Random thoughts...
I took half an hour out now, just stopped and decided to take a break... i have been so carried away by the pace of activities in the past one month that I have hardly had any time for myself... I look back, see my blog and Gawd, so many typos... In all the hurry and furious pace at which life happens in ISB, though I am happy about the amount of blogging I have done, I guess I have killed my writing style completely... my typing skills too...
I am becoming a fan of Jazz now... Someone uploaded Chicago and I saw it for the umpteenth time... The music and the lyrics combine for a very special effect in the movie... I have been listening to not just the music from this movie but more Jazz in general... Ad for Chicago, "All that Jazz", "Funny Honey", "All I care about" and "Razzle Dazzle" are simple too good... But nothing beats "Cell Block Tango" and "Mister Cellophane"...
That said, ARR had me captivated with "Yedho Yedho" from "Unakku 20 Enakku 18"...
Ilayaraja scores another terrific one with "Virumaandi"... This is a tamil for the uninitiated...
I have been cooking a lot of late... nice distraction... I love cooking and with the help of my friend Arti, have been learning to cook a few things... Not bad says my room mate Saurabh...
I was also checking out a few IIM blogs today... interesting... Im still culling out a few others from those IIMites who have been nice enough to leave a comment or two in my blog... thanks guys...
http://sidin.blogspot.com/
http://theultimatereality.blogspot.com/
http://iimhell.rediffblogs.com/
http://sathishvm.blogspot.com/
http://blogavind.rediffblogs.com/
Finally, here is a blog post that doesnt talk anything about ISB and hopefully no typos as well... life is limping back to normal :)
Friday, January 30, 2004
There have been a few questions about the microsoft interview and the kind of roles that are being offered in the IT industry and the kind of interviews these companies conduct. Here is a quick take on these.
The Microsoft Interview was for the post of a "program manager". Now, if you want to know more about this role as well as the typical MS interview for this, read the book, "How to move mount fuji". The interviews they conduct for ISB grads is exactly the same as the process discussed in this book and the questions were the same type too. Puzzles, system design problems but NOTHING technical unless you have a tech background or a tech undergrad degree. I faltered in the last round and took a long time to crack the puzzle that was given to me. I had to pick up hints from them. They ended up picking 5 students and the pay packets are pretty impressive, as has always been from MS.
Roles in IT companies have all been techno commercial, like Business Development, Program Management, Consulting, Marketing, Sales, Account Management and Client relationship management with P&L responsibility. IT companies are of course always ready to take you in a project manager if you are interested.
The CTS interview as well as the Wipro one was more of a fit interview to see if they are able to fit me into positions they have open. In CTS, my telecom/datacom background did not fit in well as they do not do much work in these areas as compared to other companies. I cud have shifted to other verticals but was not keen to do so. Some others did that. CTS also had different panels asking different questions, with one panel screwing us guys with marketing role plays. It was fun though. They made 12 offers.
The Infy interview was a bit different, in that I was looking at their enterprise solutions practice, which was a shift for me. I wanted to explore opportunities there after whatever I heard from alums. They did test my knowledge of general technology strategy, specifically with respect to enterprise solutions, and liked me. But I cudnt agree with the role and offer. If I remember right they made upwards of 20 offers.
Wipro was a company I was looking forward to, because of the amount of work they do for datacom equipment manufacturers and in embedded systems, my niche before coming to ISB. I was gunning for a business development position there but they had no openings as these arent full fledged verticals in which they do consulting as of now (atleast thats what I heard from one of fellow students who had worked in these groups before ISB). If I am not mistaken they offered around 10. They were looking at fit too.
There are a few other IT companies, like Techspan that do check up on your technical capabilities a little, but no company has made a technical interview a pre-requisite for an offer. So, if techies out there are concerned if MBA students are still being asked a TCP 3 way handshake, rest assured that your MBA is being valued and you are being offered roles commensurate with your experience.
All these interviews also want to see how good you are with what you have done. They ask you your successes, your failures, why ISB and what we have learnt from ISB. They look at your team management skills and try to relate that to your experience. Experience in IT is not a pre-requisite, especially with domain specialists commanding fat pay packets.
I have one offer which I am still discussing and I have another which is likely to come. They both are so fluid that I dont want to talk about them yet.
Otherwise, McK and BCG picked up one each. TSMG picked up 5. IBM has made 3 offers until now. AT Kearny, Accenture are yet to interview. Goldman Sachs london compelted a few first round interviews and are flying 4 students to London for the final rounds. HSBC made one I-banking offer in London. There are many more numbers but I cant seem to remember them offhand.
More than half the class has been placed and the way things are going, I predict that we will complete placements well in advance. The CAS office has done a stupendous job. We still have quite a few good companies like DSP ML, Accenture, PeopleSoft, Morgan Stanley, Astra Zeneca etc to go. More updates to follow and hopefully by the time I write next, I have finalized where I will be going.
The Microsoft Interview was for the post of a "program manager". Now, if you want to know more about this role as well as the typical MS interview for this, read the book, "How to move mount fuji". The interviews they conduct for ISB grads is exactly the same as the process discussed in this book and the questions were the same type too. Puzzles, system design problems but NOTHING technical unless you have a tech background or a tech undergrad degree. I faltered in the last round and took a long time to crack the puzzle that was given to me. I had to pick up hints from them. They ended up picking 5 students and the pay packets are pretty impressive, as has always been from MS.
Roles in IT companies have all been techno commercial, like Business Development, Program Management, Consulting, Marketing, Sales, Account Management and Client relationship management with P&L responsibility. IT companies are of course always ready to take you in a project manager if you are interested.
The CTS interview as well as the Wipro one was more of a fit interview to see if they are able to fit me into positions they have open. In CTS, my telecom/datacom background did not fit in well as they do not do much work in these areas as compared to other companies. I cud have shifted to other verticals but was not keen to do so. Some others did that. CTS also had different panels asking different questions, with one panel screwing us guys with marketing role plays. It was fun though. They made 12 offers.
The Infy interview was a bit different, in that I was looking at their enterprise solutions practice, which was a shift for me. I wanted to explore opportunities there after whatever I heard from alums. They did test my knowledge of general technology strategy, specifically with respect to enterprise solutions, and liked me. But I cudnt agree with the role and offer. If I remember right they made upwards of 20 offers.
Wipro was a company I was looking forward to, because of the amount of work they do for datacom equipment manufacturers and in embedded systems, my niche before coming to ISB. I was gunning for a business development position there but they had no openings as these arent full fledged verticals in which they do consulting as of now (atleast thats what I heard from one of fellow students who had worked in these groups before ISB). If I am not mistaken they offered around 10. They were looking at fit too.
There are a few other IT companies, like Techspan that do check up on your technical capabilities a little, but no company has made a technical interview a pre-requisite for an offer. So, if techies out there are concerned if MBA students are still being asked a TCP 3 way handshake, rest assured that your MBA is being valued and you are being offered roles commensurate with your experience.
All these interviews also want to see how good you are with what you have done. They ask you your successes, your failures, why ISB and what we have learnt from ISB. They look at your team management skills and try to relate that to your experience. Experience in IT is not a pre-requisite, especially with domain specialists commanding fat pay packets.
I have one offer which I am still discussing and I have another which is likely to come. They both are so fluid that I dont want to talk about them yet.
Otherwise, McK and BCG picked up one each. TSMG picked up 5. IBM has made 3 offers until now. AT Kearny, Accenture are yet to interview. Goldman Sachs london compelted a few first round interviews and are flying 4 students to London for the final rounds. HSBC made one I-banking offer in London. There are many more numbers but I cant seem to remember them offhand.
More than half the class has been placed and the way things are going, I predict that we will complete placements well in advance. The CAS office has done a stupendous job. We still have quite a few good companies like DSP ML, Accenture, PeopleSoft, Morgan Stanley, Astra Zeneca etc to go. More updates to follow and hopefully by the time I write next, I have finalized where I will be going.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
And it goes on and on and on...
Ok, after a long lull, here is an update...
the latest placement numbers:
47 companies have interviewed until now. 15 of them have gone back are discussing/negotiating with students they are interested in and are yet to make offers. Remaining 32 have made 148 offers! (Thats nearly 5 offers per company). More than half the class has offers, 123 to be precise. We still have around 70-80 companies to go, which makes it seem that everyone will get placed easily.
Mua, interviewed with Microsoft and lost out in the final round, interviewed with CTS and could not fit in my prior experience into their plans, interviewed with Wipro to find that they had no requirement for the position I was gunning for, rejected Infy coz I cudnt like the role they offered me, though I must say thats because of my preferences. I am negotiating with a couple of other ones, both of which will make me an offer after we finalize the terms. So, effectively I have two in the hand.
But this wasnt easy I must say. While CAS (Career and Alumni Service) has done a stupendous job of getting companies on campus, keeping them happy, sometimes co-ordinating upto 9 interviews on a single day there has been a lot of tension and anxeity about people who are yet to get offers. In fact, it was the case with me until through to my first offer. All this inspite of the fact that you know there are a number of companies yet to come, some really good ones at that. There are any good ones in that list. Though CAS has tried to invite companies in an order that suits our preferences, sometimes companies have their own constraints. BCG interviewed only in the third week, Goldman Sachs, London and HSBC London only yesterday and there are still a few international postings for which offers are yet to come.
At the end of the day though, we all realize that getting an offer is not the be all and end all. In fact, everyone I have spoken to had a plan B before this season and invariably, it was to do with their contacts and the confidence they had in being able to use them to get a good offer outside the campus, if the situation arises. Guess thats a good side effect of having worked for a few years before coming to bschool.
All the wonderful courses and great profs in this term have been making this term very interesting academically. We also have a couple if exchange students from Kellogg, Partick and Ian. Its been wonderful knowing them. Rajat Gupta will be in the campus today. Looking forward to his class on Leadership and Transformation. Got to go and read up the case now.
Ok, after a long lull, here is an update...
the latest placement numbers:
47 companies have interviewed until now. 15 of them have gone back are discussing/negotiating with students they are interested in and are yet to make offers. Remaining 32 have made 148 offers! (Thats nearly 5 offers per company). More than half the class has offers, 123 to be precise. We still have around 70-80 companies to go, which makes it seem that everyone will get placed easily.
Mua, interviewed with Microsoft and lost out in the final round, interviewed with CTS and could not fit in my prior experience into their plans, interviewed with Wipro to find that they had no requirement for the position I was gunning for, rejected Infy coz I cudnt like the role they offered me, though I must say thats because of my preferences. I am negotiating with a couple of other ones, both of which will make me an offer after we finalize the terms. So, effectively I have two in the hand.
But this wasnt easy I must say. While CAS (Career and Alumni Service) has done a stupendous job of getting companies on campus, keeping them happy, sometimes co-ordinating upto 9 interviews on a single day there has been a lot of tension and anxeity about people who are yet to get offers. In fact, it was the case with me until through to my first offer. All this inspite of the fact that you know there are a number of companies yet to come, some really good ones at that. There are any good ones in that list. Though CAS has tried to invite companies in an order that suits our preferences, sometimes companies have their own constraints. BCG interviewed only in the third week, Goldman Sachs, London and HSBC London only yesterday and there are still a few international postings for which offers are yet to come.
At the end of the day though, we all realize that getting an offer is not the be all and end all. In fact, everyone I have spoken to had a plan B before this season and invariably, it was to do with their contacts and the confidence they had in being able to use them to get a good offer outside the campus, if the situation arises. Guess thats a good side effect of having worked for a few years before coming to bschool.
All the wonderful courses and great profs in this term have been making this term very interesting academically. We also have a couple if exchange students from Kellogg, Partick and Ian. Its been wonderful knowing them. Rajat Gupta will be in the campus today. Looking forward to his class on Leadership and Transformation. Got to go and read up the case now.
Monday, January 12, 2004
The first few days of placements...
the past 4 days have been sheer madness... sheer madness...
there have been interviews and offers galore...
before I go onto the numbers, caveat: these are unofficial numbers and I am solely responsible for these details...
Thats 33 offers over the weekend... 5 overseas... Mck, Dell, GE, GECIS, Deutsche Bank, LNM group, CTS have made offers...
Microsoft, Citibank, JP Morgan, ICICI and HLL have interviewed but have not yet announced offers or still are in the process of selection...
Mua made it to the second round of Microsoft and now am thinking, eating, breathing and living the microsoft interview process... Disappointments were not making CTS after being interviewed and the RedHat shortlist, which I badly wanted...
Salary details are confidential and a strict no-no but let me just say that, they have been surprisingly pleasant numbers, atleast until now...
The madness continues now... everyday... and will for another one month! this is killing, atleast until that first offer comes by your way... watch this space for sporadic updates...
the past 4 days have been sheer madness... sheer madness...
there have been interviews and offers galore...
before I go onto the numbers, caveat: these are unofficial numbers and I am solely responsible for these details...
Thats 33 offers over the weekend... 5 overseas... Mck, Dell, GE, GECIS, Deutsche Bank, LNM group, CTS have made offers...
Microsoft, Citibank, JP Morgan, ICICI and HLL have interviewed but have not yet announced offers or still are in the process of selection...
Mua made it to the second round of Microsoft and now am thinking, eating, breathing and living the microsoft interview process... Disappointments were not making CTS after being interviewed and the RedHat shortlist, which I badly wanted...
Salary details are confidential and a strict no-no but let me just say that, they have been surprisingly pleasant numbers, atleast until now...
The madness continues now... everyday... and will for another one month! this is killing, atleast until that first offer comes by your way... watch this space for sporadic updates...
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