ISB Interview

I had my ISB interview today. Woke up @ 5:15 AM for the interview @ 5:45 AM Florida time (4:15PM in India). It was quite casual in flow. There were 2 people on the panel.

The very first question was a bouncer. "So I see from your essays that you have researched on ISB a lot. So what do you think we are gonna ask you today?". Top that!
Then I was asked to speak on "Television" for a minute. Nailed it. Courtesey TM TT practice.
After I finished, the senior interviewer actually said " Wao, I can't clap here, but that was good"!

Then came the typical questions on Y MBA, Career progression, Career Goals. They also asked me about my contest winning speech :)
The last qs was another bouncer: Rate urself on analytical skills: I said 8.
Then came the actual qs: There's a 100 storey building. There r 4 lifts: each servicing successive 25 floors. They are state of the art lifts. Yet the users of the lift are unhappy with them. Why?

Then I asked a couple of questions on the Global Consulting Practicuum, Artist in Residence and Problem Solving (McKinsey).

Anyway, I think I did well. It seeemed as if they were only trying to complete the picture. As they asked questions that weren't addressed in the app. Not a single qs on Jagaran. So Im guessing they are content wid the other aspects of my profile. So all in all it seemed positive. Fingers crossed

ISB Interview call

After days and day of great anguish, finally the interview call arrived, when I had given up hope. Better late than never I guess.

Meanwhile, I didn't app to any either college, not in R1 anyway. Some personal reasons have even forced me to rethink my decision to earn an MBA this year.

In all probability, I'll only app to ISB nd depending on its decision, take the next step.

Over and out

Enter the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

I was standing freely on the train when it started t move. And move fast. The sudden acceleration of the train nearly made me fall. I realized I am in the US of A, in the inter-terminal train in the Chicago airport.
It's been a week since I landed in America. I left my mother and my motherland on the 5th Oct early morning by Lufthansa flight. The last few days were very difficult for me personally. I didn't realize I'd be so sad leaving my family. The 28-hr flight was so uncomfortable. The dometic Kingfisher flights are more comfy than the lufthansa ones. The Frankfurt and Chicago airports truly took my breath away.
Life took on the all too familiar busy colours soon after joining office. But that was expected.I am amazed to 2 particular things in America. How nice people are and how easy things are.
Strangers nodding and saying Hello to grocery store attendants wishing you "Have a nice day" with an endearing smile, every person seems so nice, I'll have to watch out for diabetes now. People are so sweet!
And everything seems like an easy or a beginner level in a video game. Things are just so damn easy! I opened my bank account in 10 minutes! Yes 10 minutes, not 10 hours or 10 days!
Within a wek, I have a bank a/c a house a car. And the roads, phew! Whoever has driven through the Indian roads will know what an experience it is. But here, sometimes I get bored. People follow all the rules!! Drivers follow the signals, there's no pesky auto rikshaws or cycle rikshaws and bicycles have a separate lane. There's hardly any traffic and all the roads have 3/4 lanes. Man things are cool here.
But things are not what makes human beings. People love not things but well... people. And in spite of everything, I miss the hustle and bustle and the pollution and the love of the people i left across the ocean. Miss you guys.

Essay update-Fuqua, Darden

I have dropped Kellogg off my list. Tuck as well. Even though I may get in at these 2, the costs associated would be too high. At least in Darden and Fuqua I may get some good schols. + writing the essays takes so much of energy and effort, I feel it's imperative that maximise the return from my effort. Things are on track for my US visa etc. The only issue is the upcoming Puja holidays in Cal. It may be difficult to get a Visa interview date.
Anyway comin bak, I have written the first drafts for the Fuqua essays. Darden is stil sketchy.
Fuqwua essays 1 and 4 are givin me nightmares. Not individualy but the combination. I feel there's so much overlap in the scope. I mean your long term goals would obviously include the impact you wanna have in the world. Ohterwise, Fuqua essays are very balanced-they do bring about most facets of my personality, unlike the darden essays-they are very narrow. I mean you can be a good manager and a great leader even though you haven't experienced a big failure, or a huge creative challenge or an "ethical dilemma" (phew). After all, a great perosnna makes the best of the situation-does ordinary things extraordinarily well! That's difficult to portray through the darden essays.

Ive realized that writing MBA essays is like designing a software solution.
Step 1: Requirements gathering: read up on various sources: website, blogs, interviews, etc.
Step 2: Design: Prepare a rough layout of the structure of ur esay-Intro, body(pt 1, pt 2 , etc), Conclusion.
Step 3: Coding: Expand the points-write all things substantially.
Step 4: testing: Give your essays to the reviewers.
Step 5: Bug fixing: like any software project, the testing phase will invariably involve loads of bug-fixes coz the reviewers generally come up with both "aha" and "duh" pointers.
Step 6: Deploy: Submit the app, and hope for the best.

Note that the development methodology may vary as some people may go for waterfall model (listed above) or an iterative model-all the phases performed iteratively or even Agile model-testing driven development i e first ask the reviewer for pointers then start writing!

B a software engineer does have its advantages!

Seismic schocks

Things will never be the same again. A 158 year old financial giant is dead. Another big fish has been eaten by a shark.

24000 employees of Merril Lynch are expecting pink slips.

All employees of Lehman Bro have started polishing their CVs.

Satyam has laid off 2500 employees.

The job market was never more competitive. Though Finance is not my post-MBA choice of , I am worried as hell. Because all these capable people, most of 'em anyway are now looking for redemption. And most of them will look at an MBA to take them through the next 2 years of their lives. If you are gonna be without a job, you are far better off being so in an MBA school for obvious reasons.

The implications are very clear. The applicant pool will probably be the most competitive ever. Especially in the later rounds. So EA (if the option is there) and R1 are the only choices for poor souls such as me.

I was thinking of app-ing to Fuqua in R2, to have some more time for the on-campus interview, but that seems like a very dangerous choice now. it's either EA/R1 or never.

1 other thing is e timeline. Fuqua R1 admit offer demands pulling out of other apps.

Here's a brief sketch of timeline.

Probable US journey: 29 Sep
US (may get delayed): 6 Oct
Fuqua Interview R1: 7 Oct (sat)
Fuqua EA: 15 Oct
Fuqua R1: 27 Oct
Darden R1 28 Oct
Fuqua Interview (EA): Nov 1 (sat)
Fuqua Offer (EA)
ISB interview (probable): Nov1 -Nov 12
Fuqua offer (EA): Nov 14
ISB Offer: On or before Nov 20 (15 days time to accept offer)

Fuqua Tution Deposit (EA): Dec 12
Darden interview: Dec 5-19
Fuqua offer (R1):Dec 19

Darden interview:Jan 5-9
Darden offer: Jan 30
Darden Deposit: Mar 12

So Fuqua R1 is a bit risky since if ISB offers, I'll have to pay 2 lakhs and then get the offer form Fuqua and kick myself in the back.

Let's c wat the future holds

Ciao

ISB submitted

Finally! I submitted the app at 00:30 AM last night (technically, today). It is so irritating to every time look at a piece and change this or add that ...

To save myself from wasting the weekend as well I decided to get over with the whole damn thing yesterday itself.

It's a relief.

Over to the US B-school now.
I'm thinking of applying to Kellogg as well., just for the heck of it. At least they'll give me feedback on what I lack. If only someone can sponsor the $230... Any kind souls out there?

Transition

It's been a while since I got a chance to pen down some thoughts.
A sea of changes has swept through my life since then. Most positives.

For starters, my US trip got back on track. So no more wasting TIME on Sunday mornings.
I am supposed to reach the golden shores of Florida on 29th September.

Regarding my apps, my ISB app is nearly done. It's high time anyway as 15th Sep is the deadline. Both recos done, I "just" need to submit my essays now! However, every time I review an essay, I feel like rewriting it from scratch! Anyway, essays have taken a good shape, courtsey SB ( I don't know how to thank him enough), and if everything goes smoothly, I am pretty confident about my chances in ISB.

The US schools are a different ball game all together. Probably I would n't have app-ed to any US school if it wasn't for the US trip. But now I have been advised to app in R2 with around 3-4 months of intl exp. Recently I had a free consultation with MBAMission's Jeremy. He told me that my choice of schools is very prudent. Duke, Darden are pretty realistic targets for me, UNC and Emory being safety! He said he liked what he saw. That has made me very upbeat. He even thought that I may try my luck with Tuck or Kellogg!! Tuck, I can still understand, but Kellogg!! Whoa! As usual, a ton of questions came to my mind, after I hung up. Anyway, I have another free consultation lined up with clearadmit. Hope to have more effective conversation this time.

P.S. I won the club contest with the speech last posted, though couldn't make headway in the area contest!!