January 07, 06 by Bharani
Just sent my resume + EOI for a role in Corporate Strategy group of EDS. Huh! The role, responsibility, salary, location everything is attractive….I think entire campus would be applying 
Not disclosing anymore details…
Thus begins the recruitment season….From monday, many Preplacement Presentations by companies are lined up. God, may the force be with me for next 2 months!!!
Last one week has been the MOST hectic and taxing week in ISB for me so far…On top of this, mouth ulcers, fever + cold. Never in life have I craved for sleep like this…honestly!
Now, don’t ask me where the hell do you get the time for blogging…Because, blogging is something close to my heart…Will blog even if I have an interview with my dream company the next day morning! A way to relax…For some people it’s smoking, for some people it’s gossipping, for some people it’s watching television…for me it’s blogging….
PS: The first round admission results would be announced today as per ISB website. Can’t imagine that we are nearing the end of programme. Anyway, my best wishes to all the applicants…May the deserving applicants go through…
January 06, 06 by Bharani
One of the most pleasant and service-minded people that I have seen in my life are Sarovar House-keeping guys. They rock!
You get to wake up with a call “Housekeeping….”. Then you get to hear “Good morning sir…”. Then they mechanically change your bedsheets, clean your room, fold your clothes if you have any unfolded clothes, fill the water bottle…and the list goes on…Before they begin their cleaning, they report to their superiors that they are cleaning so and so room…If they find any valuables on the table/shelf, they quietly note it down and report it to the administration. In the evening, the concerned quad residents will get a mail saying “Valuables were found in your room. Kindly lock it in a safe plac…”
There is a new person who has joined the sarovar housekeeping team. He is hyper-active. He will always have the last word…How? He will say “Good morning sirrrr…”, and I reply “Good morning…”, he will reply back instantly “Thank you sirrrrr”…Ok..how about this..”Cleaning ho gaya sirrrr…”, I reply “Thank you!”, he goes instantly “Welcome sirrrrr…”..Somehow he wants to have the last word
On the new year day, he wished “Happy new year sirrrr!”, I replied back “Happy new year to you too…”, then he smiled and went towards the kitchen…After about 15-30 seconds he came back and smilingly said…”Thank you sirrrrr…” Sweet guys…
We are being pampered as far as housekeeping is concerned…Life will be tough after ISB
These guys are amazingly well-trained. Daily morning, all sarovar guys assemble at Recreation centre and repeat some sort of prayer. Then they get to know their allotments [Which rooms to whom?]. Again in the evening another drill…Their pleasant behaviour and images will always linger in my heart….
January 04, 06 by Bharani
I have attended 4-5 mock consulting case interviews so far. I am able to crack the case to an extent. But the last 2 cases are something special. In the last but one case, after understanding the problem statement, I asked my first question to start my information gathering process. The very first question made the 2 interviewers to laugh…I couldn’t understand what’s going on…then, we continued. At the end of the case interview, they told me that the question that I asked was exactly reproduced word-by-word in the solutions document! That isn’t my problem!!! They even suspected that I have read the case before…wherein I haven’t…
Today’s case interview went one step further. The ideal approach for today’s case suggested a set of questions that the student should ask to finally arrive at a conclusion. But, I arrived at the expected conclusion within 3 minutes of my interview, with just 2 questions!!! Interviewer just kept me engaged for another 10 minutes by leading me into different areas. Finally, the interviewer rejected me saying he couldn’t evaluate my thought process!! Hmm…I made whole lot of assumptions in mind and asked the question that led me to the right conclusion…I know that I am a high-context person. But didn’t realize that I am very-high-context!! Need to shift to low-context…Case interviews need low-context culture! After all, the thought process is what is being evaluated in interviews!
To give an analogy, what I did was analogous to writing the final answer without writing down the intermediate steps. Might work well in objective type examinations, but not in subjective type exams!!!
BTW, I am doing these exercises just for learning. I don’t have any hopes of getting a consulting job, as academics plays a major role. And I don’t have attractive grades! But this preparation might come handy down-the-line…
January 03, 06 by Bharani
Had a very unique examination today. Nothing special about the subject. But the way it was conducted was different…The answers had to typed in the word document while racing against the time. Unlike the usual sound of pens torturing the paper, this time it was the sound of keyboards pressing against the rubber padding that was distracting people…appeared to me like a typing exam!
The formalities after the exam was even stranger. The IT assistant came to each laptop and downloaded the answer document on to this pen drive. Took years to finish the process. So, some 2-3 people including me, pitched in with our own pen drives and eased up the process a little.
The paper was quite easy, in hindsight! There was a question to find price elasticity of a product given the sales and the total variable cost. After thinking some complex regression approaches, realized that the solution can be obtained through the simple cost-plus markup formula! Few more questions were like that…Life is simple most-of-the-time, but our complex minds make its tough
On the recruitment front, I rented couple of interview CD’s [Microsoft, McKinsey, BirlaSoft]. Will watch it over next 2 days. My promises to review resumes of my focusgroup is unfulfilled. Need to fulfill it during this term-break.
Received our User Id and Password for CAS website. All the job postings, Pre-placement talk schedules, resume submission will be done through this website. The pre-placement talks will begin promptly from the beginning of Term 7…that is, 5 days from now….
January 02, 06 by Bharani
Shrutkeerti, Vibhuwalia and Mojo, another 3 colourful and vibrant characters are leaving to US/Germany after the departure of Shilpa, Mohit and Henna last week.
I owe R so much…without his mere presence, I don’t know what state I would have been some days ago…Thanks R. I am slowly seeing improvements…I am just praying that, the cycle builds up and doesn’t wane…
Completed Pricing exam. Will be done with Marketing metrics exam today. With 3 more end-term projects still remaining, another 4 days of academic slogging is inevitable. Collected my coursepack for Term 7, surprisingly only one! [Branding].
TAs of ISB are very friendly. Just need to have a cup of coffee or a chit-chat to see the ‘friend’ in them
“Hope is a good thing. May be the best of things. And no good thing ever dies…” - The most powerful statement that I ever came across…mentioned this already, but doesn’t hurt to say again
And so begins my first blog entry of year 2006…
