ISB doesn't want me

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings


From my fav poetry well it is fav poetry of I guess half the Indians. So I lost ISB... To be honest as much as I whine n crib I did think I'll make it to ISB. Funnily this was my safe school at the same time I was never big on it.

It may be easy for some to say well if ur heart wasn't in it then may be that showed. Well it did not, I just suck at being expressive about myself which means essays interviews take a lot out of me.

But today I'm not analyzing what went wrong at ISB, I want to talk about how to handle failures.

I'm not the only one out there. First off anything requires a backup plan. The better your backup plan, the safer you are and quicker you recover. When I said in ISB interview that I have back up plan... Well I do. Its good to be confident but it is equally essential to stay grounded. I've heard counter arguements to my theory that if u begin with thinking I might fail then chances of failure increase. The point here is to begin with success in mind and still keep in mind the what if sky falls... Impossible itself says its possible.

As important the backup planning is, it has to be achievable and yet something that will make u happy. My applications started with schools I yearn for and I've had back schools at every stage and no I'm not giving up, not just yet.

Even with the realistic school planning, I have looked at other courses that I can go for besides MBA. All said and done MBA to me is means to achieve something. So yes I have looked at other easier to get into courses which won't pay me so well but will also cost me a fifth of what an MBA would. And yes I have even thot of situation where I don't go for full time studying or studying at all.

The other thing while applying for MBA is that some of us leave everything else. Remember this is only a part of your regular life not the only thing you do for 6 or 8 months. After spending time with extra focus on MBA apps, I have now started applying for jobs, because if not MBA I do need shift in work I do. I have also taken additional responsibilities at work, and am glad my boss didn't hold them from me. I also built trust with him that even if its ISB and I have to go, i will ensure my work is stabilized before I leave.

All said and done its never easy to deal with failures and when it's continued for quite a few months. I had ppl ask me 2-3 times when I said I dint get ISB. Yes it did make me feel worse but now when I think it sounds like ppl believe I deserve it. If I deserve to be at ISB then well there are other competitive schools.

Aomfirat I blabbered about back plans n MBA as means to something. Now let me blabber on what I did to cope with the huge setback.

First, I had a hunch ISB will be negative since two days before the result were due - my intuition isn't all that bad. I kept wishing n willing it to be positive.
When I did see it's negative, I came home n got into bed at 8. I dint want to talk to anyone so informed ppl of result over text msg n asked them to not call. Then I went on overdose of chocolate for two days. It did help a bit.

Next day there was too much work in office and I cudnt bail out. Unfortunately my work is all ppl interaction. It weirdly worked to help me, nothing gives a better kick to a trainer than to see ppl find benefits from my work. And I did a fairly okay job with my trg program. In t eve I knew I needed vodka and some break. Bryan adams came to my rescue. Went to a friends place to listen to Bryan adams concert with vodka n munchies n random conversations. He stays near the concert venue so we sat in his balcony and stayed away from the mad crowd. Late nite dinner back home. Took a day off to rest and ease my head.
Redefined my backup plans. Emailed previous school for feedback. Emailed all my friends who have and can help me plan next steps and scheduled phone time with them.
Thats what is surviving me thru yet another failure... A rather unexpected one. Do I feel okay yet, not completely but I can manage thru anything and will be fine in a few days.






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Location:KPHB Rd,Hyderabad,India

Sharing Stern MBA Essay3

While I wait for the Stern admission committee to look at my essay 3, I thought it may not be so bad sharing it at my blog... here you go whoever bumps into this blog -

Anxiety

In the last phase of my apps (self decided) my anxiety levels are running high.

ISB - The more I see profiles of people who've made it, it seems more and more competitive to me... it scares me and the result is not until the 15th

Duke - they don't want to interview me. 'Not Invited' for interview. Interestingly many people I met during ISB interview had applied to only one US school which was Duke! I wonder what the fascination is, I guess everyone has their own reasons and Duke does have one of the highest percentage of international candidates.

Cornell - One of the visitors to my linkedin profile in last one week was 'someone from cornell'. They have sent first round of interview invites including to some Indians. I don't know if I'm getting any now.

NYU Stern - They seem to have rejected many Indians from round 1 and many international are waitlisted without interviews. Also no one has taken a look at my youtube essay 3 till now so I don't know what will happen thr.


I'm anxious and depressed and working on plan C all at the same time. To keep myself occupied I'm doing salsa, tennis and spanish regularly. And I still have time at hand!
Can't sit idle. For all those who're reading my blog, if you need any tips on preparation, help with school research or essay review - just drop me a line and I'll find time to help you with it.

Comparing IIM and ISB

I keep wondering if we had to compare these two, is it possible or does it even make sense. Through application process, I have looked at the two - IIM Ahmedabad and ISB. I do have some thoughts on IIM Bangalore but I'll leave that for later. Right now its IIMA and ISB.

First off, IIMA has been around a real long time and has established its legacy. ISB is new, fresh and energetic and is agressive. IIMA has its huge alum scattered across India and South East Asia while ISB is still growing its alum and is striving to go international as much as possible.
The comparison is difficult because the have different audience for their courses. Taking a look at their programs-

IIMA PGP -> for fresh graduates or 0 to 2 years experience, gets them good placements. puts them in a senior role without much experience, which works well for some and others struggle. I feel this is ideal for engineers from smaller institutes looking at some brand on their resumes and for non engineering grads looking to build credibility of learning.

ISB PGP -> has a varied audience. Its on the lines of international MBA programs. Takes in people with at least 2 years of work ex without any upper limit. Interesting combination of practices from US and European schools. Its a short year long curriculum like European schools and admission process which seems to evolving. They scrapped off creative essay which is practiced in some US and European school. Now they have admission process which is straighforward and has more originality. I give them credit for this because they're still pretty young and evolving.

IIMA PGPX -> The minimum work ex required here is 7 years and the course is for mid level executives. In fact I haven't seen many people getting admitted at the lower end of work exp. IIMA has cashed a lot of placements with this program. Another interesting thing about this is that it has a lot more diversity than PGP and ISB PGP. There are too many engineers but they have been able to strike a balance given a small class size. The program is also aimed at people with international exposure, gets international placements and fat pay checks.


ISB PGPMAX -> Now this is a new program in its first year so we're yet to see where it goes. It is meant for mid to senior level executives. Infact when ISB came with this program to my company, they were only looking for Vice Presidents. Yet to see how it turns out. The program does provide a good platform to senior management to interact with their peers from other organizations.


IIMA seems to have courses for fresh grads and then for mid level with the Management Development programs available for individual topics. I have a feel that eventually they will end of evolving their programs to stay progressive.

ISB needs decades to establish their legacy but are doing well by playing their strength which is young and energetic and collaboration with top schools worldwide.

IIMB has launched several programs and its good to stick to stay with their strength which is developing managers in IT. There is a huge need to develop management in IT organizations. Most of the engineers get early promotions and struggle with people management. IIMB's work in this space is good. They have several programs, a one year residential, weekend program etc, which I think works well for them. I do think how will it work out for them in the long run. The market is huge at the moment and I feel if they are progressive and look at providing customized management solutions to IT companies, they have their market space defined.

The recent FT rankings will also benefit IIMA and ISB - 11 and 13 are awesome rankings. I'm also hoping these rankings will encourage more international students improving global learning for Indians who cant go abroad.

Which one do I prefer? can't truly decide. Rejected by IIMA and waiting for ISB result so I guess its ISB for me for now.