Application Strategy - the big picture..

I know this is too early for Fall 2009 cycle. But I want to be prepared well in advance. I feel really good about the decision I took to postpone MBA by one year in October last year. I will certainly have many distinguishing factors this year.

I will be applying to 6 schools this year. 4 will be top schools.

The applications will be distributed across R1 and R2.

R1 :
3 Top schools
1 Backup school

R2:
1 Top school
1 Backup school

That's the end. I hope by this year end to get 2-3 admits and I have choice to select a school I will be attending in Fall'09.

2008 FT Rankings -- Lot of surprises

FT recently published their rankings for 2008.

ISB ranks among top 20. Its great to know from Indian perspective.But certainly hard to believe that it ranks ahead of Kellogg. IE - Spain and IESE ranks ahead of NYU-Stern.

There are lot of so so universities from UK such as Strathclyde, Cranfield ahead of Darden, Haas - Berkeley.

Check this out :
http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings

I hate Unpredictable schedules in IT Jobs...

Here in this post, I am going to write about something that most of us hate. Frankly, there is lot of uncertainty in our schedule (IT people).

Do we work from 9:00-5:00 PM ? Answer : Very rarely, Do we spend 9:00-5:00 in office ? Answer : More often. So what is the difference huh? spend time vs work. This happens when we have no work or very less work. I call this as "Allocated Bench". We are allocated to a project but still don't know how to pass the time. One reason for this could be that the project has moved to production and sometimes some work crops up other time we enjoy. Another reason could be project is continuing to exhaust the allocated budget.Anyways lets stop analyzing this and return to the point.This is one side of story.

On the other side, we have so much work that we end up spending 12 hours in the office. Most interesting point is that this comes suddenly without notice in most of the cases. Today, my manager walked to my bay and said "All the days of enjoyment are now getting over. Business wants some enhancements and we have very tight deadlines to fulfill them." Gosh !! I have heard this many times..The very first thought that comes to my mind is "If planned properly I would not have to work for 12-14 hours suddenly ..The reason for this is that "IT Services business" is more of reactive in nature than proactive. Business users wont do anything until they are in complete shit. Later they will enforce strict deadlines.
On the other hand, I have seen "IT product development" more streamlined in the approach. They have regular routines.

This uncertainty in schedule puts serious limitations on the extra-curricular activities that one can get engaged into on a regular basis. This requires strong will and commitment. No wonder , why IT guys applying to B-schools have less to show on this front. I hope somebody from Ad com reads this entry and excuses us to certain extent on extra-curricular / community service front.

Also few updates in past few days:
I recommend two books that I read in recent times - "Discover your destiny with Monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin Sharma, "Where all leaders have gone ? " by Lee Iaccoca. Currently also reading, "What Color is your parachute ?"
I have started learning Spanish and my efforts have become serious now over past week. If anybody is interested in learning Spanish, I recommend http://www.studyspanish.com

Cheers ..

Enough of procrastination..Its time to act !

Lot of time has gone already. 3 months have already passed by since I landed in US.

During the weekdays, typical lifestyle has been : wake up at 7:30 - 7:45 ,have frozen Paratha or something for breakfast , prepare lunch box, head for office @ 8:45 , lunch @ 12 :00, take a coffee break @ 4:00 , leave office at 5:30 - 6:00, reach home at 6:45, sometimes go to gym / play tennis , & then TP till 11:30 -12:00 in the night.

Weekends used to be passed in activities such as laundry, cleaning , grocery shopping and sleeping.

There are lot of distractions on the internet such as facebook , orkut , HotOrNot, online movies etc etc which used to consume lot of my time. But there was kind of no option for me. In Tampa - FL , the place where I am based, there is barely any public transport available. I knew that I have to get a car before I can start any activities outside of work. Recently I have bought one so that makes me mobile.

Now its time to limit all online time pass stuff and concentrate my time and effort to improve my profile otherwise. There are tons of things to do.

I must better get going. The activities outside work will not only help me make life more interesting but also help to make profile good for B-school and distinguish among other applicants.

Merry Christmas !!

Ho Ho Ho!!

I wish you all Merry Christmas !! & Happy New Year

I think this is the time when one should reflect on past one year to find out what milestones were set and what were actually achieved. Analyze the gaps and come stronger next year.

Also, this is the time to set new year resolutions. I wish all of my blog readers "All the best" to set up creative new year resolutions and achieve them subsequently.

Most of the people who have applied this year in R1 have got interview calls by now and some have completed interviewing as well. All the best for the final admits.

Back to square one

I am returning to the blogging world after a long time. This year I will be out of MBA applications scene. I will only witness the admits / dings received by people on this blogging community. So this is the time for introspection (Analyze the goals), read & research more. If possible visit schools build more contacts & work on extras to improve the profile.

Citigroup has been recently in news because of several reasons. Chuck Price, CEO of Citigroup , resigned after huge losses in the subprime market. Citigroup lost close $50 billion in market capitalization. Now suddenly, the focus is on expense management and cost cutting. Citi has development center in Singapore and this lies inside the corporate firewall. Many jobs are likely to move to singapore / offshore in India. So most likely several job cuts are likely and lot of contracts were not renewed. But fortunately, my contract is renewed till June,30 2008.

Since, I am working here on H1B. The option of part time/ weekend MBA has also opened for me. This has now forced me to think on my "Why MBA" stuff one more time.
Can I accomplish my objectives with part time MBA ?
Can I get my MBA sponsored from my employer ?

I can see that R1 results have started coming out. I wish all the best to my friends on blogging community who applied in R1.

I will return shortly with some more stuff...

One step ahead..

I'm writing this post after a long time. Last week of September went in getting myself ready for travel. Then on 02-Oct-07, I traveled to Tampa, Florida, US.

I'm still not done with many formalities, but on my way to completing those.
This week I joined "Citibank Center" here in Tampa ,FL.

Regarding my applications, I have requested for Transcripts.
Still thinking over whether to postpone by 1 year or go with applications this year in R2. I will not be able to make it in Round 1.

Lets see how it goes !!