MBA. A degree that speaks of hopes and dreams for many people. Each wanting to carving out their own identity into this microcosm. Some try, some work hard, some win and some are able to realize the dreams they had. Few are those, privileged are those. And behind the façade of achievement, is an average Joe, who like you and me, worked in silence, slogged and made it big.
I had the perfect boring life going on for me. Working in a corporate firm in Gurgaon! Listening to “exciting” client stories! Looking out of the window and seeing 20 storeyed glass & concrete structures staring back at you! You know the ‘clichéd’ good life. And I really didn’t mind any of it. And yet here I was on my first day at XLRI.
I happen to belong to this prestigious category of our country’s most inconsequential people. Quite honestly, most of us hail from this section of the country’s ever-increasing population. We lead a normal existence, have fixed schedules, snooze the alarm at least thrice a week, snap atrociously at our loved ones when stressed, get panic attacks at the most trivial situations, spend hours at the dining table staring at some XYZ space, smile out of the blue for reasons best known to us. This is Me. This is You. I am no different from you and you are no different from me. All of us have our lousy ways of getting the right things wrong. Well, I adore myself for my imperfections. This unassuming, unplanned and highly disorganized way of looking at life attracts me these days. I now love to be associated with people who don’t worry about time wasted, who procrastinate excessively, who are fun loving, less organized, and who live life without worrying too much about tomorrow. I am quite curious to know the reason behind this sudden transformation of mine. Had I been the earlier ME, I would have tried a hundred methods to reverse the change, to go back to being a person who loved being perfect, meticulous to the core, and yes, fastidious to a great extent. I wouldn’t deny that the qualities of being fastidious and striving hard to achieve perfectionism in everything I undertake still rests with me, and that I have probably inherited from my mother, who can give anyone a run for his/ her money! But what made me change? This is something that makes me ponder, makes me analyze, makes me introspect…
Every year when June happens, happens the advent of Mangoes in the market, Monsoons in the weather and entry of tens of thousands of fresh graduates in a business school. Little do they know that they’ve signed up for a roller coaster ride and nobody knows where the STOP button is. Let us try to break down the 2 years into a few ‘critical moments’ that come into the ‘b-life’ of a management student till the time he/she lands a job.
It's the last Sunday of November, and you're at your exam center for CAT. Nervous. There's a buzz in the air, the last few months of your life have led you to this moment. This is just a pitstop in your journey. The next couple of months are gonna fly by in nervous anticipation, and before you know it, your CAT results have been declared and colleges have shortlisted you for interviews. You become a frequent visitor of InsideIIM to try and figure out what you must be doing, what you must NOT be doing, what you should know, etc. But to be completely honest, any amount of prep you do will only be a fraction of what is necessary, because some things you're just unprepared for:
I am writing this as a shout-out to all those MBA aspirants out there who have, for the better or worse, decided that their sole aim in life right now is to get into an IIM (or any b-school, really).
MBA. A degree that speaks of hopes and dreams for many people. Each wanting to carving out their own identity into this microcosm. Some try, some work hard, some win and some are able to realize the dreams they had. Few are those, privileged are those. And behind the façade of achievement, is an average Joe, who like you and me, worked in silence, slogged and made it big.
I had the perfect boring life going on for me. Working in a corporate firm in Gurgaon! Listening to “exciting” client stories! Looking out of the window and seeing 20 storeyed glass & concrete structures staring back at you! You know the ‘clichéd’ good life. And I really didn’t mind any of it. And yet here I was on my first day at XLRI.
I happen to belong to this prestigious category of our country’s most inconsequential people. Quite honestly, most of us hail from this section of the country’s ever-increasing population. We lead a normal existence, have fixed schedules, snooze the alarm at least thrice a week, snap atrociously at our loved ones when stressed, get panic attacks at the most trivial situations, spend hours at the dining table staring at some XYZ space, smile out of the blue for reasons best known to us. This is Me. This is You. I am no different from you and you are no different from me. All of us have our lousy ways of getting the right things wrong. Well, I adore myself for my imperfections. This unassuming, unplanned and highly disorganized way of looking at life attracts me these days. I now love to be associated with people who don’t worry about time wasted, who procrastinate excessively, who are fun loving, less organized, and who live life without worrying too much about tomorrow. I am quite curious to know the reason behind this sudden transformation of mine. Had I been the earlier ME, I would have tried a hundred methods to reverse the change, to go back to being a person who loved being perfect, meticulous to the core, and yes, fastidious to a great extent. I wouldn’t deny that the qualities of being fastidious and striving hard to achieve perfectionism in everything I undertake still rests with me, and that I have probably inherited from my mother, who can give anyone a run for his/ her money! But what made me change? This is something that makes me ponder, makes me analyze, makes me introspect…
Every year when June happens, happens the advent of Mangoes in the market, Monsoons in the weather and entry of tens of thousands of fresh graduates in a business school. Little do they know that they’ve signed up for a roller coaster ride and nobody knows where the STOP button is. Let us try to break down the 2 years into a few ‘critical moments’ that come into the ‘b-life’ of a management student till the time he/she lands a job.
It's the last Sunday of November, and you're at your exam center for CAT. Nervous. There's a buzz in the air, the last few months of your life have led you to this moment. This is just a pitstop in your journey. The next couple of months are gonna fly by in nervous anticipation, and before you know it, your CAT results have been declared and colleges have shortlisted you for interviews. You become a frequent visitor of InsideIIM to try and figure out what you must be doing, what you must NOT be doing, what you should know, etc. But to be completely honest, any amount of prep you do will only be a fraction of what is necessary, because some things you're just unprepared for:
I am writing this as a shout-out to all those MBA aspirants out there who have, for the better or worse, decided that their sole aim in life right now is to get into an IIM (or any b-school, really).
