What is your criteria for B-school selection?

I want to understand what is the most important criteria used by applicants in selecting a B-school. Please provide your inputs in the poll below. The poll will be closed in 6 days.

Update: As some of my readers rightly pointed out, there is no single criteria based on which you select a B-school. It is a mix of various parameters with varied importance. The objective of this poll is to get an idea what is the most important criteria in your selection. If you were to prepare a matrix to assign scores to each parameter, which parameter would get maximum weight.

Most Important Criteria in B-school Selection

ISB is ranking higher every year globally

Recently, Career 360 ranked ISB as the no. 1 B-school in India. Career 360 is part of the Outlook group. This ranking followed a methodology where the parameters for rankings were quite exhaustive. Looking at the parameters, one can easily guess that ISB deserved to be ranked higher. Although I am delighted with ISB earning this achievement, in my personal opinion, these rankings should not be used as a means of comparison among B-schools. Other schools IIMA, IIMB, IIMC and others are equally good. It all depends on your personal and professional preferences.

In late January 2010, the Indian School of Business was ranked 12^th in the Global MBA Rankings by the Financial Times of London. This is an amazing accomplishment for a school that just started 9 years ago. ISB has been featuring in the top 20 continuously since the last 3 rankings. Starting with a Global ranking of 20 in 2008, it moved up to 15 in 2009. This year's 12 is definitely a positive testimonial to the fact that ISB has tremendous potential to compete globally. While it gives a sense of pride and achievement to the whole of ISB community, the fact that it is ranked above global programs such as Kellogg, Stern, Tuck and the likes prompts readers to look into the FT rankings deeply.

The criteria used

As per Financial Times, "Three main areas are analyzed to create the top 100: alumni salaries and career development; the diversity and international reach of the business school and its MBA programme; and the research capabilities of each school." Digging deeper, we understand that "Weighted Salary" and "Salary percentage increase" each have a 20% weightage in the overall score, and the salaries are measured in terms of PPP adjusted dollar value. This skews the results a bit in ISB's favor considering most of the students are placed in India, where incoming salary is quite low. Post MBA average salary was Rs 19 lakhs per annum in 2008 and 15 lakhs in 2009, while the incoming batch had an average of Rs 7 lakh CTC. On an average the salary percentage increase is 166%, where ISB scored the top. Is it because MBA is overvalued in India, or is it that undergrads are paid very less? This is something to think about.

Another factor where ISB scored higher was the percentage of students placed, recorded as the % of students employed within three months of graduation. The figure stands at 97% for ISB, which is excellent for ISB. This is just because of the difference in placement culture between India and other countries. While in US and other countries, students find their job on their own, using their own networks, the school of course facilitates the process. In India, the school takes the responsibility to help you find recruiters, arrange for your interviews on campus and ensures that the whole batch gets placed. Well, it worked for ISB, isn't it? J

Where ISB ranked lower

Alumni Recommends. ISB is ranked 53 in the "recommends" criteria, which is saddening. But it is understandable, since the softer aspects of an MBA program may be more desirable, like International Students (3%), International faculty (16%), International Experience (rank 78), etc.

It has been repeatedly said that in an MBA program, you learn as much in class as outside from your peers. This makes the peer group requirement as diverse as possible to promote outside classroom learning from each other's experiences. Although ISB does maintain diversity to some extent, it still does not attract as many international students as a global B-school should. I have been close to ISB for so many years and I can see that the factors that attract international students (placements, Indian living standards, ISB brand, infrastructure, etc) are becoming much more favorable to foreign students, and the trend is changing.

What it means for ISB

The FT ranking sure provides credibility and global awareness to brand ISB. As someone said, "ISB should not just be an Indian B-school, but a global B-school located in India." With international faculty increasing, more international students joining the program and working for ISB, more cutting edge research, and increasing dedicated alumni base, ISB has a great potential to compete with Global B-schools, even if any rankings criteria change.

Having said that, I repeat, prospective MBA students should not use these rankings to compare B-schools. These rankings are just a mere tool for a B-school to prove credibility in the global space and are just an indicator of their potential.

thinkISB.com - A venture to guide ISB Aspirants

Recently, I had a chance to interact with some of the ISB alumni who have started a venture called thinkISB.com. I feel that is a very good initiative, coming from someone who has gone through the process, and more so, gone through the ISB journey. There are many applicants who are clueless regarding how to best project our personal story to the admissions committee. I feel that for admissions, more than a thorough understanding of the admission process, it is important to understand the MBA program and what the school has to offer. This is where initiatives like thinkISB.com come into the picture to provide accurate and targeted information.

Delving into the history of how, why and by whom thinkISB.com was started, I found that thinkISB.com, was born with an aim to guide aspirants (both, fresh and re-applicants) through the admission process of the Indian School of Business (ISB). The founders, all alumni of ISB, have diverse industry experience and have worked in close coordination with ISB Admissions committee in past.

The admission process of ISB might appear daunting and overwhelming for fresh applicants and may not be clearly understood by the re-applicant pool. It is believed that only the best make it to best b-schools like ISB. But a lot of brilliant aspirants, for the lack of personalized guidance or unclear understanding of admission process, fail every year to project themselves well to the admissions committee. Quite undeniably, in many such cases, professional admission guidance can make the winning difference. thinkISB provide that guidance to ISB Aspirants.

For more information, feel free to reach them at

EMAIL: info@thinkISB.com
PHONE: 9010917222 / 9010918222
WEB: www.thinkISB.com
BLOG: http://thinkisb.com/blog

ISB Application 2009-10 Essay Analysis

The Admissions for the One Year PGP for the class of 2011 is now open. The application portal is also LIVE. Here is the link for the same. http://pgpapp.isb.edu/user/default.aspx

The application deadlines are:

Cycle 1 Application Deadline September 15, 2009
Cycle 2 Application Deadline December 1, 2009

I had written a note on previous years’ Essays:
* Essay Analysis for Class of 2009
* Essay Analysis for Class of 2010


I did a simple analysis of this year’ essays and provided a personal opinion on the same. Take this just as my personal opinion and ISB has no official connection with the same.

Essay 1: Give 3 reasons as to why you should be selected to the class of 2011. These reasons should ideally differentiate you from the applicant pool and should be backed with some data. (300 words max)

According to me, this is the most simple and at the same time, the most important question of all. You simply have to differentiate yourself but remember: You do not have to be an overachiever to differentiate yourself. You do not have to do something away from the normal to achieve differentiation. Just sit back, reflect on what you have done and you will find the answers. Here are some tips to find the answer:

1. Just imagine that all people from your industry or company are put in a room together. ISB has to pick one person of them. What selling points do you have?
2. Jot down everything that you have done since graduation, be it extra-curriculars, achievements at work, involvement in social clubs, etc.
3. Use post-its: Write one bullet point about yourself on one post-it each. This point need not be an achievement, but can be rather normal (to you). Spread them out. Now make three boxes marked “Personal”, “Professional” and “Community”. You can make different boxes, according to your needs. Now classify each post-it to a box so that you have 3 clusters in front of you. In each box, start removing the least important post-it. Repeat this activity for each box until you are left with only one post-it in each box. Here is your answer.

Some general pointer on the purpose behind this question

The batch strength of ISB is 560 and every B-school wants each student to bring something worthwhile to the community that he/she can contribute. Consider the fact that learning in an MBA environment is not limited to classroom. Peer learning forms an important part of education here. To achieve this, a B-school must ensure that its batch is diverse enough that each person contributes as much to in-class discussions as to outside classroom interactions. These diversity factors can be in terms of international work experience, excellent academics, good leadership initiatives, start-up experience, and so on.

Structure of the essay

In my opinion, do not give any introduction or ending summary. Just come straight to the point, considering 300 word limit. If you really want, just give a one-liner introduction mentioning the three factors that you are going to talk about. This introduction is important if you are blending the three points in the essay and not separately listing them out under different headings. There is no one right approach. Just write it with your heart and make it either a story like essay or 3 points under 3 headings. Both are fine. The important thing to remember here is to be precise.

Essay 2: Describe a challenging assignment you have handled (at work or outside) to date. What were the challenges and how did you handle them. What were the personal learnings you derived from this assignment. (300 words max)

Challenges contribute significantly in developing professional and personal maturity. Answer this essay with a story to describe a challenge that helped you gain a mature approach towards life and work. Just pick one story, keep it simple and short and focus more on the learning part. This is a great opportunity to highlight your resilience and ability to learn from even the most difficult circumstances. Basically, you have to highlight how you grew either because of the experience or in spite of it.

A suggested structure to this response can be

* Story – Describe the initial challenge
* Comment on your thoughts and actions in response. If applicable, comment in internal thoughts as well as external reactions to display the nature of the challenge


It is not necessary to have overcome the challenge. You may still be in the process or have failed to overcome it completely. But the positive change did that bring in you is more important. Remember that your thoughts and response to the challenge should display maturity, and a common theme of sincerity towards improvement should come out.

Essay 3: Briefly assess your career progression till date along with your assessment of your future career goals. Discuss how your career goals will be met by the ISB’s one year program. (300 words max)

This is a very simple factual question. But the challenge here is put your story and future plans in 300 words. This exercise will take a lot of time and effort. In my opinion, the steps to structure this essay are:

* Jot down everything you have done till now in your professional life
* Answer a why to every decision that you took
* This should result in a chronological story with reasons for every step
* You have to tailor some things to show not that your decision was a consequence BUT because of your original plan, you took a decision. Basically, your decisions should be a consequence of your master plan
* Finally justify how an MBA fits into the overall plan regarding the next steps
* Now when everything is in place, put everything together. Make an attempt to bring out an interesting story that answers the reason of all your decisions and brings certain qualities evidently. Make sure that those qualities are coming out clearly and the user should not have to struggle to find those out.
* If space allows, you may also add a line or two about how an MBA from ISB specifically will help you. This answer will require some amount of research from your side regarding what ISB offers and how it fits into your expectations from an MBA program.


All the best for your application.

MBA Journal Writers for Businessweek.com

Businessweek.com has posted requirements for MBA Journal writers. This is a good opportunity for people who want to become part of the team that will share their MBA experience with the rest of the world. They need people who are, or will join, the class entering 2009-10.

For one, I know for sure that there are many good writers out there who are anyway sharing their MBA journey through their personal blogs. This will be a good platform for MBA writers to come in the mainstream. This will also be terrific for any reader who would want to read about MBA experience of various B-schools, all at one place. Sad to see, there is no journal from ISB. So let me see if I get motivated enough to contribute (read: get time out of my busy schedule here at ISB).

Best of Blogging - Best MBA Advice

The Clear Admit Best of Blogging 2008-09 results were declared 6 days ago. Too bad I could not make it to the top 10 Applicants blog for the Clear Admit Best of Blogging 2008-09. But I'm honored to receive a mention in the Best MBA Advice Category. The judges, including Clear Admit staff and other bloggers included celebrity judges Dawna Clarke, Director of Admissions at the Tuck School of Business, Eric Bahn of Beat The GMAT, and Brad Garrison (a.k.a. Hella).

As I said earlier, this is a motivation for me to write more on the topic.

Thank you Clear Admit.

Nominated for Best of Blogging 2008-09

April has been a month of surprises and events for me. I joined the Indian School of Business (ISB) on 11th April and began my MBA. As many have heard, an MBA can be too hectic. So I wanted to enjoy my share of free time before starting the stressful year. I traveled to Goa and got tanned on the beaches. Then I went further down in Kerala (God's Own Country) and visit the tea estates of Munnar and the back waters in Alleppey. It was indeed a holiday well spent and got me ready for the MBA.


2 days ago when I got my laptop back from the local IT guys from ISB, after they made sure that my laptop is ready to use here, I got another pleasant surprise. I have been nominated by Clear Admit for their Best of Blogging Awards 2008-09. I feel honored and motivated at the same time to update my blog more often.

For those who do not know, Clear Admit is an admissions consulting company that also have an MBA Admissions Blog that helps share information by other applicants and current students. In addition, they also keep updated on various activities happening in B-schools all over the world.

I really feel elated and proud. This goes out to all my readers who are my real motivation. I wish to keep updating my blog on application process and life at ISB.

Last day at ISB - Graduation Day '09

Today, 4th of April, 2009, was the Graduation Day at the Indian School of Business (ISB) for the class of 2009. Today also marked my last day at ISB as a spouse. Today, my wife, became an MBA, an ISM alumnus and my senior.

Today the campus was abuzz with high activity. Families have arrived on campus to attend the Graduation Day, people are busy packing their stuff as most would be leaving ISB in a day or two. Coming back to the G-day.

The Chief Guest of the evening was Arun Sarin, ex-CEO of Vodafone. The other distinguished guests were Rajat Gupta, chairman ISB and ex-McKinsey head and Dipak Jain, dean, Kellogg School of Management. The evening started with a speech by Ajit Rangnekar, current dean of ISB. He talked about what ISB has achieved in the 8 years of its existence, what ISB is all about and what ISB plans to achieve in the short and long term.

His speech was followed by the guest of honor, Arun Sarin. He talked at length about what leaders are, the importance of integrity in business, and what a dream job should be. Considering the gloomy placement scenario this year, he did motivate by asking the students to follow their dream and not just run after 'any' job. He also mentioned that luck is definitely a factor in your life. While everybody knew that they will get a job soon, it was good to hear it from someone and of course, a boost is required.

After Arun Sarin, came Rajat Gupta. Although he too talked about the same motivational thought leadership stuff, but he accompanied that with his story. Let me share it with you. He went to Harvard Business School right after undergrad from IIT. But the year he graduated was in the middle of an economic slowdown, so jobs for student visa holders were less. Since he was there with 0 experience, hardly any company offered him any interview. He heard from McKinsey, did 2 interviews with them but then was turned down because he had no experience. After a while, at a chat with one of his profs, he came to know that his prof was the McKinsey interviewer's past colleague. On knowing that Rajat did not get an offer, the prof wrote to McKinsey, asking them to interview Rajat, recommending him and thus Rajat secured a job with McKinsey. Rest everybody knows. It was quite motivational.

This was followed by the awards/certificate distribution ceremony.

At the end, Kellogg dean Dipak Jain came to speak. He also serves on the board of ISB. I must say his speech was the stealer of the night. I have never heard such an influential speaker in my life who can grab the attention of audience of all ages. He impressed not just me, not just hte students, but everyone sitting there including the parents. That man, is so humble that you will never feel small. He will connect with you and make you feel empowered. He shared with us stories of life and that was what made us connect with him. While talking about the economic recession, he also touched upon the luck aspect but accompanied with an analogy.

He said life is like a game of playing cards. You can get very bad cards every time they are dealt. But, if you know how to play them, you cna be a winner. A person with very good cards can also lose. So just know how to play your cards and you will do well in life. Moreover, talking about the mood of students which was obviously not very good, considering the placements, he gave another hit.

He said humans should follow the refrigerator principle in life. If things are kept cool, they stay fresh for a longer period of time.

Isnt that the ultimate mood booster? With that the ceremony came to an end and everybody had photo sessions and a sumptuous dinner.

It was not over yet. A late night party continues and is going on as I write. This party is required my everyone to say the final goodbyes. Tomorrow, I am also leaving the campus and will return when there will all be new faces to make new friends. I will go now to say my goodbye to the friends I have made over the year. ISB is just not a good school by itself; it is made good by its people, who are amazing. I am sure the next batch, my classmates are amazing too.

It is 1 am and I am off to the party now.

Don Loper publishes his entire HBS Application

There is this guy called Joshua Steimle who applied to Harvard Business School (HBS) and got rejected without even an interview call. While MBA applications are considered private and personal by most people, this guy took a bold step and published his entire application in pdf form to the public for comment. I must say that's a very bold step and in all my sanity, I would never do that. But if you read his applications and then the comments section, you will get many different points of view and will develop a fresh perspective on leadership and management.

Here he publishes his application. Although he does a preliminary analysis himself before opening the application to the public, there are more aspects for improvement than he ever imagined. An interesting read. Go here for his entire pdf application.

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What to do during your MBA

As the placement and recruiting season is on at ISB and other B-schools, I am seeing people not getting their dream offers and getting depressed. Considering the current economic scenario, where companies are just being cautious and while most of them are just on a hiring freeze, I think this was expected. While going through some old archives on my computer, I found this advice useful (found somewhere on the internet, forgot the link) that I believe every B-school student should read before entering B-school and get themselves ready.

As You Begin….

Write down your goals: What are the top 3-5 things you want to accomplish during your B-School run? Review these goals regularly – hang them on your wall or keep it in your planner.

Get organized: If you do not already have one, get yourself a Palm Pilot, Treo, or paper-based system (Franklin Planner) to keep track of your (1) schedule, (2) rolodex, and (3) to do list. The rolodex is especially important – as you meet people (classmates, interviewers, professors, alumni), enter them in so you have record. Entering their names also will enhance your ability to remember them – repetition is the mother of skill.

Keep your resume up to date at all times! There is no official “resume season” – you could be asked for it at anytime, and failure to present one may preclude you from a great opportunity. Before you get knee-deep in classes, add your last experience to your resume if you haven’t already.

It’s all about Networking….

Get good at small talk: The best way to engage someone in small talk is to (1) remember their name when they tell you and (2) ask them questions. I always have four questions ready to go for anyone I meet:
– What is your name?
– Where are you from?
– Where do you/have you worked?
– Where are you living? (on campus/off campus)
Any of these four questions can lead you to “Level 2” questions: For example – “where are you from” leads to things like “I’ve never been there – what is it like?” or “did you like living there?” or “sounds like paradise on earth – do you want to return there?” etc.

Meet, Greet, and Meet Some More: Meet as many people as you can. Even if you do not regularly socialize with them, you will be surprised how your former classmates will welcome an email from you 10 years down the road, even if they barely remember you.

Keep Your Guard Up: One of the things I learned from my 1st year Negotiation class is that there are two broad sets of negotiators: Givers (“Pie Makers”) and Takers (“Zero Summers”). Givers are people with loads of integrity and are willing to work with you to create a bigger pie before negotiating on how to divvy it up. Zero Summers are in it for themselves; their sole purpose is to take as much as they can off the table. When a giver negotiates with another giver, there is huge potential for mutual benefit, but when a giver negotiates with a taker, the giver gets royally hosed every time. If you are, by nature, a giver, be very wary of the takers. (I typically assume someone is a taker until they prove they are giver.)

Don’t Become a Social Outcast: You are going to meet plenty of people who are just plain intimidating (Perhaps, you will recognize these people by the fact that they are going to pull up in Mercedes/BMW’s, talk about the CEOs they play golf with, and come from esteemed families/social circles). But there are plenty of people there who DO have things in common with you. Also, your social circles will develop over time, so don’t get freaked out if by the end of September, you have not found a group to hang out with.

Watch the Gossip: This probably won’t be an issue for you, but there will be plenty of opportunities (usually around beers) to make fun of people based on their classroom comments or other social gaffes. Try not to participate – it has a habit of coming back around, and you never know when you will have to work with that person on a team project.

Sometimes You Gotta Force Yourself: If you find yourself not feeling like going to a meeting, extracurricular, company brief, or social function, go anyway. I can’t tell you how many times I have dreaded going to one of these functions only to have learned something important or to have met someone that helped me down the road.

Today’s Professors are Tomorrow’s Colleagues: Meet your professors, get to know them. They value you – you keep them young and energized. Down the road, you will want to network with them. I did a horrible job of this.

The Classroom….

Go to Class: Not sure how classroom participation works at Berkeley, but at HBS it was a significant portion of the grade. Regardless, go to class – you will learn more that way. And don’t show up late – it is unprofessional and you will look bad – very bad. If it came down to being late or not going at all, I chose not going at all.

Recognize that you bring value to the table: Don’t be intimidated (as I was) by the I-bankers and Management Consultants. They will have really good, strategic work experience. But you have an equally relevant base of knowledge and experience. You have the advantage of having worked in an operational role, and knowing what works day to day amongst people who make the strategy happen. More importantly, not many have your experience in web marketing. Use these as your base.

Learn the jargon: You will find that the consultants and I-bankers will come in with a certain level of business savvy that you do not have (and I did not have going in to HBS). These people have operated at a more strategic level than you; learn from them. Listen how they talk and write down phrases you hear that sound good. Also write down phrases that sound equally ridiculous – you may be able to start a game of Business Bingo or even write a B-School comedy.

Have fun learning new stuff: You are paying a lot of money for this – focus less on grades, and more on learning.

Leverage other people’s knowledge: Form a study group with people with diverse backgrounds. Aside from the learning aspects, it is a good way to socialize.

Get the Wall Street Journal: Read it everyday, even if only for 15 minutes over coffee – it is the best way to get educated on business, and gives you tidbits to contribute to conversations in and out of class.

The Future….

View yourself as your own business: You officially work for YOU Inc. You are your own business. Figure out what things interest you (e.g. web marketing), and become THE expert on it. Then find opportunities (not necessarily “jobs”) where you can leverage your expertise. There will be times in the upcoming years where these opportunities will take the form of a job. Other times, these opportunities may take the form of a consulting/freelance role. Ultimately, these opportunities lead to the development of new skills and expertise, which open up a whole new set of opportunities.

Don’t settle for a job: Figure out something that interests you and go from there. I was interested in technology, I researched a couple of industries, and decided to go into telecom; I did not waste my time learning about other “hot industries” like Financial Services. Perhaps I could have made more money, but it did not interest me and I would not have been successful because I did not have the interest.

Don’t wait ‘til “interview season” to look for an opportunity: Devote time each week to learning about industries/companies/opportunities you are interested in. Get yourself a small notebook to jot down statistics or quotes that you can use in interviews, cover letters, and conversations. This is all part of the building expertise theme – you need to come across as an expert and part of that is industry knowledge.

Watch Your Burn Rate (a.k.a. Beware of Clothing Companies): In keeping with the “view yourself as your own business” theme, the #1 reason why startups fail is they run out of cash. So don’t let YOU Inc run out of cash. Rest assured, Hickey Freeman will try to sell you a $1500 suit, claiming that “you need this suit to be successful in your interviews.” Unless you are headed to Wall Street, a tailored $300-$400 suit will do you fine. The more general idea behind this is don’t do anything that unnecessarily raises your burn rate. Doing so will raise the amount you have to borrow and puts you in a deeper hole.

Organize Your Finances: Consider getting Quicken – it is a good time to get your finances organized. Also, keep good paper records around your school loans. We bought a plastic, portable file box with 2-3 accordion files to go inside – one was for our School Loans and the others were for bills, etc. Just don’t do anything to screw up your credit rating. You will need it later.

Debt Fears: Don’t worry about your debt – you will find a way to pay it off. We emerged from B-School/L-School with over $100K of debt; we paid it off, and we don’t exactly have Wall Street power jobs. (In fairness, they kinda do have big important jobs)

My Journey to ISB

Now when I have decided that I will be joining ISB (Indian School of Business) in April, I thought of writing the whole story down. I want to share my story of why I applied to ISB again and again and why was an MBA so important to me. Ok, I know "An MBA is just a means to an end and not an end in itself". It's just that with each passing year, my aspirations changed and what started as a necessity without reason became a reason for my career progression.

How it all began

In my final year of engineering I decided to write the Common Admision Test (CAT) for admission to IIMs (Indian Institute of Management). I pursued engineering from a well recognised college and for some random reason wanted a brand for my MBA too. So IIMs were the obvious choice. Little did I know the significance of an MBA and just wanted to follow the herd going into the Goldmans, Lehmans and McKinseys. But anyhow, I just did not want "some" job. I wrote CAT and secured a decent enough percentile, that was good enough to satisfy MDI but my verbal was not good enough for any of the IIMs. I sat for MDI interview and cleared it. Then the IIM bug hit me again and decided that if I ever do an MBA, it will be from a top school.

I joined one of the largest IT Services firm in India. I excelled at work and at the same time, religiously wrote CAT every year. CAT for me became a routine, like a festival that "has" to be celebrated every year. Every time I was stuck with 98 something percentile, not good enough for IIMs. Man! High population has its own effects.

2 years passed. It was November again and I screwed up CAT. Again. Then I looked at ISB as an "option". Ok, I have some idea what I want to do with my life and an MBA was utterly necessary. ISB's R2 deadline was due Jan 15 and I had one month to prepare. This preparation included writing GMAT and the essays. Tough task. But I decided to give it a shot. It was pure gamble with my career. In fact, I should give this warning to my readers "Don't try this at home!!!" I wrote my GMAT in a month's time on Jan 5 2005 and secured a 710. In another 10 days ISB app was in. I received an interview call, screwed it up and the result was an obvious Ding.

The Second Attempt

The first attempt was an eye opener. I realized that there is something that I lack and that something was professional maturity. I would only gain that with proper experience. I decided to take additional responsibilities at work, looked at the bigger picture always and thus gained some good recognition.

But still, there was something missing. I needed something different now and decided to make a move to another company that would provide me with a completely different exposure. I joined a product firm in a dvision that was formed after that giant acquired a startup. This was something unique. I always looked for opportunities to contribute towards a change in my organisation that I work for. This helped me in two ways. Excellent recognition, fast promotion and greater responsibilities were one. At the same time, I strengthened my application for an MBA.

Till the year before this I was religiously writing CAT. The CAT festival was celebrated every year.

Then came sanity and I wrote another ISB application. In R2. Same story again. Interview followed by a Ding. This was a setback. I was pretty sure this time but something went wrong.

My Confidence

By this time, I had started doubting my abilities. Maybe I am not an MBA material at all. Let's excel at what I have. But it was temporary. I kept telling myself that I am strong and I have to get into my target industry (why MBA). M/B/B (Guess) became my dream and I firmly believed that I am an MBA material. In 2006-2007 I strengthened my application. I spent a lot of time on introspection and assigned "Why?" to everything that I had done in life till then. This helped me a lot.

I wrote the admission test for Mensa and cleared it.
I started this blog and focused on improving my writing skills. (Ok maybe I'm not too god now also but you should have seen how I wrote 3 years ago)
I got a substantial international work experience.
I made significant positive changes at my work place.
I wrote GMAT again. (You may ask why again after a 710. I had some reasons)

I was back on my feet again.

The Third Attempt

Should have been my last attempt. I wanted to leave no stone unturned. I wrote GMAT again. I worked harder on my essays and was ready.

Of course, it was a different time and I was admitted. I had achieved what I wanted to and am now prepared to begin another journey. Although I felt a sense of achievement, I knew it was not and is a new beginning in my professional life.

The ISB admit means a new beginning. It means that I am capable. It means that I am part of a group from whom I have a lot to learn from. It means I am in.

Tuck did not like me

Before the 20th of December, I was eagerly awaiting Tuck's decision. Although the hope was only 5% since I was not even called for interview, a positive side of my heart expected a positive result. On hearing that Tuck has a history of admitting some internationals without an interview, I was hoping for the best. There were a lot of positives I could think of: I applied in EA round (showing that I was ready very soon), I traveled to Delhi to attend Tuck Reception (I am working in Hyderabad) and my application was my personal best at that time. I so much wanted to join Tuck.

But all in vain.

I got a ding. Without an interview. Was my application that bad that they didn't even call me to have a chat?

I checked my result on Saturday morning (IST). Before this result, I was hopeful of joining Tuck. Having an admit from ISB, I wanted that "international" experience and therefore, was more inclined towards joining Tuck. But then ISB it was. I was destined to join ISB.

Now I am not sure whether I should apply to any more US schools or not. When I got my ISB admit, I had nearly completed my Tepper application. But I stopped after my result. There are many factors that are pushing me towards ISB and away from US Schools. Some of them being the high cost of a US MBA compared to ISB's and lesser number of jobs in US for internationals in these times. Still thinking.

Maybe by this year end I'll put in another app. Maybe not. Am very confused.

Admitted to ISB

I guess it is stale news now. I am admitted to the Indian School of Business Class of 2010 and I am really very happy and excited about it.

The evening of 20th Nov

I didn't go to office. I was not sure but I just did not want to work on that day. I wanted to take some time off to work on Tepper essays and decided that Thursday to be that day. After my not so good ISB interview performance (according to me), I was not very hopeful of a positive result from ISB. But still, this optimistic heart hoped for a 2% chance of something positive. On top of that, I was third time applicant. So that created more anxiety. My history goes like this:

Attempt 1 - 2.5 years of work-ex - Waitlisted -> Ding
Attempt 2 - 4.5 years of work-ex - Ding
Attempt 3 - 5.5 years of work-ex, GMAT 710 -> 730 - ???

By evening, I grew tense and tired of pressing the refresh on my inbox. So by around 8:30 pm I decided to take a break and go out to have some snacks. I thought anyways ISB sends an SMS, so I'll receive one even if I am out. At 9:15, I got calls from 2 of my friends whose results were negative. ISB was not sending SMS, only email. That was bad. I gathered my group and rushed back. That was the worst 10 minutes of that day. On the way, one of my friends tried to access gmail from his GPRS phone. He said it had never worked before but let's give it a shot. And voila, it worked. While I was driving, he opened the holy mail and read, "Congratulations! You have been offered..." I couldn't hear after that.

I was happy. I was excited. I started crying with joy. That was the first time I cried with joy and believe me, the feeling is unexplainable. My efforts have finally worked out. When you try hard for something and you don't get it, you mark that as unachievable (or hard to achieve). And when you finally get it, you feel like a winner. You start believing in yourself again. You regain your lost confidence and you are a man again. That's what I was, a confident man that night.

Congratulations to all folks who have made it to ISB and all the best to all R2 folks.

Soft Skills are hard to attain

Well, not for everyone. But if you see yourself entering the business world sometime sooner, this is one skills that will be very critical and is the hardest to attain. Now what are soft skills about:

• Speaking confidently in front of a crowd
• Command over a language
• Maintaining the correct body language
• Presenting yourself effectively
• Effective communication skills
• Speaking precisely and concisely

This is just a list that I made casually while thinking of what I need to develop to be truly successful.

Expectations from an MBA

Experts have commented time and again that an MBA is not for academic oriented people. An MBA is not for someone who wants to attain a "degree". Of course, you gain a lot of hard skills during your course of an MBA, you gain better understanding of disciplines like finance, marketing, operations, etc.

But there is much more to an MBA. Your expectations should go beyond the hard skills that you attain. Look out for other sources of learning. Capitalize on the diverse peer group that you have. Interact with people from various backgrounds, learn how to connect and build relationships (professional). Prepare yourself for the future.

An MBA has a bigger role in preparing you for such a role in terms of soft skills. Most B-schools have a course called "Management Communication". It has all the elements of a presentation (or that is what I think): effective business writing, presentation skills, communicating effectively one-to-one or to a crowd. It is not easy to stand in front of a crowd and make them believe in your ideas, your vision.

Tuck on ManComm

ManComm as "Management Communication" is known in B-school parlance is one of the favourite subjects of Tuck students. While going through the latest blog entry on the Tuck Admissions blog: Hard skills are easy, soft skills are hard, I can imagine myself using the MBA as a perfect platform to develop on my verbal and non-verbal presentation skills. Tuck's close-knit atmosphere plays a big role here through open and direct feedbacks. Walking up in front of the class and speak on a topic you have just been give for 2 minutes requires courage (at least for me). But I really appreciate the minute details pointed out with respect to the body language, voice modulation, etc. The feedback is essential.

Stanford's Management Communication Program (MCP)

Stanford GSB has a different method of enhancing soft skills. They have around 60 communication workshops held throughout the year. The workshops range from Effective Listening to Delivering Bad News, from Impromptu Speaking to Voice Workout. The conciseness of the topics itself tells you how each and every minute details needs to be worked on.

I just used these two examples to show how B-schools place a lot of emphasis on developing communication skills.

In contrast, most one-year programs do not have such an intensive focus on enhancing one's soft skills. As far as I understand, this must be because of the following reasons:

• Less Time. Since the course span is just a year, these skills can be picked up by students as they move along.
  
• Different demography. Well, not exactly. But usually one-year programs are designed for professionals who want a quick MBA and return to business. So B-schools also expect incoming students to ready to take on management positions and thus focus only on hard skills.

So I agree with Will from Tuck:

Hard skills are easy, soft skills are hard.

Business School Research - A note about "fit"

While researching B-schools, the big question that every applicant has to answer is about "fit":

- Whether the B-school fits into your career aspirations
- Whether you fit into that B-school's culture - This is important because if you research thoroughly, you'll find out that you cannot fit-in every B-school. For example, you may feel comfortable if the class size is small and you can get individual attention. If that is the case, apply to a school which sells on a close-knit community. Harvard is not for you.

So as you understand, "fit" is a give and take thing between the school and you. There are multiple sub-variables also involved in the above mentioned broad classification:

B-school fit into your plan

You might want to consider:
- Location of the school - That will ultimately also lead to the most probable location of post-MBA career. If you do not like New York, don't apply to Stern or Columbia for example.
- Top Hirers - You should have a specific target industry or employer in mind while applying. Go to a place that favours the industry you are targeting. It can be for any reason: location of the school, course structure, anything. You may want to prefer west coast schools if you want to work in Tech industry post MBA, for example. A look at the top 3/4 hirers gives you an idea.
- Class Size
- Faculty:Student Ratio
- Extra curricular activities in the B-school
- Are you the one who prefer a big brand name?

Do you fit into the B-school culture

- You may want to have a look at the demographics to understand this.
- Have a look at the Professional clubs at the B-school. Do you see yourself participating actively in some of them?
- Find and talk to alumni. They are really helpful provided you have done preliminary research and come up with intelligent questions to ask.
- Find out about life outside the classroom. Do you see yourself really engaging in these activities?

While reading randomly on the internet, I found this spreadsheet very helpful.

http://www.ml4t.org/node/626

This person has compiled all the parameters from BusinessWeek into one spreadsheet. The criteria that was chosen was:

• Demographics
• Diversity
• GMAT
• Work Experience
• Age
• Faculty
• Class Size
• Joint Programs
• Alumni
• Salary
• Cost

Knock Knock Tuck Tuck

It seems Tuck adcom take their own sweet time in going through the applications. I am jealous of applicants who are in the US and have initiated the interviews themselves. It seems like eternity since I submitted my application on 14-Oct for EA deadline.

Well, if they take time, it is actually good in one way. The final pool would comprise of handpicked people and if, I am one of them, I will have an awesome mix of classmates. It seems a couple of applicants have heard from adcom and are done with the adcom-initiated interviews, I am still waiting to hear from them.

Phone interview vs F2F interview

I would rather go in for a face to face interview with some adcom panel member or a local alum. Face to face interview gives you a chance to present yourself completely and not just your voice. If you are a pleasant personality, a slight error in your voice modulation is ignored. Whereas, in a telephonic interview, you have to make sure that your voice modulation is appropriate so as not to give wrong signals.

In addition, in a face to face interview, you get to guage what the interviewer is thinking or how he/she has taken your response. If everything is going well, you will get a feel of it and the interview is more of a conversation. I am not much of a phone person. I would rather meet and talk.

Random rambling, while awaiting Tuck adcom.

Are there many people who are awaiting adcom to initiate an interview?

My ISB Interview Experience - 2008 - Part Deux

I was happy. I was excited. I got the much awaited interview call from ISB. This was my third interview with ISB and I am not ashamed of this fact. I have never failed. To me, all unsuccessful ventures were termed as "learning experiences" and not failures. But it was the third time and that got me highly nervous during the interview.

Anyway, it was 8-Nov 2:50 pm. My interview was scheduled for 3:20 pm. I reached the venue just to find the whole floor deserted. All the rooms around were empty. "Did I read the correct date?" Yes it was. Then I rushed to the Admissions Office just to find out that the interview venues had been shifted to the Executive Housing (EH) because of Belgium's King's visit. I found out that had I come through the main entrace, there was a security personnel guiding you to the new venue. I was already on campus so I did not use the main entrance. Anyways, I was late and I had to run now for my interview. Gosh, it was so hot that day. By the time I reached EH, I was sweating. Thanks to the sun and the suit, I was feeling so fresh now. I got the 100 words essay on the word "fathom"; with one hand I was wiping my sweat and trying to write with second calmly. I was blacked out. Where was I? Did I prepare for this interview? What answers did I prepare? What do I have to say? What's happening?

At around 3:40 I was called in. There were three people: an adcom senior person (M), a lady from the adcom, Jayshree (F) and a current student (S). I just sat down with the essay sheet in my hand. I expected them to ask for it but they didn't, immediately.

[[ I am writing each and everything that happened in the interview including the answers I gave. I know I am out of the race but I want to help R2 applicants and other readers of my blog. ]]

F: So you are applying for the third time. What happened the last two times?
Me: Well, the forst time was in 2005, and I was waitlisted after the interview.
F: Oh.. (asking another panelist) Was there a waitlist policy?
F: (To me) So why weren't you selected?
Me: The feedback that I received...
F: No. Not the feedback. What do you think were the reasons? How did the interview go?
Me: Ma'am I believe the interview went great. I think I wasn't prepared for an MBA at that point of time. I had 2.5 years of work-experience.
F: Ok, What happened the second time?
Me: Last time I applied in 2007. In fact, I was interview earlier this year.
F: So you were called for an interview again?
Me: (C'mon, I'm not that bad) Yes Ma'am. The intervew went great again. I got the feedback that I needed to show more energy and enthusiasm during the interview. Based on that and based on the discussions that I had with current students and alums, I think I was not able to present myself effectively.

F: Ok.. So tell me. What are your career goals?
Me: I want to open my own network integration firm 5-6 years down the line. I have had good amount of exposure in telecom business ranging from telecom software services to product development. But before that...
F: To open your own firm.. (Me: oh please let me complete) why do you need an MBA?
Me: Ma'am before starting my venture, I want to gain experience in the business developement area of a high-tech firm. Once I feel I have gained sufficient exposure I will take the plunge. An MBA will provide me with the required knowledge and I will build a sound network, that will help me again when I start on my own.

S: So what if you don't get selected? Will you never achieve your goal?
Me: Of course I will. I will find ways to get into sales or business development in my organisation. But that will take more time. An MBA will facili...
F: No we are not asking why an MBA will help. Anyway, why are you so desperate about doing an MBA?
Me: I am not desperate about doing an MBA. (I was totally blacked out by this point. Somebody, please get me out of here) I have a specific plan in mind and I am working towards it.

M: So when you said high-tech firms, what are the firms that you are looking at?
Me: Well, high-tech firms not only include telecom firms but other networking firms too. Like Cisco, BT, for example that offer BD roles in ISB.
M: Ok. Why you only chose network integration business? Isn't there too much competition there?
Me: I agree there is. But over the years I have gained competence understanding the technology and I think I will do well. As far as competition is concerned there are firms like X, Y, etc that serve GSM or 3G networks. I want to enter into 4G equipments and thus would target only a small segment at first.

S: What is your goal? MBA or ISB?
Me: (I think they had already made up that third time means two times failure. Let him go) Sir I think it's neither. Opening my own firm is my goal and MBA is just a means to achieve that.
F: There are so many technocrats these days that venture into entrepreneurship without an MBA and are successful. So why do you want an MBA?
Me: (didn't I already tell that?) blurted out the same thing.

F: Okay, your application says you organized an event in college... (Specfics about that incident)
Me: (Smiling) Well, that was one interesting event. (Told them in detail)
F: Tell me one thing. When I moved from "Why MBA" to extra curriculars I saw a big smile of relief on your face. Were you not feeling comfortable during that time?
Me: I agree I did smile (I was smiling then too) but that was not a smile of relief. I was just reminded of that event and thus smiled.

Some more extra curricular discussion.

S: I see you are a Mensa member. What is Mensa and what prompted you to join it?
Me: Answered in detail.
S: Ok. solve this puzzle for me.
Me: (Took some time. Halfway through I hought of giving up too. but finally managed to solve it)

F: I'll give you a simpler problem now. Tell me how many paper cups would be consumed in ISB per day.
Me: (Good. estimation question. I was more confident now) I was solving and as the usual tips say, I was trying to think aloud. I was calculating weekly numbers. She stopped me twice correcting "Just give me the daily numbers"
Me: Sorry ma'am I was just trying to think aloud.

I got so confused by that time by interruptions that I mixed up some weekly and daily numbers and gave the answer as 3000. I think it is huge and I deviated a lot.

F: Ok. Thanks a lot.
Me: (What?? That's it? No "Do you want to tell something else?" No "Do you have any questions for us?")

If that's it, then that's it. I got it up, thanked everyone and left. The interview lasted around 30 minutes and I did not get a good feeling after that. Went for a swim later and washed away the worries.

I ruined it and it took me 2 days to get over it. In the meantime I met Ashwanth who had come over for interview the next day. Ashwanth, I think you have a good chance. All the best.

I am off to my other apps now.

ISB Interview Invite and Other Updates

It has been more than 3 weeks since I updated my blog. I have been rather extremely busy at work. I traveled to Germany for around 10 days for customer meetings. I must say it was an immense learning experience in terms of exposure to real customer expectations management and product release planning. Anyway, this visit and loads of work is my excuse to submitting only one application in R1 (Tuck), in addition to ISB. Yeah, I know I am bad at planning, time management, etc. But now I am targeting at least 3 other schools in R2.

ISB Interview Invite

I received in invitation to interview with the ISB Adcom on 8th November at 15:20 hours. Last weekend, I met a couple of friends and acquaintances who had come to ISB for interview. It was good to get me into the feel of the interview and help me get into the interview mode. Well, there are some advantages of staying on ISB campus.

Anyway, I am off to preparing for ISB interview. This being my third ISB interview, I want to overprepare and leave no stone unturned. Let's see what happens. All the best to others who are yet to interview and to those who have already interviewed.

MBA Admission Inspiration from Indian Idol

I was watching Indian Idol and working on my essays parallely, when I got these ideas. For people who do not know, Indian Idol is the Indian version of the popular American Idol. There is tremendous competition and the participants are from all parts of India, urban and rural areas, in addition to the international participants, mainly from Europe. The judges are curt, sarcastic and encouraging.

I just took the judges as the admissions committee of a B-school and the participants as MBA hopefuls, the applicants, the prospectives, us, me. The situation, maybe not entirely, but very similar to mine and, of course, there are lessons to learn from any form of competition.

1. Determination and Focus

If you try to observe what is common among all shortlisted participants, you will notice that everybody is talented. But more importantly, all are highly motivated and determined individulas. It is not enough to be talented, it is all the more important to come forward and make yourself noticed. Indian Idol is a good platform that they used. Now when they have entered the competition, everybody is determined to practice and distinguish themselves and move forward.

If you realize that you are an MBA material, rather a top-10 material, all you need is determination and focus. What you need is directly told to you by the adcom: a decent GMAT score, a progressive track record, a leadership experience, team skills and all these included in good essays. So it is pretty straightforward: identify your potential and work hard on your essays. There is nothing stopping anyone from getting into a top 10 MBA program provided you work hard and give it your best shot.

There are also some participants returning to the program after being rejected in previous seasons. But this time, they have practiced, they have more fire and they know what not to do. If you are not selected in an MBA program, there is no reason to get disheartened. As I said, if you have realized your true potential, there is nothing to stop you. You just have to work on your mistakes, come back again as a reapplicant with full force. Don't let the fire die within you. Improve yourself and come back next time, but make sure you do not leave focus

2. No Strings attached.

Participants come from varied backgrounds. Some have to support their family, many do not have proper training. in fact, there are some people who are from areas where they don't even have proper supply of electricity, let alone training.But they have that much required spark, they are self-motivated, they have realized their talent. And that is what is required to follow your passion.

If you are determined to get into a top MBA program, just don't lose that spark. If you are following the advices of MBA students, you must have heard a lot of times that many companies look for "spikes" in your resume. Those spikes are the areas in which you excel, and to succeed in something you need passion. There are no excuses to follow your passion. If there are excuses, you were not passionate at the first place.

3. Identify your true potential

You must have noticed that there are awful singers sometimes. They don't realize that they cannot sing and make a fool of themselves on TV. Judges are also very light in those case. They mock them and people think they are rude. But I think that they feel that when these guys themselves are making a fool of themselves, they need to realize that they cannot sing. These people should not get false hopes. Before taking a big step, you need to realize what you can do, and then take the plunge.

In a similar way, if you are preparing your B-school application, focus on your true potential and highlight that. Don't gt disheartened by a bad GMAT score. GMAT score is not everything. And everyone has something special in himself/herself. It is just a matter of identifying your spark. I know it is difficult, introspection is an uphill task, but dude, there is immense competition out there. And everyone is trying very hard. at least keep pace.

4. Don't fake it

"That guy from my college just got an admit from Wharton. He was very active in community service activities. I should write the same and that will fill the gap." This is a common thought, at least I used to think that way when I started researching on this process a couple of years ago.

For a common man, a novice singer, some people are good singers. But they get rejected by the judges. The judges are trained ears. They are highly experienced who know when you get out of tone. Similarly, the adcom is highly experienced and they can catch the fake the second you start talking about something that you have written just for the sake of it.

You got to realize that everyone is unique and there is no formula that can get you through. Even if such a formula does exist, it'll be to represent yourself the way you are. Just look deep inside yourself and you'll see a star. The difference between an admit and a reject is just that, the ability to look inside oneself and thus differentiate from the crowd.

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