First week of New Year..

Coming to the things at home, My mom and sister went to Chennai for visa interview. They came to know that there was a theft at our home when they were in Chennai and there were items stolen to the tune of Rs. 100,000. They went ahead but my sister again could not get the visa. The unfortunate thing is we have got everything. Loan letter and all. The Visa interview did not even mark what is the deficiency. Immediately after the interview they returned home. I called them up when they were on the way and my mom and sister were very sad that there was a theft and we lost many valuables.

Then I called them up after a couple of days and it seems we did not lose many things. We lost the silver that the bank gave my dad as gifts and prizes. It is worth Rs. 15-20,000. Also, we lost around Rs.8,000 in cash. They were relieved to know that. My mother has the habit of keeping the gold not inside the alma rah but at places like albums etc.

Also, they found that the Laptop I bought for my sister just before I came to US was there. Also, the watch that I presented my dad was there. The gold chain that we took out from bank with the loan that I got was there. So, the sadness was more from sentiment than from
the loss of things. I shared this one of the good friends that I made after I came to US and that made me feel lighter. At the end, we are all happy that we did not lose much.

Coming to m friends aspect, One of my friends back in India has got a JMET rank of 136. We were trying for MBA ever since we were friends at NITW. It was for the past 6 years. I came here for that he took a long leave of 3 months this year to appear for CAT and other MBA exams. The CAT results will be out tomorrow. I am glad for his JMET rank and hope for good score in CAT.

Coming to the things at Kelley, we applied for interviews in the first 3 weeks starting January 22. We are waiting for the shortlist.
We have classes starting tomorrow though I need not get up early as my first class is at 9:30 AM. I got a GPA of only 3.3 in the last semester. I concentrated more on networking as that is one of my weakest areas. Now we have to prepare for interviews. Hope every thing goes good.

All the best to second round applicants.

Wish you a happy new year..

First of all, I wish the readers of my blog a very happy new year. The same day last year, I was thinking whether I will be able to maintain the blog. I am ale to do it thanks for the continued support from the readers.
Coming to my chores in New Jersey, it was a good week if not great. I spent a couple of days with my cousin in Princeton, NJ. We cooked chicken, did watch Cheeni Kum and roamed around.
I got a new pair of creative speakers (T3100) from my cousin as a gift. I love them. I am just waiting to go back to Bloomington to have a blast with them.Finally, I pray god to give me the strength to face the challenges and put me through the problems that can challenge me at every critical point in my life. This will make my life so beautiful as it has been in the past 25 years of my existence.
Good luck to one and all..

Love,
The Indian Alchemist.

My life - Where do I wannna go..

That picture summarizes my thinking at any moment.

There are 4 options:

NY: New York. My dream about consulting will come true. I would improve the operations of clients adding value to their supply chains and helping thier operations become lean

Koduru: My hometown. The opposite of the above. I would go back to my home town and do business. Of Course, it is after at least 7-8 years down the line after MBA.

Bangalore: It is similar to NY. But, in India. India is the hottest place now. I don't want to miss that as an Indian.

Egypt: I want to see the beauty of this world. From serene waters in Kerala to pyramids in Egypt to the age old Greece.

I always think about all these. Every decision that I want to take including marriage, children, money depends on what path I want to take. Let us see the sweetness of life as it unfolds in the future.

Vacation Week-1

It was an awesome week. I came to NY after a 3 hours delay in Atlanta. I went to NY on monday to meet our school alumni at PwC. They were simply superb. We discussed the opportunities at PwC in various practices over lunch. They were simple, practical, and understanding. They told that they will try to put me through the Performance Improvement practice guys.
On Tuesday, I woke-up at 5 AM to go to NY and meet Citibank guys. It was a good meeting and I learned about the opportunities at Citicards from the experience of the current Associates.
On Wednesday, I was home lazying around and sleeping for most of the time.
On Thursday, I went to meet a Principal at a Investment Bank. He is an alum of our school. I concluded from this experience that I will not get into IB.
Friday I was at home and went to visit Sridhar in Stamford, CT along with Swaroop. Both are friends from B.Tech. I spent saturday with them and we went to watch Taare Zameen Par. It was a nice movie.
I came to NY on Sunday noon to meet an Associate at McKinsey. He was straightforward. We discussed about consulting and his experience. He told just one thing: IF YOU ARE COMMITTED TO CONSULTING, YOU WILL GET A JOB IN THAT FIELD. How truthful can it be.

I continue to receive news that hurt me. I am numbed by now to feel sad for that.

Sixteenth Week - The final week of CORE

We had 3 exams this week. They were ok if not great. I was sending out emails to people all along the week to get an appointment to talk to them.

Friday was my birthday and that was the end of core day. We had finance final in the morning and I took some rest before going to the Bluebird at 8:45 PM. It was whole lot of fun an our team presented a card to our mentor. She has been helpful all along the way till now.

I am going to miss my team. Now we will be taking electives and everyone will form their own team. Everyone i my team is so sweet and diverse. Th following is my team

1. A lady, who worked for non-profit
2. A man, who worked as an engineer in crash testing of cars
3. A lady, who worked as an accountant for a huge oil company
4. An young man, who had just 1 year of experience but good marketing ideas
5. Finally me.


I came to New York to meet some people here and enjoy with my friends and cousins. I tried to maintain this blog till now. I hope I will be able to do that in the future though I am a little skeptic now.

Fifteenth week...

This is the last week of classes. Turns out that I am going to miss the hectic core. It has been really demanding through out from personal as well as professional perspective. Things did not materialize as I wished they could. We gave a standing ovation to all the professors in the last class. They were very impressed. That's what differentiates Kelley. You feel significant. You feel that you are a part of the happenings. You fee that you have a great number of friends for help.

We had two finals. One on Friday and one on Saturday. They are supposed to be alright. I don't know. I am going to New Jersey the coming Sunday. I will be there for 2 weeks and am trying to meet people at various firms. Nothing much of a progress has been made till now. The main motive is to meet my friends and the cousins I have over there in Jersey and NY.

Finally, one of my friend was telling that he heard that MBA is all about Networking. That's perfectly true. Business is all about relationships and you need to get acquainted with new people easily and get the business done. It applies to jobs as well. We need to look social to the interviewer and show interest in their firm. I am trying to do that. I have sent more than 70 emails in the last 3 days asking people to help me understand the opportunities at their firms and about their work. Again, I am partially successful. Some people replied. I feel happy whenever I see a reply from them. It means that your email is not a waste of time for them and its not Junk. I am learning a lot. I thank Kelley for putting me into this process.

Fourteenth Week..

The week started on a slow note. I missed the first class on Monday as I could not get up before 8 AM. I made up for that on Tuesday. On Wednesday I attended classes from 8 AM to Evening 5 PM as one of my friends wanted to attend my classes on Thursday. I was at home Thursday sleeping and enjoying for more time.

I contested for the President of Consulting Club. My plan was to contest for Vice President. But, after I spoke to current president, she asked me to contest for President. I did that. I got into the race just one day before the voting. I did a great presentation. But, I lost the election. Can you guess how much margin I lost by? ONE VOTE. Yes. It’s so minimal. The new resident and the current presidents and others are asking me to run for VP. I don’t want people to fee that whatever initiatives I am planning are not targeted for a position. I would carry them even I don’t have a position. That’s what I told them.

Others are asking me to get into Alumni relations so that I can help not only Consulting Club but school in general. I need to decide that by tonight. I am not sure. Coming to the Chicago trip, many people showed interest and we will do that. We will be contacting the firms starting this Monday. We had a case competition on Monday and lost in the third round. My opponent won the final round too. There is a $400 iPod as gift. I missed it. :-( .

ON the personal front, my parents are trying hard to do arrange the things for my sister's visa. I hope everything goes smooth this time. All in all, I am suffering, coming up and enjoying my small victories and trying to improve myself. B-School gives us a great opportunity to improve our weak areas. For someone it is soft skills like leadership skills and for someone it is analytical skills. I am improving my soft skills and I am happy with my performance thus far. Next week we have final exams starting up. I have to read at least something. :).

Thirteenth Week..

We have holidays the whole of this week. It was a much needed break after 3 months of arduous Kelley Core. I was at home for the first 4 days watching movies all the time. I did watch 3-4 movies a day. It was a fun break.

Then I had a friend from Champaign visiting and together we went to Louisville. We have a friend over there and we spent two days over there. We went to a casino and it was too costly man. We had to bet a minimum of 15 dollars per bet. We won the first bet and got 15. But, we lost the other two and so we stopped that there.

Then we went home and played poker for fun. We played till 4 AM in the morning. It is really an interesting game. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and played videogame football. Then we were on the road at 5 PM and reached Bloomington by 7 PM. My friend left at 8 PM to Champaign.

Twelfth week..

Not many things..We made it to the finals in case competition but lost it it there. We worked till 5 AM on the day of the Case presentation. In the first round, professors liked our idea. Man, we put so much effort into making the slides that I could not believe myself that we came up with such great slides. If we compare them with our initial slides (we had a case comp when we joined MBA), we made a dramatic improvement. Judges from Cummins and Whirl-pool gave feedback in the final and they recounted that our slides were good.

My sister did not get the visa. She has been working hard alone to come to US for MS. My parents were upset. But not me. After all, we have put in the best efforts. Its to the chance now.
Ofcourse, we will be trying once again in a month or so.

Eleventh Week..

I scored slightly below average in Quant Final. I am not worried about that. Also, we are doing some case preparation and it was going alright. We had a class on real options strategy and it was really good. The pricing strategy in marketing was awesome. I want to read something on price wars and pricing strategy.

Coming Thursday we have an internal case competition and I am excited about it. We worked hard on the case over the weekend. It was a nice case.

Coming to contacting Alumni and have informational interviews, I spoke to around 6 people in the last week. They were really receptive. Some of them even talked about the problems they faced as a consultant and how their new job after consulting has been going on. I am really happy that we really have so eager alumni, who can give insider insights at the consulting firms.

As I told, I got the money from my friend though I have not yet spending them. Also, I got the money from my PF and that helped me pay installment of the loans back in India.

Tenth Week..

It was so fast that I did not realize that we are through with it. Days are just rolling by. I did a little of case preparation. We had to submit marketing memo and quant assignment on the same day. We worked till 12 for memo and I could not get up to go to the class the next morning. That made me bunk the class for the first time. It is a finance class.
I realized that day that I have to take a break when I can no longer push myself without sacrificing efficiency. We successfully submitted the marketing memo and quant assignment. The marketing classes have been interesting. The pricing strategies are really mind blowing. I want to do some reading on pricing and price wars.
Our quant professor told that they are looking for PhD candidates to teach. It seems that they will pay upwards of $100,000 to a professor and that goes up if the professor is from accounting. Those made me think again about my plan to get a PhD. But, I convinced myself that I need to work for some time before going for a PhD.
I got some contacts at big consulting firms while searching over the net and wrote to them asking for information. One of them replied and asked me to call her at 5 Pm on Tuesday. I have to prepare for the phone call. Also, I got in touch with our professor to discuss about a trip to big consulting firms. He told that it is a good idea and he can help me set this up. Also, he suggested that one of the recent alums arranged a similar thing and asked me to get in touch with him. I emailed him and got a reply. I need to speak to him on Monday.
We have just one more week of classes before the case competition. Case competition contributes 10% to the semester marks, so it is an important event.
Also, I am a part of the Toast masters and next Monday I am the key speaker. I have to prepare for that too. My english is not that great and I need to improve spoken communication. My accent is british and sometimes it is becoming difficult for peoplr to get me. My written communication is good.
I am out of the money that I brought from home. I need to call my friend and get the money. Time has become the biggest constraint these days. We need to manage so many things yet, I set myself free over the weekends and watch movies and talk with friends.

Ninth Week..

Ninth week was the one with no surprises. We are getting along easily and its been a slow week. Not much of a pressure. I started off my case preparation on a good note though its a long journey for cases. Everything has been going fine. I was speaking to my sister and we took a date for her visa, 23-Nov. We are trying to make all the arrangements at back home in India, gathering money and putting that into bank.

We did not have any assignments due in this week. But, we have a marketing memo and quant assignment for next week. So, we worked on quant and are almost done. My team is a real cute team. We plan a lot and work together for the common goal. We are working on the marketing memo now. It is due on Wednesday. Finance class has been pretty good. We are studying options.

We had a faculty auction. We can bid for dinner with a faculty member. The proceedings will go to a cancer institute. We won the bid for our Operations professor. He is very nice and approachable. I am looking forward to the dinner with him. There was a horror play at school. I wanted to go but dropped out at the last minute.

Guess what. I took my teammates for dinner to an Indian Restaurant and they liked the food a lot. They asked me to come for the Halloween party. I was not able to decide and they persisted. Finally, I did go. I got a Tiger outfit from my teammate. I did go in that. I will try to post the pictures in next post.

The core semester is running very fast. We are around 60% done and just 1.5 more months and we will be done with the semester. How fast it is.

A boy, his dreams and reality...

That was December-14-1982. People didn’t know whether it was a good or bad day. They still don't. Only the future will tell that. But, they celebrated it a lot.

A boy born on that day, three days after his aunt died of appendicitis. He grew up in a village of small size studying with Telugu as the medium of instruction. He never knew what happened outside that village. His maternal grandmother used to come visit him once in a fortnight. She used to bring lots of chocolates and ice creams. He used to boast with friends that he has all the things in this world. He got the second straight handle cycle in his village and he showed that off. He was not the topper in class until 4th class.

It took a turn in 4th standard. He worked hard and became the topper of the class. His mother worked in the same school. His father is a banker. He has got the advantage from both of them. He was got the math skills and science skills. But, there was a competitor who always beat this guy in math and science and this guy bet the competitor in all others there by maintaining his edge.

He used to play with his friends at the temple site. They used to play a lot of cricket. Once his mother sent him to get some groceries and he went to play cricket and did not turn up until late. His father chided him for that. On another occasion, he did not want to go to school and was telling stories to his father. His father bet him with the power cord of their old radio. It was the first and last one from his father.

It was 1994. He became the topper in his manadal(a small group of villages) in 7th standard. He celebrated it with his teachers by buying cool-drinks (INR 3 each) for them. Everyone was happy. His father never came to school. There was never a requirement to come.

He did not work hard for the next 2 years and lost his edge. He topped his class in 10th standard but, could not top the boys from other schools. The time has come for his father to decide on where to send him for his intermediate (+1, +2). They could not afford the high fees being charged at some of the best schools. They were ambivalent till the last moment and decided to go to a good school. Went to a couple of schools but they were late. Seats were filled up. After searching for ac couple of more schools, they got a seat in one. He did not have the money for school. His grandfather and relatives helped him. His father did whatever he can and arranged the money.

The medium of instruction was English. He could not understand many of the things. In one chemistry class He spelt principle as principal and got the wrath of his chemistry lecturer. But, his math skills helped him and he moved to the top section after quarterly review. He got the best training possible. He Worked hard and could not spend money as he did not have much. He stuck to his friends from his village and worked on hard on physics as it was his best interest.

Things turned out positive and he got a rank of 185 out of more than 100,000 contestants for one of the engineering entrance exams. He did not have the money to pay the deposit for Undergard School. Again, his father borrowed it just the day before the admission day and He got a seat at one of the best colleges in the country.

He moved to the undergrad school after spending a couple of months in his home village. It’s a new world and new people. He was a conservative boy through out and he remained the same. He mingled with everyone nicely but, he has got a core team of friends. They played hard but never studied. He was able to get first class and a job finally. He has big dreams. But, He joined that manufacturing firm and worked over the hot pouring steel. He had to work in night shifts and learnt it the hard way.

After one year he moved to work in his uncle's firm. Then he moved to work with one of the software firms. He could not find much of these things interesting and that made him think about his forgotten dreams. He worked on them. But, he almost failed when the last ray of hope did turn in. He just jumped on to the last thread of hope and is hanging there now. This was one of the threads that he dreamt of in his under graduation 4 years ago. There were many personal failures along the line, he was able to cope up and come out. He was passionate about his people, his work and his way. He lived life his way.

Now, at 25 years of age, he is trying to use the new thread to go to the places which he did not see before and was dreaming to see. He has to invest some of the things that he did not possess and tried hard to do that. Again, he almost failed to get them till one of his relatives came to help.. Now here he is..Pursuing the dream..Sometimes thinking whether this is what he wanted..

Eighth Week..

Eighth week is called Academy Intensive Week. As the name suggests the week is really intensive. It all started on Monday, when we were formed into groups and were given assignments to present on Wednesday. We have a total of 8 teams’ presenting on 4 firms. Deloitte, Huron, PwC, McKinsey. For every firm there are two teams - A and B. I am with McKinsey B.

The objective is simple. Prepare a presentation that depicts to MBA students why should they join a particular firm. We were a team of 7 and worked on constructing a story to collecting the data. There are many takeaways from this assignment.

1. Know the audience. The story should be carved to the audience.
2. There should be a flow in the presentation. The story should seem natural and not jumping around from one thing to the other.
3. The presentation should not have many typed words. It should have many graphs and pictures and the presenter should talk about them in the presentation and should not read from the points that were there on the slide.
4. There should be a clear coordination among the members when they are exchanging the presenting positions.
5. You should anticipate possible questions based on the audience and be prepared for them.
6. While answering the questions, one person should answer and not everyone should jump on it.
7. Answer the question that audience has got and never try to evade it with some goofy answer.

We did a good job as per my view. The other important take away is time management and team dynamics. We lagged in time management because we have only 2 days to prepare this presentation and did not allocate time for each activity and stick to it. We all agreed that that is a lesson for us.

The team dynamics is other important aspect. We will come across conflicts and resolved them. We did not debate much due to time constraints. We learnt that we have to kill an idea even if it is mine and does not fit into the scheme of things.

And finally, we got second place among the eight teams presented. I was happy with it. We worked for 17 hours on two consecutive days and it paid off finally.

That’s the story for first 3 days. On Thursday we went to Chicago to meet our alumni and present what we have prepared the 3 days before. We went to Deloitte, Huron, and PwC. We can see the clear differences in their cultures and styles. Some are more informal than the others. Some are more open than the others. Some are more entrepreneurial than the other. That’s what is called Fit. Consulting companies look for fit when they recruit people. That’s the first step in the recruitment process.

Last but not least is the friends I have made in these 5 days. Now my McKinsey B team is really close. We fight and share and enjoy. Consulting life is tough and rough. But, if you want to be in consulting, you have to endure all these.

Seventh Week..

The three things that matter to you in life and career are
1. Curiosity
2. Passion
3. Integrity.


We had a guest for our Sunday’s AIW kick-off. He is an alum of Kelley and had worked with A.T.Kearney for 18 years. He retired as the head of the firm. He worked all over the world and his story of his life has been amazing.

The past week is one with mixed results. The economics and Critical thinking results were out and I did not fare really well on those. Indeed I fared blow the mean. That’s a huge concern. Also, we submitted the Marketing memo on Colgate and it’s been really tough to come up with the recommendations. We worked from 2 PM to 11 PM over the last Sunday and so we were comfortable submitting that on Tuesday.

Similarly, we worked a lot on Quant assignment also. SO, we had an easy time submitting it on Saturday.

I had a couple of friends visiting me on Friday and we did go to Indianapolis and had some fun. We planned to go for an Indian movie in Indianapolis. Unfortunately I could not go. But, my friends went to the movie and came back to Bloomington again. We went to the Indian restaurant over here and it’s really good. I took some rest after that and went to bed a little early at 10 PM.

We did go to Wal-Mart on Sunday and I bought some essential stuff as the winter is on the horizon. All in all it is a good week and how can I miss to mention about the Finance midterm on last Friday? It seems I did pretty well on the exam. I really believe that Finance is one of my core competencies and I am really curious about the results.

Deviation..Nostalgic..

I always felt that I am indifferent to feelings. That’s what I used to think. Nothing matters to me expect my work and duties. Especially, there is no room for sentiments.

But, I am feeling a lot nostalgic for the past 2 days. The cool people, simple life and countryside back home in India are my frequent reminiscences. I am fighting back and am able to come back. But, when I think of my hometown, i feel a deep hole down my heart. Its the balance between pursuing the dream and missing the basic things that made me what I am today. I love you my Mother, My Dad, My Sweet Sister, My Grandma, I love you my Home village. I will come, may not be sooner but later.

I wrote this post deviating from the normal routine of one post per week to shar my feelings. After all, this blog knows more about me than anyone else..

Sixth Week..

Sixth week has been the toughest so far and the most funniest. We are done with Economics mid-term yesterday and I feel that I did well. Anyway, feel and think does not matter in exams and only results matter.

The week started off with finance concepts in beta and portfolio performance. Its really great and intuitive. We completed the finance assignment due for next week. We have planned a lot in last week and we are able to complete ahead of the planned schedules. Add to that the good news from Accounting professor that there is no assignment for Accounting and its mistakenly given in the schedule. Finance and Accounting can be heaven if one gets the intuition and not just look the numbers as numbers. Numbers always tell a story. I am trying to look at the story and its been amazing. I am loving these two subjects a lot. On the other hand, if one looks at them only as numbers the subjects can be nightmarish.

The Data Analysis classes got into really good stuff. Decision Trees. I like them a lot. We really did not use them in my previous experience in Business Intelligence but I know that concept and that interest me a lot. We simulated simple decision trees for an airline company, an option pricing problem. Also, we started off with the Assignment for Data Analysis that is due next weekend. We progressed comfortably on that too.

I did not tell about marketing previously. But, it’s the most energetic session that we come across. The professor has got lots of experience in various business schools and he is simply superb. I observed that most of the marketing sessions are last in the schedule. We have to attend those after two grueling 1:15 minute sessions in the morning. But, Boy! No one feels weak in that class. Professor runs all around and makes sure that everyone in the class participates. I love that. He emphasizes one point always. CUSTOMER IS KING.

One of my friends went to NSHMBA Conference. He doesn’t want to miss the classes and so we swapped the classes. It means that I will get a full day off on one day and have to attend full day of classes on the next day. I did attend the full day of classes on Thursday from 8 A.M to 5 P.M. I could not grab lunch in between the sessions as the half an hour I got from 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM as I had an appointment with a second year to discuss some things.

Guess what. The afternoon 4.5 hours on Thursday we have strategy and operations case together. That is both the Strategy professor and Operations professor take the class along together. That has been amazing. Though I felt a little weak for the lack of sleep last night and lunch in the noon, my interest in operations helped to move me forward. I made meaningful contributions in Operations and not that much in Strategy. But, I am able to discern the problems in the company’s strategy clearly. I spoke to the strategy professor at the end of the class regarding the fall of the company we discussed in the case. She told. “Boy! The fall of ABC”. That sound like a title for a good book. We had some humor and then I headed home.

Fortunately, on Wednesday I have completed 5 chapters out of the 6 for Economics exam. After heading home I realized that I forgot my Laptop charger at school. I can not do anything with out my lappy and so have to rush back to school. I lost one hour in the process of getting the charger. Then I got into Economics immediately and glanced through the last chapter and then through some of the previous quizzes and the midterm. As I told earlier, I think I did well in the exam.

Its not the end of the story. DELOITTE guys are on campus to give us a taste of case interview and we had a case workshop. They gave some insightful comments into how they evaluate people in case interviews and the main dos and don’ts.

I have spent two 16 hour days in school in this week while we were doing the assignments that I have mentioned earlier. I could not sleep for 6 hours a day and sometimes I woke up after 5 hours and could not sleep. I like that. May be I got accustomed to 5 hour sleep. :-).

Fifth Week..

It does not feel so. I am transformed in just four weeks. I think fast and do things faster. Last Sunday I went to dinner with a friend from M.S. It was fun. We went 3 hours and it was awesome. I met a person outside MBA for the first time and we talked about things other than MBA. I returned at 10:30 PM and read two cases till 1:30 AM before going to bed.

Monday started with the Finance Manager from INTEL talking about one of the projects that they are considering. It was about NPV calculation and I have participated in the case to the extent I can. It was really good. The marketing cases are always lengthy but they are fun to read.

Accounting has got a case to be read and I did read it. How can I miss it? We discussed the income statements and analyzing them. Operations class has been interesting all along and it is getting into real life scenarios. Next week we have to simulate a real factory scenario. I have to work with my team mate on that over the weekend.

There are many companies that came to campus this week. Delloitte, Discover, Microsoft, Huron and many more. I attended most of them, just to know about their operations.

I am done with the critical thinking exam today and I wrote the paper in 1 hour as opposed to the exam time of 2 hours. Have to look how I have done. Last week Quant midterm results came out and I scored 68. The mean was 70. I don’t mind. I am around the mean and that’s fine in that subject for me.

Also, I have attended the consulting club event. We will have case cracker sessions from next Friday onwards. How can I miss them? I love and love cases. I am going through some casebooks and am able to navigate through the case in a structured manner. I have to improve a lot on that. Also, I spoke to the second year guy, who is the current Vice President of professional development for consulting club. I talked to him about the tasks he take up and the difficulties and hurdles in the post. I would like to work in that post. I like developing others as part of the strategy and in turn developing my interpersonal skills.

Next week there are many home works lined up. I know. I tell the same thing every week. But, that’s the truth. It gets intense as we go on and I hope to cope up with that.

Fourth Week..

I have to write this post yesterday evening. But I could not. Man, when second years and faculty told that CORE will be overwhelming and when I got through it for the first 3 weeks easily, I thought they had been exaggerating. An it turned out to be a big NO. I was toppled by CORE this week.

I got 96/100 in Finance quiz and 98/100 in accounting quiz. And I screwed up Data Analysis mid-term big-time. Of course, I have 8 subjects to study and my target is to excel in 5 of them and doing ok with in 3. I am trying to do the things on the same line.

We had to read a case every day and sometimes a couple of them and do a lot of other things side by side for networking stuff. It takes best of your organization skills to balance your work and relations. I figured out to do things in an order. I will do what requires my attention immediately. Then I will do the next one to that. I figured out that it is the optimum way I can do the things.

Coming to the Classes, they are in full swing as I told. We had to do Cases in Finance, Accounting, Operations and all. Economics got interesting when we discussed about FED funds rate cut. And how can miss to mention Marketing. One of the second years told earlier that once Marketing Professor comes to into the course, you think that you are working only on marketing. It’s perfectly true. He made us read 50 pages per day for every class of his and made us interview a consumer outside. We interviewed the mother of one of our teammates about her thinking and preferences when she bought a new Refrigerator recently. Marketing is really a fun class.

We had Consulting Academy Kick-off day on Friday. Many consultants (many of them Managing Directors at their firms) came and told us how they recruit, what they work on and how life in general as a consultant. Then in the evening we went play golf with them. This is the first time I am playing golf and you can expect the out come..:-).

We have assignments to be submitted on Monday and Wednesday. My team wants to meet on Sunday to finish them off. So, we can count Sunday as a working day. That makes only Saturday as the free day..We have a china night today and will attend that. It is an event organized by our Chinese batch mates.

I am freaking a lot on weekends. I watch movies till 4:30 AM and wake up at 10:30 AM. This is life on a fast lane, May be supersonic lane. I am enjoying it though..

Third Week.

We are into the MBA Core deeply. It can take the soul from you away. It excites you to do so many things and gives you less time than ever to do those things. It's awesome.

Good news first. I have been selected for Students Admissions Council (SAC). Its not a great feat. We have 120 people for 60 positions. I felt really cool for this. I am excited to meet the new prospective students. It is going to start in a week or two. All those excited souls visiting campus to get a taste of the school. Every SAC member will do things like taking the prospective student to a class or for a building tour or information session. Drop me an email and we can try to meet even if you are not assigned to me for the day of visit.

I have been accepted into the consulting academy and so it begins.

I am really weighing my options as I go through the courses. Finance has been amazing. I am really impressed with the topics and their application. It is still on the top of my major list. The professor is amazing.

Accounting is getting into difficult areas and I am doing my home work to keep up with the pace. The good thing is Finance and Accounting involve numbers and I really love to deal with numbers.

Operations class was really good. We did a Case in which we can really see the effect of inventory and lead time. I am excited as I can bring in some perspectives from my previous experience and can relate them to the case. I read "The Goal" and submitted the summary. I was awake till 2 AM on that day to read 200 pages.

We have attended around four presentations by companies for summer internship. Man, you are into the classes only for 3 weeks and here you are trying to do something for internship. Thats what B-school is. Balance in a b-school is really tough. You got to read 8 subjects and so many social events and it takes good prioritization skills to swim through all these things.

I am happy for one thing. I am getting what I want - The Excitement of a world class program where you can meet the best people. Did I tell you that I am sitting in the first bench? :-) .

We have submitted one assignment for critical thinking and attended one Finance quiz today. The quiz is really good. Though it's not really tough, it tested the concepts that we learnt till today. We came to know that as we get into the course, it really gets tough.

Also, I have joined the Consulting club. It is different from Consulting Academy. Academies help you to get in touch with recruiters through networking events. Club helps you to be familiar with case interviews and other education stuff. Just an hour before I wrote this, my laptop almost crashed.

I tried some junk stuff on vista themes and it made my system unstable. Fortunately, I am able to recover the system after a little struggle.