Our initiative revolves around chronicling the B-school days (General Life, Placement Realities et al) by recent grads to help out aspirants and incoming students.
Thanks to the favorable response this idea got, here we are, with a new group and initiative driven by the recent B-school grads and current students to help out aspirants and incoming students with how the actual B-school life looks like from various perspectives. So, let it flow now fellas!
To committee or to not commitee- that is the question
So I'll kick off this group by adressing one of the basic thoughts in everyone's mind on day 1- do I join a campus committee ?
(Please note this is based on XLRI + IIM A perspective since thats where I have most family members and friends from, hence it might vary slightly in other colleges but the overall sentiment remains the same)
In the first 2 weeks all the newbies will be bombarded with flashy PPTs, fancy entrances during GBMs (General Body meetings) of various committees and (indirectly) wooed by most of them. But is it worth it for you ?
Depends upon you and what you hope to achieve out of it.
The way I see it is join a committee only for one of more of the following reasons-
1) You dont want to be invisible/want to socialise /want to make friends
2) You will be able to balance the insane first year workload with the committee's requirements, work, meetings etc
3) You have a pretty barebones CV and this will add 2-4 lines to it and buff it out
4) You genuinely are interested in the work the commmittee does
Please note depending upon the commitee your days and nights can be insanely packed during first year. So make sure you have an idea of how much the committee will take out of you and if you will be able to manage with less sleep (most commitee keep meetings at night to avoid clashing with other things and ensure everyone can attend).
And lets not forget the big , bad wolf- THE PLACECOMM
*dun dun dunnnnn*
Also known by other pleasent names such as TFC (The f***ing committee), the 12 b*****s , demi-gods,angry young men, the devils et al. Charming eh ?
Getting into placecomm is no simple task. Their selection process is BRUTAL af, rivalled only by the Sports committee, designed to take in only people with 0 shame and skin thick enough to rival a rhinocerous.
Ofcourse it is well known that getting into Placecomm means you will, most probably, get the plum roles offered on campus , be wooed by all students (even if on the inside they hate your guts) and have some modicum of power that you can wield (during company presentations with the fines and DISCOS).
But on the flip side it will lead a shitty CGPA. Period. You will have to attend meetings that START at 12 midnight and go on till morning, almost throughout the year. You will fall asleep in all classes, probably miss most of them due to exhaustion, be ineligible for other committees as well as semester abroad and be HATED by most of the batch with a vengeance (though this wont be told to your face). Though to curry your favour some toppers will share their excellent notes with you as well.
Of course I saw exceptions in my batch - The placecommer who had a CGPA aof 6.5 or the placecommer who charmed most of the batch into liking him/her , but these are exceptions.
People think of trying for Placecomm in order to ensure a good job for themselves but please note is a HUGE resposibility. You will be responsible for ensuring your batchmates get placed. And this involves and lot of crying, begging and pleading with HR/college alumni in organisations day in and day out. Not to mention you WILL develop permanent dark circles and your sleep cycle will be destroyed as well as your physical health ( though that might be partly due to the NUMEROUS daru parties the placecomm has using the 'fines' collected).
So make sure you are cut out for it before go for it.
Otherwise stick to the subject specialisation committees (which can atleast indicate an interest in that sphere topotential recruiters when they see your CV)/ support commitees, organise an event or two, get your position of responsibility part sorted and live a peaceful life.
P.S. Also I would like to mention a benefit of joining a committee as mentioned by @Red_Dragon546 -
"In retrospect, I feel it taught me a lot about working in teams, getting work done from people, managing time, finances, last minute screw-ups and what not! I don't remember the events I organized but definitely learnt some essential life skills along the way "
So there will be certain aspects of soft skills that will see an improvement when you join a a commitee and participate in their activities whole-heartedly.
P.P.S. Personally I wanted to go only into sportscomm. Didnt get selected. So didnt join any committee. Though I did co-found a new committee in my second year and its become, slightly, worthy of bragging :P
P.P.P.S. Oh and during my summers I was being interviewed by a major FMCG where the interviewer asked me- "I see you didnt join any committtee. Why is that ?"
Me: "Ma'am I feel commitees are useful only if you like to party, sleep late in the night or add CV points. As you can see I don't need more CV points, I dont like to drink and I prefer sleeping on time"
I got selected 🙌
PS: I'm uploading images with the below #. They go in the place of the camera icon.
#CaseCompetition
A myriad of cases are going to come your way in the first year. Some of them are:
Tentative list of cases (Credits – Mehul Kothari)
📷
Q1. What is the gold standard(legendary) of case cracking? (one must know this before they proceed)
In IIM K, there was a legendary placecommer 4 years ago. He had 7 nationals & 4 campuses. This is a very good tally. And can be aimed for. To be the absolute best.
Q2. What sets me apart without being legendary?
2+ National wins and your CV will be a cut above the rest. A few campus wins is also good. But by the end of 2nd year, it wont matter as much. (60-70 people would also sport the same on their CV)
Q3. How do I choose my cases?
You will not have time to do all the cases and do justice to them. If you want to win. Choose one and slaughter the case. Give yourself ample time to rest between consecutive cases as a good case solution will drain you out. The two main parameters are:
Value of case : This has individual interpretations. But the parameters of gauging this can be :
1. Does this give me a PPI?
2. Does this give me a PPO? (I got a PPO directly without a PPI based on my solution)
3. Does this give me money? (This is not important initially, but once you win a few; you’ll want some pocket money. Prizes range from 10k to 5 lac)
4. Does the company name add value? (Example: Mahindra War-room > Ninjacart Hustle)
5. Does this send me abroad for finals?
I ranked the value of case like this: PPO, PPI (Others were irrelevant)
But after winning a few my ranking is : PPI, Company name, PPO and money (PPI because I may want to not work for the company and this gives me an option to tank the interview))
Competition Level of case: My definition is limited to the campus level of competition. As in the nationals, you are better off focusing on your solution than your chances.
Unlike the common parlance, competition level is dynamic. It depends on the situation within the college.
Parameters would be:
1. Is it 1st year exclusive? (Without 2nd years in the mix, you can knock it out of the park)
2. Is there an exam or place-comm session or anything important on the final submission date? (If yes, then people are not going to participate; take a call and submit a half decent presentation and you will get a win)
3. Directly proportional to the value of the case (But you need to be on the lookout for aberrations where you can get massive payoff with less effort)
4. Does it have a campus round or a national round directly? (National round means that you are competing with everyone outside your campus)
5. No of slides – Anything higher than 7 takes considerable effort to make.
6. Skill required – Hardcore financial cases will not have many takers. Same can be said for niche cases that require you to build dashboards, do data analytics etc.
📷
How do I choose my team?
The most crucial aspect of the cases. THIS IS PARAMOUNT to winning.
The two main parameters:
1. Teamwork – How much you trust, know and gel well together. This non tangible aspect is the most important. I cannot emphasize on how important it is. If this is not there. You can kiss your case wins goodbye. This is harder to get and build than skillsets. And I see people struggling to understand what teamwork really is. Let me try to break it down.
Trust – Can I call this person at 2am in the night and ask him to make 1 slide and be sure that he will do a stellar job?
Know – When I look at a possible solution for a case, do I know and agree that this member is best suited to do this and I trust him blindly to come up with a great solution?
Teamwork – Do I genuinely believe in the abilities of my teammate?
If the answer is yes to all three, you will gel really well together if they all feel the same about you.
2. Skillset
Powerpoint master – Can churn out very good slides quickly (but others must also develop up this to reduce load)
Research master – Knows exactly which McK paper has what I’m looking for. Knows the library facilities. Knows Euromonitor and all that jazz.
Graphics/Video – As the name suggests.
These are the most basic requirements.
3. Mindset
You do not want cynics on your teams. You rather have 3 dreamers and 1 cynic than 3 cynics and 1 dreamer.
When I suggest that “maybe we should send people to Mars” as a case solution.
ou don’t want the guy who says “Pagal hai kya. Kitne constraint hai.. Paise kaise aayenge?”
You want the guy who says “Okay. Space is good but why did he say space? Can we get the same solution or HOW CAN WE DO IT CHEAPLY?”
You want people who build ideas and make solutions. Not provide roadblock
Also 1 cynic is necessary to keep the solution grounded.
📷
REMEMBER, SKILLS can be developed in a month or two. MINDSET can’t be changed.
writer credentials - 2 national, 2 international and 1 campus
#PlacementRealities
Based on talking to junta in DT 20 group, the above topic (unsurprisingly) seems to be the one most aspirants want to know about. Especially if your past mostly determines your placements or can it be changed
Quick Disclaimer: This is all based on my experiences at one school (IIMA) & being on the other side as recruiter in both shortlisting as well as running the summers process for my firm at IIMA. That said I have talked to various people across the past 8 years to get fair sense of how things are in all the Top 10 B Schools. Again mostly applies for Summers but to fair extent in Finals too
Short answer to this would be: Especially for Summers your past before B School explains 90% of your shortlists. That said what in your past matters differs for each sector so listing that down below
Finance: Honestly what matters is how good your acads/entrance exam scores/Olympiads etc are, brand of your UG college, any relevant workex along with any professional certifications like CA/CFA. Cares least about well rounded profile. If you are an anti-social dude with 999 from IITs they will happily take you. The more plum the job, the more brand of your UG college (CA Articleship firm & rank for CAs) & acads matter for shortlisting (Think Bulge Bracket IB, PE/VC, Asset Management). For Sales & Trading roles at BB Banks(All BB Banks roles in general nowadays), being Female matters a lot as they have unspoken quotas to fill them with competent females so some of the above factors can be relaxed for such females (Like in my year Mumbai University UG girl with good acads got into Barclays Singapore for Summers; For similar MU dude shortlist bhi nahi milta). Fin usually the offers are rolled out before even actual Day 0
Consulting: As the usual cliche goes, what matters for Consulting shortlisting is something called "Spikes". To translate, that just means amazing achievements in some field. If you have 3 solid spikes on your resume that usually ensures you a shortlist. Most consulting firms (Especially MBB) when they shortlist you also send you a mail listing the spikes which led them to shortlist you. The factors which matter are again acads, brand of UG college, some significant co-curricular/extracurricular achievements. They want balanced well rounded profiles with certain competence in all spheres with some great achievements on top. Examples of Spikes are Great acads, Great workex at top notch companies, Convenor of large fests like Mood Indigo, Kickass JEE rank, gluttony of scholarships, Ranji level cricket player, Miss India etc From that what I could infer is that if you have are above certain level in each segment (Say 998/888 acads, Some PoRs in UG, Decent college) 1-2 significant achievements (Medalist, Fest Convener, Top Rated Analyst at GS for 2 years etc) can get you that consulting shortlist. Obviously the scale of achievement required drops as you do down from MBB to Accenture. Consulting hotlist gets set before Day 0 with acse interviews still being taken on Day 0 (That said BCG has recently taken to giving offers before Day 0 too so expect there to be arms race here too between MBB)
Marketing: Well rounded profile with decent acads with greater emphasis on extracurriculars as well as achievements which showcase you can be in the field & get stuff done. Obviously the top notch ones (HUL,P&G) care a bit more about UG college brand & acads but across the board acads & college will be held less against you. That said to get PI shortlists you have to go through those dreaded GDs which are absolutely random & very exhausting (Good profiles would get shortlisted for 20 odd GDs on GD day meaning almost 8 AM - 10 PM they are giving GDs with most of them being fish markets. Absolute horrible experience)
On the day, usually PIs will be held mainly on HR questions (Why firm? Why Mktg? Give instance of leadership etc), Ad Analysis, Favorite brands etc
General Management: Needs good or great acads irrespective of college along with well rounded profile. TAS especially loves taking 999s from TN local colleges in Summers. Make you fill huge forms with lots of HRQs. (Placecom usually makes you prepare/write HRQs based on the questions in these guys ke forms). As one of my dorm mate who both interned & joined TAS said, these guys are 1st & foremost are evaluating if you will stick with them for 10 odd years. So college brand etc does not matter as much for them. Ulta very high achiever type profile might put them off too. That said they wont take 6.xx too unless you really organised something/showed leadership in meaningful role (Decent college ka Batch Rep or Some good fest ka convener types)
Product Management/Tech: Most egalitarian process of them all. Will give due credence to any IT/Analytics work ex. That said most people think being good technically/having technical work ex matters here. While it is certainly desirable, what they really want someone with good business sense. So if you are not IT guy but like Prod Man demonstrate good business thinking & you will get it
Say you feel now that I really want Finance but some factors might be lacking. Should you give up after reading this? Nope. There is one other variable here which can swing the shortlist your way. (The dreaded) Networking. If you are really passionate about field/role, talk to seniors who have interned at company & really demonstrate your interest to them. Many times companies do talk to these previous interns to see if they have missed out on any good candidates due to information asymmetry or CV just falling through the cracks. If you have made that interest very clear you could get recommended & have place on shortlist. Uske baad anyways its upto you to show the company you are worth it
Hope all this info helps someone. All the best everyone! :)
First Take: To be or not to be – PORs and ECs
So, my first hot take is going to revolve around clearing the air around a general query about whether a lack of PORs (Position of Responsibilities) & ECs (Extra-curriculars) are deal breakers during placements.
Now, a general CV (variants may differ across B-schools), but broadly consists of section such as Work-ex, Acads, Projects/Internships, PORs & ECs
Well, to be honest, it all depends on how you want to spin/steer your interview (yeah, it’s something you need to do to project your best attributes to the interviewer and more often than not, the interviewer wants you to do that as well). There are 2 distinct scenarios here,
1. Freshers or students with <=1 year of workex: When you have to drive an interview without the luxury of work-ex points, it becomes necessary to have talking points in other sections, such as internships (projects won’t be possible with summer placements), PORs (to show initiative that you can lead teams and adhere to timelines) and ECs (to substantiate the overall rounded profile). Now if you have 9/9/9 profile with great internships, you might be able to compensate for a lacking POR and ECs section, but for a general fresher candidate, one effective key to having a balanced and shortlist worthy profile might be with high-impact PORs and ECs.
Here, High Impact for PORs generally might mean leading a team for a prominent undergrad event, and ECs might include anything ranging from sports-related achievements to placing high in intercollegiate MUNs.
2. Candidates with >1 year of workex: You are expected to drive your interview through your work-ex and the interviewers themselves might want to know more about it as a stint of 12+ months at a firm gives you ample opportunities to work in some good projects. To be honest, candidates with workex which is mostly managerial in nature will be able to articulate points to show some impact and then build upon it for the rest of the interview, but it might be a little hard for candidates who can be classified as “individual contributor” mostly people from IT background/R&D profiles. So if you are someone who isn’t comfortable talking about your workex (which is a red flag in all frankness), you can try steering away from it by stressing more on the other aspects of your CV during the interview which means the PORs and ECs section needs to shine through for you then as you want ammunition (talking points) to keep your interview from going awry.
So, in a general scenario, a fresher will have more use of PORs/ECs in their CVs than a candidate with substantial workex and that holds true for the shortlisting process as well. At the end of the day, you need to have a CV which is filled to the brim with brevity. It might be PORs/ECs for some, Acads/ Internships for some and for some, just the solitary Workex.
Ironically, for me, the writing was already on cards when I was able to convert my call at SPJIMR (with a substantial crowd having great profiles not including the ones with stellar acads) without a single POR/EC in my profile. I remember the instance when before the interview process, I had to fill a form where you needed to fill in your top 5 achievements and I had put in N/A in that section, which bewildered the Adcom member who asked me to put in anything even dating back to something that I might’ve done in 8th standard and I still said, “I don’t have anything to put in this section even then”. Now I know, that does make kind of an outlier, but with my workex, I kinda knew that I might sail through with the type of roles I aspired to get into.
So, does that mean that, you shouldn’t get into this hullabaloo which is PORs and ECs. Now, in a B-school setting, PORs will generally comprise of miscellaneous committees/clubs, roles for flagship events and marquee committees such as Placom and others (depending on the B-school). I agree thoroughly with the points brought forth by @achyut1989, but still by all means, try and identify a committee which drives you to put in your best effort. Half-assing it just for the sake of getting a CV point might not help you (especially not in an interview). You will need to substantiate your work convincingly which in my opinion, is possible only if you put in genuine effort.
ECs is a different ballgame altogether and in a B-school setting, may comprise from participating in sports/cultural events to corporate case competitions (talked in great detail by @rishabh.archi in his post).
I think Sports/Cultural events are self-explanatory. So, let’s discuss the corporate case competitions. Now, the best thing about them is that apart from giving you an opportunity to bag a PPI/PPO, it also helps you in getting great points for interviews to talk about (case solution provided by you which is even more helpful in interview pertaining to the domain in which the case competition operated in, for example HUL Lime is a marketing case driven corporate competition, so your solution will make a good impact in a marketing role interview).
So, to sum it up, the impact of PORs/ECs vary heavily across candidates mostly on account of presence/absence of work-ex and might even border on trivial in some cases. So, in my opinion, at least for candidates with good work-ex, you can breathe easy even if you lack mightily on the PORs/EC front.
For reference, here is my CV sections pertaining to PORs and ECs at the time of finals placements.
(P.S My POR section would’ve been empty if it wasn’t for the mandatory committees that each of the student at SPJIMR is assigned to without question.)
P.P.S. This opinion is solely based upon my experiences and might vary greatly across other B-Schools. SPJIMR is weird to be honest and I guess, was the best fit for me with my lopsided CV :p)
Asking for a favor, fellow alums and current B-school students, kindly share your tips/advices in the domain you are currently working or have worked in and your experience @fisherking - Finance (VC/PE), I guess you might be the only superstar here! @achyut1989 - HR savant, baanto gyaan apna. I will take up the mantle of Ops/SCM. Marketing/Prod Man - IT/Consulting/Gen Man ke liye suggestions are welcome ( @rishabh.archi ?) If only Mayur was here as well!
The one with the Networking in it-
Any B-school aspirant worth his or her salt would have heard about 'Networking'. Its the salt upon which MBA grads thrive, as do working professionals. So whats the hulaboo about ?
I'll be touch briefly upon XLRI's model, which might be slightly different from other collegees, and then explain the reasoning behind it. And what you can do to emulate it-
At XL the first few weeks and months are designed to force interaction between senior and junior batches. Something that we call the '3-batch culture'. Meaning every batch HAS to get acquantied with their senior batch, own batch and the incoming junior batch. How is this done ? Well without revealing too many details of the secret sauce, let's just say that the average person there gets ample opportuities to get to know most of their own and senior batch within the first few weeks. Ofcourse there are the occassional rebels without a case, the hardcore introverts and the anti-socials who refuse to indulge in this and form connections but for purpose of this post am gonna ignore them.
This is needed because at the end of the day the folks you bond with in your own batch, your seniors and your juniors will be the first network that you form. And it makes sense to get to know as many of them and be on friendly terms atleast. Ofcourse you will get the chance, later on, to bond with the super seniors and working professionals during alumni meet and internships but the folks in your college will be your initial network.
Why is networking necessary ? Well the biggest purpose is for job opportunities, post your graduation. Hearing about job openings before they hit the market, being referred (which makes your chance of being selected higher) , exchanging work tips down the line that will help you succeed, the benefits are endless and, i assume, known to all and sundry.
But the benefits are there during college days as well- getting to know multiple seniors means access to notes, info about how various profs and their testing paper setting patterns, tips on how to crack competitions and help for placement (since they have already gone through it). Getting to know your own batchmates means a rich social life, study buddies, finding your partner(s) in crime (possibly even your partner for life!), finding the ideal folks to participate in competitions with.
So how do you go about it ?
For starters- be friendly from day 1. Get to know as many people as you can. Dont get into 'Mean Girls' style cliques. Dont be judgemental of ANYONE. If someone is there with you, they are smart in one way or the other, rest assured. You can learn something from just about anyone there so keep your arms , eyes and mind open.
Join committees. Fantastic place to meet people outside your section. Which kind of committee ? Doesnt matter. Join one or two. You get POR and you get to meet a cross section of people from across your batch. If I had to rank commitees on the basis on potential quality and quantity of networking you can do I would put them as -
Placecomm>=Placement support commitees>Fest organising commitees=Alumni commitees>Subject specialisation commitees>Rest of the commitees (rankings can vary slightly but they are in the same bracket)
Dont stick to one project group. Lot of people fall into the habit of sticking to one project group with their friends for the entire two years. Very childish behaviour IMHO. Sure you can claim that the output is the best with people you know well, but even working with the laziest person in the batch has its learning., you never know. Heck you might end up being surprised. Worst case you lose a few marks for that project. But stepping out of your comfort zone gives you more learnings and is more valuable in the long run in leading to personal development. Isnt that what being in B-school is about ?
Participate in fests or campus events. You meet folks from your campus as well as other campuses and can lead to some amazing friendships (unless its the XL-C sports meet :P )
Remember- in the two years whenever you have to choose between a potential night out with folks (and have a chance to form some legendary memories and friendships, in the words of a certain legendary Mr. Stinson) or the chance to sleep - take the former. You have a lifetime ahead to sleep but you get only these two years to form the basis of your network !
Request support from current B-school students (who are currently finishing up their summers) and alums on this group in the field of Marketing, IT-Prod Man, Consulting and Gen Man to share their journey and internship/work experience along with tips for incoming students/aspirants.
General Life #Relationships 1. For the guys, the senior batch will get the girls because of hypergamy. They are in a position of power. 2. For the girls, the senior guys aren't really that great. Though they will be partial to you in club selections. 3. The junior guys, find your girl quickly and be smooth about it. Don't get labelled a skirt chaser. 4. There will 3-5 stable couples by the end of your first year Maine bhi de diya gyaan
The one with the rankings-
I have been on PG for almost 6 odd years now (among people I know only @fisherking has been around longer :P) and over the last 2-3 years I have noticed people in newer/ less-known colleges (and sometimes, surprisingly, from older, well-known colleges) use different rankings to drive home 'superiority' of their own colleges.
Now while I understand that in some cases a deep-rooted insecurity forces the afore mentioned sad folks to tout the rankings, but for the average aspirant on the recieving end (especially the ones who are starting their MBA journey and have minimal info) there is no clarity on which ranking to believe and why different rankings have colleges at different ranks. So I thought that the obvious fact should be pointed that EACH RANKING HAS ITS OWN METHODOLOGY and anyone sitting and touting a particular ranking is well, stupid af !
To give an example: Let's say there is a School A that ranks its students based on how frequently they come to school, a School B that ranks its students based on how well they perform in sports and a School C that ranks its students on based on their behaviour and School D ranks its students on basis of their exams. So if the parents of School A topper start fighting/bragging with parents of School B topper, that their child is the best, isn't that stupid ?
And for those who were wondering what methodologies are used by the different rankings I tried to round up the 4 most commonly touted B-school rankings, so that YOU can decide which ranking (or which specific parameter of a ranking) is best suited to whatever it is you are seeking to gain out of a B-school:
1) NIRF Rankings-
Link to original document detailing methodology : https://nirfcdn.azureedge.net/2019/framework/Management.pdf
Link to rankings: https://www.nirfindia.org/2020/ManagementRanking.html
30% weightage -Teaching Learning & Resources. Focuses on faculty- student ratio, number of faculty with PhDs, average expenditure per student and overall student strength (meaning higher the intake the more points you get)
30% weightage- Research & Professional Practice. Focuses on the number of publications by faculty, the number of citations their publications got, and amount earned by institure from executive programs and consulting services by profs
20% weightage- Graduation Outcome. Focuses on median placement figure, number of students who went for higher studies number of students who got placed and how many students completed degre on time
10% weightage - Outreach and Inclusivity. Focuses on number of women students, SC/ST/OBC students, EWS students and facilities for PWD students
10% weightage - Perception I'll let their document do the talking-
"This is to be done through a survey conducted over a large category of Employers, Professionals from Reputed Organizations and a large category of academics to ascertain their preference for graduates of different institutions. Comprehensive list will be prepared taking into account various sectors, regions, etc. Lists to be updated periodically"
Basically a perception survey but no idea what weightages they have given to people from different sectors or regions.
2) BusinessToday Rankings-
Link to rankings: https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/indias-best-b-schools-2019/india-best-b-schools-2019-overall-ranking/story/385127.html
Link to methodology: https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/indias-best-b-schools-2018/how-we-did-it/story/290678.html (please note this link is for the 2018 ranking but it is the only detailed one I could find and gives good insight into the ranking weightages)
25% weightage to Placement Performance- The average salary, percentage of people placed etc.
15% weightage to Selection Process and Governance- Covers the difficulty of the admission process, number of people who apply there and the quality of governance of the B-school
20% weightage to future orientation of the B-school- Covers the future facing policies and preparation of B-school for dealing with expected market changes
15% weightage to the living experience of the B-school
25% weightage to the learning experience of the B-school
3) Economic Times Rankings-
Link to rankings and Methodology- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/etbschoollist.cms
Quoting directly from the website-
"The Functional Heads (for IT/HR/Finance/Marketing/Production) of companies, listed in the ET 500 list were asked to rank the Business-schools in order of their preference for recruitment, taking factors like readiness for corporate life, technical knowledge, professionalism etc., into consideration. The total of 253 responses across the 5 functional areas with 31 IT Heads, 38 Finance Heads, 97 HR Heads, 34 Production Heads and 52 Manufacturing Heads was achieved. The result is the below B-School Rankings."
4) Outlook India Ranking
I couldnt find a combined rankingfor them since they provide two articles one detailing rankings for public institutions ( https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/outlook-icare-india-MBA-rankings-2020-top-public-MBA-institutions/302200 ) and one detailing rankings for private intitutions ( https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/outlook-icare-india-MBA-rankings-2020-top-private-MBA-institutions/302201 )
But since their methodology for rankings for both types of B-schools is the same (https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/business-news-most-promising-b-schools/302211 ) you can use the total score for all colleges to making a combined ranking.
20% weightage to Faculty-Student Ratio -ratio of full time facilty to full time students
20% weightage to research - No of publications by faculty and number of citations
20%. weightage to employability - Palcement percentage and median salary
20% weightage to Faculty Quality - Faculty Quality and corporate exposure
20% weightage to Inclusivity & Diversity - Regional & Gender diversity
In conclusion:
To alumns always tooting their own horn- Please avoid overcompensating for what you lack in certain areas, by thrusting information down throats of aspirants. Present facts, always. Thrusting your own colleges down the throats of people only shows how insecure you are and does not behoove well on your alma mater.
To future aspirants out there- Please do your research when finalising your own colleges. YOU are responsible for YOUR future and choices. ATB !
What should be the next post be about?
- What should I do before joining B-School? (short term)
- Others (Comment your preference)
- Relationship stuff (Not a guide but stories)
- How to approach a particular committee selection
- How to approach B-School life? (long term)
0 voters
#Internships
#Unique
There has been a long stigma, that interning at startups is dead end. And everyone thinks only about the TATAs, HULs as their dream destination.
One should also consider what a startup can offer in terms of experience and learning. While I dont want to shove it down your throat. I want you all to give such experiences equal consideration.
This is the experience of my classmate Rahul from IIMK.
Internship Experience at Ninjacart
Virtual Internship has become the new normal for the class of 2021. I saw a lot of LinkedIn posts from my friends describing their virtual onboarding process. My Internship was not virtual but my onboarding was virtual. I had a unique experience compared to any of my co-interns, and I will explain why in this article.
I was assigned the role of City Manager Intern at Vellore, and I was asked to travel to the reporting place on May 21. Since Ninjacart was into essential services so getting, an e-pass was not a big issue, but I had other plans for traveling. I called the MDC executive at Vellore to ask about travel options, and he told there is a truck carrying fruits and vegetables coming from Chennai FC to Vellore MDC. I reported to Ponamalle FC to catch the truck, and I was surprised to see the loading process in FC. The loading process was entirely done by humans, and the instructions were continuously given to them via an app on the smartphone. The logistics manager directed me to a truck which is assigned to Vellore MDC. That was my first truck travel, and the logistics insights I got while speaking with the driver is something that no one can teach in B school.
Since I was traveling in the truck, I got down at MDC and saw the unloading process before seeing the sun in Vellore. I arrived at Vellore on May 19, so I had enough time to learn through experience than by listening. Later there was an HR call for a formal onboarding process, and I was too tired to even ask questions in that meet. I called my reporting manager Jerome at 11 PM in the night to know my role and to understand more about Ninjacart. We had a conversation for three hours, and his talk was so informative that I recorded the whole conversation to listen later. I felt no one would have summarised fresh produce market better than him in those three hours.
In the first two weeks, I did sales job, operations work, and sometimes volunteered to do labour work of moving crates. In the sales job, I traveled with sales executives for two weeks to understand the sales role and the customers. After visiting more than 100+ provisional stores, 50+ restaurants, 50+ pushcarts, and 20+ supermarkets, I got an overall understanding of the customers expectation. Computerized data won't tell that restaurants need bigger onions, and the retailers prefer mid-sized onions. Therefore, my experience in the field was a great learning experience.
My day starts at 4:30 AM when I wake up and go to the market to check the wholesale prices of all the SKU. Once I collect the prices, I report those prices to the city manager. At 5:30 AM a hurdle is conducted either by my city manager or by me. I go with any of the SE on the field, and we return to the room at 7 PM. During sales, I also had the opportunity to handle operations issues like delayed delivery, unpicked customers, returns monitoring, and OTP issues. After 9 PM, I, along with the city manager, look at the data and create a sales plan for the following day.
The above cycle was redundant until my reporting manager, who is the Chennai City Head, flew down to Vellore. I was lucky to share my room with the City Head, and most of our talks were related to business. Few days I stopped going to the field so that I can stay in the room and get some valuable information from him. But still, I tracked sales executives from my room. Everything was going well until a few sales executives resigned for personal reasons. My City Head gave me the responsibility to hire sales executives, and I was very fortunate to get such a level of power. But hiring was not an easy task at all that too, especially for a sales role. Since I liked working with numbers, I was given the responsibility of publishing reports. Because I am publishing the reports for the Chennai Zone, I was added to all WhatsApp groups, and Deepak, who is part of the Project team, introduced me to all the area sales manager. This was a great blessing to me that I was quickly known to many of the managers. Apart from Ninjacart's business, I talked with my mentor about VC investments, farming business, PnL of a company, and even about his college life.
With no written working time, no dress code, partying together, and freedom to call anyone at any time in the company, I experienced a complete start-up culture in Ninjacart. When my friends in other firms were doing market research for product development, I was feeding the Vellore city with fruits and vegetables. This is something that I can always say proudly to anyone. I made one mistake in my job, which I regret from the bottom of my heart. When I was hiring for a sales executive post at Ninjacart, I rejected many applications just because the candidates were aged. I realized my mistake when I came home and saw my dad losing his job because of COVID 19. I missed a few dedicated and talented people like my father for that post just because I had a prejudice that 40+ people won't adapt to sales executive posts.
In April, I was sitting at home and watching people suffering due to the recession caused by COVID 19. I was helpless and I couldn't do anything. Ninjcart gave me the right opportunity to supply fruits and vegetables to hundreds of people in Vellore. It also gave me a reasonable stipend amount so that I can help my father and a few of my friends who have lost their job.
If you have read this far. I'm sure that you are already in awe.
Please leave a like on his Linkedin post.
#drama
Ps: My teammates name is Rishabh. My name is also Rishabh hence in the story, he will be referred to as Rishabh and I will be referred to as Archi :D
Of drama, suspense, chole bhature and a national case win – National Winner, ACTapult – Rishabh Raj Mehta, IIM Kozhikode – Part 1
I couldn’t believe my ears. My teammate Archi had just called me to tell the we had made it to the National Finals of ACTapult. It had been a hard time recently. Life had been moving at 200 km/h. The dreaded first semester of B-school was at it’s peak. Placecomm sessions, classes, placement prep and all the jazz. I didn’t remember the last time I felt energised.
My roommate congratulates me. And the next day, I’m getting Congratulations from many people!
It was a good feeling being a national finalist so early into the semester. And I was seriously looking forward to the finals! It was such a proud moment for me.
We were the first 1st team to be called to a live finals and to a a different city to compete. Though there would be many after us. We were the first. And I felt nervous yet happy.
Soon, we got a call from the ACT HR. The finals would be in Bangalore. And they were arranging the flight and travel. We would be staying at the Fairfield by Marriott and presenting at Shangri-La. Pretty swell stuff.
It was exciting but I soon got busy with the hustle and bustle of the first semester.
Soon the day arrived. We had a flight for 7:50 pm.
Taking a creaky auto from campus, the two teams from our campus made way to the airport. Amongst the chit-chat in the auto, I was discussing possibilities of what may be in store for us in the coming 2 days.
Soon, we reached the airport.
But life is like a Bhatura. It looks good and puffy. You look forward to eating it and get a mouthful of painful steam.
And this where things start getting crazy.
The flight has announced boarding. It’s time to move onto Bangalore. My phone rings, it’s a member of the PlaceComm calling me. Strange.
Why does PlaceComm care about me now?
“Hey Rishabh, there is an evaluative workshop tomorrow. It’s for Goldman Sachs.”
My heart sinks. I feel happy that I’m shortlisted for GS but I have to help my friend here. He shouldn’t have to do it alone. And in that second. A million thoughts crept into my mind.
“I’m on my way to the finals of ACTapult”
“Yes Rishabh, I understand but if you don’t attend this, you probably wont get to the further rounds of Goldman Sachs”
Yikes. I can’t possibly betray Archi now. He is the next thing to a real brother. And he wants to win this so badly. I really feel like an asshole right now.
“So my partner will have to attend the finals alone if I leave now. And then there is the flight..”
“Yes, I understand Rishabh. Please let me know what you will do”
In the background, we can hear the last and final boarding announcement going on.
My partner Archi is looking at me and telling me to start moving towards the flight. He is getting impatient and quite rightly so.
“Let me discuss with Archi, I will let you know in a bit”
So I tell my partner what has transpired with guilt. And without hestitation, he says “You gotta go for GS, that’s your dream role”
“I’ll handle it here. “
And there was no doubt in his eyes when he asked me to go.
Me leaving right now would mean that he would have to do the case on his own against the finest minds of other b-schools. Gotta admire the guy. But we knew it was for the best. And he wished me luck and boarded the plane.
WHAT ROTTEN LUCK.
And so he left for the flight. And I stayed back in the waiting lobby. Airline rules dictate that since I didn’t board the flight. I will have to wait in the waiting area till the flight successfully lands at Bangalore. And once it did, he texted me an hour later.
He tells me that the case will be released at 2pm tomorrow and he’ll have till 4am to finish the case.
My GS workshop begins at 10 AM tomorrow. And I’m not allowed a cell phone inside.
I literally can’t help him for 6 hours of the allotted 14 hours.
WHAT ROTTEN LUCK.
Archi had dropped a text and in the lunch time I called. And I remember the conversation so clearly.
“This is your type of case bhai, all kinds of finances, numbers and investment etc.”
I felt heartbroken that he had to do it alone while I would be in the GS workshop. I left my thoughts behind and entered the GS workshop.
WHAT ROTTEN LUCK.
I get the last seat in the entire room. I’m not able to participate as people are out-shouting me. And the invigilator is only taking answers from the front row. I’m cursing my luck. There is no chance here. I wish I was doing the case.
I get out of the workshop and call Archi.
What he says heartens and disheartens me at the same time.
Statement #1 - Idea toh aaya hai. I can definitely pull something off.
Statement #2 – Abhi kaam shuru nahi kiya hai. Case repeatedly padh raha tha.
Statement #3 – XLRI ne khatam kar diya hai lagta hai.
I rush to my room. Pack my bag. And find the bus that will get me to Bangalore quickest. I will be there tomorrow for the final presentation.
I eat Chola Bhatura before getting on the bus and am in constant contact with Archi.
He has been struggling with a few slides which I start working on while I’m on the bus journey. Ironically, I haven’t seen the work by him yet and am frantically working on completing the slides he has sent to me. The bus starts moving.
So does the Chola Bhatura in my belly. I feel sick. But I’m fighting through that and making the slides. The connectivity is also deteriorating and at 3am. I am able to send Archi the slides I had to do. We are not able to call each other due to the connectivity.
The bus stops for a break. I vomit a lot. And at 4am, I get a text from Archi that he’s submitted the presentation. I fall asleep for the few hours that I am going to get.
I reach the hotel quite late. I arrive at the Fairfield to know that I’ve missed the bus taking us to the Shangri La where the presentation is going to be held.
WHAT ROTTEN LUCK.
Is it always going to be like this?
I take an Uber to the location. And I meet my teammate. And he explains his slides to me. Archi has done a stellar job. We have a chance to win.
It’s 1 hour left for us to prepare for the ppt. All the other teams have rehearsed it multiple times. This is the first time, we are even doing it together. The lots for the ppt are drawn.
We are the second team to present.
WHAT ROTTEN LUCK.
We quickly go through the presentation and we know that we’ll have to wing it. There isn’t enough time.
To be continued.
#Drama
#Part 2
Of fumbles, 12 minutes and national case win – National Winner, ACTapult – Rishabh Singh, IIM Kozhikode – Part 2
Rishabh and me were preparing frantically for the final presentation. I had belief in my own solution. I knew that I had put everything in there to win the case. It was a good solution.
It was a good solution.
It was also a long solution.
It was also a solution we wouldn’t be able to present in 12 minutes.
We were lacking practice and we were short on time. We managed to do an untimed dry run of the solution and just as we finished our dry run.
The organisers wave to us (we were seated in the lobby) to join in for the start of the presentations.
So this is it.
We both are mentally running our lines as we walk to the conference hall. It is a breathtaking site.
There are strobe lights everywhere. And we are seated on round tables with our names on it. It seems like those scenes out of the movies. Where all the big delegates sit in a room with their names on the tables. Think IPL bidding.
The only difference being that these people are self assured people. We weren’t.
We are actually a bit underprepared for the ppt. Rishabh decides that we should request the organiser for a change of slot from 2 to last so that we can prepare it a bit.
We talk to HR, and she accepts our request immediately knowing that we didn’t have much time to prep. She decides to give us a fighting chance.
We both are happy. And though we are seated in the first row, we mentally prepare our lines and also time ourselves.
The first team walks onto the stage – XLRI
These guys were good. During the first day these guys had started on the PPT when I had finished reading mine just once. And by the end of my 5th reading. They had finished their solution. Or so I thought. And they were heavily involved with their mentors too. Yours truly on the other hand had barely interacted with anyone but the CASE intimately.
They start presenting. There are no numbers on the slide. The case is about an investment decision. And they have analysed it qualitatively. They have decided on investment decisions without backing it up with any data. I know that we are much more sound than this.
Heck, at that point. I felt we should’ve continued with the 2nd spot. Our solution would look very strong if it came after this. But alas.
They have finished. The announcer comes onto the stage “Now presenting the second team, RishnRish from IIM Kozhikode”
WTF.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
We see the HR rushing towards the stage to inform the guy that we are supposed to go last. But I look into my partners eyes and there is nod of affirmation. This is a good opportunity. We will take it. We walk onto the stage and nod towards the HR that we will take it from here. And with our half baked preparation, we walk on to the stage.
So let me describe how it felt.
There was this huge monitor. It has 12:00 countdown timer on it. We had enough lights on us to make us feel like Miss India. And we have 10 slides to present. So it began.
I started off by telling that I’m a gamer and a user of ACT for the last 3 years.
The board broke into applause. I was like. “Oh cool. Never thought playing games could make ppl happy”
And then we flew into our ppt. With complete theatrics and emphasis. The entire shebang.
And we reach the end of our 3rd slide!
Timer says : 5 minutes remaining.
Fuck.
Ever seen a rabbit run? Yeah, that’s how we went till the next few slides
Timer says: 2 minutes remaining
4 slides left.
Ever seen a rabbit take performance enhancing drugs and run?
So we finish the presentation. And begins the QnA.
And surprisingly, it’s just the CEO who wants to ask us the questions. There are many questions. One of them was “All what you have said is fine. There is a competitor with much deeper pockets than us, they are bigger and have better talent. Shouldn’t we give up?” I was stumped. But my partner knew me well enough to understand that he has to take this question. And by god did he answer that question. There was applause. And then the CEO suddenly asks him a technical question. And this was my cue to take the question.
And we finished our ppt with mild applause. Rishabh seems very confident with our attempt.
Fast forward, most ppts seem bland to us.
Except the guy from NMIMS. He had content that I did not event think of. And his delivery was very good too. The QnA went superbly for him. That’s when I knew, its over. He’s beaten us.
But that was not all.
Last came the TISS boys. I have not heard such a professional and well articulated presentation in my lifetime. They were true professionals with average content. But the delivery made me feel like he’s a CEO. The way they tackled questions was also a work of art.
Internal monologue. Runners up bhi gaya haath se.
Meanwhile, my teammate. “We are going to win”
And soon enough, there was lunch going on. We both had our hearts in our mouth. The results would be announced after lunch. We spotted our mentor. We asked him directly, “Sir can we win”
He looked quizzically and said “I don’t know. But the depth of your research was evident. It was very well thought out. Don’t worry about the delivery, what’s done is done”
And soon enough. It was results time.
I had chewed my tie off by then, my teammate as steady as a rock. “We are going to win.”
The runners up was announced first. It was NMIMS.
My heart sunk, I knew that we had a chance at runners up. Now it was the HR people (TISS) that would take it home.
And the winners are “Rishabh and Rishabh from IIM Kozhikode”
Fuck me dead.
Like seriously. Fuck me dead.
The End
The one with EQ in it
I recieved a very interesting message from someone (let's call them W) recently on PG. Very different from the usual messages I recieve and hence am recreating it here verbatim:
"....how important 'networking' and 'empathy' are, once you enter a B School? The thing is I'm quite unempathetic and have seen some series over YouTube by a Goldman Sachs MD where he expressed how important it is to have empathy, rather he said it was THE most important skill. Can you address a post heeding these two skills, please? I'm already addressing my EQ by being around emotional people and discovering things from them about how they "feel". But I'm just curious to know how much important it is to survive and thrive through a B School?"
So I'll break this down into two parts-
1) Networking: Is it important ? Is the Pope catholic ? Does the bear sh*t in the woods ? Heck yes ! This is the bread and butter of MBA. I wrote a post about it earlier and I put down whatever I had to say there. But to reiterate- yes its super important.
2) Empathy: Now this is an interesting one. First lets see what having a high EQ actually means (copied off straight from the internet)-
"
Self-management – You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.
Self-awareness – You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.
Social awareness – You have empathy. You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.
Relationship management – You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.
"
Lets see how these are important as a manager or as a student in B-school:
Self management in terms of managing emotions in a healthy way, being aware of them and their originating cause can definitely be a help in stressful situation- which you will find in B-schools as well as in the corporate world. The person who lets stress or worry get to them and starts snapping at others is definitely going to have a hard time. Placement time is stressful. So are finals. So are group project submissions. So are case-study final rounds. If you go around snapping at people they will not want to work with you. Simple. To paraphrase what Rishabh mentioned in his excellent post - Everyone wants to work with someone they can trust but is moderately good at what they do, than to work with a di**head who is extremely smart. And other than stress being able to manage to even the. positive emotions is an art. Seen those videos of american sports fan rioting in joy when their team wins ? Thats poor EQ because they have no idea on how to handle the surge of joy. Mark my words folks- during placements keep an eye on the folks who get into the top notch copanies. Many of them will shed tears, scream and jump in joy and in general have an outpouring of feelings. BUT the one who remains calm , has a smile on their face , takes all congratulations calmy and sticks around to help others ? Thats the kinda people you want to have in your life. Hold onto them.
Self awareness in terms of being self awareness is the most important tool one can have, and all the more so as a manager. If you arent aware of your strengths and weakness you can be a liability to yourself and others around you. Let's take example of the case study competition scenario described by @rishabh.archi - You can clearly see he and his friend both have distinct awareness of their respective strengths (number analysis, question answering, PPT making etc) and their respective weakness. And BECAUSE of that knowledge they managed to work in tandem beautifully. Now see the opposite end of the spectrum- a manager or project group member who overestimates their capabilities or wrongly assumes their strengths and then fails to deliver in time of crunch; that would undoubtedly lead to disaster for everyone involved and invariably lead to you becoming a social outcast, eventually.
Social awareness in terms of understanding people's needs ,emotions understanding relationship dynamics in a group is something which you can TECHNICALLY get by without. I have seen examples of socially unaware idiots in my batch , who were brilliant in terms of their academics or knowledge, and who managed to get by just fine through college solely on the basis of brutre strength of their knowledge and skillset despite being absolute d*cks to people, albeit unknowingly. Now while these folks might able to get by B-school, corporate world will be a whole different ball game. Take it from me- the socialy apt person with minimal skills has chances of getting promoted over the brilliant but socially awkward person in the real world. Understanding people, handling them and modifying your behaviour and tactics accordingly is THE skillset to learn if you are planning to climb the corporate ladder fast.
and Whatever I mentioned about Social awarnesss applies to Relationship management more or less so wont expound on it.
So in conclusion- EQ and IQ do go in tandem in B-school. Unlike the technical field where the sheer brute strength of your domain knowledge will get you through, managing people is a different ball game where your EQ can make or break your career. Trust me on this- I just saw a live example of this just last month and it wasn't pretty !
Internship Chronicles: Operations and Supply Chain - Part 1 - The selection process starts
Disclaimer: A lot of this story might include jargons which might be unfamiliar to common folks not from the domain in question, but might help you down the line in reference to placement prep (if interested in the domain)
My Story about going for MBA (skip this section, if not here for a lunacy filled story):
I took CAT just once, that too with almost 3 years of work-ex, because I truly loved the work I was doing, but I had reached my breaking point and had to do something to break through the career growth stagnancy and abysmally low pay packages us folks in core sector get after getting physically and mentally bent over backwards, but I was dead sure that I am never going to betray my passion (for Cars and mechanical/industrial engineering in general). MS was the logical first choice, but I had zero interest in settling abroad, so that was off the table. So, the next option was getting an MBA but the “general management” curriculum at IIMs and most B-schools were not something I was very keen on. I wanted to learn new stuff, yes, but in a field that is honestly, the most engrossed with the engineering field I graduated in and also with most of my JD and that was Operations and Supply Chain. So, yes, my dream colleges were not the holy trinity.
So, before I get to the meat and potatoes of this extremely long-ass post, I guess I should give a brief profile about myself (at the time of autumn internship process) for reference and to shatter preconceived notions about the acads front.
Acads – 92.4/82.6/77.09 – 9/8/7 (DTU batch of 2015) – Production & Industrial Engineering
Acad Achievements – None, had to put CAT score to not leave it awkwardly blank.
Co-Curricular Achievements – 3 corporate case competitions (National Finalist - J&J Quest & Campus Finalist- Mahindra WarRoom & Cummins Redefine)
WorkEx – 34 months at Mercedes-Benz/Daimler India as Assembly Line/New Product Projects Lead with my JD revolving around Production Process Planning, New Product Development and Assembly Line Management (in layman terms, pure-play core Ops role)
To be honest, I peg my CV to be at the “run of the mill” level compared to my peers at SPJIMR.
Lets start with,
Pre- autumn process (Applying to companies, Psychometric tests, CV shortlists et al)
So, honestly, I had zero interest in consulting (will later backfire mightily) and hence didn’t apply for such roles basis my true motive of going for an MBA as mentioned above (and I was reportedly the only one in the batch to have not applied for Bain, BCG and A&M (such obnoxious overconfidence in my skills :p), not that I would’ve gotten shortlisted anyways with that “dumpster fire” of acads :p).
Roles that interested me were:
- Traditional OSCM roles with FMCGs (Demand Planning, Supply Planning/Inventory Management, Warehouse Planning et al)
- Pure-play Supply Chain roles with ECom firms (A dream role I used to aspire for was the BOLD Operations Manager role with Amazon)
So, I had applied for all FMCGs that visited our campus and for Ecoms, Amazon (had to give 3 preferences, so they were BOLD>Operations Manager>Program Manager), Cloudtail and a few Operations exclusive allied roles (Leadership roles at Airtel for example).
So, I had fair confidence of bagging good number of shortlists, but I was up for "eating a humble pie".
Here is how my CV shortlist result looked like -
Rejects: ITC, Pidilite, P&G, Asian Paints, Marico, Mondelez, General Mills, Uber, Cloudtail
Shortlists: HUL, Amazon-BOLD, Reckitt Benckiser, J&J (owing to the case competition) and Post-placement, (Airtel and Nivea)
Even though I had a couple of marquee shortlists, the number of rejects did indeed dent my confidence in my profile a lot. I had a good undergrad college & good workex in a fortune 500 firm on my CV and I was getting rejects left, right and center.
The beast: GDs and Interviews
But there was more disappointment on the way. I had my first interview of the season with Amazon for my dream, BOLD role. There were multiple rounds of interviews (mostly 2, in some cases 3) and I aced my interview with most of it revolving around my work ex (responsibilities, initiatives, achievements) and how I handled my operators (in alignment to the well-known Amazon's 14 leadership principles). I was shortlisted for the 2nd round of interview, but due to an unfortunate goof-up by the HR team and (to an extent, the placom rep), I couldn't even get a chance to give the 2nd interview. Not rejected but, just plain bad luck. I was seriously crushed because I absolutely loved the BOLD program at Amazon. But when you have such a cramped schedule during the placements, you just can't ponder over what's lost. So the next day was the the first day of the "FMCG days". The selection process for the FMCG firms are multi-pronged with group discussion/activity followed by a few rounds of interviews, so the pre-interview process and preliminary rounds of interviews (if any) are conducted on day 1 and the final interviews are slated for day 2.
FMCG Day 1
So, my schedule for FMCG day 1 was J&J's group activity, followed by HUL's case GD and capping off with RB's case GD.
J&J Group Activity - We were given clues (3-4 per person) about different dimensions in code names and were asked to design a column in a plant using the clues. We were also asked to estimate the time required and cost implications for the same. We started to think question-wise and people who had the respective clues read out loud and everyone started to add to it. After 15 mins we were able to answer just one out of the three questions. I feel that they just saw the teamwork, the ability to guide the team and pitching in with the relevant clues. Result - Shortlisted for final interview
HUL case GD - (Jargons alert) Was pleasantly surprised that the GD was not general in nature and the case revolved around Supply Chain concepts. Case based on forecasting accuracy for 4 SKUs, SKU segregation and type of supply chain used for each SKU distribution shared. Needed to work out 4 questions pertaining to distribution level for each SKU in such a way that improves the forecasting accuracy for them. There were 10 candidates in the GD, I was the 4th one to enter the GD, came up with an approach in contrast to the ongoing discussion which worked in my favor. Made 3 more entries each with a new angle/heuristic and suggestion which was backed by a few other candidates. Result - Shortlisted for Interview 1
RB case GD - In a similar vein to the HUL case GD, the case was an interesting facility location decision problem for a mosquito coil manufacturing firm. I was the 2nd candidate to enter the GD and was able to counter the approach explained by the first candidate successfully and was able to drive through the point which was backed by 2 other candidates. Had 2 more entries, in which the final solutioning was agreed upon and I was asked to conclude the discussion. Result - Shortlisted for Interview 1
Preliminary Interview: HUL - Finally, something catering to my strengths. This interview was almost entirely technical in nature but it all started with the quintessential question of “Tell me about yourself”, first question was on my hobby which is pretty peculiar. Majority of the interview after that driven by the work-ex points, asked to show the working of numbers (KPI) in one of the work-ex point. Satisfied, they asked me to walk them through the Live Project that I did with J&J, again asked to justify the numbers and counter-questions on warehousing and inventory management (with a few tricky fundamental questions). Further asked a few questions on another project (Quantitative Methods) and to justify why I used the mentioned methods (Hypothesis testing and Multiple Regression). Towards the end of the interview, I was asked some standard questions like under which situations we use “Milk-Run”, “Hub-and-Spoke” and “Drop-shipping”. Ended the interview with 2 questions from my end, asking about the thought process behind launching a new washing detergent brand and how HUL views the fast growth of Private Labels in Modern Retail channel. Result - Shortlisted for final Interview
Preliminary Interview: RB - Now this one was a different beast altogether, mostly on HR/attitudnal aspects but no introduce yourself question, started with a situational question (How will you make sure that one of your operator is using the SOP – Standard Operating Procedure, which was based on one of my work-ex point). Post that, I was given a case on designing the end-to-end supply chain for establishing an Electrical Vehicle production plant. And then finally was asked a few ethics-driven questions on which the discussion was long-drawn (Question on vehicle recall for three different cases (Faulty Braking system, rearview mirror breakage and greater than permitted emission). I felt that the panel was unimpressed with my answers, but I was proved wrong. Result - Shortlisted for final interview
Ending the first FMCG day with a 3/3 record finally infused a much need confidence boost for the D-day.
FMCG Day 2
Called for the HUL interview process at 4 in the morning (yeah, right). The schedule was HUL followed by RB and then finally J&J.
HUL Final Interview - And the D-Day begins with a bang! This interview was almost on a similar vein as the last interview, but was a little more stressful with incisive questions asked on the work-ex points, justifying the approach taken for an initiative. Was asked why I opted for MBA after the nature of work-ex I had and why I chose to pursue a specialization in OSCM. A few out-of-the-blue questions regarding the drop year after 12th and the rationale behind joining SPJIMR with my CAT percentile were asked to which I just felt like being brutally honest was the way to go. A long drawn discussion on the J&J live project happened again. Questions on spend analysis and justification of the cost-saving numbers were asked based on the project done in the PSS (Procurement and Strategic Sourcing) subject. In the end, they asked if I had any questions, to which I asked on how they viewed the role of the E-commerce channel in the coming years and will it affect the distribution strategy for the GT and MT channels. The high point of the interview was when one of the interviewer gave me a pen and paper and asked me to derive and show how I achieved an efficiency improvement (which was very high compared to regular standards) for the assembly line (arguably, the strongest point in my CV) and I was able to break down the appraoch with the CAR (Context, Action, Result) framework and showed him the entire working of the efficiency KPI to the second decimal place. The interviewers on the panel didn't give say anything apart from a long drawn "hmm" but I got the vibe that they were pretty damn impressed because I got a rolling offer on the spot from them and just like that, I was placed. Was pretty surreal but to be honest, the feeling was more of relief than jubilation.
Thankfully, I was saved from attending the other two Interviews and my autumn internship placement season was capped off.
So, lets put in a summary of how I approached this hullabaloo of an internship process.
Technical Front -
- There is no way around it but you need to have a great grip on your domain/interest. To do that, going through the basics thoroughly would help you mightily. For example, if you can finish the first 6 chapters of SCM by Meindl & Chopra end to end, you will be primed for a smooth sailing in the interview process.
- In conjunction to the 1st point, you will be able to add another stellar dimension of understanding of the concepts if you are able to relate them to your workex points (especially the folks from OSCM work domain).
- (Optional) Once you get a grip on the general concepts associated to OSCM, if you want to push yourself and equip yourself for the future in the domain, identify a sub-domain and make it your niche. I can attest to the fact that it will give you an immense feeling of confidence to always know that this one thing is where my mastery lies in. For me, it was Warehouse/Inventory Management. No questions were asked of me in this topic in my interviews but it allowed me to do extremely well in my internship project.
CV front -
- Be extremely thorough with the work-ex points and work on a clear and concise process of justifying numbers (if any). This will be a tremendous confidence booster.
- Same goes for the academic/live projects. DO NOT put projects which you are not convinced of backing properly. (Note: APPLICABLE FOR FINALS for most folks)
Personal Front -
- Be yourself (The panelists know that you are not perfect). So, don’t portray yourself otherwise.
- And most importantly, attune yourself to the working of the placement process itself, that is, you never know what is going to happen. The process is too random to actually predict where you will end up getting placed. So don't get OVERTLY ATTACHED TO A BRAND.
To be continued.. (The CEO factory experience at HUL and looming crushing disappointment)
Operations and Supply Chain Domain FAQs
Thanks to my buoy, @dozer01 (dhokha de gaya but ab :p), we have a set of questions pertaining to this domain that might help in taking a more informed decision.
1. Is it advisable to join an Ops role in a loss making company like JSPL, Tata, Amazon Retail, OLA etc though they probably have a well-established Grad program?
Excellent question to start with, my two cents and I might not necessarily be correct on all fronts, but I will take a jab at this, a loss-making company (start-up) is not a bad bet to start with because you know what, you might actually be the part of a machinery which actually makes the most impact on that depressing bottom line of the company and turn things around. Not being overly optimistic here, but a huge chunk of expenses and costs are associated with the operations front, the moment the value chain of the firm gets streamlined and the firm is able to realize game changing phenomenon like getting the critical mass of users or getting high volumes to slash that per unit cost of manufacturing, the things WILL turn around and you can be at the forefront of it. But it's still prone to problems like the ones we are currently facing. In these extraordinary circumstances, no start-up is insulated from folding its operations, so keeping all that in mind, it’s better to avoid loss-making start-ups in the current scenario even with faster growth opportunities/compensation. Well-established conglomerates such as Tata are a different case though, as they have enough subsidiaries within the group that they can offset the losses at one Group Company with other profit-making entities. So, it’s almost certain that you will be well insulated from any sort of risk to your job. And since, most of these firms offer general management roles, you will be able to move across the group companies with fair amount of ease.
2. What are the roles that Freshers and Experienced guys (>2 yrs) get?
Can speak from my experience, might differ a little across other campuses, but at SPJIMR, freshers and people with less than 18 months of work-ex were not able to get most of the traditional FMCG shortlists (HUL, RB, ITC and the likes), but, E-com (Amazon/Udaan/Ola)/Ops consulting (like GEP) did shortlist low work-ex folks. For experienced folks, the world is your oyster!
3. Possible career growth chart of an old company which you found in any PPTs or from LinkedIn
Well, there are two broad career routes that Ops folks get, first one is the demand planning/supply planning route, where the hierarchy would look like Assistant Planning Manager->Planning Manager->Senior Planning Manager ->Category Planning Head -> General Manager, the second route is the factory role, for which the endgame is Factory Manager. Post this, the hierarchy looks more like General Manager/Factory Manager ->VP -> Executive Director (if applicable). P.S Even if the factory role seems pretty scary and non-glamorous, there is a consensus that a person with substantial factory experience is considered more favourably when it comes to executive level roles than folks with no factory experience.
4. What is the shortlisting criteria (Acad and Work Ex requirements)?
Honestly, even I am not completely confident about this, but looking at the shortlists I didn't get during the internship placements, I would say that a 9/9/8 should be more than adequate to get almost all shortlists. On the workex front, I would say anything in the range of 20-36 months falls in the sweet zone.
5. Ranking the various leadership programs of the Ops/SCM profile by student demand/reputation
I would rank it as follows, HUL's UFLP program -> P&G -> RB MT -> Amazon BOLD -> Marico/Asian Paints LEAP/Mondelez/General Mills ->ITC KITE -> Others
The one with the HR Specialisation
One of the commonly debated topics on PG has been around specialisations. I have seen people come to virtual blows when touting the benefits of X college for a Y specialisation and then defending their choice specialisation as the best one, in the long run. Now if you are in a quandry about specialisations and just want to get an idea of the possible career options , right out of college, for the major specialisations, then have a look at one of my unacademy videos (apologies in advance for the poor audio+video quality, swollen face and the sheer length of the video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM-sy2f2f0U It is by no means an exhaustive list and I would urge you to reach out to Varun for SCM/Ops queries (assuming they havent been covered in the excellent previous post covering Ops FAQs) or Praveen (who, btw, helped me with inputs for the Fin aspect of the above video, though I am pretty sure I didnt explain it half as eloquently as he did) for Fin related queries .
BUT if you want to learn about HR then read on
I have often heard the common jokes about HR folks being paid to goof off and doing nonsensical work at office, heck my own flatmate calls me Rangoli at times in jest ! But most people don't realise is that the HR function is surprisingly an important aspect of business. Don't believe me ? Let me ask you a question - Why do HR grads from XL/TISS and often from IIM-R and SCMHRD get paid 18-24L straight out of college ? Do you think that in a moment of random kindness the CEO decided to just randomly pay freshers close to 20 Lakhs a year for no reason ? Capitalism 101 dictates that the market will pay you only for the value you bring to the table. And companies typically pay you an amount 'X' when they feel you will bring value of 4X-5X to the business- this is true for all functions and all roles. So if companies pay big sums of money they expect a larger value in return.
What is the value add of HR to business ?
Well barring roles in HR consulting roles where you straight up generate revenue by providing HR solutions to clients, a typical HR role doesn't generate money but rather helps the money making functions. And how does it do that ? By ensuring there are employees available AND they work seamlessly AND focus only on generating money for the company- as simple as that !
But HR roles don't pay well do they ? I mean we all know a Sharmaji ke beti/beta who works in an HR role for 15k a month.
Well if you look at the pay for marketing executives or TSOs , you'll see they earn around 20-30k a month. But then why is no one afraid of getting into marketing ? Because doing an MBA from a good B-school means you get a higher starting role like ASM/TSM/ Regional Manager. Similarly, no HR grad from XL goes into HR executive roles just as how no Marketing grad from any of the top 10-15 colleges will get into a marketing executive role. As simple as that. Post graduating one typically starts off as MT-HR or Associate Manager HR or Assistant Manager Hr or Manager HR (rare) and sometimes has a team of HR executives under you and these roles pay in accordance with the title. Of course that being said I have also seen dozens of Senior HR managers (with local MBA HR degrees) earning 8-9L a year. But as mentioned already that depends on the kind of company and the kind of B-school you start off with. If you go to medium sized/local focused organisations you will find Finance/Marketing managers and senior managers earning just around 10-12 L per year, but that isn't indicative of all the jobs in those fields right ? What is the progression in General HR management (read: non-consulting) roles ?
Same as any other manager: Assistant/Deputy Manager--> Manager--> Additional Deputy General Manager--> DGM--> GM-->Director of HR--> CHRO. Of course this is no way indicative of all possible career paths because it can vary company to company and sector to sector. Plus these days there are HRBP roles can at any level ranging from assistant manager right up to GM. Not to mention the HR specialist roles that some people choose to get into or get 'forced' into during their first jobs: Comp and Ben specialists, D&I specialists, Perf Management specialists, OD specialists, L&D specialists etc. which have their own career progression paths. For me, personally, CHRO is the place to be. 70% pay of the CEO and 30% of the stress- that's the sweet spot. Also for the lucky few who get IR roles in a factory- hold onto them. They are worth their weight in gold (for me atleast) and can give you indepth live insight into application of labour laws. Plus when you are in the race for CHRO job a veteran with factory role experience will be given more reverence. Always. Not touching upon HR consulting roles' career path because they follow the same path as general consulting roles.
HR is for women only na?
Lulz. Just like how marketing/banking/strategy is only for men, right ? No wonder we don't have any women CEOs and CXOs *cough* Indrani Nooyi *cough* Arundhati Bhattacharya *cough* Jokes aside I think these 20th century stereotypes don't hold much weightage in today's times. My batch was 50% men and 50% women. And our batch topper and the best allrounder were both guys. Of course placement is a slight game changer because some corporations (especially FMCGs) are guilty of preferring women candidates to bolster their company's overall gender ratio. But then they do this for ALL roles so its not related to the HR field in particular. Otherwise companies don't look at your gender, so that shouldn't be an area of concern for you.
Do GenMag programs lead into HR ?
Heck yes. Literally all of them.
P.S. I have tried covering most of the common points I have been asked over the last few years. In case you feel some other points should be covered in the post, let me know in the comments and I will add edits to the post.
Over 1,000 users in under a month! We hope that the content posted here has been helpful in some way to the folks. Special thanks to @achyut1989 , @rishabh.archi and @fisherking. This initiative would've gone nowhere without you guys!