Placements – The ‘Mahakumbh’ of Science, Art and Luck!

November 24, 2011 | Posted by shashwatrai << back to blog

The passing days of the lullaby storms

These qualifying grades, those dreadful norms

I wish I was blind, a believer at heart

They say its Science, I call ‘it’ Art!

“Don’t be a wishful romantic, one day someday your sins will find you out”

–Shashwat Rai

What sin did I commit – a question that is auditing my little brain these days!! Ok, being part of an MBA, I was expected to do a lot more than I did perhaps but why my present indicates an epileptic seizure for these impending Placements.

Maybe I should have reread those essays (that I wrote to get into this premier college) a few more times where I talked all about my adept versatility and how I was earmarked to become the next big entrepreneur and float a publishing house. Maybe I should have won over my reservations and given my professors the benefit of doubt before dismissing them to deathly hallow of my connived cynicism. Or maybe I should have joined an art college and explored my very existence and beliefs!!

Ok no more philosophies, no more global gyans what say.. aha that surely would have brought relief to some but then what’s more to a discourse if not the alternatives that presents a window of titanic hope.

As I start this sequel of Placement updates from the beautiful campus of Great Lakes, I promise you hope, hope that our days of hard work and anxiety would pass soon and like true Spartans we will rise to the call of duty. For now, it’s our duty to prepare for Placements and land our dream jobs, isn’t it!!

Hmm i think i got you again in this game of political correctness, but that’s the irony. I will be lying if I say my entrepreneurial thoughts that had me waltzing has killed the ‘service’ guy in me, that I am no more charmed by the thoughts of landing a seven digit salary from here. But there is a classical dilemma that needs to be answered and trust me it has no one correct answer.

Is getting an MBA a sub par achievement – a shortcut to a great job, a fancied salary, a means to an end? Or has this course brought right perspective to our learning curve and equipped us with knowledge in commerce and strategy. Aren’t we the custodians of the business world that is limping and gasping for breath in the wake of these seasonal recessions? Has MBA qualified us as candidates in areas of leadership and nurtured us as individuals who believe they can change the world!!

In one of his addresses to students and faculty members of the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, delivered at the Tidel Park, the strategy Guru, late C.K. Prahalad stressed on a manifesto of how Indian business might prosper in today’s global world.

“How do we compete and develop a theme of becoming unique? How do you do something that few others can do and more importantly how to differentiate yourself and not compete by other’s rules?”

CK was aware of the fact that MBA colleges like Great Lakes are shining examples of optimizing resources and new assets creation, “Great Lakes is a fundamentally important example of Constrained Innovation, where the college was able to use the scare resources at its disposal and build a school that is a model for other business schools. The idea is not to build assets that are not required as the temptation is huge to expand. However, vitality in the medium to longer term comes not from asset reduction but from resource leverage.”

His was a message that one needs to carry close as we prepare for the coming days. The fundamental drivers of successful differentiation: understanding the future of competition and co-creation of values.

Think of red carpet at the Oscars. Placement season is the confluence of all that we have learnt: a test of discombobulating (yeah as confusing as this word perhaps!) concepts that we have mastered mixed with grains of Luck that is so integral to our Indian way of preparations. It’s like the Mahakumbh mela of Allahabad, where people attired as Sages to Nagas converge. Aren’t we all cloaked with this abysmal naked truth that opportunities come with fancied jobs?

The time seems to have paused, the air is still with soundless debate of which company to choose and what roles to apply! The best companies have started visiting our campus and the pre placements talks are on in full swing. Those books of marketing and finance that were shelved have been duly reassigned and the slides and notes that one prepared in the last half-year are being referred back. Our CVs have also been professionally tweaked to highlight our core competencies but the question remains – Is a good placement a testimony to our talent, a rightful fruit of our self-exiled tapasya!

“Karma-Yoga is the attaining through unselfish work of that freedom which is the goal of all human nature” – Swami Vivekanand.

As a self-proclaimed keeper of the Holy Grail (a blogger who is locked away but present, observant but invisible), I can sense the change that’s engulfing our campus. Are these the ‘winds of change’ that Scorpions sang for their Crazy world! The unwinding salsa classes have temporarily stopped and the rhythmic bands have been shut down. Even the birthday celebration has suddenly become consciously aware of the gravity at hand but isn’t getting good placements purely incidental of our efforts here!

Most have started preparing for the d-day and those who haven’t will do so shortly. And that’s Karma for us, at least for now <.>

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