Tuesday, November 30, 2010

4 days of Thanksgiving

I missed 4 days of my GMAT prep studies and now I am back to my study table. As far as the studies goes, I am half way in the CR bible (Ch: 8 to be exact). CR Bible as the name suggests is `The Bible` to understand basics of CR. The book covers all the rules for CR (fundamental & advanced). I will try to pick up OG11 (Quant Diagnostic) soon and with that my marathon to solve the questions will start. 29th Jan (my date with GMAT), is still less than 2 months away. I am hoping things will work as per the schedule I’ve planned, but those 4 precious days are gone.

I don’t know if I’ve enjoyed/wasted/or taken the much needed break in last 4 days. Here is to summarize the valuable time I’ve spend:
26th Nov – Black Friday shopping (Grab those 2$ DVDs and 5$ Blu Ray – Walmart Rocks)
27th Nov – Black Friday Hangover + some more shopping
28th Nov – Tired of shopping (Watched TV and Die Hard 4)
29th Nov – Yiiii Hooooo Cyber Monday (Did not bought anything though)

I did the math on my schedule (till 30th Nov) and it seems I’ve not studied for the total of 10 days (My GMAT prep started on 27th Sep). I hope I score well on the GMAT otherwise these 10 days will haunt me for a long time. Anyway it’s too late to take any stand as these days won’t be coming back.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Kellogg - Info Session

I attended one of the Kellogg’s part time informational sessions sometime back, and it was one hell of an experience. I must recommend that anyone who is interested to pursue the MBA or as a matter of fact any program should pay the visit to the school of his or her interest.

The informational session took place at the E Superior Street campus near the lake shore drive in downtown Chicago. I reached just in time and the class ( I choose to pick the word ‘class’ as by no means it looks like an informational session, the surroundings and the environment looks like more of a lecture session) was full. There was a very short and simple speech from Kellogg’s adcom and before we were able to adjust our self to this environment we were divided into teams. 10 minutes into the session and we all are experiencing how the business class looks like. One of the very strong points about getting an MBA from Kellogg is their hardcore team work and this session is not different. My team was having 5 members (I don’t recall their background but they all look sharp). All the teams were given this task to come up with an ad for the animal shelter and we were asked to support this ad with the slogan that will act as our marketing punch line. Soon everybody was busy working on their ad and we were given around 10 minutes to complete this task. I suggested the slogan for my team which got the approval from the other team members. All of us we were chatting and discussing as we all know each other for a long time. I can now see the team work in action in the business class and how the idea gets amalgamated. This activity was fun and after 10 minutes the spokesperson from each of the team presented their ad. After this we have this presentation about the school, (I would call this a marketing slide) which was full of lots of information. All that information can be gathered from the Kellogg’s web site as well.

There was a QA session followed by the presentation, where 4 current students from the PT program answered the questions. I was quick enough to ask my question as due to time constraints some of the attendees were told to meet the adcom in person for all their queries.
I asked this question during the QA session: “Is there anything the students would like to change about Kellogg?” I don’t recall on top of my head but I guess they gave me some diplomatic answer for that.

Out an out it was a fantastic experience. The members of the adcom looks friendly, the presentation was good and the event was worth spending the Friday evening.
I am happy about the slogan which just clicked with the team and it goes like this:
“We all understand the language of Love and the animals are not different “

We say good bye to each other and came out with the hope of returning to Kellogg (not as information gatherers but as information seekers).

Friday, November 19, 2010

Tim Berners-Lee (who ????)

First time on this blog I am writing something not related to MBA and B-schools. I am trying to stick to the promise I made with myself to write not only about MBA but all the things that excites me. Just came across this wonderful article about the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee (by who ????). Well, Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of World Wide Web (www). These are the 3Ws without which the internet is dead and yet the name of his inventor got somewhere lost under the big and ever growing world of www. The article explains lots of interesting things right from the time www was conceived and how it was able to become the backbone of the internet. How business is driving the technology in the 21st century and how big companies are molding the www to their interests. The writer truthfully depicts the picture of www in the present scenario, and tries to explain why the flow of information should be open and accessible to every human being.

My favorite lines from this article:
As long as the web’s basic principles are upheld, its ongoing evolution is not in the hands of any one person or organization—neither mine nor anyone else’s. If we can preserve the principles, the Web promises some fantastic future capabilities.

In short, internet revolution is the biggest revolution of our generation. Every aspect of our life is directly or indirectly connected to it. Time will only answer this - Will we be able to destroy these walls which we have created around the information flow or will the www thrive like an independent entity like it was born, free.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Shortlisting B-Schools

My choice for the business schools is very straightforward as I need to pick up the best business schools for the part time program. I need to look for the programs which are primarily in the mid-west region as that will make my commute easy over the weekend. The two of the best programs in the Midwest for both part time and full time and are on top of my list as well are:
University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

I am not sure about the PT ranking for this year, but for the fulltime ranking for the year 2010 (just released by BW), Booth is the top school (beating Harvard) and Kellogg is the number 4 school on that list. I knew that from the beginning that these 2 schools will be my top choices for the MBA, as both of them are offering excellent programs. Each of them is powered by a group of elite faculty members and the super achieving army of the world renowned alumni. These schools offer the evening as well as the weekend part time MBA program. Considering the distance from where I live/work from Chicago, I would prefer the weekend program.
On 6th of August 2010, I attended the Kellogg’s part time informational session in their lake shore drive campus and it was a pretty good experience. I will blog about that soon.

Other 2 schools which are on my list are:
College of Business at Illinois, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
Krannert School of Management, Purdue University

I read somewhere that while making the choices for the B-Schools always consider couple of schools as your realistic choices. These are the schools where you are sure that you will crack their admission procedure and will make it to their program without any setbacks. UIUC and Krannert are the schools that perfectly fit my contingency plan.

After figuring out the list of schools I want to attend, I am now all set to work on each and every school’s admission criteria. GMAT is the top priority on my list and I have already started working on that. As of now my GMAT score will decide where I am heading, till then back to my study table as there is still lot to be done on the GMAT front.

Monday, November 15, 2010

GaGa over the PT

Don't get bamboozled by the title of this post as this is not about the very famous and talented Lady Gaga. Though I find no reasons why I cannot blog about her and her so called extraordinary marketing management style (someother post might be on that someday). This is my top pick for the attire which GaGa put on recently.

Anyways, another big reason to delay my MBA journey was a decision that I need to make about the type of MBA I would like to go for - full time or part time. After taking into consideration all the factors, I have decided to go for the part time MBA. One thing is for sure, I would not like to quit my job, take a 100K+ loan and go for the full time MBA. I mean there are lots of individuals who can do that pretty easily but not me. In this economic quagmire I am not ready to quit the job, feed the family, take the loan and study peacefully. I did all the possible calculations and reached this decision (against my wife's willingness) to opt for the part time program for various reasons.

One such reason (I guess one of the biggest) is that I would like to earn the MBA while earning my living. It will require lots of efforts from my end as I need to balance my current job, I need to be on top of MBA curriculum and need to give ample amount of time to my wife & kids as well. I am ready to take this challenge, as it will primarily test my time management skills in the real time environment. Taking into consideration my past records I can conclude that I am a good (not very good) time manager, but this will be an out an out very-very complicated and engrossing time management project and I am all set for it.

Is PT the new face for the MBA education? Well it is fairly difficult to predict at this moment but I don’t see why this cannot happen. I mean the way things are turning up with this economy and the jobs who know what might happen in the coming years. One thing is for sure, there are many more who are thinking like me to go for the PT and that is the reason why PT is getting so much attention these days. One recent pretty good article which I read in BW talks about PT MBA and their expectations. This is not to be missed if you have decided to go for the PT.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Date with GMAT

I am trying to catch up things happening in my life and the ones I am trying to publish on this blog. There is some delay but I will make up for sure. Important thing, my date with GMAT is fixed, and after much head banging and performing various superstitious permutations & combinations I've booked 29th Jan'2011 as my date to fight the GMAT. Got all the books and the plan has been laid. Each day is flying and the G-DAY is coming near. Already completed the Quant portion (Theory), and now working on the Verbal. I've decided to take up practice questions for the Quant and will now try to manage the time between Quant & Verbal. I will publish my complete GMAT plan after 29th Jan. Good luck to me and to everybody who are doing their GMAT prep.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Perfect Inception

10 years from now…
Somewhere in heart of downtown Manhattan, you are standing on the 25th floor of this office building, looking down as the traffic snarl. Though lots of things are happening around you but at times you feel that you are alone in this concrete jungle. Your expensive suit is making you uncomfortable, though you are wearing it every day to work but still you are not used to it. Confused and bewildered you come back to your desk. You try to relax in that plushy and comfortable chair. Your office looks like a exquisite suite of a 5 star hotel. You have everything you’ve ever wanted in your life but still you are searching for something. Suddenly your Bvlgari watch started making this alarming sound as if your office is on fire, you stood up and started to search frantically in all your coat pockets and find something. This thing is nothing but a top, which you carry with you all the time. Slowly you put down the top on the table and without thinking for another second you started to spin the top on the table. You are looking at the spinning top as your life depends on it. The top keeps on spinning making you more nervous with each rotation. As you gasp for air the top starts to wobble and then it stopped spinning. You take a sigh of relief as you’ve narrowly escaped death. Wiped your face and then looked around. Suddenly everything starts to lighten up. Your lonely feeling is gone, you are happy. You started to feel all the things around you. The concrete jungle has now become the most happening city in the world. But wait your suit is still giving you a hard time…what the heck, you need to be more careful next time you go out shopping for a new suit. Who cares about the suit when your office suite is real, your position, your job, your salary, your bonus & your Bvlgari is real. This is not a dream as you are real.

Flashback:
You are feeling helpless right now. You cannot hide or run from it. If you have decided then you have to do it. There has been an incident of perfect inception. You have successfully implanted the idea of getting an MBA in your brain. This idea is now everything for you. Your life, career and your goals all depend on it. Your task started by doing diligent search for finding the best schools that fit your business education schema. You shortlisted some of the schools, decided what program you want (FT or PT), burned the mid night oil to excel in GMAT, carefully laid your strategy for the essays, choose your recommendations, gather your transcripts, evaluate your GPA. By the time you realize the time has come to submit your apps. Now you are waiting and waiting and one fine day you get the interview call. You think this is it and you made your plans to attend the interview. This is the time you’ve waiting for and spend all your energy answering the very questions you’ve been asked. This was the last step between you and your dream school. Nothing is in your hands now. You did what you can. Your mind has now become the battleground of thoughts, you are not able to sleep and you won’t be able to sleep till you get a definite yes or no from the school you’ve just applied. You are laying in bed and just day dreaming about your B-school, but wait what sound is that. The cheap 10$ Armitron watch is beeping on your night stand. You get up slowly and picked the top lying next to the worn out watch. You started to spin the top on the night stand and to your dismay it keeps on spinning & spinning & spinning ….

There are many people for whom it is a dream to get everything they’ve ever planned in life, they working hard to achieve that, for them the top is spinning. There are others who have everything they have ever wanted in their life but at times they could not believe it. There are many more, who are spending their life in a state of limbo. They have no specific goals or plans, very contended and accept their life the way it is.

This is what life is all about, some are dreamers, some are achievers and some are just plain & simple human beings. But for all of us the earth is spinning, the life is spinning but for me the top is spinning.

I dedicate this post to one of my favorite, the extremely talented and brilliant director - Chris Nolan. He is having such an unparalleled approach to the craft of film making, that every movie he has made has left a lasting impression. If tomorrow Mr. Nolan changes his mind and came up with an idea to enter porn business, I am sure people will line up to watch that as well on the big screen, as he may have made that using his own style and his very gifted brain.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

MBA vs MS

The ideas & thoughts expressed below are my interpretation for the much discussed comparison. According to me both MS and MBA are great programs. The only difference is how one selects these programs to fulfill his/her career goals (both long & short term)

I knew from the very beginning that if I were given the option to go for the Masters program it would definitely be the one in Business. Reason being, I never got the chance to study Business or any of the related subjects such as Acc, Fin. or Eco. It is a human tendency that things that you have never tried in life attracted you to go for them - both good & bad :). Moreover, I felt that I have to diversify my educational portfolio, and the degree in MBA will help me achieve my long term goals. By the way what are my long term goals? They are way too many at this time and I need to work on making that list short and achievable.

MS on the other hand will help me in getting more in depth knowledge of the technical realm. To be frank in first place I guess I am done doing the same repetitive job I am doing with the technology I learn during my BS and I guess doing an MBA will help me tackle more challenging and interesting responsibilities. I love doing technical stuff, but the sheer interest in Business which I've developed in the last couple of years (blog coming soon...to explain how I develop this interest) is driving me to get an MBA, and now I am all set to go for one.

MBA vs MS - (MBA Won - undisputedly)

Friday, November 5, 2010

SK 101

Time for a brief introduction.

SK (that is me) resides in a very happening town in the Midwest. Home to one of the World's best universities, this town is ideally located in south of Chicago.
I am someone who has spend most of my life learning technology and after my Bachelors in Engineering (Electronics), I decided to enter this fascinating field of information technology. I am not a software programmer. I earned my bread & butter by working as a Unix Administrator. I am in this field of system administration for more than 9 years. By the way I am married to this wonderful woman FK and we have 2 great & hyperactive sons MK (4) & RK (1).

Life was going on fine as usual but somewhere in my mind I have these recurring thoughts (I assume most us in our mid-career have these thoughts):
Where is my career heading for ?
Is this what I want to do my entire life ?
Why I am still working as a Unix Admin where as my colleagues & friends (with same work exp.) have become Team Leads, Managers, Directors & Entrepreneurs ?
Is my present work challenging enough or should I go for a career change ?

All these and many more questions have made a permanent impression in my mind. Education and a keen inclination towards gathering knowledge are the two reasons for me being what I am today, and I have decided that these two factors will shape my future and help me answer those challenging queries in the back of my mind.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Me & My Blog

Finally I've set my profile and I am all geared to write this blog. It took me several weeks to write this first blog as I got involved in this dirty argument with myself to start this journey, this urge to share with others what I have learned and what I will be learning and sharing with all of them.
But wait, most importantly I want to put down all my thoughts in one place, and writing a blog is a wonderful idea.
I will try to make this blog as interesting as I can and I will try to publish all the things that excites me.

Now what are those things that excites me? Will get back to that shortly....

Happy First blog to me :)))