I, The Absolute

• The elective courses start with a bang. All day today I sampled courses to pick a couple of them. I finally decide on Rural Marketing taught by Harish Bijoor, a practitioner, and Innovation Management by local asst. prof. Harish was good. The local asst. prof. was okay. Figuring out which subjects to master in is not as easy and intuitive as it might seem. Thanks to quite liberal policies, we have the opportunity to sample the classes, drop some if we didn’t like, pick some if we liked them. This term I have picked up courses which are light and not quant heavy. For one quant oriented course, I will have the benefit of being in company of some IITians and one stats grad. I am taking five courses and there is a lot of reading and assignments to do. Taking five courses in fifth and sixth terms will make life easy during 7th term and will leave me with time to do some trips to Mumbai to meet some senior bankers there and also prepare for the campus placement interviews.

• Before people start suspecting the efficacy of the placement process at ISB and on why I keep looking out for networking and job opportunities myself, it is only to be well prepared rather than regret later not having done homework. No b-school promises placement. Definitely, not one that one will necessarily like. All placement efforts are on best effort basis. Some people feel the regret that they did not get the job they wanted and blame everyone including the school. It is important to be honest to self. The school never promised a job. The school never asked us not to make efforts to network and look out for ourselves (subject to some decorum). My simple rule is, I may get placed out of campus recruitment, but I will keep that option with me and not leave it to others. So, the point is people who plan to come here, please keep your network outside the school vibrant. All guys at b-school are jobless and networking at b-school will not get jobs.

PS: Placements at ISB have offered some of the best jobs for candidates. Some people have come with INR 4-5 lac salary and gone back with USD 150k salaries. Most of the people have increased their salaries and positions. In writing what i wrote above, i am not trying to be a cassandra. My view is that doing homework, particularly when one is more experienced and looking at getting placed laterally at senior level, does not hurt.