Everytime I catch up with a batchmate of mine after a long time, the dreaded question comes up inevitably. So ‘how is your work going?’ question……..

Of course, one of the basic tenets of a B-school education is that you can never be found to be doing anything less than rocket science, more so if you are from the IIMs. So it is possible that the only thing you may have graduated to doing in the 4-5 years is now you are allowed to give the ‘print’ command rather than going and picking up the paper from the printer yourself for the boss.

But then when you talk to a batchmate, you are always creating strategy and laying the roadmap for a multi-billion dollar business all on your own….. So you have the Assistant VPs in finance firms, Program Mgrs in IT firms and any other esoteric sounding titles….But of course people are also smart enough to ask the relevant questions, all in the quest for finding whether I am doing better than him….

So here’s a thought…’If the work you do was so amazingly great, why are so many of the folks jumping firms?’

This is definitely a question that I have thought of on multiple occasions. What makes a company diversify into a totally unrelated field, burn up their own cash cow and finally sell the business to focus on their ‘core areas’ after a few years at a loss?

I liked this article by Guy Kawasaki. I think it is a nice way to put things in perspective..

Of course, I like point 5 best…

5. Restrict the use of experts to narrow areas. Never use experts to create your product roadmap or marketing plans unless you want MBAs who have never run anything larger than a school snack bar to decide your fate.

Ms.Bansal has also talked about the yuppie MBA. Looks like we are not a very well-liked group not withstanding the so-called money (havent seen it yet myself though…but i guess hope is the way to the future)

This is not the best of times… While the world may be fighting over larger things, my own little battles go on….for what is life without those?

No one has claimed life to be easy….but I now believe that life is as easy as you want it to be or as complicated as you want it to be….of course, if you have the luxury of a premier business school education, you are doomed for you are now destined to do a 2×2 framework for everything…

Which brings me to the long discussions I have had with 2 of my very good friends about the line between taking a rational decision (the MBA one) and the one about listening closely to the inner voice…especially wrt career, jobs and the way forward. I have personally gone through those times when I did my own share of analyzing to the nth degree whether I should do this or not….havent regretted it yet…even today I am making some decisions which for an outsider would seem irrational but to me it feels right….both the folks I talked to did not agree with me fully about feeling right….

The way I see it, end of it all, this Act will end and the next one will begin. So enjoy the time while you are in it……and dont worry, you will still reach the next act in good shape….this way or that way…It’s difficult to feel this way all the time for me too (after all I am part of the 2×2 crowd…)

It is but no wonder that Shakespeare is so great…
‘All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players’

It’s that time of the batch when everyday somebody is getting married. Of course, I find it quite depressing that so many people are getting married. After all, this has a direct corelation to the number of friends available in your circle since the mathematical intersection of singles vs couples social circle is almost equal to zero.

Anyways, the other thing is planning to go for these weddings. You start with the whole gang (both married & single) saying..oh..they are all ready to go…
then closer to the date…it starts happening…first the married ones… my in-laws are coming…my wife has different plans..then the committed ones…i have different plans…(never mention it is for the girlfriend)..will be going home…

So finally it boils down to the last enthu people carrying on…so therefore as it seems, the number of people joining up from the batches will be probably one or two….hmm..is it then surprising that finally it is probably the colleagues who are the only ones turning up if it is somewhere close by…thank god for the social pressure on relatives…otherwise no one would turn up for weddings..

Well, am planning to go for such a wedding..so now we are down to 3…am expecting 1 more drop out…

Finally the question got popped. After a media frenzy which focused on the top 5 salaries in all the IIMs, even a veteran (after all 4 yrs is a long while in this age) like me was not spared. Got asked this twice in as many days. How can I work in a position like this for this money when people are getting $193000?

Just to clarify:

1. Never could digest Finance
2. Graduated in the worst possible year possible when the market was in the dumps (after all,you need to blame something other than oneself)
3. Dont relish working 70-80 hr weeks
4. And incidentally, just happened to be part of the rest of the ‘normal’ folks in the IIMs

However, if anyone has a job to offer with as much money and 1/10th of the working hours (ok..40hrs it is), I am yours to employ…

Was about 3 years ago that I graduated as a pompous corporate citizen from the hallowed halls of one of the ‘premier’ B-schools in the country. Like the rest of my 180 batchmates, we were told that we are this great bunch of people who will create a difference wherever we are. To use an expression from a professor when he was ridiculing our resume writing capability, we were ‘god’s gift to mankind’. (..that sounds so hollow)

Coming May, it would be 3 years of post-MBA experience. So today morning I come in, one of my batchmates puts this question to the group ‘what has changed in these 3 years?’. While that question led to a volley of emails mostly making a mockery of the whole corporate setup, I think the question is quite relevant.

I am part of the cynics category who believes that in most cases, people hate their work (or if not hate, are just plain indifferent). They dont probably even like what they are doing. It is only the lucky few and the brave ones who get to work on something they love. The rest of us are all people looking for the comfort of ’security’ rather than the satisfaction of doing something interesting.

So did the ‘premier’ education change anything in any of us? For sure, it did. My view of the world pre-2000 is different from now. In fact, I think rather than prompting me to do something different, it just made me so risk-averse, that I have become so comfortable in this life. The education did provide me with an ability to think in a structured manner which kind of also subdued the most important ability required - to listen to your gut instinct. So I know I will probably do well and probably lead a comfortable enough life but that is about it.

One of my very good friends, made a quote which I am reproducing without his permission:
“Life is a game of snakes and ladders’…
if ur lucky u get the ladder..
else you take the normal route one step at a time..
if ur f****d u get the snake…”
I thought it was pretty good….I am not sure if it was original. Sorry, dude..

I am sure there will be people who think that you need to create your own ladders. But sometimes this obsession with creating the ladder and climbing to the top kind of takes away from the ‘living’ part because you tend to black out the more important things in life - relationships, pursuing interests, maintaining friendships etc. I could think of so many things. There is no wonder that so many people are compiling the 43 things list as mentioned by Kiruba in his post.