Is CTC The Right Measure Of A Dream Job At A B-School?

The 90s kids seem to have found a new problem to be worried about. They are not worried about buying their first house or accrual of large savings. The question on all their minds is “When will I be able to shop without having to look at the price tag?”. More than just being a problem, it is now also the metric of success and the place we think if we reach, new would have achieved it all in our lives. Think about the many times you may have thought about this while at a store filled with your favourites!

From the first job after undergrad to the first job after MBA, this is the question that plagues the peace of their mind, but why would it not? In this age of social media where peeking into lives of those you know and those you aspire to know, is so easy, this unachievable goal is taking over our lives.

Little do we realise that from the time we can faintly remember in our childhoods, we’ve been spoilt for choice in an ever increasing way. As we approach a paycheck that enables us to buy what we want, our fickle mind moves to the next best thing and this whole want of better just turns into a vicious circle.

While all of us enter b-schools with some aspirations in mind, in the rat race to get that desired job we forget that this may also be the last time we are in an educational institution. While most people cannot associate the first 2 terms with anything other than the rush to summer placements, we seem to ignore all the memories we made and the friendships that grew tighter just by supporting each other.

Jobs are slowly being equated to the paychecks associated with them and not the happiness that the work you’d do would give you and what’s worse is that we’re all equally to blame. In the day 0, day 0.5, day 1 run, we forget what we really ever wanted to be.

With the burden of loans, growing up, and responsibilities to take on, we forget that we really are just students who are figuring out where they would really fit in. By merely being guided by the CTCs the companies have to offer, we tend to overlook those things in life that would really give us pleasure.

While I don’t agree with aiming higher or wanting the best for ourselves, I really do wonder if the best for someone else is also the best for me? Additionally, I always ask myself if my best is that highest paying job on campus or the fanciest company visiting campus?

To be fair, I don’t have the exact answer yet, just as most of you will not, but it is essential that we think through and try to realise what we really want after removing the blindfold that this race puts around our eyes before it’s too late.