Placement Beacons…

Note: This post is dedicated to all my friends of GMBA, who are still in quest for job.

One great man said - "History is written by the winning side".  I do believe that. 

The reason I am writing this primarily because of 2 things

• Just 2 days back, I was on the other side of battle
• One quote which my Prof said (I would be sharing it eventually)

I understand that things are just not happening, for whatever reasons it may be. Having said this, I would like to reiterate that this is not the end, rather the beginning.  The biggest takeaways of me having lost and finally made it (though I don’t consider it as any achievement) is this - LUCK matters, but you can't do much - So forget it!!! 

• Getting placed is no indication of your capacity to survive the job, it is just that your 15-45 min of interview went just as you wanted. So all those who got placed (including myself), don’t think you all are the best!!!
• Not getting a job is just an indication, that you messed up with words, or you didn’t say what he expected. For eg. When one person asked me what is your favorite IT subject, I told all subjects revolve around the same thing, and the interviewer was taken aback, may be felt offended also. I messed it up, even though I meant what I said.
• You make it or lose it in the first few minutes. Trust me, I knew I screwed up my interviews in the first few minutes. I also knew I had impressed the interviewer in another one, within the first few minutes.
• Be yourself - you might have read it many places, but again just be yourself. If you want to change, it      should be only for the better. Lot of people criticized me on being direct and open in interviews, but if a company cant receive openness, can that company even nurture my thought process. I was in such a big dilemma, for some time, if I am selling myself in the interview (as all gyan gurus mentions), then the person who buys me should know what I am. Period!!!
• It is not the company, but the interviewer that matters. You are not pitching for the company, but for the interviewer. So sell to the interviewer, not the company. 

Finally let me quote what, one of my fav professor advised me, after I was placed - "Time to take stock and plan life Shravan as this phase comes to an end ". Friends, just look back and think, for what fun did we all spend so much money, time, family life, and come here - lets not forget it, for whatever it may be.  One might have come for real gyan, another for real money, another for great position - lets make sure, we get what we have had come here for. 

This is the time to pause, look, and go forward. Though, this write-up is a bit impulsive, I am writing this with all the empathies towards my mates.

 Congratulations for all those, who are placed!!!

 But, all those who aren't, you have seen the worse, time to see the better one , you will definitely make it!!! Ours is one of the most versatile and robust batch, it is just a matter of time.. !!! I have loads and loads of confidence on everyone.. ( this is not gas; but from what I have seen working with various people)

 Smile Please Click Click !!!!!

 PS:  Humble request to everyone who are placed; stop putting FB updates, no big deal guys. Wake up!! Hope you all understand (or atleast wait for everyone, lets celebrate together)

Brand + Luck = Success

There were days when I used to think that luck was the least important thing to be successful. Infact I think the same even today, but with lesser conviction. That’s only because of experience, not just mine but also looking at others' . I have heard there are two types of people - wise people, who learn from their experiences; and wiser guys, who learn from others experience also.  I have tried to be in the later category.

Recently, we had a presentation to do regarding social media implementation for educational institutions in front of the professor & class. Ours was a group of 6. Over a grade of 10, I would rate my group, in terms of capability and talent @ 8/10. I must say, it was a pretty fine balance of pure knowledge, smart workers, hard-workers and hardly workers.  We had prepared considerably, but somehow I think, our power point wasn't really showing the work/ effort which we had put in.

It was presentation time, and ours was the 4th group to present out of the 5 groups. The advantage of having to present at a later part is that we know what is the expectation of the professor, but on the flip side, the class and the Prof would have lost interest, and we should do it really well to catch his/her attention. 

There were 3 people who were supposed to speak, starting with myself, followed by 2 other members, one who was like a lucky mascot ( atleast most of the times in the past; even though his group's presentations were a  bit cheek, somehow Profs were impressed), and the other had made a huge impression on the professor, in the previous course and had a brand image of her own.  But, having me in the group obviates it from being the best, especially in this Prof's class, as I had made a very bad impression, and he was one of those sadists who can punish a whole group, based on an individual.

Finally, I kicked off our presentation, and he seemed to be impressed from the beginning itself. It was carried on well by both my group mates. Overall, for that day, I must say, ours was the best presentation, based of the comments, the Prof passed.  He was very impressed with the flow of our presentation, to be particular.  I was infact surprised, what was it that made it such an instant hit, with him.

Then the wires inside my brain started analyzing all the things, that had happened.  Apart from the fact, that our group had that girl who had already made a great impression on the Prof, and we had a lucky mascot, I couldn’t find any great reason for our group to make it big.

I could clearly see how brands and luck could turns things around. Personal branding is a phenomenon, which I have been seeing a lot of value. The best part is you can have multiple brandings, based on the person with whom you have built it. It is equally dependant of how the other person perceives you and how you portray yourself. But the point of interest is, sometimes your luck builds your brand - something which I can't explain. 

However, I still expect a modicum of worthiness in recognizing the best works, though involuntarily, I want to have both the winning brand and luck in my group…  :)

Wake Up !!!

It was around 4:00 am, on a Tuesday. I was reading a case study for the morning session. Let me also confess that I wasn't doing just that - I was checking out some interesting websites for some information about financial crisis, along with chatting, etc. To hit the nail on the head - not all the time till 4:00 am was spent in a fruitful manner. Finally I made up my mind to sleep by 4.15 am. I set the alarm for 8:00 am and slept. I must say my crazy dreams were a bit more berserk, than normal. 


I opened my eyes in trouble and saw that my roomie - Chetan was still asleep, and so I again went back to sleep. Next time, I opened my eyes and out of sheer desperation, I took the mobile to check out the time. And it was 9:07 ................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The worst part was Chetan was also still sleeping - even though he had slept by midnight 12. I literally shouted - "Shiiiiittttttttt... 9........ 7......." and within seconds we both had to be in the class. The lift time was utilized in combing and finally for the first time ever in my life - I entered the class in slippers. The attire was mediocre and face was clearly indicating that I was totally sleep -deprived. Adding insult to injury, my program coordinator(This person is responsible for the smooth running of the class - She was also responsible for taking attendance and seldom sits in the class to check if the learning experience is really happening - Infact this is one of the good things that I like here. ) was sitting in the class. This is what I called destiny - She was on leave for the past 2 weeks and I had been punctual all through, but all of a sudden, she is sitting inside the class. Either ways, I didn't have time to talk to her and just ran to my place like a bull in a competition. The class was that of the Business Strategy - and I had actually prepared for the case-study that we would be discussing in  the class.  But what is the point in having prepared, when you are not in a position to know what was happening in the class, and whether your preparation is relevant to the class. 


Having already known for sleeping in the class, it was a bit difficult for me to digest this extra embarrassment.. Anyways, what is study if not for this..??!!!! That too for an engineer...!!


However, if this wasn't sufficient, destiny had a few more surprises lined up for me. During one of the case -study discussions, I had prepared myself for a particular question, and I desperately wanted to complete my turn that day itself, because, I was skeptical if I missed the chance that day, I had to prepare another case for the next day. Thanks to few irritating (pun definitely not intended) characters in the class, the number of nonsense questions were a bit a more and ate up everybody's air-time. Just in the last 5 min, i finally got the mike and I had my answer prepared on my laptop screen, destiny had a different story - Now our dearest professor had to leave a bit early and disbursed the class 5 min before time. The happy part however was that the prof told that he would continue with the same case n with me, the next day. So I didn't have to read another case- relieved :))


One more similar incidence, with my friend - Amey, it was a similar case-study discussion - and the question- answer session was to start with him and he was prepared to present his view on the first question. Now again, few unknown sources wanted a different climax - the professor started to ask from second question - His face was a mixture of emotions, which were waiting to flow out but he was holding on. Now this is what I say engineers, not everyone would find a strategy the way he found out - he said that the mike was not working and asked for another, there by gaining another 3-4 min, through which he could just push-through the question. 


A person's intelligence is actually tested in such situation handling and is more ridiculed in examinations...


Hail Engineers!!!!!!