Blog

The 1st ‘big’ thing happened on campus. And no…its not me getting pregnant…!

The McK shortlist came out on Monday. They have, fortunately for all of us, increased the number to 35 (a jump of 10 from last year) and all the smart people were part of the list (quite possibly the reason why I wasn’t).

What was however a relief of sorts was that not all of them are the ‘top graders’…if I may even dare to say so. Maybe speaks for McK’s conscious decision to interview with people who they think bring more to the table than simply academic excellence…and that too in just a single (maybe insignificant) year of their life…!

Go on guys…rocks the McK guys…force them to take all 35 of you…! :)


A lot of action happening on the PLACOM front. There are concerns from the marketing segment of the batch that there isnt an exciting representation of marketing firms in the registered companies list. Which, I admit, is the truth. However…there is a reason behind it. Most companies have been used to hiring at the entry level…the Management Trainee position. Now for them to undertake a mind shift and start hiring for laterals, requires quite some convincing on our part. More importantly, the BD guys are not even sure whether students of ISB (you know the usual…5 years work ex…etc etc) will be willing to accept MT positions. So…there has been some gap on that front. We are working hard to fill that up…and insha allah…things will work out just fine…

And then the entire tiering process. But then that’s another story altogether…!


Really exciting period ahead…I hope at some level fate allows me to be part of the excitement…!

~a

As usual…long time…!

Its strange that inspite of the ‘heat’ on campus…I failed to write much about the entire placement season here at ISB. So here goes…my take on the placements…and what I am going through at this precise moment…

The PPTs (pre placement talks) are happening. At times 3 in number. The attendance at all of them have been more than satisfactory…and even the roles etc are pretty impressive.


Occasionally…the following sequence happens…
Student 1: “what the f*** is this company Agilent…never ever heard of it”
Student 2: “I know man…these weird companies coming over and all”
Student 3: “dude…I have heard of the company…its good”
Student 1 and Student 2: “F*** OFF”

During PPT
Agilent: “our salaries shall be between 17 and 28 lacs…depending on experience…”
Everyone: Jaws dropped…shat in pants…foot in mouth

Student 1: “ohhh man…Agilent rocks…was always my dream company”
Student 2: “I know man…mine too”
Student 3: “someone heard of this company ebay? They are coming for a PPT. is it any good”
Student 1 and Student 2: “F*** OFF”


Anyways…as one can deciper…moods and preferences are changing…faster than I can say “holy moly”…and the atmosphere is just mind blowing…

Not many people on campus are sleeping before 3…not many are getting up for their 8.30 class either. The race is to have “Ankur Warikoo Resume Version 19883.2” stored somewhere on your hard-disk…to have cracked 7897893 cases…to blurt out “so tell us something about yourself” in less than 23 microseconds…to get 3 suits stitched…to find as many ties as you can…and shirts to complement the same…!

The race is to find a job…! Well…not just that…it needs to be well paying…! The role is only incidental…!

Mckinsey asked for resumes last week…the shortlist is coming out tomorrow…! BCG’s deadline for application is tom. Infosys has posted some 24 odd jobs…! Mittal Steel and EDS have finished their process…DB is still wondering how the hell did the IIMB get away for so long…!

Spend my day working on my resume…working on others…reading cases…working on personal interview questions…attending PLACOM meetings…reading the newspapers…and the markets…and counseling people on what to do…(well…what not to do…given my history…!!!)

Exciting time ahead…looking forward to it…

~a

Movie: Dil Chahta Hai

Remember that freak…who was sonali kulkarni’s (the girl who played saif’s better half) original boyfriend? And recall how to used to bloody time everything…right from his shitting moment to his breathing rhythm. Well…for people who know me…I am not that far off.

Has it ever happened to you that you come out of the shower in your undies…NOT draped in a towel…only to realize that your curtains are not pulled and there are people outside your window. And then you have to maneuver across in a rather james bond manner…making your way through the bed and study table (and duhhh!!! Not realizing that its better to just go back and get the towel)…and what nots…to finally make a lightening quick movement of your hand to pull the curtains…! Well…i am such a geek that I would make an excel sheet for the process…and then estimate the time I would require to handle each stage…!

Ok…so you get the point. For people who know me…I am this excel freak. Creating worksheets for just about everything…expenses to time table…to priority list…to ‘to-do’ lists…! I maintain a daily log of my life at ISB…and I was juts going through the same today.

Realized how much life has changed in just 6 months…within the same place…!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005
8.15 – 8.30 – Daily Stuff
8.30 – 9.30 – Gym
9.30 – 10.30 – Daily Stuff
10.30 – 11.00 – Internet
11.00 – 1.30 – Studies – Stats (G)
1.30 – 2.30 – Lunch
2.30 – 4.30 – Class
4.30 – 5.00 – Nothing Specific
5.00 – 7.00 – Class
7.00 – 7.30 – Nothing Specific
7.30 – 9.00 – Newspaper
9.00 – 9.30 – Dinner
9.30 – 10.00 – Telephone
10.00 – 10.30 – Lying down on the grass
10.30 – 12.30 – Studiess
12.30 – 1.00 – Walk

Total for the day: 16.75 hours


Sunday, January 15, 2006
10.00 – 11.00 – Daily Stuff
11.00 – 1.00 – Resume
1.00 – 2.00 – Lunch
2.00 – 4.00 – Studies
4.00 – 5.00 – Nap
5.00 – 9.00 – studies
9.00 – 10.00 – Dinner
10.00 – 1.00 – studies
1.00 – 2.00 – Nothing Specific
2.00 – 5.00 – Studies

Total for the day: 19.00 hours

life has changed…!

~a

Long time…

!!

This term has started off with the placement bang…(as expected ofcourse). Am currently on my 17th version of the resume and it just doesn’t seem to stop. At times the content doesn’t fit well…at times the verb…and at times simply the indentation and font. Its actually an awesome art…and somehow I love spending time on it. however its coming at the cost of preparing myself on other fronts (browsing on markets, fin news etc) and that psyches me…! lets see…

The courses are pretty chilled out though.

Branding is one easy ride. Somehow (and don’t take this in a derogatory manner…especially marketing guys)…learning how to market and brand doesn’t seem to be something that requires prior knowledge. In the sense…this is my 1st marketing elective…and I was at ease with the concepts as much as the guy sitting opposite and majoring in marketing. This definitely wont have been the case had someone been sitting through a fin course (infact they might want to believe that fin electives are kinky in nature…with all the strips and straps and what have yous!).

So anyways…the prof Dr. Moorthy is a nice guy. Cracks jokes that aren’t exactly funny…and snorts at them…! :)

Data Mining is a rocking course. All the stuff that happens reminds me of my MSU nights…trying to set up neural net algorithms…and then learning about self-organizing maps and what nots. At times I miss that life…working with stars…looking up and realizing that that star up in the NE is something that you are trying to figure. You know everything about it…and yet nothing…! Suddenly the world used to feel so small…and insignificant…! Sigh!

Capital raising was fun…! The prof so wonderfully derived the fundamentals out of the class. And with such ease. It was as if… “oops…where did that come from…!!!” very nicely done. The load of the class is also not that high.

So hopefully this term shall be placements…jobs…resume…interviews…!!!


The Bharatpur trip was awesome. Absolutely awesome. Had such a fun time with everyone…getting up at 8…having breakfast under the sun…leaving for the sanctuary…cycling through it for some 20 kms…clicking snaps…loads and loads of them…going to the market all tired…and munching on local mithai…and junk food…going back…hot water bath tub…drinks…dinner…and spend the remaining night chatting…!

Bliss…!


Lots of exchange students are part of this term. And there are some really cool guys…and some really…well…girls…! For the first time I am actually experiencing the feeling of being in an international school.

And oh…some happenings…!

ISB hosted the leadership summit yesterday. Was a great event…awesome speakers…kept me engaged for all the time that I was there.
(http://isb.edu/campussbuzz1/Leadership_Summit_2006.html)

And then there was Ikshaa…the marketing summit…last Saturday. P (and his team) had been working on it like dogs. Unfortunately I wasn’t there…but from the word around it was quite a success. (http://isb.edu/campussbuzz1/Ikshaa_Summit2006.html)

And then…EDS had come to campus to recruit for their dallas office…strategy roles. They were in India for the 1st time…and lo behold…as per sources (so don’t quote me on this…!) they have taken 12 students. All of them for Dallas on 100K+ packages..! P is one of them…so the joke now is…daddy goes dallas…! (


Life is good…exciting…and a lot hopeful…!

~a

Some snaps of the ISB campus…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/warikoo/sets/1751540/


Some snaps from my TAPMI visit…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/warikoo/sets/1751570/


enjoy…

~a

The year started well…

Had an awesome party on the 31st at ISB itself. Lots of people turned up…and the atmosphere was really nice. Don’t know why…it felt that we hadn’t had such a party for a long time now…wherein so many people just came together…and talked…and drank…and had a great time…!

The 1st was very chilled. Had an assignment to complete…which I started working on in the evening. During the day I was just generally…hanging out…! :) it was a pretty nice feeling…you know…you start the year…so much of hope…and prayers…and what have yous…and then on the 1st…you have nothing to do. So you go about wishing happy new year to some 345 odd souls…and gathering the same…! Its kind of a very simple…feeling…! (to be frank…I suck at explaining what it actually was…!)

Then in the evening…the boys gathered for a pizza dinner. The delhi boys (P, A and me) had our fighting scene with the Mumbai dumbasses…(A and G)…! In the end they accepted that delhi university is so much cooler…in every respect…than Mumbai univ. we had so much more fun back in college…which they cant even imagine…and not to mention the fact that I found R there…! Man…I miss those days…!

And then P and I had the quintessential Hindu-Hansraj fight…! I mean cmon dude…the Hindu cut-off is still higher (in all courses) than Hansraj’s…so what are you comparing. And yeah…about the fact that Hindu doesn’t have an attendance issue…and profs don’t come to teach etc…well…all I can say…is that Hindu is a pure democracy! :) you want to study…the profs will come…! Else they would anyday prefer to sit under the sun…and sip tea…!

Don’t have too many exams. Infact I got over the only one I had…today. and I have been watching movies for the past 3 days…everynight. Started with ‘Good Will Hunting’…then ‘Jerry Macquire’…and today ‘Traffic’. Really want to watch ‘Requim for a dream’…but cant seem to find it anywhere. Infact…while conversing with Ms. R yesterday I realized that I don’t tend to like those normal movies. The ones I truly liked…were the concept ones…’Pi’…’Eternal sunshine…’…Contact’…’titanic…!!!!’…she suggested this movie ‘changing lanes’…will try to watch it sometime…

Have to get done with the FENG assignment by tom…and then finish the ELP by day after. And then 3 days of awesome bird watching…! Yeah…am attending a fashion show…being organized at the Taj Krishna…!

Nahhh…! Am leaving for the bharatpur bird sanctuary…for 3 days. Should be an awesome experience…am so kicked about it…! tremendous clicking opportunities. And oh…my TAPMI snaps came out as well. the beach is surely a good place…! The snaps came out pretty well…! Have attached them…

Looking forward to a fruitful year ahead…lots of expectations…! and fears too…

Life’s good…

~a

Addition:

1. Just for clarification sake…the dumbasses that i have mentioned earlier…are yes…from mumbai. but they are one of the smartest people i have met..and i took the liberty of calling them dumbasses…just cause they are my friends..! naturally..this doesnt apply to all mumbaikars…(ahme…MG…!!!)

2. MG…i think you would be better off treating patients…than replying to my stupid comments…!

99 days left for graduation. I was just discussing with G…as to how life will be after ISB. She is mighty kicked at the prospects of leaving this place in the next 3 months…! :)

As for me…its still an undecided thought. At times I feel very attached to the place…the people…even my room. And it feels sad to think of the day when my room shall be empty…with my bags all packed up…waiting for the new occupant. And then there are times when the future excites me to no end. I want to see what life will be like…after ISB. I want to start working…and contributing…! I want to travel…and click…do so much…

And I know…very soon I shall be blogging with just a day to go. And I don’t quite know the feelings that shall be within me…

Anyways…

So…I am in love. And this time its for real. Last night I spent 4 hours with ‘her’…and the feeling is something I cant express. I love every part of her…every sound of her. I can feel her…though cant touch her…! I am seriously in love…

The new song by strings… “Yeh hai meri kahaani”…from the movie Zinda.

Breathtaking delivery…awesome composition…powerful lyrics…wonderful rendition by strings. I am so totally in love…! The song hasn’t stopped playing on my computer since yest…repeatedly…

…Yeh hai meri kahaani
Tanhai ki zubaani
Har zakhm khil raha hai
Kuch mujhse keh raha hai…

…chubte kaante yaadon ke
Daman se…chuntaa hoon
Girti deewaron ke
Aanchanl mein
Zinda hoon…

In awe…!


Term 6 ended…and it was an awesome term…in terms of the course contents and the profs. I just have 1 exam…and 2 take-homes…which should not take more than 2 days to get done with. So am targeting the next 2 days for that…following which I have to wind up my ELP…and then prepare for the exam as well. Next week shall be placement prep at full bloom…!

And oh btw…I got my 1st new year DJ assignment…! I shall be ushering in the New Year at ISB with my music…on the 31st party…! And yes…thanks for your concern…I have purchased a head gear…I shall be wearing enough clothes to protect myself from mini bombs…and as the final precautionary measure I shall carry a AK-47 for my protection…!

Sorry guys…no other choice…! :)

~a