It has been close to a month since I started my MBA and I don't know how to even begin explaining what has been going through my mind. I have met 141 new faces, tried hard to remember 141 new names, colleges, countries, experience and tried hard to summarize my whacky journey until now in the least boring way. The last part is easily the most difficult.
I haven't explored the town too much and with strong reasons - I am a slow coach, and the pace of the MBA is insanely fast. My only city exploration happens during weekend runs, which are also becoming scarcer. Anyways, saving the dark side, black rings, dozing off tiringly on the sofa (or the classes), I just wanted to give a hint of how a typical day looks like:
7:00 am Wake up early and drink a heavily caffeine loaded drink to start the day
8:00 am Put my happy face on & walk to the college; If I am lucky and my wife is sleeping, I steal her bike to avoid walking due to laziness.
8:50 am Queue up for the first dose of cafeteria coffee and chat with my newly founded MBA family
9:00 am Classes start on the dot, and the Professors start to tell us tales from the City. PV, FV, NPV, Annuity, Risk, Return, Beta and Alpha crowd our brains fighting to find a way to stay there. (there will be cold-calling, the energized classmates firing answers, blinking eyes and grappling senses trying to keep up and the occasional time when you think - "hah, finally we are discussing something I know")
12:30 pm The first couple of weeks were spent trying to go around judging the buttery (never knew this English word meant dining halls)
Last week, this was spent meeting team mates on discussing the Cambridge Venture Project / AT Kearney Case Competition / CV or Covering Letter reviews or Catch-up on the Pre-reading.
2:00 pm Unless you had a 5 course meal, our attentiveness hits a peak (or mine atleast). We've been studying Statistics in the afternoons - Yipee :)
In 7 weeks we went from Simple excel formula to Histograms, Poisson/ Normal distributions, Multi-variate regressions, Correlations, Confidence Intervals, Hypothesis Tests and Significance levels. Life is good.
5:30 pm Check the calendar to see if the gang is going to a Pub nearby or wait there is a recruiter visiting us at 6.
Finance, Consulting and Industry Leadership programs are the first wave of companies to hit campus, wanting to steal the cream of the lot. I decide if the company visiting is one I am interested in applying to or more importantly, if will take any interest in my profile.
Typical release time from the building and its interesting color patterns is 8 to 9pm. Ofcourse there are those who stay back in the Library afterwards or the ones who go partying and come in next day with Red Bull in hand. And let's not forget the Formal Halls and the Cambridge Union Ball that a lot of the MBA class is going to tonight. But all that for another time!
Now off to meet a few friends and an alumni and hear some stories. Hope to update this space soon!
I haven't explored the town too much and with strong reasons - I am a slow coach, and the pace of the MBA is insanely fast. My only city exploration happens during weekend runs, which are also becoming scarcer. Anyways, saving the dark side, black rings, dozing off tiringly on the sofa (or the classes), I just wanted to give a hint of how a typical day looks like:
7:00 am Wake up early and drink a heavily caffeine loaded drink to start the day
8:00 am Put my happy face on & walk to the college; If I am lucky and my wife is sleeping, I steal her bike to avoid walking due to laziness.
8:50 am Queue up for the first dose of cafeteria coffee and chat with my newly founded MBA family
9:00 am Classes start on the dot, and the Professors start to tell us tales from the City. PV, FV, NPV, Annuity, Risk, Return, Beta and Alpha crowd our brains fighting to find a way to stay there. (there will be cold-calling, the energized classmates firing answers, blinking eyes and grappling senses trying to keep up and the occasional time when you think - "hah, finally we are discussing something I know")
12:30 pm The first couple of weeks were spent trying to go around judging the buttery (never knew this English word meant dining halls)
Last week, this was spent meeting team mates on discussing the Cambridge Venture Project / AT Kearney Case Competition / CV or Covering Letter reviews or Catch-up on the Pre-reading.
2:00 pm Unless you had a 5 course meal, our attentiveness hits a peak (or mine atleast). We've been studying Statistics in the afternoons - Yipee :)
In 7 weeks we went from Simple excel formula to Histograms, Poisson/ Normal distributions, Multi-variate regressions, Correlations, Confidence Intervals, Hypothesis Tests and Significance levels. Life is good.
5:30 pm Check the calendar to see if the gang is going to a Pub nearby or wait there is a recruiter visiting us at 6.
Finance, Consulting and Industry Leadership programs are the first wave of companies to hit campus, wanting to steal the cream of the lot. I decide if the company visiting is one I am interested in applying to or more importantly, if will take any interest in my profile.
Typical release time from the building and its interesting color patterns is 8 to 9pm. Ofcourse there are those who stay back in the Library afterwards or the ones who go partying and come in next day with Red Bull in hand. And let's not forget the Formal Halls and the Cambridge Union Ball that a lot of the MBA class is going to tonight. But all that for another time!
Now off to meet a few friends and an alumni and hear some stories. Hope to update this space soon!
Hi Vignesh,
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you remember me - I am working with Nielsen as a Senior DC in the Mumbai office. I just got my offer letter for the Indian School of Business's one year PGP program myself and I wanted to drop in a word to say that your blog is an interesting insight into what the next one year will be like for me and that I shall definitely give RedBull an honest try now :).
Thank you, looking forward to reading more.
Hey blueshutter,
ReplyDeleteQuite a few of my friends have gone to ISB and congratulations on making it into one of India's best school. :)
I do remember all the DC analysts in Mumbai I worked with. Please do send me an invite on uk.linkedin.com/in/vigneshwaran/ and we can share stories.
Cheers
Never commented on a blog before, so I just realised I didn't put my name in there! Sorry about that - LinkedIn request sent :).
ReplyDelete