Author: Tony Xavier
My MBA Journey: IIM-Udaipur
Give the number of queries I am getting about the new and the baby IIMs, I thought the best way to shed a bit more light on them is to get my students who have gone there to write about their experience. This one is by Siddharth, who is not a student, but was part of the IMS Team in Kochi. So I met him whenever I went down there to take a session, which was usually once a year. Siddharth graduated from IIM-U this year and this is his take about the same. Some of the parts were new to me as well, especially the part about why he chose IIM-U — I think knowing why you want something, being clear about it, and not trying to invent ten other reasons apart from the sole reason is not a common trait. So here are his two cents on this experience at IIM-U. MBA was a kind of an escape plan for me back in 2017. But it turned out to be the best decision …
Is an MBA in the time of pandemic worth it?
I know this has been a while coming but to me it made sense get a complete hang of the how the crisis is going to unfold and its implications before venturing an opinion. By now I have received enough and more queries to know what the major & minor concerns and the main decision-making conundrums are. So, let’s jump right in. Placements — It is all about the economy! The first and immediate concern is the summer placements — they usually happen right at the end of the first trimester will that be happening, will they be delayed, or will they not happen at all. Well, they might be delayed a bit for since the start itself has been delayed and whether the quality will suffer or not depends completely on the economy. From all the sources the news in the short-term is not looking good at all. The period from now till mid or late next year is going to be a pretty rough ride. Internationally, another financial sector crisis like the sub-prime …
The New & Baby IIMs?
It is that time of the year where I keep getting queries around X versus Y versus Z and there are two extremes between which most queries fall I want to give another shot at A-B-C despite having L, XL I am confused between new & baby IIMs and NMIMS/SIBM The hunger for an IIM depicted at both the extreme ends. The first one is a psychological problem for many and a real problem only for a few (if you want to me to write about why A-B-C or nothing is not a great idea at all, then let me know through the comments, and I’ll do a post on the same). The second one is at the other end where the visions of a tag blur every other sense of reality. In this post, I’ll try to go through criteria that you should use while taking a call involving admits from the new and the baby IIMs and other premier schools. But before that a bit of context on two ingredients necessary for a …
My 2 cents from a lifetime experience called MBA
Over the past few years of mentoring there are always students who keep in touch even after they graduate from b-school. Some to express gratitude once they get their final placement, some to sort out their post MBA dilemmas and others just to have a nice chat about everything under the sun :-). Likewise this year a student of mine wrote to me, just after a graduated, saying that he felt investing in an MBA was the best thing he did and over the course of a few mails I asked him to do a guest post about his MBA experience. Given that a lot of aspirants who made it to b-schools will be debating the pros and cons, thinking about the cost involved whether it is worth it, the better schools you missed out on and stuff, this post is timely. Two years back I remember this student also being in the same dilemma. He was wondering whether it was really worth leaving his job at Ford to do an MBA. I felt he should …
DI-LR: Improving your core strength
DI-LR, as we know, has been the nemesis of many a CAT aspirant over the past few years, and every serious aspirant asks me that — how do I improve my DI-LR skills. Over the last two years, I thought that it is primarily about two things — set selection and comfort with mathematical reasoning (many sets over the last few years have been based on Arithmetic and Modern Math concepts). But even so, I knew that to select the right sets and then solve 4 sets, one needs to solve the two easiest sets quite fast, and this pace would come from the regular practice of DI-LR sets (irrespective of difficulty level) and Sudoku. Even then I still felt that a lot was left to the “natural” capability of the student. There was nothing concrete I could communicate (apart from a 5-minute average for Medium Sudoku sets) like say a particular reading speed or a particular set of concepts.
IIMs versus FMS, XL, MDI and other top schools
Now that the first round results of almost all the b-schools are out, we get regular queries about which b-schools to join. There is rarely any confusion about A, B, and C but after that, it seems as if aspirants are having a lot of trouble choosing between the IIMs L, I and K and other top b-schools such as FMS, XLRI, MDI, and others. How does one go about making the right choice between the IIMs and other top schools? One of the terms thrown around a lot these days is ROI.
Webinar: All About Specializations – I
How to choose between an HR program and a regular MBA
I think I have said this in another post — India is probably the only country where people will be willing to shell out more than 20 lakhs for a product and at the same time be willing to accept whatever variant the seller decides to give them. What am I referring to here? When I ask students who have both BM and HR calls from XLRI, what their preference is, or what they would prefer between XL-HR/TISS and IIM-K/MDI, most are very clear — the specialization does not matter, all that matters is the brand; others start bringing ROI into the picture. I feel people put in more thought when choosing between a diesel and a petrol car! We are so crazy after elite institutions that we fail to even consider whether we will succeed/fail in or like/dislike a particular field. The objective of this post will be to give you enough information to choose the right program when faced with a choice between a premier HR program and other programs.
How to prepare for a CAT retake – Part III
In the previous two posts, we discussed the mindset and the tools that you would need for a successful retake. In this post, we will take a look at the specific things you need to do for each section and area.
The CAT Writer 