Summers.....
Standard Disclaimer/Excuse:
It's been a long long time since I last wrote a blog....not because I did not want to write it or didn't have ebough 'material' to write one, but purely because of the reason that for the last 3-4 months, I have been so busy that I simply didn't have the enough enthu to write one.Ok, enough of excuses, let's get along with the job at hand.
Summers at IIMB - an insider's perspective:
This is a series of write-ups about the most 'important' event in a B-school calendar, the placements season. I will try and provide a first-hand account of what the glorified and over-hyped process is all about. Being a part of the place (Placement Committee in local lingo), I guess I am justified in calling myself an 'insider' in more ways than one.
Anyway, right from the time we landed on the campus (even before that, if I take into account the e-mail mentors stuff), the preparationn for summers had started. I do not know of any other campus that takes its placements so seriously and puts in so much fight for it. And I am not saying it beacuse I am a placu (read Placement Committee guy). The fact is that right from our first week, the place has set deadlines for something or the other almost every alternate day.....deadlines for making up your resume, deadlines for filling up mock forms, deadliines for submitting answers to mock questions asked in interviews, deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.....with the result that by the time our resumes were finally taken up for applications to the company, for an average guy (who had put in an average amount of fight on his resume), his resume had undergone at least 10 iterations. (My resume had undergone 18, by the way, and it's the 18th version that I used to apply to all companies). So, inspite of the place being, in general, hated on the campus for its 'unnecessary' imposition of work-load, our resume quality was, in general, much better than our 'sister' institutes. Even most of the big recruiters admit that much and junta realize that too....so, all said and done, come the placement season and suddenly, the place, reviled by most, in mormal circumstances is 'not so bad' after all....(Anyway, more of it later, I am digressing from the issue).
The Week Before:
So, let us start. After more than a month of almost final daily form submissions (with really vague and arbit questions the comapnies pride themselves in asking) and 3-4 presentations by companies everyday (attendance was compulsory, by the way, with heavy fine impositions on absentees), the shortlists had started trickling in for the big 'Day Zee' (as Day zero firms are called) i-banks. With every short-list, what we had heard from our seniors from the very start seemed to be coming true. All that the banks looked for was an IIT background, a girl (yes, I am not being a sexist here, it's the truth) - for an IITian girl (a rare species), you might not as well sit for the interviews, you are in; a SRCC or a St. Stephen's in your resume was bound to get you a shot at interview too. If you had a 'exotic' background, that is, a history or a languages major, nothing like it. Basically, everything but merit counted as the criterion....
Anyway, with every shorl-list, cribs about 'arbit' short-lists grew louder. Reputations were being built and destroyed, lists being dissected to see how many 'arbit' guys are there and so, what are my chances of getting through...In any case, except for a couple of exceptions, the expected 'Day Zee' guys (yep, some of us were already branded as these) got multiple short-lists, with the highest number for one of my friends (he got 15 shortlists....).
The stage was now set for the 'Battle Royale' with guys with 1-2 shortlists determined to crack them while guys with multiple ones determined to crack at least one (we have had cases in the past with guys being interviewed by all firms on Day zero and ending up getting placed only on Day 2). There was a palpable tension in air with everyone (even guys with no interviews scheduled on Day 0) being close to snapping anytime.
On to Day Zero now....
It's been a long long time since I last wrote a blog....not because I did not want to write it or didn't have ebough 'material' to write one, but purely because of the reason that for the last 3-4 months, I have been so busy that I simply didn't have the enough enthu to write one.Ok, enough of excuses, let's get along with the job at hand.
Summers at IIMB - an insider's perspective:
This is a series of write-ups about the most 'important' event in a B-school calendar, the placements season. I will try and provide a first-hand account of what the glorified and over-hyped process is all about. Being a part of the place (Placement Committee in local lingo), I guess I am justified in calling myself an 'insider' in more ways than one.
Anyway, right from the time we landed on the campus (even before that, if I take into account the e-mail mentors stuff), the preparationn for summers had started. I do not know of any other campus that takes its placements so seriously and puts in so much fight for it. And I am not saying it beacuse I am a placu (read Placement Committee guy). The fact is that right from our first week, the place has set deadlines for something or the other almost every alternate day.....deadlines for making up your resume, deadlines for filling up mock forms, deadliines for submitting answers to mock questions asked in interviews, deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.....with the result that by the time our resumes were finally taken up for applications to the company, for an average guy (who had put in an average amount of fight on his resume), his resume had undergone at least 10 iterations. (My resume had undergone 18, by the way, and it's the 18th version that I used to apply to all companies). So, inspite of the place being, in general, hated on the campus for its 'unnecessary' imposition of work-load, our resume quality was, in general, much better than our 'sister' institutes. Even most of the big recruiters admit that much and junta realize that too....so, all said and done, come the placement season and suddenly, the place, reviled by most, in mormal circumstances is 'not so bad' after all....(Anyway, more of it later, I am digressing from the issue).
The Week Before:
So, let us start. After more than a month of almost final daily form submissions (with really vague and arbit questions the comapnies pride themselves in asking) and 3-4 presentations by companies everyday (attendance was compulsory, by the way, with heavy fine impositions on absentees), the shortlists had started trickling in for the big 'Day Zee' (as Day zero firms are called) i-banks. With every short-list, what we had heard from our seniors from the very start seemed to be coming true. All that the banks looked for was an IIT background, a girl (yes, I am not being a sexist here, it's the truth) - for an IITian girl (a rare species), you might not as well sit for the interviews, you are in; a SRCC or a St. Stephen's in your resume was bound to get you a shot at interview too. If you had a 'exotic' background, that is, a history or a languages major, nothing like it. Basically, everything but merit counted as the criterion....
Anyway, with every shorl-list, cribs about 'arbit' short-lists grew louder. Reputations were being built and destroyed, lists being dissected to see how many 'arbit' guys are there and so, what are my chances of getting through...In any case, except for a couple of exceptions, the expected 'Day Zee' guys (yep, some of us were already branded as these) got multiple short-lists, with the highest number for one of my friends (he got 15 shortlists....).
The stage was now set for the 'Battle Royale' with guys with 1-2 shortlists determined to crack them while guys with multiple ones determined to crack at least one (we have had cases in the past with guys being interviewed by all firms on Day zero and ending up getting placed only on Day 2). There was a palpable tension in air with everyone (even guys with no interviews scheduled on Day 0) being close to snapping anytime.
On to Day Zero now....
posted by Neo at 7:58 PM
2 Comments:
that was good!
almost like a novel. I cud feel the tension from here. :-S
an exemplary work of art
=))
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