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.

ISB interview

Back to blog after long, was getting some rest, focusing on work, joining tennis n Spanish classes. And some prep and lots of stress over ISB interview. 

I got the invite when I was least expecting, which was pleasant. 

My prep for interview-

- spoke with current students n alum I know
- read thru forums on common questions
- spoke wit my frend who got thru r1

Output- know yourself and be yourself

They begin with writing on a topic. For our group it was 'back to the future'. I have a feeling they saw it yesterday on prime tv, I saw it playing :p
I compared the movie with the indian copy - action replay. A few quick sentences and took a stand on what I liked and concluded with how I feel for 'inspired' hindi movies. One the panelists took a glance at it but not much.

Questions-

I was extremely nervous, our interviews started late. That made me more and more nervous.

- they begin with ice breaker. They thot i was from bglr. Evyone in my group was from bangalore 

Since i was local a different conversation beginner and ice breaker -
tell us about itself 

- Interrupted and asked about my work. I moved on to my work and explained. I got visibly nervous at this point

- another ice breaker which did eventually calmed me. they picked on one of my interest and spoke about it for a while ( this wasn't easy either, they had questions to challenge my belief)

- if you were to setup this dept for a new company how would you begin ( lots of interruption, they dint say they were convinced but I stuck to what I was saying and then offered to explain with one of my past experiences)

- more questions on above answer and around my work

- do you also deliver training programs, which ones. Told them and no questions here.

- you've mentioned you liked 'good to great' book tell us what did you like, more questions on isn't it understood what's so special about it. I explained and kinda interrupted, later apologized for interruption and continued with my answer 

- more on something I had done at work, how do you do this. After this lots of questioning. 

- Tell us whats the flaw in this model, I said it doesn't give tangible results. More on measurement techniques. Gave example of how we had measured and that it was incomplete. Later the panel member agreed with me.

They slowed down at this point, turned thru page of my apps to see what to ask next. They were probably either going to reject and were giving me more chances

- you're a reapp, did you seek feedback. I had not, so mentioned I didn't, but knew what was wrong and told them about it a bit when they interrupted and  moved to next questions

- something from my field, and then one of the guys was against it. I tried explaining but he cut me and suggested something I should look up online... I said I will but dint go back on what I had said

- why MBA, they challenged and said you've done smthing at iima then why MBA. I explained more on it and lot more on it. I gave example of the difference it will make to some work I had done. (proud of myself to think of the example on the fly, wasn't prepared for this)
 
- any questions for us, I said no I don't 

Again a lot of thinking and then

- what if you don't get thru, I said I have a plan b and c. To this they finally smiled and said most of the people don't even have a plan b and you have b and c. Told them plan b was other schools, they asked. I was honest on insead reject and mentioned ores I've applied to. They asked but the results are out, to which I was again honest and said I did for r2 and am waiting for interview calls. Mentioned I plan to apply for HEC with deadline in next week. (not sure if this is the right thing to do)
The other guy asked what's plan c, to which I mentioned I hope to get the role I'm seeking, in next 2-3 years if I don't do MBA and some courses I wish to take to upskill.

My tips for interview-

- know what you want, personally and professionally
- know your work and prepared to share examples
- don't stress, they are supposed to be straight faced 
- stay firm to your beliefs
- don't ask a question just for the heck of it, it won't go against you if you don't 
- have a plan b, you're big enough to have contingency plans in place
- relax
- practice some responses for typical questions, doesn't have to be mock. I would talk to myself in the morning out loud on what I would say. This helped me cut down the negative statements I could've made. 
- keep away from strong statements, at the same time stick to your beliefs
- don't analyze your interview later
- you'll never be able to tell them all you wanted to but remember they get what they need to take decision even when you're nervous or fumbling

Hope this is helpful to some people out there! 


After interview, I met some of my frends from current batch to catch up and talk about their aspirations placements etc... It made me think less about interview which is good


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NYU essay 3

What happens when you submit one of ur apps... Till now I thot of the next app or waited anxiously for result. Ystrd after submitting my NYU stern app I felt relaxed. It was a long stressful time that kinda ended or I at least a break from writing essays. I had been writing essays for so long and like crazy for past month and half. So I do have one more app to do but I thot I deserved a Sunday after a 10 hour work sched n apps aft that.
On the most interesting stern essay 3. I love doing creative stuff but I might have liked it without nexus I sumo what will be perceived by adcom as good bad interesting or what

Here's what I did-

List things that define me, i did three categories - values, interests and me

Two values that matter the most to me and why it is so. My inheritance.

Three interests that have been wit me for long

The I realized there were these little things that define me and I had no place to put them. Tis is where t third category on me came in. It had all my little pleasures like I love cooking n eating and that I go for salsa. The last was about New York and how I feel about it.

Now that I had the content I had to figure how to present it. I had to think what is me and is easy for me to do. And add theme to it. The theme I had idea like draw warli art or do caricatures. And then I realized I cud use poetry to describe me. Not an original idea, I remember hearing someone had done it already for smthing. But it resonated wit me... N I went for it. Piked out lines from famous writers from my fav writers mostly. Now came how do I do this, I was split between video and picture blog. Picture blog was simple but I thot video wud look nice. And I wanted to do smoothing I cud do n not get smone else to do it for me. Its my essay n I wanted it to be credible.

And like everything I did this last day. The problem till last minute was that I had content, I had some pics but didn't visualize it with the story I had written. So I worked wit my frend who had a video editing software on his comp and his wife for artistic suggestions. N we worked all nite. Spent about 10 hours on the video and more on story, pics selection, music search, production, upload n random.

Proud of the outcome and shared wit some friends, bro n sis who loved it... Nyu is t app I felt most confident submitting n it sure was t most stressful wit work pressures n short edit time.

So that was abt my nyu essay 3, I hope I get thru n am able to actually share wit my classmates




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Location:,Hyderabad,India

Deciding on schools and writing

I just finished my applications to Fuqua and Cornell last week and now I'm on my NYU app. Its funny that when we write each app we tell the adcom that we love your school and this is just where we want to be. Is it a lie when we say this to them all? Not really. What is needed is to isolate yourself when working on each school to ensure what you write is what you feel about that school. For example, my long term goal is to associate with a b-school so when I tell Fuqua I want to be with them or Cornell I want to be with them, I'm not lying to either. All I'm saying is that I'm loyal and I want to work with them in future. And I say this in complete honesty.
Now when I'm finishing up NYU app, I'm visualizing my life at NYU and after. It is very interesting to go back and read my answers to other schools because the entire thing looks so different and yet I can see me in all of them.
So whr am I stuck with NYU app now... Essay 3 for obvious reasons. Of you see David Furman's submissions its got to scare you. The dude's done an awesome job. I'll look up the link and post it here. I'm thinking of using what helps me convey myself the best - paints or blog. I might do a video or a picture presentation with my beautiful :p voice in the background. I finally kinda know what I want my batch mates to know about me before we begin school.




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Location:,India