A day in life...

Prof. Mudit Kapoor once said in class that a B-School is nothing but a glorified placement agency. And it truly is! Last weekend was probably the most exhausting weekend I ever had - it was the first day of on-campus placements and boy was I wrong when I thought it is gonna be ok. I had 4 interviews lined up on the same day (some guys had 7.. I cant imagine how they managed to attend all) and was totally psyched out the night before. Couldn't get a minute's sleep - my whole career was melting down in my dreams and I woke up at 5 a.m. - something that I could never do at ISB till that day... the weather is so pleasant in the mornings that all I could think of doing when alarm goes off is to snuggle even more comfortably inside the rug and sleep. I am drifting off from the main topic here... yes.. Day 1 of placements...

The madness started around 7:30 a.m. and I didnt know when I stepped outta home that I am gonna return after 12 hrs thoroughly famished, hungry and with swollen feet due to the damn heeled shoe that I bought for the interviews! There were excited chats and nervous laughs throughout the academic centres - people wishing each other good luck as they ran past for the next interviews, temporary eat-outs arranged by the cafeteria guys for us to grab a bite now n then, student volunteers who were doing everything from calling ppl to come for interviews to bringing out food/water for the exhausted souls.

I remember feeling nervous just before the first GD for a conglomerate because it was going to be the second interview of my life and the first one ever for a job. After that it was all a blur. I didnt remember what I said in any of the interviews - in fact at one point I felt so frustrated n tired that when the recruiter asked me "Who would you put as brand ambassador for our insurance product?", I answered "P.Chidambaram". I think he was so taken aback that he ended the interview within the next 30 seconds. Now I feel like laughing but it could have had disastrous results :D. Anyways.. all is well that ends well.. I managed to bag a good offer. Now all that remains to be seen is how am I gonna spend the next two and a half months at ISB.

I mentioned placement volunteers somewhere - just wanted to add a note on them. These ppl were not attending interviews on Day-1 but they were so willing to assist those who did! In my mind, that meant some character... what it takes to sweat for others to bag great offers when your own future is still uncertain. My respect for the ISB community as a whole grew multiple folds because of this one day's experience - there are some real good leaders in the making at this place. Probably, this is what Drucker meant when he said "Management is about doing things right but leadership is about doing the right things"...

Some of the exchange students who came here mentioned that they do not have a placement process per se back at their schools. That made me appreciate what ISB's placement cell (aka CAS) is doing for us. Yea.. it could also mean brand building, strengthening the alumni network etc etc but it works well for us who are forced to compete in a market where thousands of better managers are unemployed. 

On the flipside, many students are yet to be placed but we still have time before graduation and sincerely hope that all of us have the best job in hand on the day of graduation. This wasn't the mood on the day of orientation - each one of us was picturing him/herself as the one who is gonna make it big.. really big... as it had been in the previous years. No one would have believed that future held such a disastrous chain of events in store that basically shook the roots of our confidence. Well.. life is a box of chocolates and you never know what u r gonna get :).  I guess it will definitely turn out well for everyone at the end..