To exchange or Not to exchange

Hi
This blog's title is a shameless rip-off from Shakespeare's Hamlet (To be... Or not to be). But the trigger for this mail is original and it happened a couple of days ago. I received a mail from the MBA office stating that Micro-Economics will not be offered in the coming semester. When I joined my MBA I didn't know much about Marketing or Finance. I joined out of curiosity about Fiscal deficit, Trade Surplus, Forex reserves, etc. I wanted to know what these were and how they worked. Now, I am doomed. These terms are destined to remain 'latin' forever.

This is one of the drawbacks of the 'Exchange Program'. This blog is dedicated to those people who have/will face a similar dilemma. Deciding between the merits/demerits of the exchange program. My future blogs shall detail the merits of exchange. So, this blog is about what I lost because I went on exchange.

My biggest loss was Cerebration. This is our annual business case event which we position as the 'Biggest Business Case event' in the world. I was in Australia when Cerebration happened. It was funny seeing mails from MBA office pleading with our guys to come and attend the event. While I was desperate to attend the event but could not.

The other loss is internships/job search. Searching for an internship/job is exceedingly difficult when you are on exchange (will share my experiences in another post). There are several reasons for this - visa laws, emigration rules, culture of the place, etc.

Anyone going on exchange cannot participate in the MBA Club elections. So, anyone having these aspirations must make this trade-off. Competing for the other positions is tough as well. Because canvassing for votes is more difficult when on exchange. But we did have one exchange student winning his election.

Finally, there is a loss of friends. This is a hard one. Because for 4 months, you learn to laugh and cry with these folks. Now, you must find a new shoulder on which to vent your emotions. This is not easy in a foreign country where you meet a limited set of people, mostly in a class environment. And these folks already have their set of friends.

So, To exchange or Not to exchange. This is a choice each individual must make. For me, I was willing to accept these trade-offs. And what I got in return far exceeded what I lost.

Cheers,
Suraj

Winter Internships - A Blind Date

Hi
I begin with an apology (the worst way to begin anything). I have been extremely busy in the last one week. Due to which I have not been able to blog. Last week was also a lot of fun. Working with a bunch of consultants, I was exposed to tons of jargons - "technocommercial" "a 20000 feet thought" "sales clawback period" "biz pulse" "YTD" ... Anyway this week looks a little more sane and so I'm back.

After the final exams, we had a month's break. Too long a break if you ask me. Specially for a shortened 18 month program. Most of us opted to/had to go back home. There were quite a lot who tried for a winter internship. Unfortunately, only a few succeeded. I don't know the exact numbers. Because as the term went on, the internship search became a 'Sherlock Holmes' mystery. People didn't want to tell others whether they were applying, where they were applying to and what their status was.

The bottomline is that the winter internship is like a 'Blind Date'. You always have a shot at success. But the chances of things working out are remote. By my estimate, around 10 in the batch got a winter internship. Companies varied from KPMG, RBS, TATA and a few other small boys.

As for me, initially I applied to a few companies. Nothing worked out. And my parents wanted to come down to Singapore during December. So, I gave up the ghost. My parents, sister and uncle came down to Singapore. We went to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Macau. It was a fun trip and a great learning experience. But this trip had nothing to do with NUS. And this blog is positioned as my experience @ NUS MBA. So, I shall not delve much into the trip.

My exchange program at MBS was to start on Feb 4th. But NUS opened a couple of weeks earlier. So, it was an extended holiday for me. Whenever I went to college, people kept asking me, "What are you doing here?" And to be honest, I asked the same question "What am I doing here?". Just the after-effects of an overly long vacation.

Cheers,
Suraj

My final exams - And I'm back

Hi
I am not sure how many of you have noticed/missed that I have not posted a blog for the last few days. The reason is that the good news has finally arrived. My project has been signed off and work has begun in earnest. It has been exciting and enlightening, working with a bunch of consultants and with company insiders highly cynical of consultants. The last few days have been crazily busy and I have not had time to blog. Though I may not be as prolific as before, I shall ensure that the blog remains active. That was my promise when I started the blog and I make that promise again.

So, where are we on my little trip to the past? I think I have pretty much covered every major event during my first term. So, its time for the climax. My final exams!! After my mid-term debacle, I was prepared for this one. I had started studying continuously and taking an active part in my projects. And I got lucky with my exam time-table. I cannot emphasize enough the need to get lucky on the exam time-table. One of the sections, the FM1 guys, got a shocking time-table. They had exams on continuous days. As a result, they were screwed. FM3 got lucky - both during mid-term and during the final exams (wonder whether this is a tip for future batches or the law of averages will even things out). I had 3 days break for the economics exam. This was important for me because I was least confident about economics and I had performed badly in my mid-terms.

Exam week started with OM (Ops mgmt) exam. It was a strange exam. We had to answer online. The questions were opening up in the IVLE (our intranet) on Saturday morning. And we had to submit our answers by Sunday night. The questions were case based but tricky. It took longer to answer than we thought. For all the group work, it took me the entire weekend to answer the questions and submit them. Got a B+ for this one.

The Marketing exam was a complete lottery. Anyone taking a course with Prof. Leong Siew Meng be warned!! There is an entire book on Marketing Management in Asia to study. The book is written jointly with Philip Kotler. It makes for an interesting read. But the problem with the book is that it is superfluous. There is so much reptitive data that it gets tough to read the entire book, specially before the exam. We had the last few chapters for the finals exam (the first few had come for the mid-terms). I was in a group of 3 to 4 people who tried to split the chapters to read through. Then we would teach each other our respective chapters. All this was to no avail because of the nature of the exam. It was objective questions and they came from any sub-topic in any page. And it was virtually impossible to remember all the details. But, as I said, I got lucky. I had prepared really well and got more objective questions right than most. I got an A+ on this one (the only A+ in my entire course).

Financial Accounting was a fun exam for me. I got the cash flows right for the first time in my life. In general, the exam was a little tough. But I did decently enough. And was quite satisfied with my grades - A-

Financial Mgmt was an easy question paper with one tricky question. Again, I was well prepared and did pretty well. After all, I wanted to specialize in finance and my grades in the finance subjects were crucial. Again a decent grade - A-

And finally - Economics. I cannot explain how disappointed I was/am with this one. I studied very hard for this one. I had covered all the chapters, knew the theory inside out. I was fairly well versed with the problems as well. But the question paper had 5 questions for 5 chapters. This in a book with about 20 chapters. And we had the entire book for the exam. All the questions were problems which were pretty simple. I was so shocked with the question paper that I forgot how to solve the problems. But as the exam went on I recollected my composure and managed to answer the problems. MBA exam grades are relative in nature. Such an easy exam meant that most people did well in the exam. Though, in general, this is good - it wasn't good for my grades. I had screwed my mid-terms and needed a decently tough paper to get back. It didn't happen. Got a B+

This is also one of the paradoxes of the MBA grading system. Though you might want everyone to do well, if everyone does well you are screwed. Chances are you will be middle of the pack.

All in all, I got a CAP (cumulative score) of 4.25 out of 5. I don't know where this stands among the batch. I was to learn later that asking about the CAP is a highly sensitive topic. It took a few snubs for me to learn this lesson. As a friend candidly asked me, "Would you ask for the CAP if you had done badly?" And I think that is a fair comment. I would not have ventured about the CAP, if my score was below 4. It was selfish of me to ask others about the CAP when their score could have been lower. It wasn't intentional but it was wrong. And that is my tip for future students. CAP is a sensitive topic better left alone.

I was pleased with my performance in the final exams. It took me to the top tier of the b-school batch. I was a long distance off from the topper (CAP of 4.7) but I was there where I belonged. I was back!!!

Cheers,
Suraj