Behavioral Interview: Story speaks louder than words

Note: I am just reproducing my article on linked in over here so that those not on LinkedIn or on my contacts list on LinkedIn can benefit from the same.  You can read the same here as well

Whether you are interviewed as lateral hire, as experienced campus hire or even as a novice fresher, we all come across questions that we find hard to answer. Our resume cannot give an answer to these type of questions and they are the ones that express more about us as a person then as a domain expert or a geek. Behavioral questions are becoming ubiquitous at all levels from analysts to CEO.'s I think it is important to have a story to convey rather than off the mill text book answers (3 attribute of yours -- smart, creative and hard working - hmmm how do we justify this in a 2-3 minute time frame). Attributes like hardworking, smart, intelligent and social are hygiene factors in a competitive world today, which most of us need to possess so don't use them to differentiate yourself, think something unique and not cliche.

You need a story that not only answers the question but also corroborates the claim by relating the answer to a project/assignment/situation/conflict/tasks. Story can be personal but as far as possible try to use professional examples. I've conducted many interviews and now as a student at IIM-Ahmedabad have coordinated a couple and as well sat on the other side of the table. I'll highlight few of the questions and a response I would have given based on my experience, just to give you an analogy. This is not a comprehensive list but there are many online resources at your disposal for behavioral questions.

1) Tell me 3 attribute of yours that differentiates you from other applicants?

Self-Motivated: Talk about a situation in your work career where you did not have motivation in terms of money or career progression or simply your manager lacking the quality to motivate you. Then talk about how you motivate yourself to keep going at the job and finally succeeded in achieving something. Use STAR framework as much as possible.

Take Ownership: Here I used an example of a project when I was junior in the firm but I proactively took the ownership of an entire module, which ultimately earned me project lead position when the time came. Idea here is try to practice and find a project or situation, which not allows you to justify the attribute but also to talk in detail about your specific project. But note do not speak more than 100-120 secs at a time, at least take a pause and make sure the other person is on the same page.

Mobilizer: This is your homework, fill in your own answer. You can modify the attribute to say - team player or peoples person or humble leader.

2) Describe a situation where you had a conflict with your manager/client/team member and how did you handle it? What was the outcome?

Pick a instance or a project where the conflict was more in terms of priorities or optimal solution or resource allocation. This will help to justify certain words on your resume (if used) such as team leader, project leader or conflict manager. It can also be a situation where the bosses were just playing a hard nut (my way or highway attitude) and you still steered the boat towards the shore. Your responses should not sound canned, rehearsed, framed, or the worst a lie because seasoned interviewers can figure this out with some follow up questions or basic prodding. So please please prepare and choose your example from your experience carefully.

In my case I picked a project, where I was doing a project estimation and there were cross team stakeholders involved. This not only showcased how I handled the situation but highlighted other aspects of my skill set (cross team collaboration). Keep in mind that other person may not know complicated terms/technology/process, try to draw a diagram, a picture, flow chart or a framework to explain. Visual cues speaks 1000 time clearer and faster than words.

3) How would you handle a situation with limited resources at your disposal and competing priorities at hand?

Before answering any question, take a pause to gather your thoughts, which is a hallmark of a thoughtful person. If you're interviewed for senior positions or leadership programs, they wish to know how well can you handle a world of eternal resource constraints. A world of competing priorities is very common, things move fast these days and time is ultra luxury. If you don't have any project to talk about then relate to some work at your school. Most of us have to juggle assignments, studies and research at the same time, bring out a quality where you showcased time management and selection.

May be highlight the fact that how you chose between depth first vs. breadth first learning. Prioritization is an art more than a science, gut feel plays a key role where multiple things at hand seems equally important but I would say avoid mentioning gut feel or "I was just lucky" type of phrases.

4) (Mother of all) Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

Am I a fortune teller? :) some time this thought do come to my mind. I aspire to be a CFO 5 year down the line but do I see myself there now with the facts and figure currently at hand. In my opinion this question is asked to judge how well you plan. Your answer can be that I don't know but I have planned my next steps once I get this job. I have thought about, how would I excel in this role, what tool/skill sets I would need and more importantly how will I help further the mission and vision of the firm. I think if I focus on excellence and efficiency, in 5 years time I will be at a key decision making position.

This answer will sound more rationale then simply saying I see myself to be a CFO or VP or Team Lead. It sounds too myopic if you only think about career in terms of role/position than the capability you would build and impact you can create in 5 years time.

Finally I will close by saying that nothing can replace a thorough preparation and having some sort of story or picture to respond reasonably well. Rest is left up to their interpretation and follow up questions. Corroborating your response and tieing them to your experiences can make a huge impact

An attempt: Demystify one year full time MBA

Disclaimer: I am not a subject matter expert and by no means want to influence your decision to pursue a one year MBA program or choose a particular school. My idea here is to put down my thoughts on what a one year MBA is all about and why someone with 8-10 years of experience would leave a job and pursue a full time MBA. Being a current student at PGPX, IIMA lot of my examples will refer to the college and the program but that is only to explain my thoughts through analogies. If you have questions you can email vinay.solanki@gmail.com

Career 

After having worked in financial services domain for over 9+ years (Goldman Sachs, New York), thoughts about how my career was going to progress over the next 5-6 years occupied my mind, day-in and day-out. My parent were ageing, so I also had an urge to move back to India to stay close with them. However I was leading a securities front line team as a Vice President, Technology, so wasn't facing any major career crisis and was comfortably placed in my role. But I still took the plunge and let's see why? Why did i do it? Let’s start with my career graph highlighting how my career choices evolved, ultimately leading to the wonderful one-year MBA (PGPX) at IIM Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

    

I started as an assistant lecturer teaching C++ and Artificial Intelligence at DMCOE, Mumbai University. I thoroughly enjoyed it but it was obvious to me that it would not offer the money that I need in the long run.  There was also natural pull from friends who were joining MNC’s and Indian IT companies. I’m a Bachelor in Computer Engineering so I joined “the god of IT firms in India” TCS, worked there as a web designer for a year and then went on to do Masters in Computer Science at SUNY Binghamton University, New York, USA. It was a very regular/conventional path that many of my friends wandered on and I wasn’t an exception. Then I joined Goldman Sachs and started building my skill set in web and server technologies as well as financial services. I took internal mobility and moved from sales to trading after 4 years at Goldman Sachs, which introduced some novelty to my work. 

However after another 4 years in trading technologies, I started to feel restless and an urge to learn or do something dramatically different. That’s when I decided that since I anyways wanted to move back to India and wanted to explore business beyond what my technologist profile afforded me, I should get more insight on various business functions, at least a high level view. That’s when PGPX came to my mind (I had heard about it from a friend at Goldman, who graduated in 2012). I prepared religiously for GMAT, worked hard on my application (applied only to IIM-A) and then got through.  

Opportunity Cost

I was working in New York, earning reasonably well – something that should be true for all those with 10 years average industry experience. So, when you think about full time education at the age of 30+, the 1^st think that props up in your mind is the loss of one year’s pay. Next comes in tuition fee (average 22 Lakh in India), living expenses and the dilemma on how to source it (personal fund or bank loan or a mix). But also something crucial, which should be calculated as the opportunity cost is TIME, the time that you will dedicate primarily focusing on studies, networking, events, etc. and hence that TIME you will have to steal from your family and friends time and of course personal time (sleep included). 

If you’re married and also have kids, then these 365 days will be challenging because these importantly individuals will have reduced attention span from you. Some people in my batch left their families home and are living in DORMS and some have got their families (like me) on the campus and live in MSH (Married Student Housing). However it doesn't matter because most of your time is spent in classroom, libraries, syndicate study rooms, etc. but yes family being on campus definitely ease the things a bit for you and your family when you are in need of each other. However it is still point to ponder carefully. I may be speaking of an extreme but even on average TIME is limited commodity in such programs.

So make sure you not only calculate cost in terms of money but in terms of values, fun, connect and efforts you and especially your families have to put in. Of course it depends on how you manage your time but on average you can expect to spend only 2-3 hours a day with family. Even parents won’t hear from you every day, if there is habit of talking to them daily then forget it.

RigoUr

Now let’s talk about the rigour of the program and what it entails. Remember most of us will study after a long break, most of us will hold pens to write loooooong exams after almost a decade. So that shock needs to be absorbed well. Lectures, quizzes and specially 2 ½ hour exams can take their toll on you in the first term. My take is that while these tested us, we managed the pressure.

You are grouped into study groups with 5-6 people, potentially from various backgrounds (if the class diversity is good) and then you need to learn to adjust in that new formation. We all work in teams, manage people and handle peer pressure but being a student and interacting with peers is a different ball game. You need to be sensitive and accommodating. You may like it at the start and enjoy the newness of the group but you may also face the tension, the stress and the pull when either you have a pressing group assignment OR exams OR just simply you don’t go well with someone in the group. 

A BIG positive of this syndicate structure is that you will potentially make close friends pretty early in the program and more importantly you’ll very likely learn to interact with peers and handle difficult communications. Also if there is sufficient diversity, you get different perspectives on each assignment you work together.

If you read my post on this blog about the six month journey at IIM-A PGPX program you will come across the structure of term I, term II, International Immersion and term III briefly. However the key point to notice is term I and term II are very heavy specially because they only comprise core courses and there’s no getting away from them regardless of your interest. BELIEVE me some of us behave like school students and worry about GRADES all the time, although our seniors have told us that “dude at this age and experience grades don’t matter!!” Anyways we have a grade non-disclosure policy so that should somewhat relax you.

What to focus on?

What should be your primary focus in a one year MBA for executives? Horizontal learning across all domains/functions or vertical deep understanding of a particular topic.

Tough to answer this question with 100% clarity… because it is tougher to understand what you really like and what you really want to focus on than it is to find a needle in the hay stack. Along with the never ending list of courses there are so many other activities/events/opportunities

thrown at you (case challenges, interviews, committees, focus groups, extra-curricular, blah blah), at times you don’t know what you should choose and what you should let go. People jump (including myself) on to any opportunity that comes across and then find it difficult to manage all commitments at once. Hence I think before you join the program, ponder on what area/field/subject you want to focus or maybe you want to do anything/everything possible in this one year and widen your horizon. 

Iron out your priorities. As David Allen said above you can do anything but not everything. Also count how many times I say YOU in this article because it is ultimately your decision, your call and your clarity of thoughts that will help you decide the best course of action.

Another highlight of the program is the quality of the Faculty. Some of them are really world class, having industry and international experience bring wide and deep perspective on the subject they cover. Case based pedagogy is an invigorating method to learn a topic but at the same time confusing and long winded when you’re not familiar with it. Most of us coming from presentation and oration based learning approach have to become creatively involved in discussion-based learning. I call it information contribution and facts analysis combined to formulate a potential solution. You learn from the amazing professors here but it becomes more important for you to participate, share your views and build on to other people views and ideas. SHARING is the mantra!! OM SHARE NAMAH

Student Driven Committees

Something I was not totally aware before joining the program is that everything and anything is student driven here and this is true with most of the one year MBA programs in India at least. 

Of course you are guided by the alumni’s, seniors, professors and the office staff, but you can only get so much of their time. The upside of this is you get a lot of experience working, running, managing or contributing to various activities ranging from cultural to placements, from alumni relations to brochure design and from event management to academic coordination. I think in addition to learning various functions of a business being part of a committee gives you a different dimension and a unique learning experience. An important facet of being on a committee is responsibility, reliability and answer-ability. 

Even the selection process involves elections and it is fun and stressful at the same time. Some of you will manage funds for various committees and some might do more of coordination job but some of you will be part of placement committee (the most important one), which I will talk about next.

PLACEMENTS

How many of you scrolled down straight to this section?

Placements are the key and something assigned highest weight-age while selecting degree, school, location and program. Two year MBA candidates are generally young and hence can take risk and try out few jobs or career tracks but we have to be accurate or at least close to being accurate when choosing where to go, what to do and how to manage a decent standard of living. 

We always discuss, that 85 of us are 85 niche profiles or 85 individuals who need to be placed in 85 specific job roles and functions. Similarity and diversity both in experience and expectations is the paradox here. It is important to think about where you want to go (re-iterating points discussed in Focus and Rigour above) and what you want to become. It takes a lot to prepare for placements, ranging from preparing resume (reviewed by at least 10 persons) to creating a summary profile and from networking to practicing mock interviews. Understanding the market, the prospective employer and the fit for the job should not be ignored. 

Placement process starts somewhere in term IV (October/November) and runs until graduation and even beyond sometimes, if student is picky or has a very niche profile. Placement is student driven activity and placement committee along with help of alumnus and current students try to get as many good companies and good job descriptions as possible on the campus. But a lot depends on you.

Lot of people when they join also express interest about starting up their own venture and some form groups and find partners as well. Although it seems tough at this age and time with all the responsibility you may have but not impossible. You’re provided an ecosystem that includes CIIE (Centre for Incubation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship), professors, alumni network and internal clubs. If you’re really serious you can opt-out of the placement process and diligently follow your dream. As we say “CEO bano Manager nahin !!”

TAKEAWAYS

Some of the key takeaways (I may have definitely missed many here so this is not a full list).

Branding: Management education is good for your all-round development if you’re serious, focused and attentive. Be open to feedback, but more importantly seek feedback from your batch-mates and professors. Top school will also spruce up your individual brand and build a positive perception, to a certain extent. Having said that even a decent know school should give you a good exposure to the reality of business management, people management and self-management.

Networking: Either you end up building a strong network or to the least become adept at networking. Events and activities pushes you to prepare elevator speeches, interact with strangers, and break the ice. Overall you learn to open some form of communication channel.

KASH: We say at IIM-A that you build KASH in this program. Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Habits, which is generally true. Most of us build knowledge in various topics, areas and sectors (not deep but to a level where you can talk about it). We develop Attitude of being perfectionists, of being calm, cool and confident. We acquire lot of Skills, from technical such as accounting to soft skills (very important for managers) such as organizational structure, team/people management, dissipating information, expressing yourself, etc.

Such programs makes you look at things afresh and from a new perspective, which reminds me of a quote. “Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted”. - George Kneller

Self-Actualization: There are some unique courses offered here at IIM-A and I hope most of the one year programs too. If you’re serious to know more about yourself than you have plenty of resources at your disposal. A course called MCC (Managing and Creating Creativity) is pretty unique in its format, it focuses on how to create creativity. We also have course such as ILPM (Integrated Learning through Personal Mastery) another gem of a course for future leaders and managers. Likewise there are many courses, sessions, activities and opportunities to spend time with yourself, for yourself and understand yourself better.

To summarize, it is important to consider all these points and many more that I may have missed to cover, before you make the decision to take the plunge. I think I made the right decision because I know so much about so many things or at least I know a little about few things. I have discovered some of my skill sets, which I was not able to at my professional environment. I have identified some of the weaknesses of myself as well and hence I think the opportunity cost is worth it.

DIWALI manata HAR KOI...kaun hai woh "KOI" let's see.....

Sabse pehle iss DIWALI ke shubh aur paawan avsar pe में आपको  और आपके परिवार को बहोत बहोत Shubh Kamnaye Deta Hun.....Dua karta hun ki आपकी झोली खुशियों से भरदे वह उपरवाला और आपकी हर tamanna puri karde woh uparwala


Diwali bolo ya Deepavali ya bolo Khushi aur Uthsah ka त्यौहार 
मिल के मानते है सारे bude bacche bade saath apne apne परिवार 
Iss festival ke matlab itne saarein hai
Jitne aasman mein hote taarein hai

Koi is mauke par apne naye dhande ki shuruat karta hai
Koi is mauke par apne beechde ruthe doston se mulakat karta hai
Koi iss मौके पर नाए वस्त्र खरीद ता है tau कोई naye logon se vaartalaap karta hai

Koi iss festival ke aane ka intezaar karta hai, kyunki yehi waqt usse apne kaam se chutti ka milta hai,
Koi iss festival ke aane ka intezaar karta hai, क्यूंकि एहि वक़्त उससे अपने पापा के साथ बीतने का मिलता है
Koi iss festival ke aane ka intezaar karta hai, kyunki yehi samay usse pyaar jatane ka milta hai.

Koi Diwali ke avsar pe nayi gaadi khareed ke khushiyaan बाटता है 
Koi Diwali ke avsar pe sona khareed ke kisiki sajavaat takta hai
Koi Diwali ke din garibon ko bhojan pradan karke santusht hota hai
Tau Koi Diwali ke din old age home mein sweets baantne ko utsook hota hai

Koi Diwali ki chutti mein bhi mann lagage padai karta hai (PGPX)
Koi Diwali ki chutti mein bhi mann lagage kadai seekhta hai
Koi Diwali aane se pehle usski tayari mein jooth jaata hai
Koi Diwali aane se pehle kharidaari mein loot jaata hai

Diwali har koi apne apne dhaang se manata hai

Diwali par har koi apni kismat ka uday paata hai
Diwali par hum Laxmi Ji ka Pujan hai Karte
Diwali par hum sabhi logon ki tarraki ka mann hai rakhte

Iss Koi, Iss Someone, Iss Special person ko Diwali ki bahot bahot shubkaamnaaye
Yeh "KOI" koi bhi nahin, aap saarein Duniya waale ho 

Happy DIWALI TO a SPECIAL KOI (SomeOne)

Half-Way Mark Through PGPX - Enticing Journey

Feels like just few moments have passed, time has rushed, clock ticked at the speed of light and I breadth 1000 times a second but the reality is I along with 84 other diverse, wonderful, enigmatic, charismatic, energetic and all .....tics type of people have spent 6 months time at PGPX, IIM Ahmedabad. Frankly the decision to come back to India, decision to pursue MBA and that too one year MBA was convoluted, confusing and complex. But we took the plunge !! and rode the wave to finish 3 terms and currently swimming hard to reach the end of term 4 with so many things going around. 

I still remember and I can feel the butterflies in the stomach when I went for the interview and faced these three friendly but the same time serious and hard interviewers. I never knew a very humble and smiley faced Prof. Shailesh Gandhi can be so tough in the class, however I will never forget the building blocks of Balance Sheet and Income statements just because of him. He taught so well and so clearly that a NON CA like me can at least now talk some of the terminologies of financial accounting world. I still remember the excitement when I got the admission and then the nerve bending and mind boggling tasks to wrap up in USA and come back to India. I enjoyed 1 month honeymoon period at my previous employer and I can never forget the joy of air and freedom of speech during those days :). But wrapping up, selling everything and then landing at Ahmedabad was daunting and tiring.

Term I started with a bang, the first ever result of a quiz came out and many of us got the shock of the life by looking at our grades, most of us were studying after 9-10 years gap and most of us probably forgot how to write using a PEN :) but we managed and we learnt. Gradually as Term I progressed we met and understood our syndicate mates. We fought, we laughed, we inquired, we pestered but we managed to get through all the courses. Prof. Saral Mukherjee taught us Operations Management and his style and aura of teaching with his punch lines and his analogies will remain in my and my batch-mates mind forever. I will never forget the analogy of Toyota to a Cheetah and Boeing to an Elephant. Communication skills and Organization behavior courses really opened up the understanding of the business organization and lead us through a enticing journey of self evaluations.

By Term II we were well versed the case based pedagogy style of learning and also the stress of getting good Grades subsided and the focus was more on learning, knowing each other and also an upcoming important competition - The Talent Nite (Intra IIM-A talent fest) - Talent nite was an exciting, creative and challenging journey for the entire batch. PGPX had never won this against PGP and few other programs plus the load of studies, assignments, other extra curricular activities made things tough. We learnt a lot about how under stress even the close friends can end up challenging each other and get broiled into a fight but that learning was very important to understand the dynamics of the batch. It was grueling 3 weeks efforts but I am more than PROUD to say that PGPX won the competition and created History. I still cannot forget the dance 3 of us did on Bedardi Raja :) wearing Ghaghra's :)

Term III - International Immersion program (ESCP at Paris, France) was superb, a fun filled trip to Europe (I went to Switzerland and people visited mix of Rome, Italy, Amsterdam, etc.) 2 weeks of this program taught us design thinking, working in Europe, business style of Parisian, and luxury brand management. Few of batch mates went to CUHK, HongKong and one group to Warwick UK. I think all the three groups learned and enjoyed their 2 weeks program to the fullest. We all came back to the campus pretty satisfied and rejuvenated. We continued to play sports and other extra curricular activities.

Current term is critical because as soon we came back we started with our elective courses and few core subjects as well. Elective listing was a tough decision and choosing the course that best suits your long term goal is most complex and time consuming process. However before even the study mode settles in our placement season started and people got busy building resumes, thinking about companies and job descriptions, understanding whether they are taking the right course for there life or not, etc. etc. A new wave of group formation is taking place to work on case challenges, business ideas, case in point discussions and mock interviews. Looking at the economy and positive sentiment after the election of Mr. Narendra Modi, we feel that this batch should end up creating another history in terms of placements. But keeping that aside for sometime and thinking more of what we have gained in this 6 months - I can come up with so many points we don't correlated directly with jobs - soft skills such as communication, interaction, perspective - leadership and the nuance of a being a leader - friendship - knowing 84 gems - building network - growing self confidence - branding as an IIM-Aite - learning time management and time mismanagement :) - building clay models to painting using crayons - learning a bit of French to understanding how luxury management works - countless things..........

I would like to thank all the 84 batch mates, all the amazing professors (Shailesh Gandhi, Saral Mukerjhee, Deepti Bhatnagar, Asha Kaul, Arvind Sahay, Prem Chander, Shailendra Mehta, Krishnesh Mehta, Anurag Agrawal, P. K. Sinha, and many many more.

I cannot end this post without thanking my wife, who has to manage my 13 month old son VInmay and bear with my timings and stringent schedule ---- with me being rarely present in the apartment as I have to spend most of the time in syndicate room studying. But I know both of our sacrifices will pay off soon. Thanks to KASH I am gaining from this program PGPX.

Football at IIMA ( Contributed by Mr.Shubhodip Banerjee )

It was my third day in Ahmedabad and just like the other PGPX students, I was still struggling with the Ahmedabad heat and the pretty intense dry weather. Classes were yet to start but people were already discussing placements, committees and ‘The Case Study Method’.

‘Man! This will be tough, yeh dhoop mein toh meri waat lag rahi hai’ is what one of the dorm 26 folks mentioned as we were returning from the Dining Hall after lunch. ‘I am not getting any personal time yaar, wherever I see, people are talking about FRA and FAM, and I don’t even know their full forms’.

Coming from an IT background, it is imperative that I open my laptop just after reaching home to check my mails: ‘Pata nahi kuch na kuch toh Prof log bheja hoga. Abhi tak saala wifi bhi thik se chal nahi raha hai’

And there was a one-liner mail from some Satish Chandra: ‘Everyone is invited for a soccer session at Old campus football field near Louis Kahn Plaza at 6PM’.

Yeh Satish Chandra kaun hai? Over the last 2 days, I have met so many new faces and have heard so many new names that the mapping between faces and names have become a nightmare. ‘You are Pronomita, right? See, I always knew that I am good in memorizing names. Coming for lunch?’ – A clear sign of confidence on the voice of Tarun, as he extended his hand.

‘No, I am not Pronomita. And I think I have already introduced myself to you at least three times by now. And you have already forgotten?’

‘Seriously? You must be kidding me! I was sure that you are Pronomita. If you are not Pronomita, then who is Pronomita yaar?’ – Tarun was struggling within himself to somehow come up with a name.

‘I am Soumika’ – came the curt reply, least interested in the lunch or the recent association.

And thus, when Satish’s mail came, I wondered who this guy is and whether it is really worth going to the football field. ‘Arey abhi kya soccer khelne ka … bahar itna dhoop hai, aur mera sports shoes bhi abhi tak aaya nahi … chalo lets first have a sleep.’ And then, as I was still meditating lazily, the phone rang.

‘Coming for football, right?’ – blurted out the voice on the other side, without any introduction.

‘Mane, I mean, yea was thinking, but then’ … I was blabbering.

‘Arey kya yaar? Bangali ho ke football ke bare mere itne sochte hai … Mohun Bagan, ilish maach and Gold Flake Kings … yeh teeno hi toh abhi bacha hai. Expecting to see you at 6 on the ground’ – pretty much a command came out towards the end.

‘Ok sure’ was my meek reply, still scratching my head.

But then, when I reached the football ground, wearing my chappals, with some apprehensions still in my mind, I was surprised and actually overjoyed to see some 10 to 12 people on the green (well it was not exactly lush green) football ground, some hitting a silvery football, some just loitering around and some simply trying to create an impression (Aah, the sports committee needs to be formed asap)

And then the two teams were formed. The ball was placed at the center by Satish … well you can’t miss or forget him once you actually see him. And then the show began!! Well, it was not exactly a show, for obvious reasons.

Mayukh was down on the ground after playing for a little less than 5 minutes, holding his ankle ‘Out of practice yaar’, Aman was panting trying to hold on to his breath ‘ Kitne saal baad khel raha hnu yaar’, Soumen tightly clasping his upper thighs ‘I think I got a muscle pull’.

But the show continued! For close to forty minutes. The warriors got injured and sat out cheering their teams, the fighters ran up and down the flanks complaining ‘Bohot ho gaya yaar, last move karte hai’ and the other students who were not exactly interested in participating, started flocking the gallery appreciating the efforts of their class mates.

And finally when the game got over, the sense of accomplishment filled the air. ‘We can still play football’. The excitement was apparent – ‘We must continue playing every day’, ‘Arey padhai toh hoga, par football bhi chahiye’, ‘maybe we should reserve the ground for ourselves for the rest of the year’, the enthusiasm overwhelming.

And the enthusiasm still continued, even after one week. New players were added. Some old warriors took the back seat. A Dorm 26 vs Dorm 27 match was held. The MSH guys somehow squeezed themselves into one of the teams, building on their ‘convincing the others’ capabilities. Games were won and games were lost, but the spirits remained intact!

Well, coming down from the spirits to the mortal world, Soumen is still nursing his injury, I am still waiting for my sports shoes to arrive and Jaideep is still flaunting his fluorescent colored jerseys in the blazing hot Ahmedabad summer.

Day 2, 3 and 4: Induction to the PGPX program

After a wonderful inauguration event and dinner with some thoughtful discussions with professors and chair of the program on Sunday the whole batch went through a 3 day induction process. Induction process covered various aspects of the program from academics to infrastructure, from accessing the amazing Vikram Sarabhai library to utilizing all the facilities offered to students.

Induction introduced us to the various departments at IIM-A. We came to know about what marketing would offer vs. are they courses PGPX can avail from the PGP schedule and vice versa. We covered departments such as finance, marketing, operations, strategic human resource management, etc. 

IIMA PGPX admins and committee designed the induction to introduce us to the case based pedagogy methodology by asking to analyze the MH 370 ( Malaysian Airline ) disappearance mystery. We were suppose to discuss the whole mystery with our syndicate mates ( a group of 5 or 6 people who work together on cases and problems through out the TERM I and TERM II ). Believe me it was whole new experience compared to working in team at work ( my previous company Goldman Sachs, NY ) and understanding how different people bring different skills to the table and also how they behave, react, engage, communicate and express very differently from each other.

We also got an assignment to come up with a unique name of our syndicate and as well a logo and theme song/poem/words. It was the most entertaining project to work as a group and creatively think about the syndicates identification at the same defining a goal, a motivation and the rigor that we would have to follow in the coming 363 days.

Induction gave a glimpse of what lie ahead at times scaring us, making us nervous and at times enthusing the energy and motivation to achieve something. Emphasis was put to continuously introspect and look at the mirror to make sure you are going in the right direction.


More to come on how our courses on firms and markets, marketing and analysis of data started off. An interesting story coming up on the unique method of teaching by our marketing professor. :)

Good Night. 

Day 1: Inauguration @ IMDC Auditorium

Finally I joined the dream school IIM-A and one of the most sought after program PGPX. Today was the first official day of the program called Inauguration leading to interaction with professors, admins, chair, director and the founder. We were welcomed by decoration of flowers and greeted by the PGPX admin officials. Every one wearing the white IIMA logo t-shirt looked like a group of 85 white lions ( urf students ) heading to conquer the world ( urf become leaders of the future ). 

PGPX admin head started with a welcome message and then introduced the 3 speakers for the day, one of them the founding member of the PGPX program, chair of the program and the director. They started highlighting the critical angle of the program that the year is going to be tough and the focus should be on learning and introspection rather than the pragmatic goal of placements. A very important point was to have a constant feedback loop within oneself and listen to inner voice to make sure you know where you want to be at the end of the one year. Diversity was highlighted by listing the presence of 13 female students among the 85, highest so far along with average 10 year experience of the batch.

Comparison was done between the 2 year PGP program and the expectations from our 1 year MBA for executives. Spouses of some of the members were present too proudly listening to the speakers and feeling the pride of sitting inside the IIM-A campus. Some people were fiddling with their hairs, a few changing positions and a few staring into the podium trying to concentrate on the words oozing out from the speakers mouth. Few good questions were asked such as what was the mission statement of the program and how far have we progressed to achieve one, what changes were done since the program was found, is the program just focused on fundamental learning or also leadership styles.

I am sure there are lot of questions and lot of curiosity in the mind of the 85's which will be cleared as we progress through the rest of the 364 DAYS in the program.

Good Night for now, hope to write and see you tomorrow.