Happy Birthday Dad

Dear Dad, it’s your birthday, And I want you to know
You’re with me in spirit, Wherever I go.

So Dad, happy birthday; May there be many more
So we can enjoy, Our very special rapport.

I am now done with my first MBA interview at ISB yesterday. I reached ISB on Friday itself and stayed with a friend of mine who is a current student and lives on campus.

OK. I was given a lift from the bus depot to the ISB campus by a fellow passenger (Mr. R) on the bus from Hyderabad airport to the city.  Thanks to him for saving my Rs.100. Boy the ISB campus is huge. And the moment I entered the campus I was greeted by two snakes. Yes. There are snakes, peacocks and white hares. Amazing. Anyway, the snakes were sleeping and soaking in the sun and so i just took a photo and moved ahead. Headed towards my friend’s room and after a lunch with her, started seeing the campus and met a few current students. It was a good experience to talk to an ex-chef from Taj Hotels, an ex-IAS officer and some engineers like me. Not to forget some beautiful faces that I saw

On Saturday, though my Interview was the first interview of the day at 9:40, I reached the location at 8:30 itself. I had to write a 100 word essay on “Cloning”. Wrote a little bit and then noticed that it went a little bit above 100. My panel (#3) had three interviewers. One Alumnus (A), one current Student (S) and one alumna-cum-adcom member (N). Can you guess why I am referring to her by N?

All in all it was a mixed experience as it started very well and in between I had some bouncers and then it ended in an OK manner. So here it begins:

N: Good profile. But tell me something about you that is not in your profile.

Me: (Thinking … what? Thinking of what I have not written about me in my profile……………….Still thinking……….Ah got it …) I am good poet.

N: (Thinking with a smile … “Oh yes … another poet is here. Lets see how good a poet he is “) So do you write your own poems? What kind of?

Me: Yes. I write my own Ghazals.

N: Can you narrate one for us?

Me: Sure. “Humne itni bhi nahi pee …. …. …. jala mat dena.” (This was one of my most recent works )

A, S and N: Good. Who is the person for whom the poem is written ?

Me:

N: Do you read?

Me: Not Much. But occasionally newspapers and magazines.

N: Oh. I was about to ask you about latest IT trends but now I guess I cannot.

Me: You can still ask me the same question. I will give you my honest opinion.

N: What do you think of your company’s (Nomura’s) future?

Me: Very bright. They are having a record growth this year and will continue to have so. It is a big and very old financial giant backed by a very good balance sheet and expertise.

N: So was Lehman Bros. What makes Nomura an exception that it will not go the Lehman way. BTW… just to let you know we are looking for you approach to your point and not your final opinion.

Me: Defended Nomura. Its strategy and aggressiveness as compared to LB and so on. Some how managed my ship as there were a lot of cross questions.

N: Why ISB?

Me: Explained my views.

N to S and A: Do you think ISB will really provide Sunil all this? I doubt.

Me: Defended further with names of a few courses and special programs at ISB. Everyone appeared satisfied/OK and moved to next question.

Now the next person starts. S had some questions on team work and I told him what I did in such situations.

N: So tell me about two instances where you faced a difficult team member.

Me: (What? Where did TWO come from? I remember only one such situation.) Told them. They appeared to be not so much satisfied with the answer as I saw questions marks on faces of N and A. But the accepted my answer and asked for scenario two. Told them about other such scenario (figured out a related scenario while I was narrating scenario one). Went OK.

S: Coming back to scenario One. What did you do and why? Any problems you faced with your solution.

Me: Responded what I had experienced.

Finally A starts: Do you cook? Why? What? What’s your best dish?

Me: (Cooking was mentioned in my activities.) I missed my home food when I started working. So started cooking. I prepare Sindhi food and told them about my best dish and how to prepare it.

A: Then some questions on my experience during Lehman Bankruptcy.

Me: (This is where things didn’t go in expected manner.) Fact is: I was preparing for GMAT during those days and this event gave me time to prepare and so I used it. Moreover, my father had gone through this bankruptcy experience before when I was a kid. His experience helped me in remaining calm and avoiding the psychological pressure. After I was done with GMAT, LB was sold. So didn’t have to face such difficult time with job hunt or so.

A: Ok. So how were other people reacting? How did you help them?

Me: In reality, everyone was calm and preparing for themselves. Half of the office was empty. Rest were cool due to regular updates from senior management. On top of it, 4 banks started special recruitment drives for lehman employees so some of them had multiple offers and infact got new jobs with good raises. So hardly any pressure on anyone.

A: Oh!!! What we were looking for is how did you react to this situation and helped others. But your case is different.

Me: (I hope I do not have to pay a price for being honest )

A: How do you mentor new graduates/joiners? Your recommender has praised your mentorship skills so tell me the details.

Me: Told them how I use my experience from my first job and make sure that it doesn’t happen to my team.

A: Why did you choose this particular topic for essay2. It appears to be just an event related to some issues what you led during a production release. So why this and not something else.

Me: This incident … That incident … It was because of this … (They appeared to be convinced but you never know what they exactly felt.)

N: Any questions for us?

Me: Asked two and got a response.

A again: OK just one more question. So why MBA? and Why ISB?

Me: (What? I just said that before. Why again? Anyways…) Same reasons again but this time added one more point.

N: Give me your 100 word essay.

Me: (Ahh. Finally you will take a look at the essay. I can debate on Cloning for another 30 mins)

A, S and N: It was nice meeting you.

Me: (What? you have no questions on my 100 word essay? Anyways.) Thank-you for your time.

All in all it went for 30 min precisely. All the time A was reading my application and was taking notes. Now I have mixed feeling here as I was not able to answer what they were looking for or my answers were not detailed although they were to the point. I also feel that I missed a few important points. But I gess this is all that can be done in 30 mins and this feeling will always come even if I get 60 mins. Let us see what happens next.

Just a note for prospective candidates, the interviews are fully application based and they will try to corner you on one or two points. If you remain confident and give some inputs/facts to your answer or even related your answer to your own experience then it should be fine. Just don’t make a face that you don’t know the answer at all while still trying to say something.

And, if you are singer, prepare to sing in front of them, if you have a good sense of humor be ready to crack one or two jokes.

Finally, went to my friend’s room, had a breakfast with her (Yes. I went to interview without the breakfast.) and then left for the airport.

Now while waiting for my flight at the airport, a lady (wearing an ISB t-shirt) took the next seat. Out of curiosity, I asked here about her relation with ISB. She was an ISB alumna from 2007 batch and an ex-IRS / Income Tax officer (… Wow! I better now discuss my finances here ). She is right now a high profile manager at GVK – people who are developing the Mumai Airport. Further, she asked about my experience and told me that she was the Placement Officer in her batch. She knew many people from my company and she also knew “N” personally. And … guess what … she also knew “A”. More than just a co-incidence?

We talked about her career, her year at ISB and many such things (including her favorite whiskey ). And in the flight, I met another ISB alumnus (he had an ISB bag). He was from 2008 batch and is now a senior manager at Novartis. Amazing. I like this recession now for they had to fly economy. Otherwise they would have been flying in business class and I would not have got a chance to talk to them.

Now, later in the evening when I was at home, my father suffered from extremely high blood pressure. He fell down on the floor while walking and had to be taken to the hospital. He spent his night there and now we are all back home. He is relaxing and is now in a good health. I know him. He is a strong man and will recover quickly.

I will be leaving for my interview at ISB tomorrow morning. I have decided to visit ISB on the day before my interview day so that I can take a look at the campus again and just talk to some current students there. And of course, I am going to hyderabad one day in advance so as to avoid any last moment calamities. I am also eager to meet some of my friends there.

Wish me luck pls

I just now (12:15 pm IST) received a call for an interview at ISB. I am so relieved. I had 101 things going on in my mind about my application. After I saw many people getting interview calls from ISB (it started way back in the first week of this month) I was getting nervous after all these weeks.

Now, I have to start preparing for the interview which is next week (actually next weekend ). I had plans for this entire week and the next weekend for my other application(s) but now my contingency/backup plans will come in place. This is the benefit of talking to current and former b-school students. They can help you in planning your application cycle and tell you in advance about the roadblocks that you may get.

From all this episode, I can surely say that there is no particular order in which ISB is inviting people and when they say that calls are going to come till first week of Nov, you can indeed expect a call till then.

Wish me luck guys, I need to prepare a lot now.

The last few 8-10 days have been very much hectic. The work load has been tremendous and on top of it, I had to write my essays for Fuqua. The deadline (November 12) is coming. I just sent the details of my recommenders for Fuqua. Considering the time constraints, I feel like I am already a part of a b-school.

On the work side, I had a major production release last week. This was an important release as this project is an extremely important project in terms of the complexity, the size and the importance to the company. Our clients (the front office traders – yeah the real investment bankers) are happy and have started using the system. They have successfully executed trades and we are receiving good feedback. Yes, my baby is generating money

I also had some good experiences in this one and hopefully I should be able to put in a few points or examples in the next draft of my essays for Fuqua. However, I doubt I will have much time to work on my essays in this month. Primarily because the release last week marked the completion of the first phase of our project.

From next week the Phase 2 will start formally. And this week, apart from doing the usual post release work, we have informally started the Phase 2. This phase is going to be very very critical as we have a limited amount of time and lots of work. Sounds very much usual stuff???

Actually it is not. This time this project is critical because it is already running in production and our work is to upgrade it in stages. If it would have been a new project from scratch (like the previous phase was) it would have been easier. But now the complexity is up. When I joined Lehman Brothers (Yeah – I work for Lehman Bros in India which is now called NOMURA India), I was given some historical facts of the importance of our work. One such fact was about the Opportunity Loss of  USD 150m+ that Lehman had to incur, due to a system failure for about 1 hour during trading hours in NY. Just imagine the impact !!! And my current project is generating more revenue with every passing day. Even a single change in this project can have a huge impact. My team and I are both pretty much excited to work on this one but the only issues is the time. I may have to put my essays on the back-burner for some time

However, I made some progress ont the essays on this weekend. I have almost completed my essays for Fuqua and the next draft will be the last one. I will finalize the Fuqua essays after that. Once that is done, I just intend to chase down my recommenders to make sure that they fill in the evaluation on time. I do not think they will delay it but I would love it if they finish it 2-3 days before the deadline. I still have 20-22 days for the final Fuqua deadline but I would prefer to complete my application by November 8.

Let us see how it goes. Pls wish me luck.

FUN. My last weekend was an extended weekend (Friday to Sunday … ) and as usual … I had plans to work on my essays and then visit a primary hindi school to continue working on my responsibility towards society. As it happens always, my plans didn’t materialize and had to be changed… albeit only half 

My best friend came home during his break from his MBA at MICA. He was here for only a few days and so we decided to chill-out in our best way. Take another road trip. But since we had only two days to spare we took a road trip to Kashid (http://picasaweb.google.com/sunil.chanchlani/KashidOctober2009#) this time. Kashid is a small beach town almost half way between the popular tourist destinations Alibaug and Murud.

Thats me with the Murud fort in the back ground.

I called in two more friends of mine and so we were now four. We left on thursday night and reached Kashid in 4 hours flat after making a small dinner stop in between. I must say that it was another wonderful trip to this beach as the beach was clean with very few people, the water was clear and the best part was our trip was our time spent on the beach early Friday morning. There was so much of Fog that it was almost impossible to view anything beyond 5 meters. Yes the Fog was so dense. And we went in the water in this Fog, something that will shock my mom if I tell her . We all had fun in this first-time-in-my-life experience and believe me you need to be there in such a foggy situation to experience it. But, do not try this if you are not a regular to beaches or are alone.

The small harbor

And later during the day, we went to Murud to discover a new spot. Yes it felt like we discoverd that new spot as none of the tourist guides had ever told us about it and no one except the four of us was present there. It was actually a small fishing harbor. It was so small and deserted (and peaceful) that it appeared to be a deserted one. But we were wrong. Some time later a few fishermen came in with their catch of the day. Although it was smelling very badly, it was amazing to see the live fish. I also tried my hands at pulling a small boat back into the harbor

Luckily we left early on Friday as later there were reports of a small storm along the Konkan coast line ( this includes Kashid) and of roads getting flooded due to this.

The next day (Saturday) I had to go to a primary hindi school in Kalyan (our neighbouring city) to spend some time with the kids and distribute some stationary as part of our drive at Umang Foundationto help deserving students. Some of my colleagues from my office came all the way from Mumbai (yes … my office is around 60Km away from my home) and the stationary was already there ( thanks to our plan that was executed efficiently) at the school when we reached at 10:00 am in the morning. We usually distribute stationary kits containing four to six notebooks, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and scales and we prepare these kits manually to save packaging costs. We prepared the kits in one of the store rooms at the school and I must mention how enthusiastic everyone was while preparing these. We were 12 members and we prepared the required 500+ kits in two hours flat

Later we had an amazing time while distributing the kits to these students and after this distribution was over, we all members had sessions with the kids in the class. We had sessions with kids from class 1 to class 7 and I was really impressed by the enthusiasm with which these kids were eager to study.

A Student at the school.

We had question and answer sessions with them and for each correct answer we were distributing pencils and notebooks. Man … the kids were so quick in answering the questions that I felt like everyone must be a topper in his/her own right. From answering 2+5+7 to naming all the months in a year and answering all the multiplication tables from 2 to 9 the kids in class 1 and 2 were awesome. I am saying this primarily because these kids are from a Hindi medium school. Answering my questions English shows their enthusiasm to learn this language.
 
May be it was the desire to study and excel or the upcoming exams before Diwali or the competition to win maximum number of pencils and notebooks that was driving the best out of them, all in all they were really good and we had a lot of fun while we spent our entire day with them. We have another visit planned next month after Diwali  at another school near Nerul and I we all (at Umang) are equally excited.
 
BTW … I still had the Sunday and I managed to make some progress on my essays. I didn’t write a new draft but I did indeed received some feedback from one of my reviewers and I made some changes to existing draft to apply the recommended changes.  The long weekend was indeed FUN.

I just received a mail from the adcom at Fuqua (Duke) with the subject “A Message from The Duke MBA”.  It caught my attention immediately and when I opened it, I had a smile.

Duke University (and Fuqua School of Business) has gone one step further to help its future MBA students in reducing their financial difficulties in the current market scenario. It has announced a new program named “The Duke MBA Application Fee Reduction Program” under which applicants who will be visiting the campus or attending an MBA information session by Duke, to understand the school better will have to pay only $50 instead of the regular $200 as an application fee. This sounds a good way to help the prospective students who the are really serious about Fuqua.

Now I am delighted by the efforts Duke is putting into this but at the same time I am also a little disappointed by this news. This is because I do not see any upcoming Duke MBA information sessions in India. Duke will visit India at many places but it will do so via the QS World MBA Fair or The MBA Tour. From the given information, it appears that this scheme is only available for applicants who are about to attend the information hosted specifically by Duke. So this program does not apply to me for now, I guess.

However, I attended the Fuqua information session in Mumbai on August 15, 2009 and I will be applying at Duke (Fuqua)  in R1. It would have been great to have my application expenses reduced but anyway, I am also happy for many other applicants who will benefit from this initiative. I am extremely happy to see the initiatives Duke (Fuqua) is taking to help the applicants.

Afer receiving feedback on my UNC-KF essays from a current business school student, I updated my essays today. Writing essays for b schools is like distilling whisky. Just as a whisky gets better and better with age (and of-course with regular tasting ), every update to my essays is making them better and better. This was my third draft of UNC-KF essays and now I have sent this for review to two of my reviewers. I am really really thankful to my reviewers for taking out a lot of time to review my essays. A party for each one of them once I am done with everything.

Moreover, it is time for me to move on to my essays for Fuqua and Ross. Ross essays are untouched since last long weekend and Fuqua essays have just started. I like the Fuqua question more and so will mostly progress with those. There are limits on the number of pages and no word limits. This makes my job of expressing myself easier. I can write non stop without worrying about the number of words. Otherwise I keep on thinking about the numbers every-time I complete a paragraph.

Hope to make a good progress with these soon.

From time to time I see a lot of blogs and articles on how MBA fairs or event are useful in understanding the target schools. I have read articles on almost everything that one can (and  should ) do at these fairs. There are numerous blogs that talk about how to dress at these events, what to ask for, what to take with you and so on.

But none of these articles mention a thing about WHAT NOT TO DO? at these events. It may appear to be a silly or worthless discussion topic and I used to think the same. But my opinion changed after I visited The MBA Tour in Mumbai on September 26, 2009. My motivation to write this blog came in from the incident that occurred at this event.

From seeing final year students who have no idea of the difference between an MBA from a developed nation and an MBA from India to people who came with their mom and dad with an expectation to find a university that will admit them without a GMAT. Yes you read it correctly, asking for a TOEFL waiver is what we normally hear. But I heard people asking for a GMAT waiver.

And on top of this, a not so young, 35 something looking, suit wearing dude (lets call him just DUDE) had a fight with an alum from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. And it was not just an argument over some disagreement. This DUDE actually verbally abused the alum and the adcom member from Duke. The drama went to such an extent that the adcom had to call in the hotel authorities and the tour organizers to get that DUDE out of the ball room. Here is how it happened:

Duke Alum (L), DUDE and Duke Adcom member (R)

The image to the right shows the three people concerned here. I have kept the image a little blurred intentionally.

D: our DUDE, A: Duke Alum, Ad: Duke Adcom member

D to A: Can I have your email id so that I can ask you questions about Fuqua?

A: You can ask me now, I am here to help you and answer your questions.

D: No. I need your email id so that I can ask you questions later.

A: Actually we do not give personal emails to everyone. You can contact the Adcom and they will put you in touch with a person matching your requirements/profile.

D: Yes I will do that. But I have come here for you id and I need your id to ask questions.

(WOW…. he didn’t ask any question and came in only for the email ID?)

A: We do not give personal ids to everyone as per our policy and because our mail box gets flooded with queries from everyone. This way we filter out the people who are interested in particular field/course.

D: But why can’t you give me your id when I have come here for that. If you don’t give it to me, I will tell the Adcom about it.

(As if Moma is going to beat jonny for taking sally’s lolly)

D to Ad: This guy …… blah blah …. jonny took my lolly …. blah blah.

Ad: Sir, you can write to us and we will try to put you in touch with an alum from your interest area or location.

D: No. I need his ID. I am here for that. Why can’t you give me your id.

……

(This goes on for a total of 10 mins)

A to D: Instead of arguing for 10 mins, I would have answered all of your question and others would have benefited from it.

D to A: You are here to provide me a service. I came in here and you should give me your email id now.

Ad: Sir, let us all make peace here. You can write to us and we will do the needful.

D: No. He (the alum) is here to provide me a service. He is an Indian and I am an Indian. He should help me as an Indian.

A: What is it that is so special that you can’t ask me here in front of everyone but only on an email. We will answer all of your questions here itself. Just tell us.

(The nearby crowd had a laugh after hearing this  . D starts getting angry.)

D to A: Whats your company name? What is your designation?

Ad: Sir, this is not relevant to our point. You cannot ask this.

D: No. I can. I can ask anything in my Country. What is his designation? Which company? I will write to that company. I want to know where has he reached till now.

(What the f**k is going on here. What does he mean my country, your country and all. Even the crowd starts getting angry at the DUDE.  We do not misbehave with our visitor or anybody in India. Looks like he was a psycho patient )

Ad: Sir. I ask you to stop this. You should not insult the alum. If you apply at Duke with this attitude, I doubt you will be accepted.

D: No I need his id. And tell me which company are you from.

Ad: Sir, I might have to call someone. So you better stop.

D: Call anyone. No one can take me out. Whats you company’s name?

A: I have my own business. And I don’t really care about you.

Ad then calls the tour organizers and the hotel authorities. Fortunately we didn’t have any physical fights and our Dude was out in a few minutes.

Now back to the main point. From my experience at the tour, I am satisfied as I got what I went for. But a lot of my time was wasted because of this and other such things there. Here is a lot of things that you should NOT do at any such event:

• Do not argue with the adcom: Should be obvious by now.  This will not only waste everyone’s time but may also have negative consequences for you.
• Do not ask what is stated on the school site: What is the minimum work-ex required? What is the average GMAT? Don’t do this. Do your research in the schools that are visiting and you are interested in. Check the FAQs on the website. The adcom gets bored of such repeated questions.
• Do not visit the fair with your parents: Yes. There were many students with parents. All of them were either final year under-grad students or recently passed out. They had no idea about the difference between an MBA from a developed nation like USA, UK, SPAIN,etc and an MBA from INDIA, Sri Lanka or Manila. Also, if you are alone and still have no idea, do not come. The last thing the adcom wants is to get annoyed by your presence. An MBA in India is a completely different concept compared to developed nations. It is only and only about practical learning. It is not about getting a job or starting your career straight out of university.
• Do not go without doing your own research first: This applies especially to people mentioned in previous point. Do not ask questions like “Where exactly is this school located?”, “What is it that the school is good for?” or “How much is the fees?” . Again do some research on the school first. Ask specific questions about the curriculum, the interview procedure (yes it differs from school to school), or about the current financial aid situations for internationals.
• Do not ask stupid questions and do not repeat questions: “Can I apply without GMAT?” I had a blast in my ears. So far the best question of the day. Others typical ones are: “What are my chances?” or “I am already an MBA, can I apply” (This after the adcom has clearly mentioned NO).
• Do not ask question if you already know the answer: “Can I get a scholarship?” You know that it depends on you academic and professional record. It depends on your capability and need. And when the adcom explains the same thing to you, you start cutting his answers by saying the same thing before he does.
• Do not ask about jobs: “Will I get a job after this MBA?”, “I want to stay in US, will I be hired by a company there?” Repeat with me, MBA IS NOT ONLY ABOUT GETTING A JOB. ( Or May be it is, May be it is not  :)  ) 
• Do not dress in a weird manner: You can dress professionally or casually, it is fine. But do now wear something extra ordinary flashy or eye catchy. You yourself won’t feel comfortable in the huge crowd there. The MBA tours in India are usually overcrowded.

I hope this is enough.

Long weekends are good.

My last weekend was a long weekend (19th Sep to 21st Sep) and I made a good progress on my applications. I managed to write the first drafts of three essays for Ross. And then I managed to write second drafts of these. Yes you read it correctly. Two drafts.

I started sequentially and put down everything that I wanted to. After working on Saturday and Sunday, my first draft was ready. On Monday I managed to cut down the fat from my essays an reduce the size. However, these are still beyond the accepted word limits and I will need another draft for fitting my story in the given limits.

Anyway, back to the point. I found this long weekend very productive as I managed to write my best essays till date. I had enough time to think about various things and type down everything. Some time back I read some rumors about debate going on in some developed nations about reducing the weekdays to 4. At first, it appeared to be a bad idea when you see the worst economic environment. I thought this will straight away reduce the output of any organization. However, after experiencing it personally, I now can clearly say that this actually improves the productivity. Yes you read it correctly. It improved my productivity.

At work last week, I knew that next Monday is a holiday and so made sure that I finish a part of my work for Monday. This enabled me to have a relaxed Tuesday (today). On top of it, when I sat to write my essays, I wrote them freely as I know I have enough time to revise everything.

Usually, after working for 9 to 10 hours a day and travelling for 4 to 5 hours a day (from my home to my workplace) I hardly have anytime to do anything else and weekends are the only days I get to write my essays…

My intention is not to get into an argument on whether we should have 4 day weekdays or not but only to describe one good use of such long weekends. My next week is also another long weekend week .. Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee …

I guess I will have enough time to complete my essays for Ross completely.

 Long weekends are the best weekends