Monday, February 27, 2006

Think Big ----Three Events one Learning!!!!

It was short break for me after my initial encounters with two IIMs. I was not sure what to do during this time. The thoughts of in or out were hovering, especially about the WIMWI. At the same time I attended three different events/activities and believe me together they tought me single lesson THINK BIG.

Rang De Basanti

There were many movies pending after the CAT results are out and obviously I choose the RDB first. I read lot about this movie over last 3 weeks but more than that I learnt a lot when I actually seen it.

The sacrifice of the great martyrs told you that the only one think that acted as the driving force for their act was their strive for the freedom and their strong faith in their values. What we lack today is this BIG VIEW to look at our lives.
HATS OFF TO RDB for showing me how I indulge into the trivial things to loose the big view of life.

Quiz Time

First, I attended the TCS Couple O Quiz; an annual TCS quizzing event’s final at J.W.Mariott on Saturday. The students of Victoria Blind School marked the evening with their great yoga performance. The quiz that followed was one more trademark event of the pickbrain’s fabulous quiz show.
On Sunday it was time for the TATA Crucible Final at Taj Lands End Bandra. This is
the most difficult quiz where students from the best B-School of India battled for the coveted crown.

Both of these quiz events shown me the indefinite gamut of the knowledge and how small of it I know.

Ayushavar Bolu Kahee !! (आयुष्यावर बोलू काही !!!)

This is the Marathi poetry concert by the Sandeep and Salil who are my favorite for the Marathi poems and songs.
Unfortunately I missed their earlier concerts in Pune and until now they hadn’t conducted it in Mumbai. I am fortunate enough to attend the 150th show of this program on Sunday.
Apart from the joy of being in True Love these poems shown me the various aspect of the life and relationships. The some of the poems like Namnjur is real great and help you to think beyond your limitations.
For those who appreciate Marathi poetry here is one of my favorite of yesterdays program.

"व्यर्थ हे सारेच टाहो,
एवढे ध्यानात राहो,
मुठ पोलादी जयांची!
ही धरा दासी तयांची!! "

All this collectively helped me to look big at picture of Management Education ahead rather than restricting it to trivialities like ranking and placements.

Giving BEST to the RESTs

After two encounters with the IIM A and IIM K, I find myself bit complacent and the rest over last week further helped to bolster it but wait, I know the game is no over yet and the 5 more encounters approaching fast towards me.

Here is the timeline

IIM L (These people joined their hands with IIM C and came up with the series of weird topics. Adding to my worry there will be 150 words essay also and they also expect engineers to know eco fundas.....Cool !!!)-----7 March.

NITIE (This is gritty when it comes to grilling the engineers to show them how much less they know about their streams and more to it I expect them to go in world of Applied Mathematics)-----8 March

IIM C (They already announced that forget the past glory when you come to their GD/PI so this time only the rocking GD/PI will sail you through)--14 March

IIM I (The only big thing about them is their BIG form.....they took enough care to sap candidates energy in filling the form so these guys can grill on anything under the Sun) ---16 March

IIM B ( I will put my mouth shut before commenting anything on them....these guys are (ill)famous for their random choice, it may be calling the candidate for GD/PI or grilling him/her on the various areas ) ----21 March

After doing this much analysis of my opponents strengths I not only need to sharpen my weapons but also need to add few more and here come my plan to tackle them.

1. Analog and Power electronics fundas.
2. Digital electronics and microprocessor fundas.
3. The fascinating world of communication.
4. Lower Mathematics.
5. Higher Mathematics.
6. Economics fundamentals
7. Industrial Management Fundas.
8. My projects and my job.
9. Computer networking + operating systems+ How stuff works.

This will be combined with the daily dose of current happenings and GK. The Bush visit and the budget which is around the corner add some more load.
This is really a long list to be finished in short time but surely it is going to give me simulation of the B-School life ahead.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Encounter 2 : IIM K aka Gods Own Land !!!!

This is all about my IIM K GD/PI

Date : 20/02/2006
Place : Dadar Mumbai
Time : 9.30 AM
Panel: 3

We were 8 people in one panel with 2 ladies and 6 guys.

Topic: One 10 line article on the nuclear warheads of US and UK....why they are doing this ....american political philosophy behind this.

I started as usual.....gave outline what we need to discuss....... The GD was very peaceful no one cutting each other and each one getting his/her own dedicated GD BANDWIDTH. I came 5-6 times and give some good points. (Profs might got feeling that how a GD can that peaceful.....IS TEHRE ANY MATCH FIXING??......surely Not !!!)

PI

1. Describe yourself ......(I took 1.5 mins they didn't disturbed me )
2. So you started SPANDAN group in college? There is something with same name in IIM K also do you know that ? (ya I know it ......it's their Magazines name )
3. What XXXX spoken in GD (sir I do not know his name can yu tell me his no ? )
4. Number 8 last person (I really don't know what this guy spoken.....but I put some general stuff in his mouth and told profs... I am not SURE)
5.You spoken smt about INDIA here can you explain it (Kiyaa....I use word NAM here.. )
6. What is NAM ? India's role ?
7. There are good effects of IT we all seen .....talk about some bad effects (digital divide.....pay scale diff.....social imbalance... )
8. Any effect on the employment in 2010 (NASSCOM survey 5 lakhs more IT prof required....only few are employable out of large chunk of graduates....)
9. do you have eco in you syllabus ? (No sir ....But I know some aspects of it Sir)
10. You have accounting? (No sir )
11. You seen balance sheets ? (Yes sir I seen them in News Papers)
12. What is PAT of TCS (No idea sir !!!)
13. What is TCS revenue ( $2.4 billion)
14. We heard TCS have very high attrition rate ? Is it true why ? (I told it is only 8.4 % compare to infosysy 10 and wipros 11.....but TCS have very high no of emp also so no of droup outs are surely high....)
15. He asked me about the TCS bond and legal process if someone breech it... (Bata Diya )
16. Why switch from Bajaj to TCS ?
16. We don't know about the MARATHI POETRY but we surely know about the Bakti Movement in MHA can you tell about it ( I told all details here ....all saints their work and blah blah)
17 . There was also Saint Chokhamela. You know about him ? (I told the details here )
18. Do you follows his poetry ? (No sir I don't....it is very ancient )
19. Talk about India’s energy sector and future of it ? (Told the details.....I used 9% deficit he corrected me saying it is much higher )
20. You have written, you applied for some fellowship (my alternate MBA plan ) where shud you go then if you have two options ? (Surely MBA.....Gyan on this )
21. Which specialization ? (I told consulting... general management )

Finally they wish me ALL THE BEST !!!!

This is the best panel one can get for GD/PI........
No stress no grilling.....they were talking like someone sitting near me in bus or train !!!

So I finished with 2 and 5 more to go !!!!

Encounter 1 : WIMWI

I never felt this day would ever come in my life and I will appear to the IIM A inetrview and hence damn sure this was my first and last chance to make most out of it.
But I didn't want this to put some extra pressure on me.
So Day 1 ,I reached Ahemdabad, I enjoyed meeting my friends there in IIM A and got some gyan from them.

Then came the D-Day.....I reached the place at 1.30 PM and the procedure started about 2.00 PM......Here is how it went .....

Case Study

It was related to the some small PC firm in Gujarat facing various problems in finance, employee atrrition and also customer satisfaction.

Someone started with directly jumping to the SOLUTION so I came in saying no wait we will discuss the case first (Good Chance to enter the GD !!!)
Then I came 4-5 times.....categorized the problems in 3 cat and ask group to focus on one by one.....again talked about the solution part....that’s it.

It was very peaceful affair and everyone was getting his/her bandwidth.....
I was at my best and really rocked here !!!

PI
1. So what you are doing right now ?
2. Since how long you are there ?
3. Are you team leader ? (No sir I am prime....not team leader)
4. How many primes are there ?
5. You do appraisals of your team members ?
6. Do you have subs on networking (have 0ne sir....but major was telecom communication subs )
7. Tell me about the in mobile telephony where are wires and were it is wireless ?
8.. Which is protocol for the wireless ?
9. What are BTS ?
10. Explian roaming ? (I aksed him he want roaming or handoff ? He said HANDOFF.....so then I gave all the handoff deatils and type like softer,soft and hard )

(Upto this point I was at my best to ans )

Prof 2 came into picture....

10. You done your BE project in Antenna Array (Mentioned in my file )
tell me what are they ? tried to explain......I think he need application here.....which I fumble to tell..... (He told me that wh he want and what ans is......That Realy Bad and Sad for me ) .......MISTAKE NO 1

11. Why GA .....do you gave thought on other algos ...?
I told we know there were some AI algos also ....
12. Which are they ? (I don't remember the names)
13. So why GA not the others (I told it was my guides advice that GA are easy to implement....)
(He want this only!!!! he laughed and told other two that they followed the guide advise and used GA because they were easy to implement........My MISTAKE NO 2 )
14. Then he ask me about the Qs on one graph ?
15. One more graph ......asked it is increasing or decreasing ?
16. He looked into the whole certis and suddenly went out
Prof 3 came into scene
17. So what is TRAI ? What they do ?
18. Will the spectrum allocation affect your work ?
19. What is TRAI 99 policy ?
20. What is unified licensing (I explain about the circle and bidding ka details but he want smt different so I said no idea )
21. Under which min Telecom come (I told Information and Broadcasting.......he ask me again I said that only.....but it was wrong......MY MISTAKE NO 3)
22. Then there are some news that gov is favoring CDMA ? (I said these are allegations )
23. Explain what are they ?
24. what will be effect of this on GSM ?
25. You are from Ahemdnagar ? (I corrected small place Jamkhed in that district.... )
26. So how it got name Ahemdnagar ? (Told about the Nijam Shah's name ...)
27. Same is with Ahemdabad ? (No idea sir !!!)
28. Your place is famous about something what is that ? smt related to health ? (I told the Award winning work of Dr Arole couple )
29. How the work going on now ? (I told it got affected after demise of Mrs Arole )
30. What are the corps in your area ? (I told them.......and added all fruits and vegs are also available......He asked are you sure? .....I told yes sir because it is very well connected with other places so if not production but supply is very good ...!!! )

Thank You !!!........You may have toffees !!!!

So summary is very cool interview,......no stress ...no grilling......through out I was calm,cool and confident....and my 3 BOLD MISTAKES !!!!
I don't know what will matter finally........

My good acads.......lots of achievements........all types of extra curricular one can do .....3 years of diverse experience.....Good and balance CAT score .....very well written form.......great case study show.............
OR MY 3 STUPID MISTAKES !!!!

Time will say all ......but one thing is sure this To Be or Not To Be Sucks....