens in a b-school in the first year. The order of activities may vary from b-school to b-school but the overall structure remains the same. I hence request you to go through it and decide on the importance you are willing to give to each of them. This is not a comprehensive list, many more things happen but these are the ones common across all the MBA programs.
- CV preparation
- Summer Placements
- CGPA (Student Exchange and Final Placements)
- Club/ Committee selection
- Sports event
- B-School Competitions
There may be many more which I’m missing but I want to highlight the above activities. The above list is in a random order and you should have your own order according to your own importance.
I’ll start with CV preparation, this will start as soon as you will enter the b-school, you will be assigned mentors who will take care and ensure that you are carefully introspecting in your past and bringing out all your achievements onto the paper and prepare that one page which will decide how your summer placements are going to be. Your one page will go through many of your seniors for verification where you’ll be suggested improvements, once it is completed you'll be running around and contacting the concerned people who will be verifying your ‘CV points’. Post this you’ll be preparing for your ‘summers’, studying all night long, giving countless interviews to seniors and improving on your delivery style. Not to mention that your first term will be going on during this time where you’ll be tackling the plethora of 6-7 difficult subjects which will make sure that you are walking like zombies. This will be the time where you’ll have to give importance to your CGPA because no matter what people say it is important. If you believe otherwise just have a look at the selection criteria of the IIMs and how they give importance to your past academic scores. And again your CGPA of first two terms will affect your chances of going on student exchange. Unless you are in the top 3 IIMs of the country you’ll have to face competition for this as well.
At the same time, companies will be visiting your campuses for a ‘pre-placement talk’ where they will be sharing the job profiles for which they are going to recruit for in summers. Along with that, these companies will be launching their case competitions which again, if you win, will be a big deal. Not to mention that the first term and most of your second term will be extremely hectic, but the good news is you’ll be able to endure it. My suggestion to you would be, participate in these competitions, they are extremely helpful for your learning. You might not win but over time you’ll start winning for sure.
The second term marks your summer placements; all your hard work of over 3-4 months will be tested here. This can be a chaotic situation for some, while for some it may be a cake walk. This will be the ultimate test of your endurance to mental agony and physical pain. When you’ll come out of this, you’ll be a different person. Friendships are made in these hard times. And this is the reason why you’ll never forget your b-school friends. They are the ones with whom you have endured the hardest time of your life.
Once your summer placements will end, you will start looking at your life differently. Now you will have the time to take walks in the beautiful campus and play sports, lose the waistline which has been growing over from the last few months. This is the time when suddenly everyone will be on the playground, the sports achievements which were only in the CV will be reflected in the fields now. Team selections will happen and tournaments across b-schools start at this time. Also, there are many student bodies in the campus which conducts different events throughout the year, these student bodies will start their selection either before the summer placements or after the summer placements depending on the b-school you are in. While getting into one of them will make sure that you will never be free on campus, plus they will give you a chance to meet new people and bond with them.
The idea behind this note is to familiarize you and give you a rough idea on how your stay in your b-school is going to be. While there are a plethora of activities going on, you cannot participate in all of them. Often you have to prioritize yourself and attend to those which you find useful.
All the best for your future.