caseprepguru

ad plug:

http://www.caseprepguru.com if you're trying to get some extra practice when you can't have some one else to practice your cases with. And there's a lot of practice questions to get better with numerical reasoning, which tends to be important especially in market sizing / estimation type questions.

hmm... perhaps we should consider giving this for free for INSEAD students? 

Break-even... Payback Period... Whatever

Yep. Lot of people worry about break-even and pay-back for the MBA. Thought you might find it interesting to know that I broke even around Feb 2011.

My calculation is fairly simplistic

break-even: where  (money earned since MBA - cost of MBA) = (money earned if I did not do MBA)

1. I know how much I made post MBA, since Aug 2008.
2. I worked out a value of how much I would have made if I did not go to MBA.
3. Break-even is where 1 = 2

Also keep in mind I was earning in US $ before I started my MBA, so this isn't a case of foreign exchange trumping Pre-MBA Indian earnings.

Hello there - I'm back (or am I?)

Been a while since I sort of killed off this blog. I thought it would die slowly, fading off into obscurity. I'm surprised at how well it's held out in the absence of any new posts! The traffic is steady as it always was - so I figured maybe a post now and then, injecting it with something new (a post MBA perspective) might actually help some people who want to know more about "what happens after?"

Much has happened since my recruitment days. I had offers, chose a job, moved to a new country, learned about new sectors and industries, lost my job in the great recession (yes we are all dispensable),  leveraged my alumni network, found a new job, supported a little venture of someone close to me, wrote down a detailed business plan for a new venture that I think has lots of potential but then have not pursued it yet for various reasons. I also indulged in a new hobby about which I have no intention of writing on this blog (no, it's nothing shady). So. There is much to talk about - for example, about challenges in deciding what you want post MBA, about life in consulting, about life when you get laid off, about life when you seek a new job, about what it means to switch sectors after experience in a different one for many years,  and about what the alumni network actually means.

So, perhaps, in the coming days I will have some more to talk about.

Good bye!

Dear readers,

It's been a long journey from my first post to today. My INSEAD saga is over, and with that, as promised, it is time to say 'so long!'

The year has been a tapestry of experiences, and the rewards have far exceeded disappointments. At the end of it all, I made life long friends, learned many new things, had new avenues opened for me, enjoyed a vast range of social activities with diversity that is almost unparalleled (while this is often a cliche, at INSEAD you really need to be here to even understand what it really means), and ended the year with fond memories that will remain. To me, there are no good-byes, in this age and time I will always have the means to be in touch with those that are in touch with me. In a nutshell, INSEAD was a fantastic experience.

The last few days have been incredibly busy with the class ends, assignments, graduation trip, ceremony and I have had no Internet for most of the time. That, coupled with the sweet exhaustion of completing the course meant my "promise of remaining posts" will unfortunately be broken, and allow others to say what I have not. I have had no time to make my customary cartoons, as the friends at Clearadmit blog mused.

With that, I sign off. To you, I wish you great times, successful preparation and admits, and a great career.

As for me, it is time to welcome a new world, new challenges and new excitement.

Good bye!

Graduation Ceremony

I've been "detoxed" from the Internet - with no access in the last 9 days! It's finally good to be online today, if only very briefly, before I head out. The graduation ceremony got over today - and with that a wonderful chapter concluded, and opened the road to a new world ahead.

In completely unrelated news - I fell in love with Turkish music, and this song in particular! by Gulben Ergen. Enjoy.

End of classes

Today I finished my last class at INSEAD. No more classes. It's been a great journey so far - and it's wrapping up time with a great grad trip.

My INSEAD recruitment/placement statistics

Without giving absolute numbers, here is how my recruitment went and what I did.

1. I did the necessary song-and-dance. I went to most presentations, most cocktails, did whatever coffee-chat interviews I could.
2. I tailored almost all my covering letters - in the absence of information of who reads it and who does not, I preferred to err on the side of caution. Besides, creating tailored letters also helps to understand the company better.
3. I had 2 CVs - both had subtle differences in what I highlighted. One was for consulting companies and the other Industry.

My recruitment statistics - all numbers are slightly skewed and not very accurate, so don't get imaginative. Don't conclude anything too hastily.

1. Almost all my applications were in P4 while interviews went across to P5 as well
   
2. I had a 50% call rate from application to interview.
3. 50% of those that called me for 1st round invited me to the final round
4. About 45% of those that called me for the final round made an offer
5. For industry - about 65% of those I applied for called me for 1st round, and about 80% of them converted to 2nd round
6. For consulting - about 35% called for the 1st round and I had a 67% chance of going to the second round
7. I withdrew from a couple of final round interviews and also refused couple of first rounds - my % do not adjust for these
8. I have no good idea why company X shortlisted me and why company Y did not. My background was not a very "straight fit" to strategy consulting. Most of the small/niche consulting companies rejected me without an interview.
   
9. I think the timing of our recruitment (July promotion is out of cycle with regular US and 2 year programs so many companies had hired and then maybe went into a scared "wait-and-watch" situation) combined with an awful economic situation made it a lot more stressful than it perhaps is.
   
10. If you are from another business school and have been through this, you can compare notes and conclude that I am an idiot, just don't post that as a comment ;) I'm sure there are superstars with 90% success rate from application to offer, I'm not one of them.
    
11. Recruiting for what you want takes lot of work.
    

Overall Possible locations

When I include the offers I have and the offers I might have had and the offers I did not have after final rounds, the locations were (some locations may have occurred twice)

London, New York, Dubai, Amsterdam, Dublin

Offer Locations

London, New York

Type of jobs

Both consulting positions and MBA leadership positions

Interview intensity

Highest Number of interviews before an offer was made - 10 (MBA leadership)
Lowest Number of interviews before an offer was made - 6 (Consulting) + lunch evaluation

Types of interviews

Most were case based, industry always did 1 or 2 competency/motivation interviews, individual case presentation and group presentation.

The offer numbers

Yeah right ;)

For those who might mail me asking questions about specific companies, interview details, offer numbers and so on - I'm sorry but I will not be responding to any of them. If you join a B-school you will get plenty of information from your school.

Oops...too many requests

I've got so many mails asking me to post on a variety of topics and its unlikely I can cover them all. I'll cover a few things and leave the rest to the future bloggers. As one commenter pointed out, it's unusual for a student in a top MBA program to have so much time ;) well, actually, I don't. In a course of 2 years, I've had only 3 long posts that took weeks to compose. The remaining take barely 30 minutes a stretch...so statistically, I really wasn't spending so much time.

Nevertheless, the days are very hectic again as we race to completion and have many social activities to tend to, but I'll do my best before signing off. Today we had the INSEAD Cabaret - it was hugely enjoyable. I'll try getting some pics up sometime later if I can.

Blog transition! D-Day beaches at Normandy / Allied Invasion

As part of my transition process, it's time for me to welcome the D'08 blogs. I hope you will find ongoing information there!

• http://phathu-t.blogspot.com/
• http://www.worldlywhys.blogspot.com/

D'08 - if anyone of you reads my blog - I'd be happy to link your blog (you do not need to reciprocate) if it is active. I will add the blog list to my lists in a couple of days. It is also time to phase out inactive or previous blogs.

In other news, As part of my travel I recently visited all the D-Day beaches in Normandy (Utah, Omaha, Juno, Sword, Gold). If you have an appreciation for WW II and an interest in history, this tour is a must. A few photos.. the commentary for each photo is below it.


A view of the Omaha Dog Green sector which is the same sector depicted in Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan opening scene. What surprised me was how touristy the beach had become.



Barbed wires on a German bunker/ German bunker and staircase in Point-Du-Hoc which is an astonishingly preserved battle zone with German bunkers, bomb craters, and long range artillery.



Tetrahedrons on the Utah beach, meant to damage water craft incoming on the beaches. Now at display near the solemn Utah beach memorial.

Blog statistics/What next?

It's been an interesting journey - this blog now clocks over 10,000 views a month, appears on many meaningful searches, probably has by far the largest number of RSS subscribers for an INSEAD blog, and is about to cross a 100,000 views. Not bad for a INSEAD specific niche blog. If I were from, say, Wharton, I might have had a wider audience.

One would be tempted to see how to further "explode" the audience by widening the range of topics, or rope in other writers etc. But once this journey is over in a few days, it's also perhaps the time to end the blog, remove links to older and redundant blogs, link the "fresh ones" and let the next batch take over. It's always best when said from the perspectives of a current student or an applicant. I have an idea for my next on-line casual/hobby venture and it has nothing to do with an MBA or a personal blog. I doubt anyone is interested in reading my personal stories.

Before I sign off for good in a couple of, if you want to see posts on anything specific, drop a comment. I might! I'm mentioning this right now because longer posts need more time.