an MBA story

An MBA finishes but an MBA does not

2008-07-21T04:14:00.001+08:00

OK…so finally my MBA (the degree) came to an end. I completed four semesters of some fun, some hard work and lots of learning, which was always meant to be an overall great experience and I am damn sure I came out as a better person. Although, 3 specific events that made it all the more memorable are;

I got to know such amazing people during my MBA, especially the wonderful friends I got here (although they are not wonderful because they are my friends, but probably they are my friends because they are…as I said wonderful). It would not be statistically correct if I say that all I learnt during MBA was all because of my friends; though I wish to say so; still in the process of making friends, one definitely meets people who are not or cannot be your friends and learn great deal. This learning helps when you enter the big scary corporate world, where you meet more sharks, foxes and lizards who are there either to destroy you, or tackle you or in other cases piggy back you to success. Those are exactly the same experiences you have in a business school, with the kind of competitiveness it brings out in you. Still, in spite of all the oddities, one always finds some like minded people who are there to share you ambitions and excitement, rather than stab you in the back on the slightest chance of your succeeding better than them.

I fulfilled my dream of getting the exciting job, in fact one of the most coveted at that time amongst all business school students and aspirants. I am writing at that time because it was one of the most rewarding jobs in the market and as finance students we’ve learnt the lewd relationship between risk and reward. I did learn my theories well knowing it well; I accepted the risk full-heartedly in lieu of earning that handsome reward “at that time”. Not focusing so much on the R-R kinship, let me talk more about the dream that came true.
Actually it was not just my dream; it was a dream of a lot of people who wished well for me, who had thought of me achieving great pride for them and who were standing besides me holding my hand through times; best or worse. I owe it to all those people, not just because they thought I can achieve it, but because they had full faith, sometimes even more than what I had on myself. I wanted to do it for them, if for nothing else. I wanted to make them feel proud and keeping their faith strong, although no failure of mine has ever been able to shatter their belief in me.

The third thing that happened during my MBA was more of a personal one. As spoken about earlier in my blog that I got a new life after drowning in my condo’s swimming pool, this was another such events which change you, your thoughts, your priorities, your wishes in life. These events leave you hurt and down, but now I’d like to think that these should make you stronger and I can just hope to become a little stronger with time.

Anyways, the point I wanted to make with this post was that I had a wonderful 2 years in NUS Business School and met some wonderful people including the friends I made. I would specially like to mention and thank Keerthi, Lek and Vamsi who were my partner in crime (all group or non-group projects and school-work). I am not mentioning more names just because I do not want to bore the people reading this with a 3 page long blog, but I wish each and every one of them a great rocking life. In fact, I just saw Rock On and thought maybe later in our life, we would be able to team-up again and do something more creative and off-beat.

So an MBA story comes to an end, but the story of an MBA continues from here…

Internship unlimited…

2007-07-13T06:56:00.000+08:00

As I told I am interning with the world’s best Investment Bank (at least that’s what JPMorgan prefers to be called) where “first class business is done in a first class way”, my experience so far has been wonderful. While working in there Derivative Analytics Groups for Asian Rates market, I know, I know that’s a lot of buzz words, but can’t avoid it in a world where even a simple “Hi” becomes “hihi”, I learnt more about finance and real market than I could do in all my Fin classes back in school. This again buttressed my belief that on-the-job knowledge is the best.

Again my MS Office knowledge combined with my logical thinking ability helped me out in the office where my mind was busy learning all those buzzwords, slang and other lingo used in I-banking world. We were closely working with Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai market and to my good fortune, I got to handle a new pilot project for London office which gained me a lot of repo in my group and a lot of good words from people in London. With which I think I’ve nailed the casket and would definitely be offered to come back after my MBA.

JPMorgan is definitely a great firm to work with. My interactions with people here have been great and I learnt a lot from each and every individual I worked with. My group mates, most of who are non-MBA statisticians from ISI-Calcutta and others have a great knack for Finance and analytics. Number churning is something that I learnt from them greatly and the other most important thing I learnt was an eye for information and detail and I think these are going to help me greatly in the log run. As the end is coming closer, I reminisce my days here and think that they will always remain in my memory as another short school.

Ah-shook the intern :D

2007-06-02T16:23:00.000+08:00

After all my efforts with numerous applications, mails and calls to different people, I was able to get what I want. I became an intern with the legendary JP Morgan investment bank in their derivative analytics group and felt elated as my hard work paid off. I felt like the famous chaacter from Dilbert, ASOK THE INTERN (pronounced Ah-shook), and was ready to work my @$$ off to prove that I can do finance :) JP Morgan is a great company which was started in 1800's and merged with Chase Bank in 2001 to form JP Morgan Chase, one of the biggest financial institutions of the world. JPMC has a long history to be proud of and I hope I will be able to add to that pride somehow, someday ;)

Term two ends too...

2007-06-02T15:58:00.000+08:00

If term one was a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs and tonnes of confusions about deciding my career goal and path to take to reach my final destination, term two came out to be a little more focused and much more tensed. Focused, because I knew what to expect from NUS Business School and what I want to do after I graduate (the confusion was much less after I decided to go with numbers, my first love and on that too in finance coz that earns good money...my another love :P), and tensed because I need to get a good internship in a great financial company to prove my worth ( its really tuf for an IT guy to get into finance with no prior exp in that, but I must say its not impossible if u really want to do it).

So, in this sem, studies were more focused, efforts were much focused, attending talk were much focused ( used to attend every talk last sem) and in end applying to companies for internship was much focused. Our subjects (specially strategy and economics) were superb and gave us a better perspective about management and world economics. We also played an online Strategy Game where our group ran a company and that was the thrill of the week. Every week was a quarter for us and to see those P/L and Balance Sheets on Sunday night was such a thrill for all of us, I could just imagine how those big shots might feel when they see the figures of there real companies. In the end, our group was declared the winner of that game and nothing could have been better... it was a real joy and I felt like I am Dhirubhai Ambani and just beat Godrej in clothes business :D

We also did a project on NUS MBA Career Service Office where we tried to analyze their shortcomings and in a survey we found that they were just too many to count. We sent our recommendation to the Acad. Director, Vice-Dean and Dean and we hope that our work will bear fruits for us and we will be able to contribute positively for our pride...NUS Business School. As CSO had a lot of problems, I was also having problems finding a suitable internship (which I really wanted to do and not just anything anywhere which I was doing OREDI:P ), and just kept praying to god that my prayer (applications) to Gods (companies) will find an answer someday. In this hope, I finished the second sem also finished and on reflecting back I felt that I done well in all the fields and should expect a good result :)

End of Term-One

2007-01-11T21:14:00.000+08:00

So somehow I managed to finish term-one. The last few days were quite hectic with never ending presentations and always due project reports. Then there were exams and submissions and exams and they continued until we were exhausted. It was quite a good experience as it equipped me with some of the basic and utmost important skills and most importantly, changed my attitude a little about management and now I was looking at my stunt in NUS MBA as more of a holistic experience. Somehow, somewhere deep inside I had started feeling like a manager but the way to become a great leader was still way long.

As others were planning for a month long vacation after exam, I dint have respite their as well as I had accepted to do a winter internship at Wealth Management firm AXA. My experience their was quite enriching as my boss and colleagues were more than wonderful. I had quality learning time and enjoyed as well with the Christmas and New Year parties thrown by company or as a joint effort of my team. Soon I developed good relations with everybody and was later offered a part time position to continue with even after my classes start.

In between came my term result where I scored fairly good, I guess my best grade after I passed 12th std. in my school. I got 4.6 out of 5 and which placed me among the top quartile of my MBA. There I learnt a thing that regarding studies, my experience is always better with schools. I used to excel in my school in every field but when I went to engineering college, my grades sucked. Now again I am back to business school where I am again back on track. So I hope and pray to God that this relationship will fetch me good grades if nothing else :P

CYA in next term........hfff...3 more terms to go :|

Me...Re BORN :)

2007-01-09T01:50:00.000+08:00

It was a fine Sunday noon in Singapore, when everybody else like me was lazing around to get themselves ready for the hectic week. My classes were also going to start the next day, so I kind of got enthusiastic and pulled all of friends for a tour to our condo swimming pool. It was like everyday, we were splashing and playing in water and since, I was still an amateur at swimming, and I was trying to hone my skills at the same time.

Sometime then, I don’t know why I tried to cross the pool from the longer and deeper side. Although I had done it a few times before, I lost my way (thanks to my swimming style in which I can't still keep my face out of water). Due to this, I was in a quandary, where I was sure to not reach the other side and could not go back enuf to keep me in shallow water. I tried but failed and finally I tried to pull up my hand and attract others attention towards me. Soon enuf I lost my consciousness and regained it only when somebody was trying to wake me up...but for this time, it was not a dream and I was in the ambulance.

Later when I got was able to sit and chat my friends told me that during my struggle, I bumped into the bottom of pool, which made a bump on my forehead and thus fainted. My friends were also not good swimmers but still they tried against all odds and somehow pulled me out of the pool. When they saw my body, they lost all hopes of getting me back, but yet they somehow called an ambulance and finally I was saved. Somebody also said that had they been 15 secs late in getting me out of the pool, there was very less chance of saving me. They say that its Almighty's grace that I'm still alive and must have done something good in my last birth which saved me.

But I realized that rather than last, I did some good things in this birth and made such good friends who instead of worrying about their own life, jumped into the pool to save me. Some of them were as amateur as I was and could have drowned them in the process, but still it was their effort that saved me. I thank God for giving me those friends and I just pray to have them for my life (although I got a nice daant for my mischief after it...but jab kaam hi aise hon to koi kya kar sakta hai ;). After the incident, I promised to them and myself to be a little careful.

Spice up your life : Chilly Chocolate combo :)

2006-10-16T23:14:00.000+08:00


Its a part of our marketing presentation in school which is about spicy chocolates made by CowGirl Chocolates. For more information about these chocolates, visit www.cowgirlchocolates.com Have fun watching the video :)

A tribute...to NanaJi

2006-09-27T00:16:00.000+08:00

Once upon a time there lived a great man. His greatness was not linked to his name or his fame. He was not even great because he did something great for the society. Most of you would not even know him if I won't tell you about him. But his story needs to be told. I would rather say his struggle needs to be told. Yes, he was a struggler, a struggler who struggled for whole of his life.

He was eldest son of a very small farmer born in a very ordinary village in very remote India. He helped his father in his daily work and used to study sidewise. He was a brilliant student and his teachers knew it very well. To his misfortune, his village had only primary school after which one needed to go to nearby town for study. His father, being poor and illiterate was averse to sending his son and would not agree even to his teacher's request. But the boy wanted to study at any cost and so he flew away from home. He went to a city where his struggle began. He lived the kind of life which we only get to see in movies. In daytime he used to work in factories and studied in the night. At the age when we played cricket and ate chocolates, he lived the life of a mill-worker, somehow trying to make ends meet. He tried quite hard and passed 8th standard with satisfactory marks. Somehow he was able to secure a job of a crafts-teacher in a govt. school and life became a little steady. But his struggle did not end. He continued his study and brought his younger brothers and sisters from village, educated them and enabled them to stand for themselves. Throughout the period, he was the sole source of income for the family. In the meantime he got married and his family again expanded. He never desired luxury for himself but he tried everything possible to make his children well educated and self-dependant.

He remained a simple teacher throughout his life and changed the life of many poor students who came to him and learnt the art of succeeding by working hard. So many people came in contact with this person, and his simplicity and humilty earned him respect from everyone. His life was a struggle, the struggle of a poor Indian villager who tried to be different. He was the most humble and straightforward person I have ever met and I am very proud to say that he was the father of the lady who gave birth to me. He is my hero, my idol, my God who taught me how to live life. He is my inspiration and today with wet eyes I pay my respects for the great soul who departed from this world a few days back leaving an undying remark. He might not be an important person to anybody else but his character and his life will always remain my guiding spirit.

and finally the school...

2006-08-03T21:11:00.000+08:00

And yeah, finally when I reached the school, the famed NUS Business School, it swept me over with awe. NUS is certainly one of the best universities in the world and it definitely shows. Business School is one of its jewels and is regularly upgrading itself to be in the top-ranks of business world. The dynamism, the pace and the attitude to do anything were the most important things that I liked about my school.

NUS has state of the art infrastructure, brilliant faculty and excellent policies, which motivate to nothing but learn, practice and implement and I made this my 3 point agenda for business education. After a long time, I was really enjoying what I was doing and that added up to my enthusiasm to excel. Although some part of it bored me, but the case studies, project presentations and swarming reports that we prepared with zeal, perked me up and kept me running.

During the first sem, we also enjoyed a lot with different events like Fresher's Welcome Party, International Day, Diwali Night and other networking nights. Apart from those we also attended a lot of corporate presentations where we tried to find out the best employer for ourselves. Overall, the learning was tremendous and it was all going well when we were struck with the D-word, the exams.

The Anticipation

2006-08-02T15:10:00.001+08:00

Within the waiting time, I got lucky and got a chance to go to the fabulous city of New York which I have described in my blog NYC Travelogue. Actually it was quite a respite since I had something better to think about that meditating over and over my decision about MBA and my financial planning for that. I took almost a month’s leave before my course was supposed to begin and visited many friends and family members in that time. I attended marriage of friends in that time and basically enjoyed a lot before it got too late to remember what enjoyment means.

For a large chunk of that time I was at my home just relaxing, eating and surfing the net as I didn’t have anything better to do. Everybody around me was excited with the notion that I am going for study in a foreign country and will be onto something real big after that. I too had big dreams and was planning for the same in that idle time. I was happy to quit coding which I hated before and now think was not a bad option if it earns you decent salary and makes you visit wonderful places like Bahamas, Barbados and New York. Now I was jobless and the thought of not getting salary in my bank account at the end of month anymore was scaring me. I was soon going to become a poor student but the problem was I was not able to cut down on spending no matter how hard I tried. I just let it go with the thought that it will also go with time.

Actually as the time was approaching for me to approach my destination, all my confidence of getting something better from a management degree was evaporating. I was forgetting the teachings of “Thinking Big” and was many times awaken with the dreams from “Snapshots from the Hell”.

Before leaving India I was trying to enjoy every moment and do all my favorite things because I didn’t know when I am going to get opportunity to that again in my life. With all these thoughts, plans and premonitions, I set-off for Singapore to discover myself and to discover new ways to discover myself. When the flight took of from the Delhi airport, a distinct fear crept in and it was nothing new. The fear was “Whether I have made the right decision”. I knew I have taken a big risk and prayed to God to guide me through the tough times if there are any coming my way. In the end before dozing off in the dimmed lights of the plane I thought…” If you can’t take risk, you can’t make it big”. But was that another consolation….or….

The Preparations

2006-08-02T15:10:00.000+08:00

After struggling through my decision of studying practical sciences and comparing all pros and cons of doing an MBA, the toughest part was to select the right school for it. Believe me it is tougher than finding the right girl/boy for you. Anyways, considering all the ifs and buts, I applied to a couple of schools and got into NUS-Business School. It is one of the nicest schools in Asia and one of the cheapest in the world and is very well reputed.

The main problem(if I call it one) with my admission was that I got an offer at least 6 months before the start of the session and after that there was such a huge gap that time was hard to pass. And when you have so much time to kill, your mind becomes so hyper-active that you get tense over petty things which would never have come to your occupied mind. There was a huge anticipation in the mind which happens with every new venture in your life but when you are just about to kick your almost settled working life to spend all savings, get a loan, spend that too, loose 2 years of your salary and all of that for a chance to get entry into the so called MBA club, it hits you like you have just come out of a nice boozing party and the hangover is pounding hammers in your head. In that situation you are bound to think that why in the hell did I have to drink that much. The same feeling was in my heart but the only (or the biggest) difference here was that my hangover was not going to get over soon and was going to haunt me for life.

But then I consoled myself that this was my choice and I will do what I always wanted to do. At that point of time I didn’t know that this consolation is also not going to last long and all my dreams about doing the right thing, getting into right field, finding the right job are going to hit me back to back like continuous Tequila shots hits your mind and you get floored. I cudn’t quite understood at that time that I too was going to get floored pretty soon.

The Prologue

2006-08-02T15:08:00.000+08:00

"Why do I want to do MBA"

I have asked myself this question many times and no matter how much I think about it, how much I introspect myself, I could not find a definitive answer. But then I think that so was the case with many of my old decisions and is the case with many other MBA aspirants who are lured to MBA world with high salaries, niche job profiles, big companies, fabulous perks and a pride to your family and people connected to you. My case was also almost same and a few or more of the above things got me enticed to the MBA world.

But was I always interested in management, and my heart shouts....NO. In my childhood I always wanted to become a Cricketer but that was no suitable career option or rather no option for my family :(. Nobody listened to me when I cried many times to join a cricket academy. After realizing that I surely can't run away from home to pursue my interest, I decided to do more sensible things (at least according to my family) and decided to study social sciences (especially economics) and wanted to study the same after intermediate. But again my family's interests made me major in Mathematics during school. Though initially I hated it just because it was forced on me but later I realized the beauty of the subject and went on to become an engineering graduate from a renowned institute of India. The four years which I spent in IT-BHU were some of the most fun and enjoyable days of my life and friends I made there are the best buddies in this world.

But even after 4 years of engineering and 3 years of job in IT, one small fire deep in my heart refused to die down (though my mind could never find a suitable fuel for that and always tried to ration it out). This fire was of doing something different, something unique, something I can be proud of. Nothing that I was doing till then was that outstanding (no matter how outstandingly I did my job) to make that fire feel quenched. My old penchant for practical sciences (as I call management) made me go out to search for a better avenue and try out doing what I wanted to do. I still have a long way to go before I find out whether it was the right decision or not, but still one needs to try and that's what I did :)