Late night thoughts!

Well, 2 weeks to be done with the 3rd semester of MBA. As at most other B schools, pressure is on to find the right full time job. Job is the be all and end all thing for school administrations. This looks more like a company trying its very best to show good numbers for the financial quarter so that W-street folks are not pissed with it

I am not naive and understand the importance of finding a full time job. What i dont understand the un deserved emphasis placed on finding a job(this early) compared to the potential learnings at school. It is as if, once you are in your thrid semester people will treat as if you are just about to graduate. This corporate mindset of short term thinking( Early jobs) compared to long term ( Knowledge , more practicums , Assignments ) goals is very troubling for me. I quit my five year comfy job to get out of the rat race and gather some much deserved intellectual tonic.
More on this later. Have an exam tomorrow and need to get back to studying !

Death of the HR !!!

Not too long ago, if you knew someone in HR, the chances of getting a interview were pretty high. The HR team commanded immense power on who gets into the company. Organizations relied on this department to bring the best and brightest talent to their teams.

Many people still contend that the HR still wields considerable power. However, there is a thousand pound gorilla in the room which has changed the rules of the game. The "Online Portal" which invites suitable candidates to apply for advertised jobs. The idea is simple, get many suitable resumes on your computer, sort the best among them and send out interview invitations to the selected candidates. One simple problem to contend with, there are thousands of applications for each job and each candidate applies to hundreds and possibly thousands of jobs. All this results in the HR systems inundated with zillions of applications. In-spite of boasting application-screening software , all these software do is pick on certain keywords, certain action verbs , numbers quantifying applicant's magnificent work experience. Students/Job applicants know very well how these software solutions work, resulting in resumes which look almost identical in structuring , use of action verbs etc. All this boils down to a simple conclusion, the HR department is no longer in control of things who gets hired or at least through their web portals.

I am told multiple times, the below approaches are more fruitful for students.
* Networking with hiring managers or employees with influence in the company.
* Applying to the jobs through consultant services company. It seems
these contracting companies have a fast pass to the recruiters. Sad but true.

Relishing @Raleigh , North Carolina

Apologies for being dead on the blogging space for the past million months.
Here goes the updates from last few months.

• Gave GMAT for the nth time and scored a decent 680.
• Applied for a few schools and finally i decided to join North Carolina state univ , Business school.
• Landed @Raleigh , North Carolina during first week of August 2010.
• The first two months here at the school have been excellent. I am enjoying every second of my time here.
• I have been to several places in and around NC during my weekends here.

1. Mrytle beach
2. Asheboro nc zoo
3. Carrowinds charlotte nc
4. Lots of lakes around raleigh

I Plan to blog at least once a month and document my MBA experience at NCSU.

Have a great time people.

Sorry we are Indian , We don't get Laid {OFF} !

As the global economic crisis continues to make its presence felt , the Indian IT companies are feeling the pinch. With many projects downsized or scrapped by the clients , the IT companies are finding it very difficult to keep their workforce fully engaged in the projects.


As expected several companies are retrenching offers made to freshers , laying Off people who have been with the companies for as long as 12 years. None of this is unexpected as companies need to trim their excess workforce to keep afloat.






The bizzare thing starts as companies start to announce these reductions in workforce as some sort of performance pruning measure and maintain that none of this has anything to do with the economic crisis. Also the people who are getting Laid Off are too troumatized to announce that they are being fired and this is no voluntary resignation. The problem lies in the social outlook towards people who have got fired , somehow its the fault of the unlucky chap otherwise he wud have never got fired from Indian IT company. Indian IT companies have brought in lot of positive aspects into the our work place "Open Culture" , "Flat organization structures", calling your company CEO by his first name , competing with MNC for multi billion dollar projects and so on. Last but not least giving Brand INDIA its current sheen. After comming this far , it would be a sad if Indian IT companies do not show the transparency and call a Spade a Spade . FYI ....i havent yet got Laid {OFF} !

@12%

There goes another employee saying same tiresome statement "You need not pay any principal during your time @college, just serving the simple interest during this time will be enough". Oh Yeah .... its bloody easy to cough up 20,000 INR each for the next 18 months. The gentleman at the next bank asked myriad of questions as to "Why MBA?" , "Why Now?" , "Why CANADA?" , "What about the employment prospects?", "What do you have to say about the current recession and layoffs in western countries?" . I bet he has an alternate career as an Admissions committee member. I move over to another bank a few KM away, on inquiring about the education loans the employee retorts "You maintain your salary accounts at different private banks and when the time comes for Education loan you come looking for Public sector banks. How can we give loan to new customers , Sir "; That point really hit me hard and now i repent for not maintaining an account at any of the public sector banks for the last 4 yrs. Love them or Hate em , you cannot wish away the PS banks. Educational loans are almost exclusively granted by PS Banks and for all the Quaterly results noise made by the private banks, they are not interested in giving educational loans. I have learnt my lesson , only time will tell if i get a second chance to redemption. Add to this the constant pressure from Parents , Relatives who keep asking you whether it is worth to invest so much money during the current recession.

If you were wondering wot the heck am i blabbering about, Its about my experiences with several banks while searching for Education loans. I have secured Admit for MBA from Queens University , Canada for the class starting May 2009. It is a 1 yr program. The total cost of the course is (65K CAD Fee + 15K CAD for 1 yr living expenses.). I haven't got the Loan yet.

I found this useful link comparing education loan interest rates offered by different banks.
www.ecompare.co.in/loan/education-loans-interest-rates-india.cfm
Clearly Bank of India , Central bank of India are offering the most attractive terms with interest rates between 10 to 11%.

Also one important aspect of education loans is that the student needs to pay the simple interest while studying at the univ. To put it in perspective, if you are taking 20Lakhs loan for a 1yr course @12% PA, you need to pay 20K every month as interest even while studying at the school. After a maximum of 1yr after completion of course the EMI repayment will start.
I think it is ridiculous to expect the student to pay the interest while studying and it defeats the purpose of helping them with the education loan.

For ppl who want to keep their house as collatral securtity, please be aware of the below check list.

1. Seal deed

2. Link documents

3. EC for 30 years

4. Approved plan or lay out

5. latest tax paid receipts

6. 2 crossed cheques for legal openion and valuation
You need to be extra care full about point 2 and 4;
Some banks will ask you to produce link documents for the last 30 yr transactions. Few banks are not that strict about this point.

The real killer for me has been the point 4, Layout approval. I have realised quite late that the area where i live is not a govt approved layout. The banks are extremly reluctant to lend to properties which do not have layout approval. To explain it further. Under normal circumstances , the builder will submit a plan with all the plots and the space left for roads and other utilities. Once this is approved and stamped by the govt, the sale of land can go ahead and construction of houses can begin. The second step is for individuals to submit their building plans and get them approval of muncipal body. Lets see how this saga will end.

War on INDIA

The most barbaric attack ever faced by india(Probably only behind Jalianwallah bagh incident on 1914) happened on Mumbai on 26th Nov. The screwed up jihadis did not had the guts to attack our army head on. They were too busy picking the easy targets from hotels and prayer hall(Nariman House) and did not even spare children from this killing spree. It only goes to highlight how much belief they have in their ideology. Sincere request is to handover the lone terrrorist caught alive to indian army. No questions to be asked by human rights commission. Those people only have problem when terrorists are given their own medicine. Also, unless we show our military might to our neighbours they will continue to sponser these attacks. Israel is a good expample of how to survive in a troubled neighbourhood. If Isreal had been attacked in a similar way, they would have launched an operation like the one after(The Munich Massicarre in 1974).

It is a crisis which is unprecedented for India. This is a moment in histroy where we should stand up and punish all those guilty within and outside the country. All the pseudo securalists (INC sonia, SP Mulaayam , BSP Mayawati)should stop making this big fuss about linking terrorists to Muslims. Unfortunately the BJP and the saffron brigade havent done much better by supporting possibly the first hindu millitant in india ( Sadhvi pragnya thakur and her friends). If the Congress and BJP dont mend their ways there is possibily that no terrorist in India will be punished (Hindu and Muslim) due to political support to them. Also the next general election in India should mandate the Govt to root out terrorism from the country. If a govt fails to do so , the electorate will punish the polititions.

PS: This Draft was written on 30th Nov in the aftermath of Mumbai Attacks. But i could not post this at that time.

Real Growth ...... ?????

Its budget time and all the news-channels and print media are busy speculating the changes in this years Union budget. The Finance minister is in a comfortable position with the GDP growth clocking over 9% growth rate. As an optimistic young man ....... working in one of the Fastest growing secotrs(IT) .... i am confident of making it big in my carrer.

Last week i attended a wedding in a nearby town...(4 hours by bus from Hyderabad); The bus was almost empty when i boarded it in the hyd main bus-station. To my surprise the bus did not had ticket conductor ; By the time the bus started ... there were 10 vacant seats. We had to buy the tickets from the driver ..... the tickets were printed out from a PDA device; As we reached the outskirts of the city, there were still few seats left vacant but the driver was not stopping the bus and was signalling to the waiting passengers .. that the bus is full; I was very surprised and did not understand the reason why he was doing that. When we reached a village( "Chityal" ... 20 kms from the city)... a wedding party of around 10 people was waiting at the bus stop. To my surprise the driver stopped the bus; One of the youngeters of the wedding party was sitting besides me; Unable to control my curiosity.... i asked him when did they buy the bustickets..... to which he smiled and told me about the "Online Reservation" counter at their village; I understood the stupidy of my question. But i was happy that the Public Transport sector was using technology to provide the better services. More and more services of the government are made available online and the technology benifits are reaching the common man. The story till now goes on the expected lines( "Real Growth")..... the next 2 hours of my bus journey explains the ("?????" part of it);

I woke-up from a quick nap to realise that the highway was partially blocked by a group of agitating farmers( They were protesting to the proposed "Outer Ring Road" on their farmlands); Two people in the seat infront of me were dicussing the rising inflation and other stuff; Then an elderly gentelmen in his 50's dressed in plain white shirt... interrupted the discussion and said "All these troubles are because of the IT people .... you drive those people out of town and all your troubles will Gone"; From a dizzy state ..... now i was wide awake ; The elderly man explained the troubles faced by a government employee like him...."The IT people will get lakhs of rupees of loan without any trouble ... the Real estate agents are only too happy to push the prices to the roof; The IT people do not understand the value of money; They do not bargain and are restless to buy things at any cost; They are willing to pay house rents of close to 8000 rs per month.... only till four years ago the rentals were less than 2000 in the same areas. Where will the salaried class of people will go. The government increases the salary every four years and adjusting the inflation, the real increase in the salary is negligible. The IT people are the cause for all these problems"; After his emotional outburst ...the Elderly man continued to read a local daily. The two people who initially started the discussion .... inspired by the Elderly man ... continued to bash the IT sector and its ill effects on the country;

I tried to sleep for the rest of the journey ...but could not ... as the statements made by the Elderly man continued to ring in my ears; I realised that if a section of society becomes too rich in very short time leaving behind majority of the people .... the social Unrest present in the society will only increase to dangerous levels. The corrective action is not about "Driving the IT people out of town"(as suggested by the Elderly man)....but "Driving more people into the IT sector". The rural folk should have a stake in the development and they must be made partners of this development not mere spectators. We must try to reach out to the Rural students and enhance their learning and bring them into the Virtuous cycle . As responsible IT people, we must understand the value of Money.... we should not do things which will push the prices even higher and beyond the reach of a common man. With these "words of wisdom"(Bhaashan).... i am signing off;